The Press.
London, England, 1854-05-20 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

restraint on the audacity of their domineer-

in g
the 1
taint

commented on
that is now main-
His assertions

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JOHN

say
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that, in the
will turn on the actual behaviour of the Roman
Catholics.

many
possibly coe-El.
system. Ba
Romanists froth
, and, like Lord
since, many will

will

)e more tole:
whose sublime
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poli\
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From the attitude assumed by them, the
question may be precipitated, as to Whether
the creed of Rome and constitutional potver
can be coexistent in our realm? We would
gladly see an end to polemical passions
largely intermingling in our domestic politics.
Rut the unscrupulous ambition and incessant
energy of Rome may not leave its the option
of quiescence. The time of difficulty will be
seized on as the Papist's opportunity for
further demands, until England will be pro-
voked into demanding that securities be taken
for the national fkith.

THE WAR.
THE Russian Colossus begins to exhibit some
signs of weakness. The feet of clay are
crumbling. It has already changed its atti-
titude, and, ceasing to attack, has to prepare
for defence. The events of the war have thus
far singularly belied expectation. The Turkish
army has proved more than a match for its
adversary, both in strategy and strife. The
advance into the Dobrudscha seems to have
been for the Russians a fatal error. The
accounts received from their quarters are
deplorable. Sickness proves more fatal than
the arms of the foe, though the aim of the
Turk is deadly and his steel well sharpened.
" We are rich," says a letter from the Russian
hospitals, " in ague, typhus, dysentery, scurvy,
" home sickness, and hospital gangrene."
While the Russian strength is thus wasting, the
courage of the Turkish troops is rising higher.
They have confidence in their general, and
their camp is abundantly supplied. Mean-
while the French army has received orders
to march on Adrianople, and the allied troops
will soon be able to act with effect. The Cir-
cassians, on the other side of the theatre of
war, are occupying the position abandoned by
their enemy, and rebuilding the forts he
destroyed. SCHAMYL BEY,—unconquered when
he had to contend with Russia single-handed,—
will now be a formidable foe, as his troops
will be disciplined by European officers, and
well supplied with arms and ammunition.
Austria is daily assuming a more decisive
attitude: she has ordered a new levy of 00,000
men, and will be able to give a good account
of the Greek insurrection should it threaten
mischief.
The forbearance of our fleets is not to be
counted on longer. No Minister will dare to
trifle now with public expectation. Reports
have been received that the bombardment of
Sebastopol has begun in one sea, and of Revel
in the other; British cruisers have been seen
within twenty miles of Cronstadt—an an-
nouncement which will excite some sensation
at St. Petersburg. From the commencement
of the war it was foreseen that two great sea-
battles must be fought; and, should Sebastopol
and Cronstadt fall, the Russian marine, which
it has taken a century and a half to build up,
will for the time be annihilated, and the com-
mand of the seas she hoped to make her own
be lost.
The only adverse item in the week's news is
the reported loss of the Tiger. Should this fine
vessel really have been driven on shore near
Odessa, her " capture " will, no doubt, figure
finely in a Russian bulletin ; but as yet we
hope the statement is one of those fictions for
which Russian agency is becoming infamous.

SATURDAY,

LORD GREY'S CHARACTER OF THE
PREMIER.

MR. DlgtaLl'h glib&flW ,on Lord JOHN
Russzu aaing staiiiiiiiimtelY to Lord ABER.
DERN have seen a stlib stibject with Peelites
and ¢biitibal Jesuftd;d *b may add a still
sorer bhe 'With thosi!; ihdejibildent Whigs who
iespea 14did Jong, but disapprove of his
acting iinder one for forty years, the
Whigs ofEngland have disdained.

These remarks have suggested the question,
what do those who venerate Lord Gnat's
memory at Brookes's think upon this unplea-
sant question of a Coalition Cabinet? We
surmise that many, if not the majority, of them
cordially approve of the independent course
taken by one who inherits much of the talent,
and nearly all the high spirit, of his famous
sire. Lord GREY does more than keep aloof
from the Aberdeen Cabinet. The departments
of War and Finance have in the present
session already twice winced under his
withering strictures. Like Mr. GLADSTONE
himself, we shall not soon forget the effect of
Lord GREY'S speech on the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER'S option of conversions. While
listening to that lacerating commentary on
blunders in finance, we were reminded that the
speaker had once subjected the character of
the present Prime Minister to a stricture
almost as galling. On the 28th of February,
1835, Lord Howica said :

How, for instance, could the House know what were the
very first instructions Lord Aberdeen had sent to the
colonies ? Talk to him (Lord Howick) of a fair trial upon
a point which involved the necessity of committing the
destinies of so large a portion of the inhabitants of the
earth into the hands of a man whose opinions, honebtly
entertained no doubt, but, therefore, the more to be dreaded,
seemed so opposed to the welfare of the human race.—
Hanaard, 1835, p. 379.
Though some of the Whigs have recanted
their old principles, and have consented to
pass under the Caudine forks of Coalition,
that consistency of opinion for which CHARLES
Earl GREY was famous will not, in the case
of Lord ABERDEEN, be departed from by his
son. With prescient sagacity Lord GREY
measured the momentous evil of committing
the helm of the State to a man whose opinions
are " opposed to the welfare of the human
" race." Spoken as criticism, the words of Lord
GREY have now the weight of a historical
verdict, owing to the assiduous pains taken
by the Czar's friend, during the last twelve
months, to verify them as prophecy. Lord
GREY distrusted Lord ABERDEEN as Colonial
Secretary ; and with facts before him—with the
revelations of the secret understanding be-
tween the two old friends—with the spectacle
of the Emperor of the FRENCH goading a dila-
tory British Premier into reluctant activity—
will Lord GREY change his sentiments on the
propriety of " the destinies of so large a
" portion of the inhabitants of the earth"
being entrusted to one whose course has been
practically favourable to the policy of the
Kremlin, and to the religion of the Vatican?
One need not travel as far as the ensanguined
graves of the BANDIERO brothers to know how
the character of Lord ABERDEEN, as given by
Earl GREY in 1835, would be applauded on
the Continent as fearfully accurate.

THE NEWSPAPER STAMP.
THE House of Commons adopted on Tuesday
last, on the motion of Mr. MILNER GIBSON, the
resolution that " the laws in reference to the
" periodical press and newspaper stamps are
" ill-defined and unequally enforced, and de-
" mand the early consideration of Parliament."
With this resolution no one will quarrel unless
it be the CHANCELLOR of the EXCREQVER. A
change which would either wholly abrogate
or else define these laws with precision and
certainty would deprive that Right Honoura-
ble Gentleman of a delightful recreation which
is at once intellectual and gratifying to his
sense of self-esteem. To master the mysteries
of a science without having received a pro-
fessional education is one of the happiest
efforts of the highest genius, and when it
occurs confirms the truth of Dogberry's theorl

; clergy. Mr. NEWDEZIATE I
IT e extraordina discipline tha
Lned in the 0191iCbody.
qupported t Iota; And i
'ether Stich kip iiii; can p(
th odi f'tee 88ustititinal *
ILTON ind LBbiki 40 used F
eir vies of i pub l; polity,
HN iiiIBBELL it fei .434 rs Sir
y that they do Hot fish to 13(
an those great Englishthen
Ld deep thoughts have so 1
olitical teaching. It is evide
Hie solfitiori of Hifi cjilea

MAY 20, 1854.

that technical knowledge is the result of in-
spiration. Of this Mr. GLADSTONE has lately
furnished an example, by detecting illegality
which, after long and elaborate argument, had
escaped the notice of the Barons of the Ex
chequer. The problem those learned indi-
viduals had to solve was whether Mr.
DICKENS'S Narrative of Current Events was
a newspaper requiring a stamp. They decided
it was not, and then defined a newspaper in
the abstract to be " a publication containing
" public news, public intelligence, or public
" occurrences." Here was delightful food on
which to chew the cud of dialectical refine-
ment!

To distinguish clearly between news, intelli
gence, and occurrences, so that when we are
reading a paper we may know which we are
enjoying, and then to decide in what propor-
tion the ingredients must be mingled to con-
stitute a genuine " plum pudding,' transports
the mind to those earlier and happier days
when men doubted whether goods taken in
withernam were repleviable, and disputed as
to how many angels could dance upon the
point of a needle at once. With these
tempting materials before him, is it to be
wondered at that Mr. GLADSTONE should de-
clare the Court of Exchequer wrong in point
of law, and then proceed to try a series of
experiments to establish the accuracy of his
own judgment? It is admitted that publica-
tions devoted to one subject, such as music,
literature, or the turf, are not newspapers
liable to duty ; and one of the Learned Judges
decided that " a little news " would not confer
upon them that character. To what quantity
of news the term " little " may be accurately
applied Mr. GLADSTONE proceeded to ascer-
tain. He prosecuted Mr. SHAW, the proprie-
tor of the Penny Commercial Journal in Dublin,
but the Irish Judges were as ignorant as their
English brethren, and held the publication to
be exempt from duty. On the Ath of this
month an intimation was sent to the proprie
tor of the Musical Times that another experi-
ment was to be tried on his journal, although
it has been published without the payment of
duty during the last ten years. That these
prosecutions are instituted from a pure love
of legal science is proved by the circumstance
that when judgment is given in favour of the
Crown, which happens occasionally when pro-
ceedings are carried before Justices of the
Peace, instead of the Barons of the Exche-
quer, the fine is invariably remitted. But the ex-
pense to which the defendants are put is always
great, and the annoyance of being exposed to
the penalties of a law which is uncertain in
its operation is intolerable. Mr. GLAD-
STONE'S modus operandi is that of the wealthy
blockhead in ADDISON'S Spectator who silenced
the poor scholar in argument by offering to
support his own opinion by a bet to a large
amount, producing the money, and sternly
calling on his opponent to do the same.

Mr. GLADSTONE asserts that a particular
publication is a newspaper. and offers to
support his opinion by a prosecution at the
public expense. Sometimes the threat is
carried out,—sometimes, as in the case of the
Racing Times, withdrawn. The Attorney-
General explained the caprice with which the
law is administered, by stating it was only
enforced against those publications which
offended against the spirit of the prohibition.
But the enforcement of a law should not de
pend on a matter so fluctuating as the
opinions of officials, especially when expe-
rience has proved how little they are to be
relied on. An attack of the gout, news from
the City, a casual phrase in the publication
itself, might influence opinion; and it
is probable some or one of these dis-
turbing causes have been at work, otherwise
these prosecutions would not have so often
failed; and we know the number of the Penny
Commercial Journal which was prosecuted
stated that the Coalition would not be per-
manent, because it was not based on principle.
Mr. MILNER Gissos's ulterior object is to
abolish the stamp altogether, which Mr.
BRIGHT says will increase the circulation of
newspapers from 100,000,000 to 1,000,000,000.
What change a circulation of newspapers
amongst the labouring classes, and especially
in the agricultural districts, might effect is an
important subject for consideration. Would

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