The Press.
London, England, 1858-01-09 00:00:00

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THE PRESS, JANUAR! 9, 1858.

having destroyed the city and driven out the rebels, and established
his communications with Cawnpore, to have returned personally to
Cawnpore, and, at the head of that garrison, then reinforced by arrival
of successive detachments from Calcutta, to have secured his base of
operations by the defeat of the Gwalior rebels. Able in design, the plan
only wanted the one element—sufficient force—to insure its brilliant and
successful execution. But mark the result of that bane of all our opera-
tions since the revolt broke out—insufficient force. Sir Court, barely
able to achieve the relief of Lucknow, is wholly unable to maintain
his position there. His men, overworked, require at least a week or
ten days' rest The city of Lucknow, cleared of rebels for one day,
swarms with them the next. The position of Sir Cow( threatens to
become critical. He cannot leave his army to carry out his plans and
effect a surprise of the Gwalior rebels, who in these fatally inactive
days advance upon Cawnpore, encounter 2,000 British troops, and
defeat them. Upon this Sir Court, in just fear for his base, is com-
pelled not to return to Cawnpore, but to retreat hither with his whole,
army, and evacuate a position won at the cost of so much life and so much
blood. What effect this will have upon the native mind it is not
difficult to conceive ; and though it is easy to attribute it to " the for-
tune of war," we apprehend the good sense of the country, when it thus
perceives the hard-bought victories of our soldiers so cruelly neutral-
ised, and their bravest efforts of no avail, will demand by whose igno-
rance and incapacity such inadequate forces are only at the disposal
of our generals.

In another part of our impression of to-day will be found remarks
on the abuse of the public patronage. In connection with the nomi-
nation of the Marquis of CLaNarcaanz to the Cabinet there is a special
point that demands notice. Before it was known that the 'late JOHN
SADLEIR was engaged in forgery, a trial in the Court of Exchequer in
Ireland disclosed the fact that SADLEIR had been mixed up in an elec-
tioneering scandal relative to the arrest of a voter at Carlow, in order
to prevent the exercise of his suffrage at a closely-contested election.
Lord ABERDEEN insisted that SADLEIR should at once resign his con-
nection with the Ministry on account of the circumstance to which wo
have alluded. But nothing was said on that occasion against SADLEIR
which at all approached the gravity of the charges made by the Times
against Lord CLANRICARDE, as well as the damaging insinuations
against the Noble Marquis which came from the lips of the then Soli-
citor-General for Ireland (now Mr. Justice KEOGH), while pleading in
the Handcock case before the Lord-Chancellor of Ireland. Mr.
KEOGH'S invective against the Noble Lord was received with vehement
cheers from a crowded court, some of the applause being given
to the rhetorical powers of the speaker, and the rest being
an effusion of anti-Clanricarde feeling. Let the charges made against
SADLEIR in Dowurr's case, with respect to the collusive arrest, be
compared with those of Lord I_,LANRICARDE in the Handcock case, and
it will be seen that the accusation against the Peer far exceeded that
against the ex-Lord of the Treasury. It may be said that Lord CLAN*
RIOARDE has denied the truth of the charges in the Times, but SADLEIR
also positively denied that he had been privy to the intentional arrest
in the Carlow case. And if Lord CLANRIOARDE has denied these charges,
we are entitled to ask where, when, and how did the Noble Marquis
vindicate his honour? Was it in the public press? We saw no refu-
tation of the statements made against him. Was it in the courts of
law? It was before legal tribunals that the Noble Lord was most
gravely compromised. Was it in the House of Lords ? We never
heard of the Noble Marquis having, as is the custom in such cases,
made any explanation to the Peers of the realm. Considerations like
these we have now suggested will make it absolutely impossible that
Parliament could ever consent to give confidence and support to a
Cabinet which has so violated all proper routine, and has so outraged
public feeling, by making an appointment which if persevered in will
I be a positive calamity to the public service.

The inauguration of Church Services for the Working Classes
took place on Sunday last. We cannot but hail with peculiar satisfac-
tion so promising a symptom of Church revival. We accept it as a
token that the views so steadily put forward by this Journal for the
last eighteen months have fallen upon minds predisposed to their
reception, and that the great body of sound Churchmen in this country
are willing to make an effort at that unity of action we have so greatly
desiderated. We are unfeignedly glad to perceive the association of
opposite parties in this good work. As soon as High Churchmen and
Low Churchmen shall make up their minds that the good of the
Church herself is to be preferred to the apotheosis of their own pecu-
liar tenets, we may look with less anxiety on the designs of her ene-
mies both within and without her pale. Thus much of the clergy them-
selves. To their congregations we can do no more than repeat what
has already been !pointed out by the daily press. It is clear that if
these services are to achieve the end proposed, it must be by making
them available to that class for whose sake they were
instituted. It is no good to have an evening service in West-
minster Abbey nominally for the poor, who can benefit
by the excellence of our Liturgy at no other time, but really for
their wealthier fellow•creatures, whose morbid piety delights in
abnormal devotion. If ,the attempt is to succeed, we must at once
enforce a recognition of the fact that these services are no more for
the rich than ragged schools are for the children of the rich. We must
assuredly get rid of anything approaching to an histrionic element in
their celebration. The crowding, fighting, and swearing outside the
doors are but a sorry preparation for the spiritual instruction within;
and as the coarser will overcome the finer tendency, so we may be