The Press.
London, England, 1857-01-17 00:00:00

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BRUSSELS, January 14.
THE remarks of Sir Robert Peel on the different
occurrences in his official visit to Moscow are not
less an outrage to common sense than to good
breeding. They are palpably unjust, abound in im-
proprieties, and are not warrantable in matter or
style. An offensive personality pervades the speech,
and the discourtesy towards the Empress of Russia,
the Prince de Ligne, M. de ,horny, and other per-
sonages displeasing to the caprice of Sir Robert
Peel, is wholly without justification. The Junior
Lord of the Admiralty might have remembered
that the size of a country is not always commensurate
with its importance. Commerce and industry, to
which he is indebted for his actual position, under
free institutions and a fortunate locality, may elevate
a prudent and painstaking people in the scale of
nations to a rank far beyond the relative extent of
territory. Besides, the dictum that Belgium was the
smallest kingdom in Europe is incorrect. Sir
Robert Peel's topographical knowledge is not sound.
The representative of Belgium at the coronation of
the Emperor of Russia was the Prince de Ligne. A
careless education, of which a fatal "facility of
language " aids the detection, may have caused this
prurient censor to overlook or forget the memoirs of
the celebrated favourite at the Court of the Empress
Catherine 11. Apart from other considerations, the
Prince de Ligne represented an historic name con-
nected with one of the most glorious reigns in Rus-
sian history. He was selected and worthily chosen
on account of an hereditary title which is not
depreciated in his person. This prestige is ap-
parently of no account to Sir Robert Peel, and he
stands out in unhappy contrast to the Belgian
noble. A " novus homo " should refrain from
abusing a patrician for an advantage to which he
cannot lay claim ; above all, he should not injure by
folly and impertinence the basis of his •' locus
standi," and thus cast discredit on his own name
which in a past sense is associated with honour and
reverence. The Prince de Ligne is the President of
the Belgian Senate. Unlike others of the Belgian
nobles, he accepted faithfully the Constitution of
1830 ; he takes his part in the political affairs of the
day, and, by his services in the Senate and in the
province where he has an immediate interest, he
performs actively and honourably his duties to his
King and to his country. To such a person does
not belong the misnomer of "insignificant." He
does not revile his neighbour; he did not abuse the
official confidence placed in him ; he does not mis-
apply or waste his vast substance unworthily;
neither does he disparage the high nomenclature he
has inherited. There is no deeper mortification
than to experience the blushing shame kindled by
the unjust trespass of a countryman against an un-
offending foreigner. Upon the ungentle notice of
the Empress of Russia, and the censure of others,
conveyed in slang terms and unlicensed language, it
is not necessary to dwell. The public press of Eng-
land has well performed its duty on the occasion ;
and by that honest course has deprived the insane
insults of any mischievous tendency. It has fitted
the ornament of something more than " insignifi•
cance " upon the head that is suited to it. That
press will always reprobate, justly and severely, a
wanton employment of the coarse invective that too
often sullies the diction of a plebeian intemperance.
Sir Robert Peel accepted a public mission of com-
pliment and courtesy. It was faithless to betray the
trust with wilful insuavity.
The murder of the Archbishop of Paris having
been committed by a priest bas placed the Ultra-
montanes in a sore dilemma. Verges, although sus-
pended from officiating, still belongs to the Roman
priesthood, and has no right to abandon his ecclesi-
astical habiliments. Several suggestions have been
privately made in order to prevent his appearance at
the criminal bar in a sacerdotal character; but
these attempts to avoid the obloquy that must attach
to the insufficiency of priestly education to purify

JANUARY 17, 1857.

the very stewards of its faith, will only add to the
injury that may accrue to the clerical office by the
commission of this foul act. The Roman priest is
accessible to evil passion in common with others.
He is not exempt from the failings of humanity,
although the infallibility of the tonsure is impressed
upon feeble minds to increase spiritual power and
tyranny. At the same time it must be deplored
by all religionists that the course of jastice should
have to deal inexorably with one whose profession of
sanctity it is impolitic to dishonour. Verges, from
his earliest youth, was educated for the priest-
Lold, and has never received other tuition than from
the fathers of the Roman Church. His application
to theological studies was great ; he was said to
adopt. rather a severe than an enlarged system of
morality ; was exclusive and exaggerated on points
of doctrine ; until his mind was at last shaken by
recent acts of superstition impossible of acceptance ;
and a result of this infallible education of Romanism
will be shortly tried before the tribunal of crime.
The mission of Mn. Barinann and Veon pro
raises to have a favourable termination. A doubt,
however, is expressed on the engagement taken by
France and England for the King of Prussia being
in strict conformity to the wishes of that Sovereign.
There is no hesitation on the part of the Federal
Council in the acceptance of the following terms
that have been arranged at Paris :-
1. No stipulation shall he made agreed to that shall
be contrary to the complete independence of Neufchatel.
2. All the parties concerned in the late insurrection
( tens les provenus) shall leave Switzerland until the affairs
in dispute are definitively settled.
3. The military preparations of Prussia are to be sus•
pended, the Federal Assembly declining to deliberate
under the seeming pressure of military menace.
4. When the royalist prisoners are liberated, no hostile
step shall afterwards be taken by Prussia.
5. England and France to consent to be direct me•
diatom.

On these terms being made known, the Band, the
official journal of the Swiss Government, published
a lengthened article, headed " Une Paix Honorable
et Assnree." The conditions have been already
accepted by the Federal Council, and the General
Assembly is convoked for this day, the 14th, to re-
ceive and take them into consideration. It is said,
and with a certain show of reason, that the King of
Prussia desired that the liberation of the prisoners
should be unconditional, and demurred to their
obligation to quit Switzerland under a seeming ban
of disgrace. On the other hand, the abandonment
of trial and immediate liberation of the royalists
ought to be construed as a concession of principle in
favour of the King of Prussia, and their temporary
removal from the scene of conflict to be merely an
act of precaution. The above arrangement being a
modification of the acts of the Congress of Vienna,
touching the rights of the King of Prussia and
Switzerland, will require a conferential settlement by
England, France, Russia, Austria, Prussia, and
Switzerland. By letters of the 10th from Berlin,
there would still seem to he a determination to con-
tinue military preparati .n until the actual release of
the prisoners shall have been officially notified to
the Prussian Court. Neither are the Swiss less ac-
tive in tbeir defensive operations. General Dufour
has left for the head quarters at Zurich.

The speech of the King of Piedmont on the open-
mg of the Chambers at Turin was received with loud
acclamations. After expatiating on the firm alliance
with England and France, and on the glad return of
friendly relations with Russia, the King congratulated
the Chambers on the attitude of Italy at the Paris
Conferences, where an example was given—the first
on record—and a precedent was afforded, of an
Italian power defending Italian interests at a Euro.
pean congress. This observation was received with
immense cheering. It is highly satisfactory to state
that the Royalist party in the Chambers has sensibly
augmented. M. Carlo Cadorna, a Royalist, has been
elected President of the Chambers. He obtained
70 votes out of 119 ; M. Gavagno. 28 ; M. Depretis,
15; M. Pareto, :1; M. Batta, 1 ; M. Dariani, 1. The
votes of M. Gavagno may be added to those of M.
Cadorna in the support of the Ministry ; and the
Austro-Papal Opposition is confined to the parties of
Depretis and M. Pareto, numbering only
eighteen. C. A. H.