The Press.
London, England, 1857-04-11 00:00:00

368

keep scrupulously to the facts of the case. They are
clearly explained in Lord Clarendon's own language.
His lordship has uttered a distinct threat to indict
beggary and disgrace upon a man should he be
unable to prove a negative. How improper that
threat must have been was clearly evinced in the
sequel ; and the question now is, had he the right to
utter such a threat, or had he not?
Your final solution of the case is excellent—the
proper ground for a writer to take is to refuse to re-
cognise the right of any person to question him.
Such questions should invariably be treated as an
improper interference with that privacy of action
which every man has a right to maintain.
Sir, it was to establish this incontestable right that
" The Press and the Public Service " was written,
and it is with a feeling of no common gratification
that 1 perceive it is admitted. For, if a strong case
may be made out against the exercise of any such
authotity as Lord Clarendon is convicted by his own
despatch of having assumed—if a suspected writer
might indignantly refuse to give the disclaimer
required of him, though perfectly innocent of the
charge—if an editor or publisher might still more
probably refuse to supply that negative—and if under
" such circumstances the prospects of an honourable
man might be blasted, and the head of a family in
prosperous circumstances might in a moment, by the
caprice of his superior, be degraded to destitution
and dishonour," it is surely fair to assume that the
recent proceeding of the Foreign Secretary was
entirely indefensible. On the highest grounds it
was wrong and cruel. On the lowest grounds it was
more unlucky for his lordship than a crime. It was
a blunder.

As a matter of mere prudence, even Lord Claren-
don would have acted far more judiciously to reflect
that he could not come with clean hands into court
on any one point of the case. He has always waged
a most singular war with the press—dabbled in it
with one hand, and worried it with the other. In
Ireland, and even in Belgium, he got into such a
serious scrape with the ;Tess that his political career
very nearly came to an end. It is also not the first
time that he has broken the constitutional law of the
kingdom to make his displeasure felt by an unoffend-
ing man. It is not many years since Lord Derby, in
one of the noblest speeches in our parliamentary
records, convicted his lordship cf having exceeded
his authority by the dismissal of Lord Roden, and
compelled him to confess in the House of Lords
that this act was the most painful of his life.
Lastly, Lord Clarendon must be aware that what-
ever may be the advantages of official secrecy in
ordinary cases, he has carried it too far. Mr. Dis-
raeli's remarkable speech on the " secret treaty " is
recent. Count Cavour complained that he had beet)
treated disingenuously. By secret information con-
fidentially communicated by some unworthy person
to his lordship, it is confidently reported that the
character of a general officer was recently so slan-
dered that he was obliged to request a court-martial
to clear himself ; that he did clear himself, and
that he demanded the dismissal of his traducer.
Only last week, also, a letter in the public papers
declares that it is Lord Clarendon's marvellous pas-
sion far concealment which has given rise to the
misconceptions on the subject of Lord John Russell's
mission to 'Vienna. A reputation for secrecy of this
kind is scarcely one which an English Minister
should be ambitious to acquire.
With all these examples to warn him—l say it
without the smallest ill-feeling towards his lord-
ship—he should surely have gained too much expe-
rience 1r an the past to have entered again rashly
on such delicate ground.
One word of personal explanation and I have done.
'Your joke about tire " distinguished writer " is per-
fectly fair, for it does not in any way prejudice the facts
of the case, which should not, of course, be affected
by any merits or demerits of its exponent. I need
scarcely say, however, that I did not apply this
designation to myself.—l am, sir, yours faithfully,
THE WRITER or " THE PRESS AND
THE PUBLIC SERVICE."

MAJzs LYS THEATRE.—MIIe. Piccolomini
arrived in London yesterday, and in the course of a
week or two will make her first appearance this
season at the Opera. She comes fresh from the
repose of her native place, Sienna, where she has been
enjoying a ahort period of retirement after her Paris
campaign. Before her appearance she will have the
opportunity of witnes-ing tlw debut of Spezia and
Ginglini,.who will share with her the honours of the
Beason. The union of these distinguished per-
formers in the greatest of operas, 11 Don Giovanni,
will afford to the public an early opportunity of ap-
preciating their distinct powers. Meanwhile, the
Farorita is in full rehearsal, and Spezia and Giuglini,
Ramos and Vialetti, will on Tuesday next open the
season. The orchestra and chorus have been greatly
a•rengthened. The rehearsals of the ballet La
Esmeralda, which is announced for Thursday, to-
gether with the Favorite, ai well as for the opening

THE PRESS.

on Tuesday, are also actively progressing, the prin-
cipal danseuse, Poc.bini, having been fur some
time in London to prepare for her debut. .

THE ARTISTS' BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION, AND THE
THEATRICAL FUND, held their annual meetings and
and dinners, on Saturday and Monday last. Lord
Dufferin supported by Sir Charles Eastlake presided
over the first, and Mr. Phelps supported by Mr.
Charles Dickens at the second meeting. Lord
Dufferin stated, in the course of his speech, that,
while the Artists' Fund income for the past year
amounted to 1,0021., 1,191/. hail been expended in
relief to distressed meritorious artist:. Donations
were announced to the amount of 6501. At the
Theatrical Fund dinner, Mr. Buckstone made the
speech of the evenin.2, and iu the course of his
financial statement alluded to the case of Mr.
Rogers :
HH I himself of that opportunity of declaring that
for the small remuneration recently given to an actor for
his services at Windsor Castle neither the Court ( which
WAS a generous patron of the drama) nor the director of
its theatricals was responsible. A liberal smn was always
allowed for those performances. and he (Mr. liuckatone)
had always been well remunerated for his services at
Windsor Castle. In these sectarian times every performer
ought to be proud that his royal mistress patronised his art
in her own halls.

The funds of this association are in a flourishing
state ; upwards of 10,0001. balance are in hand. The
Musical, Dramatic, and Equestrian Sick•fund Asso-
ciation also held its first anniversary on Thursday
evening, at Willis's-rooms, King-street, St. James's.
Mr. Tom Taylor took the chair, and about one
hundred guests sat down to dinner, including among
them the chief histrionic representatives of what
are, perhaps, miscalled the minor theatres of this
metropolis. Alter the usual loyal toasts, the chair-
man proposed the toast of the evening, and pointed
out the difference between this association and the
theatrical funds which already existed. Its object
was, not to provide retiring pensions only to those
who had contributed to its funds ; its relief was be-
stowed in a different manner, and among different
classes. It was intended, in the first place, that the
society should be an independent agent between
managers and actors who wished for engagements.
The sphere of its more benevolent operations in-
cluded not only actors, whether musical, dramatic,
or otherwise, but scene painters, costumiers, and
even scene-shifters were in their necessities con-
sidered among the qualified recipients of its aid.
In returning thanks for the officers of the associa-
tion, Mr. Anson, the secretary, stated that the society
already possessed a fund amounting to 6101. During
the course of the evening upwards of 1001. was suit-
scribed in the room.

THE RUIN 3 OF COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE are being
sold by auction. A large quantity of loose bricks,
charred timber, and sundry old materials lying on
the ground, have been disposed of for immediate re-
moval, and so soon as the ground is cleared of these,
the remainder of the rains, comprising several
millions of bricks, the Portland stone forming the
lower portion of the external wails, the portico, and
other building materials, will be disposed of in the
same manlier, in order to clear the ground for the
erection of the new Opera-house.

-

SATURDAY,

Paris at a twin birth in July, 1748. The youngest
of the twins, who was named Sholto Thomas Stewart,
died in May, 1753, and in November of the same
year Lady Jane died at Edinburgh. Immediately
after the duke's death the guardians of the surviving
youth proceeded to put him in possession of the
estates of the Douglas family. He was served heir
to the late duke before a jury after the examination
of a great body of evidence, the examination or in.
quest having been attended by counsel on thg part
of the Duke of Hamilton, who claimed the Douglas
estate as heir male. The guardians of the Duke of
Hamilton were not convinced, however, of the legiti-
macy of Stewart or Douglas, and with the view of
cl!aring up the case they sent agents to the ConfineLt,
who brought back a great body of evidence to prove
that the pretended delivery of Lady Jane was a
fiction, and that the twins really belonged to two
poor families in France, named respectively Mignion
and Saury. The guardians of Mr. Stewart, on the
other hand, brought forward persons to !swear that
they had seen Lady Jane in a state of pregnancy,
and that they were actually present at the birth of
these twins. After evidence had been collected pro
and con. from every quarter, and most minutely
sifted and criticised, the case came on for judgment
in the Court of Session in Scotland on the 7th of
July, 1767, and so important was the cause deemed
that the fifteen judges took eight days to deliver
their opinions. The result was that seven of the
judges voted in favour of the identity or legitimacy
of Mr. Stewart and seven against it; the Lord Presi-
dent, who bad the casting vote, agreed with the latter,
by which Douglas, alias Stewart, was cast on the
world without either name or estate. An appeal
from this decision was taken to the House of Lords,
however, by which the judgment of the Court of
Session was reversed in 1769, and Archibald Stewart,
or Douglas, declared to be the undoubted son of
Lady Jane, the sister of the late duke. He now
retained undisputed possession of the estates.
Archibald Douglas was created a British peer, by
the title of Baron Douglas, by George 111., in 1796.
The peer who has just departed was his son and last
male heir.

WE announced last week the demise, at her resi-
dence in Piccadilly, of Hesther Maria Viscountess
KEITH, in her 9th year. This remarkable lady was
the last remaining link between the present genera.
tion and that brilliant literary circle which congre-
gated around Johnson at" the club "—which thronged
the hospitable mansion of Mrs. Thrale at Streatham.
Viscountess Keith was the eldest daughter of Henry
Thrale, the friend of Johnson, and the husband of
Hesther Sainsbury, better known to the world by the
name of her second husband, as " Mrs. Piozzi." As
the child of his most valued friends, Hesther Maria
enjoyed a large share of the attention ofJohnson, who
was her early instructor, and in whose memoirs her
name frequently occurs as " Queeny," a term of en•
dearment conferred upon her by the great philoso•
pher. During her girlhood she was surrounded by
Reynolds, Garrick, Burke, Gibbon, Boswell, Beau-
clerk, Langton, Siddons, Burney, and Montagu.
Johnson was her early tutor, and Baretti her Italian
master.

THE LATE 131AU31 OF MUSCAT, whose death was
announced a short time since, was so remarkable a
prince as to deserve some notice of his character
and extended reign. An Oriental sovereign who
establishes a firm empire over dominions before
unsettled, who cultivates the arts of peace, who forms
wise and useful alliances with 'Western powers, an.t
whose reign is prolonged for more than half a cen-
tury., must possess qualities deserving of admiration.
Sved or Said, the deceased Sultan, came to the
throne in 18,06, at the age of seventeen years. His
dominions were partly in Asia and partly in Africa.
Muscat, from which he derived his title., is a very con-
siderable seaport and commercial depot in the pro-
vince of Oman, on the Arabian shore of the Persian.
Wulf, and commanding the narrow entrance of that gulf
Oman, the most eastern portion of Arabia, and about
330 miles in length, constituted the Asiatic dominion of
the Imaurn, which he delivered from vassalage to the
Wahabees. But he also partly inherited and partly
wrested from the Portuguese a territory several hun-
dred miles in length on the eastern coast of Africa,
called Zanguebar, with a large and beautiful island
called Zanzibar, in which island he resided during
the latter years of his life. The Irnaum of Muscat
Was a man of dignified and noble presence, but not a
warrior. His conquests were effected chiefly by
means of his alliances, and especially by his alliance
with England and the East India Company. He
formed a considerable navy of five English-built
frigates, but he employed them in commerce, not in
war, and carried on a very extensive trade with India
and various parts of the East. He was wise enough
to encourage foreign commerce by very low Customs
duties. He was not a man of high moral qualities,
hut his wisdom as a ruler has not often been sur-
passed. He has left no children by his two wives,
but one of his natural sons was Governor of Zan-
zibar, and the Governments of England and France
have agreed to recognise his eldest son as heir.