The Press.
London, England, 1858-08-14 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 14, 1858.

the explosion of the other barrel ; but, at all events, even the ramrod would
have been displaced or blown away. was it so ? In the third place, was
the nipple of the loaded barrel capped or not ? If so, it is obviously impos-
sible that the accident could have happened as described. We may take
this opportunity of repeating the caution we offered to our readers this time
lot year: Always bear in mind the possibility of yot.r gun going off acci-
dentally. This is the only real safeguard. Trust to keeping the muzzle in
s safe position, and not at all to any artificial contrivances for preventing
accidents. Above all, avoid leaning upon firearms. From such acts of
carelessness we cannot help thinking it more ilkely that the unfortunate
nobleman met his end than by such accident as has been suggested.

Although we were aware that the Liberal party felt itself deeply com-
promised by the events of the present year, we did not know in what a
gloomy condition were its affairs until Mr. RALPH OSBORNE at Dover
revealed its dissensions and difficulties. " Unfortunately," said he, " like
that noble river which was made mention of in the Queen's Speech, the
" Liberal party is in a state of decomposition." Nothing but the portion of
the Thames into which the London sewage passes would serve the ex- Secre-
tary of the Admiralty for a symbol of the foul and dangerous condition of
Liberalism. Mr. OSBORNE is partial to illustrations from dirty water. Ile
Once proposed "to turn the Serpentine into the Horse Guards," as a step
towards military reform ; and after having likened Liberalism to the cor-
rupted Thames, the Honourable Gentleman recommends the country to
swallow Liberalism. Mr. OsnottNE, indeed, never makes a speech
without showing that he has a great faith in the assertion
that anything will go down with a popular audience. His
statements must always be taken cum grano salis, and it is a pity
that he never himself supplies us with any of that wholesome and
Attic ingredient. Mr. 08DORNE'S late speech was intended to annoy Con-
servatives; but it is the Liberals who have been damaged by it. He ex-
hibited the "decomposition " of that party when he said that " unless the
" old Whigs and modern Liberals unite we are men of straw." We always
thought so; and now we know it from ex-official authority. And who is
to unite these discordant bodies? Lord PALMERSTON ? Certainly not;
for Mr. OSBORNE tells us " that he always thought his popu-
" larity was somewhat exaggerated ;" and, besides, "unfortunately,
" Lord PALMERSTON is now an old man," and "he has fallen."
We can imagine what an unpleasant expression must come over
the face of Sir WILLIAM HAarrEn when he reads the recklessly
candid speech of the Member for Dover. So great is the "apathy " of
the Liberal party at present that Mr. OSBORNE "thinks that the best thing
" that could happen would be a dissolution ;" or, in other words, the Liberals
have no chance in the present House of Commons. The damned poet
always appeals to posterity, and a discomfited Opposition is sure to make
threats about the country. The vulgar way in which Mr. OSBORNE
spoke about the Conservatives proves nothing but the inherent coarseness
of the Member for Dover's mind. After having sat in the House of Com-
mons for seventeen years, after having listened to such speakers as Lord
DERBY, the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, Mr. GLADSTONE, Sir JAMES
GRAHAM, Mr. BRIGHT, and many others, Mr. OSBoRNE thinks it clever
and smart and witty to dip his tongue in the kennel, and say, " The
Conservative Rump had hitherto borne a great deal of kicking.' After
the summary process of ejectment, served by the British people upon the
Palmerstonians, "kicking " was the last kind of exercise to which political
allusions would be discreet from their lips. Our columns last week showed
the number of divisions in which the Liberals were defeated since the
present Ministry came into office. Last February Liberalism was a loud
Parliamentary browbeater, turning up its nose at everybody not in the
Cambridge-house clique, but since then its nasal organ has got a severe
tweaking. But we must change the topic, lest the example of Mr. OSBORNE
may lead us into a style of language in which we do notindulge. Mr.
Osamixn charged the present Government with " making change without
" progress, and concessions without grace." When the late Ministry
was in office there was " progress " to dissensions with France ; " progress"
to keeping on a high income-tax ; " progress " to the absolutism of Lord
PALMERSTON; and " progress" to official scandals of the Clanricarde type.
The " change " which stopped such downhill "progress" has been
approved of by the Crown, by the Peerage, by the Commons, and by the
country at large. The late Ministry was, certainly, prepared to make
extravagant concessions" to France, but the "grace " with which the
Conspiracy Bill was introduced did not reconcile the public to such a
worse than equivocal sort of " progress." Lord CRANWORTH attempted
some Law Reforms. Was there " grace "in his manner or method in his
measures ? When various independent Members of Parliament
inquired about " progress," and whether sundry " concessions "
would be made, was there " grace" in the way in which the
late Premier answered either his supporters or his opponents ? Ah ! Mr.
OSBORNE,
... it is really "very absurd" in you to make such allusions.
Enough of Mr. OSBORNE. He has been one of the most notorious of the
Liberal failures. He fancies invective to be his forte, but his tone disgusts,
193 coarseness spoils his borrowed cleverness, his want of sincerity makes
his speeches as hard and mouthy as a schoolboy's exercises. He can snap
and snarl, but he is not even equal to the low business of a political scold,
far
cannot produce Parliamentary " thunder." llis resources are not
ge enough for the vocation of' a political pyrotechnist ; when he applies
himself to the task of "getting up something brilliant," he is sure to burn
his own fingers and keep those who dwell beneath the same political roof
in fear lest he injure them with a dangerous explosion. The Conservatives
need not desire better than that he should have ample liberty for railing.

781

He would be a bold man who undertook, under whatever urgency of
entreaty, to select for his dearest friend a hunter, or a Coreggio, or a chef
de cuisine, or a wife. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred he would
find as the result of his disinterested labours that the article was contume-
liously rejected; his taste, and even his motives, impugned; and the very
bonds of friendship between the parties grievously imperilled. Just such a
service has lately been rendered by the British Crown to its Canadian
dependency, with just such results. The united provinces of Canada having
got a Parliament, an electoral system, responsible Ministers, who come in or
go out according to the votes of a majority, and all other appurtenances
requisite in the menage of a constitutionally governed State, began to want
a Capital. This was a very natural want; but serious difficulty arose
when the local Legislature attempted to supply it. Various cities com-
peted for metropolitan honours. Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, Toronto,
Ottawa, and some other towns, were all "mentioned" for the dignity, and
each of the series found advocates sufficiently numerous, not to
secure a selection for themselves or any one of the number, but
to prevent the selection of their rivals. After infinite debating,
and when it had become pretty evident that Canada would go capital-
less all its days if the choice were left to itself the matter was
referred to England, and her Majesty entreated to become umpire
to the controversy. This delicate and invidious task was accepted, perhaps
unadvisedly ; and the Sovereign, after 'patiently weighing the advantages
and drawbacks of every locality, decided in favour of Ottawa. The reasons
for selecting this particular site for the Canadian metropolis, it is unneces-
sary now to recapitulate. They were founded exclusively on the abstract
merits of the locality, as regarded its central position, its security against
attack, its adaptation for commerce, and other intrinsic capabilities and
advantages. Here was the mistake of the Crown advisers at home. The
question had never been discussed in the Canadian Legislature upon its
merits. It was not in the mere embarra.l de richesse, or from any diffi-
culty in striking a balance between the conflicting claims of the different
cities, that the problem had proved insoluble by the local Legislature. The
fact was that the issue was mixed up with long-standing rivalries between
the French and English population, as distributed in the Lower and
Upper Provinces respectively ; and a selection made, as it necessarily was by
the British Sovereign, without reference to these contests, could scarcely
by any possibility prove satisfactory to either party. Louis QCARTORZE
has bequeathed a proverb to all future patrons, that whenever a
place is given away ninety-nine expectants are disappointed, and
one ungrateful. In the present case the nomination of Ottawa,
out of so many claimants, has, of course, disappointed the advocates
of all the rest ; and, as matters stand, the rejected, being a majority,
are able to annul the appointment. This is just what the
Canadian House of Assembly has done. By the last mails we learn
Ithat a vote was passed, declaring Ottawa altogether ineligible as
the seat of Government. A Ministerial crisis has been the natural
consequence. The Government resigned at once ; and a Mr. BROWN,
who leads the Radicals of Upper Canada, has been commissioned
by Sir E. HEAD to construct a Cabinet—with very slight prospect of
being able to put together a permanent Administration. Grievous
epithets have been applied by English journals to this act of the
Colonial Legislature. It has been called ungracious, insulting, faithless,
and what not. In reality, the vote hardly deserves any worse character
than that of childishness. It was, no doubt, very wrong and absurd for
the local Parliament to reject the decision pronounced by an umpire
whom they had themselves invited to arbitrate ; but the Members were
new to their work, and did not perceive that, while voting in accordance
with their local partialities, they were ignoring the consequences of their
own vote d in a previous session, and cammitting themselves to serious
responsib= both towards their constituents and their Sovereign. The
alleged " insult " to the Crown need not trouble them much : her Majesty
will care no more for the vacillation of a colonial assembly than for the
gaucherie of some provincial mayor. But meanwhile the question remains
unsettled, when and where is Canada to have its capital ?

The news from Calcutta, though only one day in advance of tha t
conveyed by the mail from Bombay of the preceding day, is decidedly of
a favourable nature. The rebels are now distinctly broken into three
divisions, having nothing in common but the desperate state of their case.
The Gwalior Contingent, for instance, is reduced to a mere rabble,
however numerically strong, and unless encouraged by impunity will
probably melt away before the season for active operations again
returns. In Oude the rebels are more formidable, but even
there a bright spot looms on the horizon. The Begum and 111 Aux
SINGH are engaged in active hostilities, and although the latter has
recently declared himself on the side of the British, he can scarcely be
regarded in the light of a sincere friend and well-wisher. Turning then
to Buxar, and the western portions of Behar, we find an armed force
under L' TIER SINGH breaking forth from the jungles, and threatening
the English residents at Gyah. But how came this to pass ? Colonel
DOUGLAS, having succeeded to Sir EDWARD LUGARD, appears to
have been more intent on returning to Benares than on carry-
ing out the designs of his predecessor. Those designs, however, were
based apparently on the counsel given by Colonel ARTHUR WELLESLEY
to Colonel Sawronius, to destroy the jungle, and drive the enemy into
the open country, when he could easily he dealt with. It is evident
that an operation of this kind must be attended with some delay, and that
patience and perseverance are indispensably necessary to their efficiency.
Colonel WELLESLEY particularly pointed out this fact, and dwelt upon
the advantage of saving the soldiers' lives at the expense of a certain
quantity of bad timber. The past, however, has long ceased to be a
teacher of the present, and every empiric thinks himself jusliailli in
walking by his own lights.