The Press.
London, England, 1856-08-30 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

ALL accounts from the Continent continue to indicate the decline of
British influence. Lord PALMERSTON'S Administration has been per-
fectly successful in preventing a restoration of cordial intercourse
with Russia. 'Advices from St. Petersburg note the marked difference
between the reception of the British and French Ambassadors. The
former has been received with cold formality; the latter with every
token of amity and respect. In Spain, the overthrow of the Liberal
party has been complete. The National Guard has been dissolved, and
the Constitution of 1845 is to be restored. Sardinia is still most uneasily
situated, by the concentration of Austrian troops on the frontier,:and by
the intrigues of the revolutionary faction ; but the Court of Vienna is
the only Continental Court with swhich at present our Foreign-office
appears to be on intimate terms. Baron HUBNER has arrived at Na-
ples from Vienna on a special mission to the King, in order to compose
(as it is stated) in a friendly mariner the differences of his Majesty
with the Western Powers. The version of the Neapolitan note which we
published last week, is, we have reason to believe, in the main correct,
though doubted by a portion of the French and Belgian press. It confirms
the outline given of its tenor in THE PRESS of 19th of July. As Lord
CLARENDON stated at Paris, iu the face of Europe, that the
ease of the Government of Naples was so exceptional as
to make it ' " R right and a duty" of other Governments
to interfere, it does net appear how his Lordship can withdraw
from his position without loss of character, while it is tolerably cer-
tain that France and Austria will strongly advise his Lordship not to
attempt to give practical effect to his principle of intervention. The
appointment of a diplomatist to the Neapolitan Court in place of Sir
WILLIAM TEMPLE has not yet been decided. Our Liberal journals
are anxious that whoever is nominated shall be invested with
the character of a constitutional Propagandist. This policy
has not hitherto been so successful as to justify its continuance.
The first object of appointing Ministers to foreign Courts should be,
of course,. to maintain amicable relations with the de facto Govern-
ments of those Courts. If that be done, commercial intercourse, with
the spread of our ideas, and the example of ourconstitutional liberty, are
more likely to extend British influence, and to weigh with foreign
Courts, than any such direct interference with their internal politics
as must rouse their jealousy, and cause our Minister to be regarded
with suspicion and dislike. British influence is not likely to be
" rehabilitated on the Continent," to use the phrase of the Spectator,
until we return to the first principles of diplomatic intercourse, and
give up all idea of making our missions centres of political propa-
gandism. The partial insurrections in Italy show the evil that has
already been done by flattering the disaffected with hopes of assist-
ance, always denied to them in the hour of trial.

The German Legion is at last to be disposed of. Enlisted now for
nearly two years, they have been fed into robust men : add to this an
agreeable trip to Constantinople and back, and it must be admitted
that they have cost the country a tolerable sum. They are going as
military colonists to the Cape of Good Hope. A party of engineers
.and artificers will precede them to the settled frontiers to erect the
necessary villages and buildings. Every soldier on arrival will be granted
so many acres of land. • For the first year of settlement they are to be
supplied with stores and provisions, and the gratuity to which the non-
commissioned officers and privates are entitled to be commuted with six-
pence a day for three years. One is apt to ask the awkward question,
if the Germans who have neither bled nor suffered, but have been
rather petted, pampered, and stuffed with beef and beer during the
whole war, are worthy of such a reward, what must our men deserve ?
At least they should have had the refusal of the offer. This hand-
some treatment of a Foreign Legion contrasts well and to the credit of
Lord PANMIIRE with the beggarly meanness with which Government
have met our men's claims on dismissal. There is some difference
between the treatment the Tipperary and the Land Transport men
met with at the War-office, and the consideration granted to the Ger-
mans. Our men were stripped of their clothes, cheated of their
bounty, and turned adrift' to get their living—some with sixpence,
few with half a sovereign in their pockets. The Germans, in the first
place given a premium four times the amount given in England. are
now given a grant of land in a fine colony, given a free passage thither
with their wives 9r • sweethearts, and families, fed and clothed for a
whole year, and their full bounty commuted for sixpence a day for three
years. What they, on the one hand, have done to deserve such
excellent terms, which our men on the other must have failed to do to
be treated so scurvily, is at present a mystery. Perhaps Mr. FREDERICK
PEEL or Lord PANtatrax would enlighten us. Meanwhile, so far as the
Legion is concerned, as Mr. Baron BRAMWELL said the other day in a
breach of promise case, " A very good riddance to very," &c.

As Miss HARRIET MARTINEAU has published a selection of her
articles from the Daily Neal, there can be no impropriety in mentioning
what was previously well understood, that the most striking articles
in that journal upon foreign politics' were, and are, contributed by
that clever and vivacious, though now antiquated, spinster. We
mention this circumstance with the more pleasure, as no doubt it

will inspire the continental despots—so gallantly attacked by our
contemporary—with higher respect for, their fair assailant, and induce
them to pay more attention than they have hitherto done to the
warnings of the eloquent sybil of the daily press. We observe that
this week the Daily News has given a precise description of the kind.
of diplomatist it will be proper to appoint as the successor to the good.
natured, indolent, Sir WILLAM TEMPLE, at Naples ;

The task which will devolve on the new English Minister at Naples is arduous
enough to deter the most ambitious from accepting the office. It is not only that he
will have to deal with a monarch who to the impetuous self will and negation of an
moral sense of a madman unites all that dexterous and patient cunning which is always
found associated with madness. It is not only that he will have to soothe or control this
reckless being amid circumstances as liable to explosion as a powder mine : his difficul-
ties will be incalculably augmented by the insidious and unscrupulous wiles of Austrian
diplomacy, and by the equivocal friendship of the representative. of the French Govern-
ment. He will need to be all eye, all ear, all judgmen►. To a ripe experience of the
wiles of diplomatists, and of the waywardness of human nature, he will require to add
natural coolness and self-possession, and promptitude and inflexible resolution in action_
Above all, the honour and interest of England alike require that her representative at the
Court of Naples, at this perilous crisis, should be sincerely, earnestly, immoveably
devoted to the cause of civil and religious liberty, and of national independence.
Reading this, we are inclined to make some such answer as BASSELAS
returned to IMLAC after hearing an account of the qualifications a poet
must possess :—" Enough ! enough ! thou hast convinced me that no
" man is fit to he British Minister at Naples." When the man is found,
his outfit will be an important consideration, as he will
have to provide himself with whatever is necessary to "soothe
or control " the " madness" of that " reckless being," the King of
NAPLES. He should take with him a stock of coercion-chairs,
strait waistcoats, mufflers. &c., and by all means let him be provided
with a well-padded cell, in which his Majesty may be confined when
all other means of soothing and controlling have been tried in vain.
But how if the King should with " dextrous cunning" insist that he is
not mad, and that he will not be treated as a madman—what is our
Ambassador to do then ? Is he to rival the exploits of our chivalrous
heroes of old time, and put a strait-waistcoat on him in face of his
court and guards? An expedient presents itself to our mind. A cel4
brated confectioner, in the habit of joining the hounds, near Lender,
was accustomed to show off on a hunter with splendid action. " Conj
" found the brute," said the purveyor, " I don't know what I shall do
" with him." " Ice him, my boy," said an old member of the hunt,
with a sly laugh in his eye, "ice him," To the writer in the Daily
News, who is so perplexed as to the best treatment for the King of
NAPLES—We say, " mesmerise him." Instead of looking out for a
diplomatist with impossible qualifications, secure a good " medium,"
and his Majesty will then do whatever is required of him. See the
difficulties that may otherwise arise when the Ambassador goes out
with all the resources of a private madhouse, with plenty of
keepers, and with the instructions of the Daily News in his pocket.
At the first intimation given to the King that he is
mad, and must be " treated as sich," he will probably
send the Ambassador his passports. The Courts of Paris, St.
Petersburg, and Austria, will join in a chorus of " sarve him right ; "
and the whole scheme of managing the King as a lunatic will be
defeated. No ! Mesmerism is the only plan, and we hope soon to
see an article in the Daily News advocating it, and pointing out a
proper professor—our contemporary would have no difficulty in tho
selection—for the post. There would be more rationality in such a
scheme than in sending out an ambassador instructed to treat as a
madman the Sovereign to whom he was deputed. It is no wonder
that we hear so much of the total loss of British influence abroad,
when such principles as the Daily News avows are adopted by our
Government. There is one comfort, the bubble must burst soon. It
is impossible for such monstrous nonsense long to prevail. We
submit to our " Liberals," who seem to think it necessary always to
have some foreign butt at which they may shoot, that they have
showered abuse enough on King BOMBA. Why not try a further flight
for their shafts? There are the Emperor of HAYTI and the King of
DAHOMY. White has been the mark long enough. Suppose the Daily
News and its coadjutors now change to black, if only for the sake
of variety.

The Guards' dinner on Monday, as an English dinner, was a
failure. The Committee were formed, and the subscriptions collected, for
the purpose of giving a hearty English welcome to our Guards. The
Committee did their best perhaps, and, like a great many other persons
with good intentions, failed. We will not enter into details, or attempt
to account for the cause of failure.' 111-natured people say that the
whole affair was a job, that certain Surrey garden shareholders got
the ear of the leading journal, quieted the LORD MAYOR by assurance
of success, and, gently diverting the design of the affitir from Chelsea to
Walworth, made an excellent contract, supplied a bad dinner, worked off
a large stock of champagne that would not sell, and pocketed a hand
some balance. Without going the length of these assertions, we may
venture to observe that upon such an occasion there should be no room
given for evil report. The public were asked to subscribe to give the
Guards a dinner. They did so to something like 10s a head for each
man to be dined. For half that sum a thorough good English dinner
could have been provided. And here a great mistake appears to hat c
been made. The contract was put into the hands of Frenchmen.
Now, without casting any severe aspersion upon the character of our
gAllant allies, a Frenchman is not exactly the man we should select to
/e an English dinner. In the first place, an Englishman's appetite
empasses a Frenchman's comprehension. In the next, their tastes
materially- differ. If a Frenchman likes our beef well done and cold,
he is seized with asphyxia at the mustard, and suffers incredible
range in his epigastrium after plum-pudding. Messrs. Chabot provided

t

AUGUST 30, 1856.

a capital dinner no doubt for two thousand of their own countrymen—
there was just enough dry beef to suit their tastes and digestion, there
was a bottle of beer and some doubtful pudding to make them flushed
and dyspeptic, and a glass or two of champagne to make them enthu-
siastic—but for two thousand Guardsmen, Heaven save the mark !
they could have demolished treble the quantity of beef and beer, and
yet not have suffered dyspepsia, nor experienced such pangs in the
midriff as that fruity stuff at 6d. a glass brought about. As it was,
to use the words of the men, " there warn't half enough, but the 'bacca's
"the best on it." But they bore it cheerily, forgetting their hunger
in the warmth of their reception. " Cantabit vaccus coram latrone
victor." The empty Guardsman was still merry before the con-
tractor. We all wished to give the Guards a good dinner; and,
in this land of beef, beer, and liberality, a good dinner in the old
English style they should have had. The committee, we see, congra
tulate themselves that they have a handsome balance in hand to
bestow upon a chant) ! Why, that is the very thing they ought not
to have had in hand. Rounds of beef and cold plum-pudding they
might have anticipated would have been left for charitable distribu-
tion, but not the money subscribed to be spent in a feast. Let us hope
that the provinces will take a lesson from our blunder.

In spite of cloudy and showery weather, harvest operations have
progressed favorably, and there is every prospect of a heavy crop being
gathered in excellent condition. With plenty at home and peace
abroad, and the arrival of large supplies of foreign grain, we might
expect prices to rapidly run down. Yet they are at present well main-
tained, nor, from the general advance which has taken place all over
the world, does there seem the slightest prospect that they will recede
to the low rates of five or six years back. The increased production of
gold has, so far as we are in a position to judge, raised the relative value
of other products of industry, and as the produce of the mines in Aus-
tralia is increasing in a remarkable manner, there is a strong proba-
bility that the tendency of prices will still be rather to rise than fall.
Thus far the conjecture we hazarded a year back, that the high rates
of agricultural produce might be referred to other causes than the war,
has been justified by the result.

" THE SAILOR'S TEAR."

(Which probably originated the less known ballad entitled " The Soldier's Tear.")

Upon the quays he turned
To take a last mad look
At the bloekships and the batteries
And the forts he hadn't took;
He paused to think how once
He cried " Cronstadt or— !" well,
The sailor swore and turned away,
For he heard the packet-bell.

Beside that British Salt
A Duke walked down the quays,
He wore an Admiral's snowy plume
That fluttered in the breeze ;
He uttered Russian chaff
That sailor did not hear,
But counted up the batteries
And swore and left the pier.

A DIALOGUE AT MOSCOW.

Count de MORNY (entering the apart►nent of Lord Granville).—Do I
disturb you, my dear Lord Granville ? No ? And does my cigarette
disturb you? No? Then we can have a little quarter of an hour of
chat before going to that eternal blockhead my dear friend the Master
of Ceremonies. He has already arranged my servants in nine dif-
ferent ways for the procession. To-day I have good hope he will have
discovered that they ought to stand upon their heads.
Lord GRANVI LLE.—The Emperor thinks of nothing else, I am told,
but the details of the coronation.

COUNT.-Eh? Well, he thinks of them a good deal, no doubt—
sends to his amiable wife in the middle of the night to counsel a
change in the rosettes of her carriage horses, and ties on the crown
every morning. But he thinks of some other things too, my dear
iranville.