The Press.
London, England, 1856-09-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

the question of the ratification of the frontier was dill•
cussed at Paris, the Russian diplomatists spoke in such
strong terms of this unnecessary humiliation to which
their country would be subjected, should such a large
cession of territory be made, that the representatives of
the allies eventually agreed to the following conditions:—
_

The new frontier shall begin at the Black Sea, at one kilo.
metre to the east of the lake Bourna Rola, shall in a straight
line join the toad to Ackerman, shall lollow that road u far
as the valley to Trojan, shall pass the south of Bolgrad, shall
ascend the river Yalpuck as far as the heights of Saratsika, and
shall end at Kotamori, on the Pruth.

According to the Russian maps produced at the Paris
Conference, there was terra•Brma between Bolgrad and the
Lake of Yalpuck, but in reality such is not the case. The
English, French, and Austrian members of the Frontier
Commission declare that the object of the allied powers
will not be attained unless liolgrad is given to Moldavia,
but the Russian Government has suddenly discovered that
the place in question, which, according to all accounts is
a miserable nest, is of great strategic importance, and
refuses to cede it. As has been said, it was and is the
object of the allies entirely to remove Russia from the
Danube, but if Article 20 of the treaty is carried out to
the letter they will not attain it, as Bolgrad lies on the
lake of Yalpuck, which is connected with the Kills, arm
of the Danube by means of the Lake of Kagurlin and
the Repida river. It may be remarked that the Repida
river falls into the Danube close to the important fortress
of Ismail. A very active diplomatic correspondence is
uow going on respecting Bolgrad, and the Russians may
probably be induced to cede it. if France does her duty
towards her allies. The British and Austrian Govern-
ments are said to be extremely intliggant at the bad faith
of Russia, who previously to the signature of the treaty of
peace must have been as well aware as she is now that
no line of demarcation can be drawn between Bolgrad and
the lake of Yalpuck.
The same correspondent adds :

The relations between Russia and Austria have cer•
tainly
.not improved during my short absence from my
post.

Corrtsponttntt.

POPULAR MEMBERS.
TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS."

Sir,—•lt is now tolerably certain that the forth-
coming session will be the farewell session of the
present Parliament, and that the autumn of 1857
will witness a repetition of those scenes which occur
at evet-y general election. Men of various political
creeds will present themselves on the hustings in
the hope that they may have the high honour of re-
presenting the borough or county, as the cue may
be, in the Imperial Parliament. The usual quantity
of promises will be made, and the average amount
of promises will be broken. An election of a
knight of the shire or a member for a borough is a
much more serious affair now than it used to be
before the passing of the Reform Bill. The details
of an election in our day are generally settled and
arranged before the actual contest commences ; the
pod, instead of being kept open for fifteen days, is
now—the universities excepted—confined to one
day's voting; bands, cockades, colours, &c., are all
at a discount; and the " popular member " in our
time is a far different person when placed in com-
parison with the " popular member" of fifty years
ago. The "popular member" in those days was
the gentleman whose purse was the longest, who
had the greatest quantity of " houses" open, who
showed the greatest indifference as regarded the ex-
pense, &c.; but at the same time his political
opinions were generally of a negative kind, and, con•
sequently. his "return," if it did the Legislature no
good, at least it did it no harm.
But in our time the "popular member"—
" popular," at least, in his own conceit—is cast in a
very different mould to that of the worthy we have
sketched above. The "popular member" appears
upon the hustings big with his own political opinions,
and crammed, almost to bur:tine, with his political
theories. His placards are to be found pasted in
every quarter of the borough, and the " free and in-
dependent elector " will find himself gazing at huge
sheets of type upon which are inscribed—" Vote for
Hicks the friend of the people," " Vote for Hicks
and the big loaf," "Vote for Hicks and no pocket
borough," " Vote fur Hicks and civil and religious
liberty," &c. &e. These and many similar invite
lions will be read. The "free and independent " will
probably attend the meeting in the evening held at
the Pig and Whistle, whereat Hicks condescendingly
unbosoms himself to his constituents, and manfully
avows his political opinions, which, by the way, he
does in utter defiance of all and every grammatical
or orthographical rules ; and the " free and indepen-
dent " will probably return to his home a richer but
not a wiser man than when be left it; and on the
morrow be will register his vote for Hicks because
be must be, because he says he is, "the friend of
the people."
It must be remarked that the name of Hicks had
never been heard of in the borough before he issued
his placards notitying how that he was "the friend
of the people"; true, indeed, his name has figured
at the head of an advertisement published in all the

SATURDAY,

newspapers of the day for a long time past ; true,
indeed, that Hicks, who is the sole inventor and
patentee of the invisible spectacles, is identical with
the Hicks who offers himself as a candidate to the
" free and independent electors " of the borough of
Shears ; true, indeed, it is that the said Hicks has
not, never had, nor probably ever will have, an acre
of land or a sixpence-worth of property within a
hundred miles of the borough which he has the
audacity to aspire to represent in the Imperial Par-
liament. Yet, in spite of all this, Hicks, with a bold.
ness worthy of a better cause, so successfully bam-
boozles and cajoles the "free and independent elec-
tors," that, to their eternal disgrace, he sails trium-
phantly into the Legislature as M.P. for the borough
of Shears, whereby he has arrived at the goal of his
ambition. Hicks goes from his shop to his seat in
the house, and back again ; but as for the interests
and prospects of the borough of Shears, they must
take care of themselves, for what are they to John
Hicks, the sole inventor and patentee of the invisible
spectacles?
It may seem at a first glance that the above is
purely and entirely fictitious from the beginning to
the end; and well, indeed, would it be for the
country were it altogether a myth ! but it is a hideous
reality, and it is the cankerworm which is gnawing
at the vitals of our Legislature. The remedy is in
the hands of the constituencies themselves ; it' they
choose to return men to represent them in Parlia-
ment utterly unknown to them and utterly dis-
qualified for their position, it is their own fault, they
have only themselves to thank for it. Upon them
alone must rest the responsibility and the disgrace,
for a disgrace it undoubtedly is for any con-
stituency to return to Parliament a man unworthy of
their confidence and support. " Popular " members
have greatly increased since the passing of the
Reform Bill, and the efficiency of the Legislature
has been so much the more lessened and weakened
in consequence thereof.
It is thought now-a-day that men have only to get
into Parliament to become at once lull blown
senators. There never was a greater anachronism
perpetrated. As an apprentice must devote years of
unwearied toil and diligence to master the profession
or trade by which he means to live, so must a mem-
ber of Parliament devote all his time and energies to
those finer and more intricate details of parliamen-
tary lore before he can hope to become a qualified
and useful member of the Legislature. No one, I
apprehend, will dispute these facts ; they must be
perfectly patent to all, and depend upon it they are
true.

Parliamentary government will be rendered easier
and more efficient if constituencies will but pay
more attention to the choice of their candidates.
Let them prove that they really are "free and inde-
pendent electors " by turning a deaf ear to the
platitudes and claptrap@ of the " popular member,"
and I will answer for it that the result will be both
immediate and gratifying.
Your obedient servant,
JUTZNIS.

THE ABDICATION 07 THE DUKE OF TUSCANY, Says
the Cologne Gazette, is resolved on in favour of his
son, who is about to marry a princess of Saxony. It
is added that this is ao new resolve of the Grand
Duke, but proposed by him as far back as 1850. He
was persuaded therefrom by the Courts of Austria,
Saxony, and Naples, with which two latter he is
allied by marriage. The hereditary archduke
having now attained his 21st year, the father hss
fewer scruples. The journal remarks that the abdi-
cation will produce a complete change in the political
system of Tuscany, but cannot indicate the direction
of this change..
THE BISHOP OF ARRAS, whose " confidential cir-
cular to his clergy," condemning the mixed schools
of Calais and other towns, so lately excited discus-
sion, has published a " pastoral," in which he ex-
plains his former act, and establishes a distinction
between a passive and an active consent given to
heresy. He says:—

Thus let a Catholic master leave his Protestant
pupils to perform personally the practices of their
worship, this is on his part only a passive co-opera-
tion, and if these particular practices involve co
appreciable spiritual detriment to any one, the Cathollo
master may properly not be bound to prohibit them, evil
in his house. But should the master employ his authority
to induce those same pupils to perform the exercises
referred to, constrain tLem to their performance regu-
lations, or encourage by rewards, if he should guide them
thereto as to a duty, that would be an active and formal
co-operation, and it is that we cannot allow him.

LITERARY nnox.—Mr. John Forster, late editor
of the Examiner, and Mrs. Colburn, widow of the
late eminent publisher, were married on Thursday
List, the ceremony being performed by the R.
Whitwell Elayn, editor of the Quarterly Review.
Sir Henry Somerset is gazetted to the Colonelcy
of the 25th Regiment.

SEPT. 27, 1856

iittraturt.

The Poetical Works of Robert Burns. Edited
by the Rev. Robert Aria Wilmott, Incum-
bent of Bear Wood. London : Routledge.
Mucu discussion has taken place of late about
the position and emoluments of a clergyman
in England. We have been treated to copious
illustrations of the social condition of the
clerical order ; its status, its burdens, and its
gains have all been commented upon at great
length. We have not yet seen any epistles
purporting to expatiate on the peculiar species
of " the literary clergyman." In the last
century several specimens were to be found,
but of late years, although society has de-
manded a large amount of culture from the
clerical body, there has been a distaste in
ecclesiastical quarters to " a literary clergy-
man." Formerly, when education was con-
fined, and when there was even more inequality
than now amongst the rewards of the Church,
it was a common thing for clergymen to keep
a keen eye on Paternoster-row. We are afraid
that the annals of Grub-street bear witness to
a considerable number of fallen clergymen,
who compiled school-books in place of com-
posing sermons
.for congregations. When the
age became violently political, the literary
clergymen turned pamphleteers, and some of
them were certainly obnoxious to the charge
of having tried to write themselves up. A re-
action took place, for amateur writers had no
chance against the wiry strength and prac-
tised skill of bona•fide literary adventurers;
and episcopal personages and prime ministers
conceived a prejudice against the class of
clerical gentlemen who wrote de omnibus, and
applied their talents to tea-table literature.
Practical people felt that the Establishment
was in danger of becoming too literary, and
that a Della Crusean school of divines would
be the necessary result of a race of reverend
dabblers in the mere elegant trivialities of
literature.
Mr. Willmott, the editor of this new edition
of Burns, is favorably known by his graceful
accomplishments. Ushered before the public
notice with powerful voices in his favour, we
do not think that Mr. Willmott keeps up the
promise of his early days, for we confess that
we expected more from him. Surely the
worthy " Incumbent of Bear Wood" might
do better things than supply Mr. Routledge
with nice little essays about poets and authors.
Are there no subjects in this busy age upon
which Mr. Willmott could exercise his pen to
more advantage than the biographic topics
which he loves to select? If Mr. Willmott
brought forward original facts about the per-
sonages on whom he writes, we would not be
surprised at his " editing" so many small
volumes of great authors. But his " editing "
consists generally of a tasteful essay, such as
may be written by any !accomplished gentle-
man for a literary society in any provincial
town. " Editing" of books, however, by a
" literary clergyman" might, in our opinion,
be something better than that. We are living
in days when critical book-editors (worthy of
the name) have attained considerable distinc •
tion, like the Rev. Alexander Dyce, Mr. Payne
Collier, and Mr. Robert Bell.
We shall allow Mr. Willmott to speak for
himself. Here is his " editorial" preface :
The poems of Burns have been edited, and his life has
been written by eminent countrymen, with a copiousness
of illustration and a minuteness of inquiry altogether be-
yond my abilities and my limits. Perhaps an English
reader sometimes thinks the work slightly overdone, and
even feels a very languid curiosity about the character of
" Poosie Nansie," or the politics of Dumfries. I have
not, however, intentionally underrated the interest of my
subject.
Surely that acknowledgment reads weakly.
Cut bond Mr. Willmott's supervision of the
volume, after his own confession? He thus
begins his biographical essay :
Upon a winter day of 17843-7, the boy Jeffrey stopped in
the High-street of Edinburgh to stare at a man whose ap-
rarance greatly struck him. A shopkeeper, standing at
his door and observing the boy's look of wonder, tapped
him on the shoulder, saying, " Aye, laddie, ye may weel
look at that man—he is 'Hobert Burns." Since that day,
admiration has shown itself in every shape, the moat
touching and the most grotesque, from the panegyric of
NVordsworth to the frenzy of Wilson, rolling himself on
the spot where Tam o'Shanter" was composed.