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

THE WEEK.

THE Neapolitan squabble still continues to engage—as we think very
unworthily—the attention of Europe. The French Court probably
conceives that, as it has addressed a remonstrance to the King of the
Two SICILIES, it cannot suffer that remonstrance to remain without
effect. Hence the ultimatum, which it is confidently asserted is about
to be addressed to the King of NAPLES by the Governments of England
and France. It is probable that the King will be induced to make the
concessions demanded of him, as he must be aware that resistance to
the two great Powers of Europe to the point of rupture, cannot fail to
be attended with disastrous effects to himself. Perhaps the Court of
France may not be sorry to establish, with the aid of England, a pre-
cedent for interference with the Governments of the Italian States.
The policy of such interference is open to grave question, and it does not
appear how it can be practically carried out without keeping the King
in a state of tutelage, and maintaining Ambassadors at his Court as
unfriendly spies on his proceedings. Are the actions of the Neapolitan
Court to be jealously watched ? Is the Liberal party in Naples to be
favoured by the allied Governments ? Will there be remonstrance and
interference on every occasion of the King showing a disposition to
free himself from this surveillance, and return to his old policy? If
so, we may be tolerably sure that the kingdom will not long remain
free from internal disorder. But if no such surveillance is intended,
of what value will be the concessions extorted from the King on the
present occasion ? If the system of interference is to be per
severed with, a foreign army of observation in Naples will be the in-
evitable result It does not strike us that this is a consummation on
any account to be desired. If the last Bourbon Kiag is to be driven
from his throne, who is to succeed, him ? We may perhaps find in the
end that the meddling system so pertinaciously pursued, and loudly
applauded by the Liberals in power, is neither worthy the dignity, nor
conducive to the interests of Great Britain. We observe it is rumoured
in the French press, that Baron DE HUBNER, on his return from Naples,
will wait on the Emperor of the FRENCIF at Biarritz. This favours the
probability of an accommodation of the quarrel.

The Turkish Government has, it is stated, addressed an able memoir
to the Powers who were parties to the Treaty of Paris, protesting against
the union of the Danubian principalities. The Porte conceives that
their union would render them independent of the Sultan's authority,
and would have an effect the opposite of rendering them a solid barrier
against invasion. The conference to determine this difficult question
is to assemble at Paris. The policy of Turkey is straightforward aid
intelligible. She desires to hold authority over these provinces, and
to prevent them from attaining a position which would render them
practically independent of her. A mere nominal sovereignty over
countries is seldom satisfactory to either party, and it is to be feared
would prove productive of mischief in this case, should the union be
decided against.

The death of Field-Marshal Viscount HARDINGE has taken the
public by surprise. The Gallant Soldier was not believed to be in
danger previously to his death being announced. In his long and
brilliant career, Lord HARDINGE offers a memorable instance of what
may be achieved by ability without family influence or aristocratic
connection. Lord HARDINGE possessed military talents, and knew how
to use them to the best advantage. From the first day that he entered
the army to the last that he was present on a field of battle, Lord
HARDINGE was always at hand when wanted. This readiness and zeal
in the execution of duties were his chief characteristics. How he per-
formed those duties the annals of the Peninsular War and the
despatches of the Great Duke attest. It was unfortunate that he did
not attain the high position of Commander-in-Chief until the vigour of
his disposition had become impaired. It may be questioned whether
ho possessed great administrative talents, but he will always be kindly
remembered as a brave soldier, a skilful officer, a loyal servant, and an
amiable man.

The address of Lord STANLEY at Oldham is decidedly one of the
best he has yet delivered. His mind is one of those which, from the
wide range of its sympathies and its catholic tone, has the faculty, in
an extraordinary degree, of assimilating to itself information on a vast
number of subjects. His industry is astonishing, and his intellect
seems to expand with every new subject presented to it. That he is
always practical, does not result from inability or indisposition to
penetrate to tho depths of social questions, but from a wise determina-
tion to keep within limits suited to his audience. There are masterly
passages in the Oldham address ; among them we may particularise
that in which lie reasons that the best preservative against
vice is to open the eyes of our labouring classes to the
wonders and beauties of the universe in which they live,
and that in which he recommends social amusements. " Men
" die for want of cheerfulness, as plants die for want of
" light." Lord STANLEY has arrived at that point of eminence which
is sure to call forth its attendant and its test—detraction. A journal
has given a perverted view of one portion of his argument, and then
triumphantly refutes its own misrepresentation. Lord STANLEY never
said that a meehanic was as favorably situated for acquiring
knowledge as one who had his time at his own disposal. His
argument was, that a mechanic need not despair of improve-
ment because his time was short. It is, again, a gross
misrepresentation to assert that his Lordship supposed
that his hearers would gain a profound comprehension of those
subjects he suggested as desirable to engage their attention.
Smatterer is an ugly word. But, apart from our particular professions,
the best of us is little more. We must take knowledge upon authority ;
we must be content with results, and the main use of these results
may be less to store the mind with facts which it. can reproduce at

SATURDAY,

pleasure than to enlighten and hutnaniseit, to produce a more
reverent tone of feeling, and purer moral sentiments. Lord STANLEY
did not deprecate that various reading which is of course essentia
to various knowledge ; he only recommended systematic reading.
Dr. Aftsor.n, an authority whom even Mr. Lofty might
respect, gave it as the strongest conviction of his educa-
tional experience that a little knowledge of many subjects
was not necessarily a smattering knowledge, and that tolerably
diffuse reading was much more to be recommended than contracted
reading, from the better effect of the former in expanding the mind
Lord STANLEY was not addressing an audience of schoolboys. Our
own idea of all literary institutes as that of Oldham is, that they are
much less fitted for educational purposes than for intellectual
recreation ; and supposing that a man has only one or two hours in
the (lay he can devote to reading, we think he would do w3ll rather to
attempt to gain some general comprehension of many sciences
and subjects than to obtain what can at best be but a super-
ficial knowledge of one. LOCKE himself would not speak
" against the taking a taste of every sort of knowledge." Instead.
of a man devoting his leisure to one sort of knowledge, he
thought it better to give the mind a " fair and equal view of the whole
" intellectual world, wherein it may see the order, rank, and beauty
"of the whole." We do not suppose Lord SfANLEY had this passage
in his mind, yet the spirit of his remarks on the advisability of
obtaining a general view of the universe is identical with it. It only
remains, therefore, for Mr. Lofty with a wave and flourish ofhis pea
to " set down " LOCKE as he has set down Lord STANLEY.

We all remember Swirr's famous parallel in the " Tale of a Tub,"
between human clothes and human character. How honesty is
likened to a pair of shoes, worn out in the dirt; religion to a cloak ;
vanity to a shirt; self-love to a surtout ; and conscience—but we need
not repeat the comparison further. It is a little too Rabelasian for
modern taste, a little too coarse for modern modesty, but thoroughly
applicable to the defaulters of the British Bank who have so fully
acted up to Swirr's comparison. What an excellent man must Mr.
CAMERON have been, so self-sacrificing, so zealous in the discharge
of his duties, and in fact a man so good altogether that he was—good
for nothing. But these ]aches in commercial morality are not re-
putable, to say the least of it. It would seem that in the commercial
world a sin is no sin till found out. The princely British merchant
is a practical man who does not fall into hysterics about an abstract
principle. What have business men to do with conscience ? S'est
enfuite du cceur et lest refugie sur les lerres—and so he buttons up his
breeches pockets a little tighter than usual, and flatters himself that
PAUL and STRAHAX, and CAMERON and Co , are examples of the
abuse, not the use, of the principles which regulate commercial
morality.

We are not very much in the habit of going out of our way to
praise our contemporaries, seeing that they are nearly all exces-
sively prompt with at least as much self-laudation as is necessary,
when they hold themselves to have achieved a feat of any kind. But
we really cannot withhold our slight tribute to the Daily News for the
elegance with which it is written, and the carefulness with which it
is edited. On Thursday, while an announcement of the death of Lord
HARDINGE, and an article on his merits, stared in the face of every reader
of the Times, the Daily News apprised us that "no immediate danger'
was apprehended. The same day appeared a very scurrilous letter from
Mr. MORRIS MooRE, abusing Dr. WAAGEN and HERR MUNDLER, and with
the chief abuse in French The next day, the letter having been in the
meantime translated to the conductors by somebody who understands
French, its appearance was apologised for. Then, on the Hardingo
day, we are told of the most feeling paragraph we ever heard of, " a
" paragraph in which anxiety was felt for the fate of Mr. SALA" (the
gentleman who writes nearly all that is worth reading in Household,
Words); and then an uncommonly dull person, who seems engaged
to puff all the London actors in succession, and does it with a humi-
lity that almost atones for his awkwardness, introduces the remark-
able quotation about " a man in his time playing many parts," as an
illustration of the fact that Mr. LEIGH MURRAY has acted in a good
many pieces. Altogether, as a literary journal, and as a purveyor of
news, the D. N. is certainly a curiosity.

Those intelligent Yankees who would" whip creation" know at least
how to build a steam-frigate. They have just sent us one to look at,
the Merrimac, a screw steamer of 3,500 tons, 500-horse power, and
carrying 40 guns of the heaviest calibre. She is one of the six
frigates recently built, and of the same class, or probably smaller, than
the twelve recently laid down for building. The Merrimac, on her
arrival, made for the neighbourhood of Spithead, so as to give
our dockyard and naval authorities an opportunity of inspecting the
style of vessels which would have " thawed up" some of our 84's on
the West India station, had impolicy or accident precipitated its
into a war. Now there are not many, if there are any, vessels in the
British navy, of the same class, a match for the 411 e, rimac. The
royal dockyards, if they are not behind the age in ship-building, are
certainly not in advance of it. Our Surveyors-General would seem to
possess only the imitative talent of a Chinaman. They originate
nothing. It is only when every private shipowner and every foreign
Power that owns a bum-boat, has adopted a new discovery or improved
an old one, that we take it up, content to follow in the rear, when wo
ought to lead the van. This is bad ship-building policy for a great
naval power. If our navy itfloat be large or small, it should he the most
powerful and efficient of its kind. We trust that the Merrimac may
stimulate the energies of our present Surveyor-General. He has just
been made a K.C.B. for doin., nothing he can boast of ; let hie► now
set to work and promote such plans as will place our steam-frigate navy
individually upon an equality with, if not pre eminently over, the
vessels of every other Pulver.