The Press.
London, England, 1858-04-17 00:00:00

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

A CROWDED meeting of this Society was held on
Monday evening at Burlington-house, Sir Roderick
I. Murchison, President, in the chair.
Among those present were the Danish Minister,
Admiral van Dockum ; Admirals Sir G. Back and
Percy Grace ; Generals Sir H. Jones, Monteith,
Portlock, Cameron, and Fox; Sir Thomas Free.
mantle, Lord Keane, Mr. Monckton Milnes, M.P. ;
Captains Collinson, Robinson, Nolloth, Paulson, and
Murray, R.N.; Colonels Fitzmanrioe, Gordon and
Ballinsky ; Drs. Armstrong, Camps, and Glen;
Messrs. Arden, Arrowsmith, Findlay, Bohn, Bentley,
Gordon, Macnab ; Consul Porter, Mr. Lewell (of
Finland), the Hon. Arthur Dillon, Mr. E. 0. Smith,
Mr. Thomas Lee, Mr. Gassiot, Mr. Forrester, Mr.
White, &c.

Dr. Adolphus Berney!, Charles Hutton Gregory,
C.E., Morrell Dorrington Longden, Sir Robert Peel,
But, M.P., Dr. John Shea, R.N., Viscount Strang-
ford. George Milian Wheatley, and the Right H on..
John Wynne, M.P., were re-elected Fellows.

The papers read were :-1. Dr. H. Rink, of Copen-
hagen, On the Supposed Discovery of the North
Coast of Greenland and an Open Polar Sea, &c.,
by Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, United States navy.
2. On the Importance of opening the Navigation
of the Yang-tae-Kiang, and the changes that have
lately taken place in the bed of the Yellow River, 10.
By William Lockhart, Esq., F.R.G.S., of China.
The meeting then adjourned to the 26th inst.

HER MAJESTY'S TEF.ATRE.—The success of Mlle.
Titiens having surpassed the most sanguine antici-
pations, The Huguenots will be repeated on Thurs-
day next, the 22nd ; Tuesday, 27th ; and Thursday,
21th. Piccolomini will make her first appearance
this season on Tuesday next, the 20th, in Don
Pasquale.
--

Ma. Cuentis "helms.; gave a reading of his
" Christmas Carol" at SL Martin's-hall on Thursday
evening in the presence of a brilliant audience and
with his usual success. The proceeds were to be
paid over to the Hospital for Sick Children in Great
Ormond-street. Mr. Dickens has also announced a
series of three readings from his Christmas tales,
to be given in the course of this and nest month,
being the first he has undtettatou for his own beadt,

_
!,..vvieus knowledge of it. Secondly, that the mind 1 " the -'appy hariey- is 7angini clown. its 'ead-7. was to be given in the course of this and nest month,
°llslders evil Dote of the scale according to its role- natural to the chorus sod intelligible to the audience; being the first he huts undoitakou for his OT2 bead',

THE WEEK.

Tax Foreign•ofce appears to be successfully disentangling the sadly.
involved !affairs handed down to it. The Passport question has
been arranged this week, as completely as it is practicable to do—
so long as the system itself is adhered to. We trust that, before long, the
Continental Powers will begin to see that there is no real security to
be found in the use of these slips of paper.

Another step, and an important one, has been taken in the
Cagliari case. The law officers of the Crown having reported that the
detention of the two engineers was clearly illegal, no time was lost in
despatching to Naples a demand for a proper compensation. As to
the capture of the ship itself, that is an entirely separate question,
and on that point the law officers have not yet formed an opinion.
The Duke of MALAKOFF has arrived in town, has had an inter-
♦iew with Lord Mstatzssußv, and dines, we believe, with her Majesty
to-morrow.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHE QUER will make the annual Financial
Statement on Monday ; and during the samo sitting he will lay on the
table of the House the Resolutions on the future government of India,
whieh it will be proposed to discuss in a Committee of the whole House
on the following Monday.

One of the journals enjoying the confidence of the late Ministry
anticipates that Lord PALMERSTON will urge forward, and will carry,
his own Bill. But we cannot believe that one in his Lordship's posi-
tion will deliberately take a course so distinctly factious. If he re-
mains of opinion that the leading features in his Bill are sound and
defensible, let him carry them, if he can, in the Committee of the
whole House, ou Monday next. To take any other course, is to declare,
♦ery explicitly, that having resigned office in February, he wishes
to resume it in April. This would, indeed, be wretched work!

The proposition of the Noble Lord the Member for the City
of London, with regard to the Government India Bill, shows with
sufficient clearness the situation in which Parliamentary parties
are now placed. The House of Commons is, in fact, obliged to
take upon itself duties which were formerly the duties of the
Crown Ministers. Now, why is this the case ? Is it the fault of
the Conservatives? We really believe that the most prejudiced
person in the world would scarcely answer this question in the
affirmative. The reason why Parliament is placed in such a posi-
tion is undoubtedly to be looked for in that general dissolution of
party ties which followed the repeal of the Corn Laws. That event
broke up the strength of the Conservative party without in reality
adding to that of the Liberals. The members of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S
party who agreed with his economic reform, did not differ on
any other important questions from those members of the
party who dissented from it. The consequence was that
their secession became a serious impediment to the practical
efficiency of Parliament. They could be relied on as faithful allies by
neither of the two leading parties in the House, who each felt them-
selves liable to be tripped up at any time by a vote of this particular
section. Under these circumstances it has become the obvious
necessity of every succeeding Ministry to trust less and less to party
organization, and more and more to the goodwill of the entire House.
Lord PALMERSTON could not have remained in office a month without
the support of the Conservatives ; yet by courting their advocacy he
must be held to have abandoned all those traditions by which, in his
speech upon Lord Joss's proposal, he affects so studiously to abide.
Lord PALMERSTON, in fact, was obliged to "throw himself" on the
House, and as long as he continued to do so, he was tolerably suc-
cessful. The moment he ventured to rely on his own party alone, he
was left in a minority. It is clear, therefore, that Ministers now must
regard the whole House as their party. This may be a misfortune or
a benefit, according to different schools of opinion, but the fact stares
us in the face. And we must not be imposed upon by the declamations of
men who, if they returned to power, would be obliged to adopt the
same course which they now so ostentatiously condemn. India, too,
is the least objectionable subject on which the new state of things can
operate. No old party traditions are concerned in its management.
And we are sure that Lord JOHN RUSSELL, in his proposal, was, whether
consciously or unconsciously, expressing the sense of the community.

The system of passports is a curious relic of bygone modes of
feeling. It is analogous to the practise of our ancestors, who required
that avery man travelling about England should be able to show that
he had work in hand, or else that he should submit to the imputation of
" a valiant beggar." Now, as Mr. FROUDE has shown us in his history,
there really was sound policy at the bottom of this system in the days
of the Tudors. At a time when every individual was a much more
distinct entity than he is now, it might bo possible to classify and
ticket him with benefit to the public and without injustice to himself.
But now that we have amongst us a vast class of persons above the
necessity of labour, and as like one another as two peas, such a
system becomes at once useless and oppressive. One half of the
world, it is said, knows not how the other half lives. Formerly they
did know. And this just constitutes the difference. The greatest

villain in her Majesty's dominions may now pass for the greatest
saint, and as such, of course, could obtain a passport without the
slightest difficulty. Q.. d. What more is to be said ? Lord MALMES.
BURY has done all he can for us. And for the present, if English.
men choose to travel they must accept the passport along with sea
sickness, the plague, the yellow fever, the dirt, the grease, and other
disagreeable but inevitable conditions of seeing the world.

Through two or three long articles this week has the Times argued
with great pertinacity upon the supposition that there is one, united,
" Liberal Party "in the House of Commons. Whereas everybody who
reads a newspaper is thoroughly aware that nothing of the kind exists.
Facing the Treasury benches, in the House of Commons, there rise a
similar range of seats, ordinarily occupied by the Opposition. Here
sits that divided, disorganized, discordant body which the Times
chooses to describe as a " party." Near to the late Premier sits Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, whose every action expresses his purpose, not to aid in
replacing the Noble Member for Tiverton in Downing street. If Mr.
BERNAL OSBORNE sits there,—close by him sits Mr. HORSMAN. There
we see Mr. VERNON SMITH, and there also we see Mr. MILNER GIBSON.
A round dozen of ox-placemen are there, eagerly watching for " any
opening." But close by them sits Mr. ROEBUCK, and near him Mr.
BRIGHT, who lost no time in publishing his conviction that the late
Ministry was " the very worst " that he had ever known. Now, what
an abuse is it of language to persist in describing this collection
of opposites as a party of sympathising friends? Why, it is not yet
two months since one section of this "Liberal Party" managed to de.
atroy, politically, the other section ! It was by Mr. MILNER GIBSON,
an " advanced Liberal," that the Liberal Ministry was broken up.
And, in fact, the whole body of advanced Liberals lose no opportunity
of declaring their conviction that the Palmerston Cabinet was an im-
posture, and that it was the greatest obstacle to " progress " that
could be conceived. In actual fact, in the daily work of politics, this
Liberal party is not only divided, but in a state of bitter discordancy
and opposition. Yet in the fictions,—the romances, published in the
Times, it is represented as one, meaning and striving for the same
thing. The writer all the while knowing that between the Conserva-
tives on the Treasury benches, and the Conservative Whigs on the
Opposition benches, there is far more real unity and sympathy, than
between Sir G. LEWIS and Mr. ROEBUCK, or between Sir GEORGE Garr
and Mr. BRIGHT.

Mr. MIALL% paper, the Nonconformist, alludes to our article of
last week, on " the creation of a truly popular party," in the following
strain :

It has been the one desire and work of our life to lend a helping band in bringing
about the great consummation which is being hastened on by the events of every session
—namely, a final reconstruction of political parties upon a distinct and fundamental
politico-ecclesiastical basis. It is coming—but the time is not yet. There still remains
a preliminary question or two to be disposed of by parties as they now exist before the
flag of " Separation" can be unfurled. The public mind, although ripening fast, is not
yet fully prepared for a contest on this grand field. We want no " fusion, unless such
a one as will conduce to a permanent result. We rejoice that none of the " leaders " are
competent to rally the host. We have no objection to the fermentation which now seps•
rates particle from particle, and, during its process, forbids combination. It has long
been our conviction that the Liberal party will not be long without qualified leadership
whenever it has an honest creed. For a long time past it has not possessed this. It
has consisted ever since the abrogation of the Coro Law of a majority who make a loud
profession, and a minority who hold a great principle—and the profession is made to
cover the prin:iple, not for the purpose of nourishing, but destroying it. Our great
aristocratic champions of " religious liberty " know very well that every step they take
towards the realisation of their design is justifiable only on the broad ground occupied
by anti-State Churchmen. They take up this and that ecclesiastical question as it may
suit their convenience, and urge it by reasonings which, if good for anything, are good
for a separation of Church and State. But that is a question which involves vast changes,
politcal, social, and pecuniary—changes which, however beneficial to religion, would not
be likely to increase the oligarchical power which gives them importance. They repu-
diate it accordingly. They cast contempt upon it. They treat its advocates with super-
cilious scorn—and, step by step, they are doomed to bring it about. Necessity is hid
upon them. They cannot maintain a distinction between themselves and the Conser-
vatives but by means of ecclesiastical questions—and they cannot touch matters of Church
government, at least on the Liberal side, without implying, in every argument they use,
the conclusion they are the foremost to deny. Now we have no desire to drive these
men to their own place before the appointed time. That place, by rights, is with the
Tories, as obstructives. Thither the whole tribe will go at last by a natural law of gra-
vitetion. But it is not our policy to force them there until their palpable inconsistencies
have detached from them every supporter who has a head of his own on his shoulders,
and a heart of his own in his bosom. Let Lord John Russell remain where be is to
carry his little Oaths Bill, and to resist the abolition of Church-rates! Let Lord Pal-
merston move under his " false colours" until his supporters are disgusted with his
hollow pretensions ! Let the Radicals stay where they are until they are bold enough
to acknowledge that their creed is incomplete and their objects narrow, excluding, as they
do, the great question of the age ! There is much for all of them to learn, and all will
best learn it when uncongenially herded together on the Opposition benches. They have
still to carry a Reform Bill. That done, we care not how soon the advice of Tins Parss
be taken. Separation of Church and State will then be ready as a basis for the party of
progress, and once more we shall have earnest politicians, ennobling warfare, and in the
end, we doubt not, glorious victories.
We commend these remarks to the calm consideration of the Whig
leaders. We said, and Mr. MIALL concurs with us, that these gentle-
men do not, for the most part, intend to separate the Church from the
State ; and, therefore, we desired an explicit statement of the real
question at issue, in order that every man might make up
his mind
which side he would take. Mr. MIALL, however, plainly states that
this is not the present policy of tho Dissenters. " The public mind,
they feel, is not yet fully prepared for this contest." The of
" Separation " must, not yet be unfurled. "We have no desire, SaY5
the Nonconformist, " to drive these men (the Whigs) to their own place
before the appointed time." Let them remain where they are until wr,
the Dissenters, have made as much tire of them as possible. Such
rs
the Dissenting estimate of " our great aristocratic champions of reli-
gious liberty."