The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-29 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 29, 1857.

his zeal for the destruction of partridges, would do well to remember
the sad loss of life which has recently taken place. The constant
observance of one or two very simple rules would he sufficient to
prevent this class of accidents. The first and most obvious is never to
carry the gun with the muzzle pointed, not merely at, but in the direction
of, any human being. The second is, that all parties in the field should
walk as much in a line as possible, carrying their guns either on the
shoulder or under the arm, not swinging across it, as is too commonly
done, thereby bringing the trigger into dangerous proximity with
coat or waistcoat buttons. In the next place, the hammer should
always be at half-cock, except at the very moment when game is
expected to rise. In the act of firing, the young sports-
man should always remember that he must never shoot
at a bird unless the coast is perfetftly clear ; and in
loading, that he must avoid hanging over the muzzle
of his gun, and never allow his hand or fingers to cover it.
Simple and obvious as these precautions appear, it is astonishing what
a number of even experienced persons neglect them—dangling their
gun as they walk with the trigger at full cock, and the muzzles cover-
ing their dearest friend dead within a dozen paces ; leaning over the
barrels as they load, and firing recklessly when birds rise, whether
any one is in the way or not. It may possibly be of some use at this
period of the year to fix our readers' minds upon the point. On so
trite and common-sense a subject nothing very new can be said. To
repeat and enforce universally acknowledged truths is all we pre-
tend to.

We were concerned to remark yesterday the apparently sudden
attack of indisposition suffered by the Speaker. Our readers are
aware that it is the custom of the Members upon the final rising of
the House severally to offer their congratulations to the Speaker upon
release from his arduous duties. Yesterday Mr Speaker DENISON,
having rather abruptly read the Royal Speech, shook hands with his
fides Achates. the Premier, and disappeared ! The many hands held out,
and the half•uttered congratulations of the different Members sur-
rounding the Chair, contrasted oddly with their blank faces.

Whatever be the impediment in the way of Lord JOHN
RUSSELL'S elevation to the Peerage, the possibility of such an event
may supply us with food for reflection. We think it is unfair to repre-
sent Lord JOHN RUSSELL as " used up." His Lordship is only sixty-
six, and we know of no visible decay in his physical or intellectual
powers. At his age, Lord LYNDHURST, Lord BROUGHAM, Lord CAMP-
BELL, or Lord PALMERSTON, were young men. %o less untrue is it in
our opinion that he has been superseded by Lord PALMERSTON
in the lead of the Liberal party. Lord PALMERSTON does
not lead the Liberals, sod never will. He is a tolerated
locum tenens, and nothing more What, then, can induce a certain
class of politicians to be so anxious for Lord JOHN RUSSELL:B removal
to the Upper House? Their reasons are probably numerous; but it
cannot be doubted that the most powerful is the unfavourable light in
which the Premier is placed by his presence. Lord JOHN RUSSELL is
a scholar, a rhetorician, and, more than all, a statesman of deep con-
victions. Lord PALMERSTON is the reverse of all this. He has small
literary culture; his speeches " invite one to sleep " ; and his princi-
ciples remind us of the accommodating author described by POPE:—

Aw, aw ! the piece, you say, is faulty ; take it—
I'm all submission : what you'd have it, make it.
The more respectable of the Whig Liberal connection cannot but feel
it as a great slur upon their distinguished party that they have sunk
so low as to be compelled to follow Lord PALMERSTON and to see Lord
JOHN RUSSELL on the hack benches. The consciousness of this senti-
ment must sting Lord PALMERSTON deeply. But Lord JOHN RUSSELL
thinks he can afford to bide his time, and knows that he is greater
out of office than Lord PALMERSTON is in. We can well understand,
too, that the Government may be anxious to recruit their forces in
the Upper House, where, as Liberal organs admit, Lord DERBY has no
equal. The appearance, however, of even Lord JOHN RUSSELL at the
side of the smiling GRANVILLE or the tinkling little Duke would not
destroy the Noble Earl's supremacy ; while Ministers might natu-
rally be fearful of a collision between the spirited ex-Premier and his
ducal colleague concerning the command of the Channel fleet. Our
readers may depend upon this, that the first reason assigned is the
true one, and that the Premier would sleep more soundly if that well-
known hat were not nodding at him from behind with a mixture of in-
dignation and amusement .

An evening contemporary, which was described by Mr. Column
in terms of well-known unsavouriness, has thought proper to repeat,
for about the twentieth time, a very stale joke and a very unfounded bit
of gossip concerning ourselves. We are sorry to drive our contemporary
into the necessity of inventing a new joke, though the time-honoured
one about " the fine Roman hand" has not perhaps that species of point
which educated Englishmen have been accustomed to associate with wit,
and we also offer our condolences on the exposure of the often re-
peated " canard," respecting the authorship of certain articles in this
journal. We beg most emphatically to declare that the gentleman
whose name is thus brought forward by these would-be well-informed
writers, whose recklessness is in proportion to their ignorance, has no
personal share in the conduct of TAE PRESS newspaper. This journal
is the organ of a political party, and those who are irritated by that
fact seek to impugn it by every species of trickery, invention, and
falsehood.