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

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LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 9,1858. STAMPED ....SIXPENCF.
UNSTAMPED..FIVEPENCE

No. 245.—V0L.V1.

Vrtss.

and all of them arc provided for at the public
expense ; and such a distribution of patronage
takes place under a Government which was
compelled by public opinion, acting through
the House of Commons, to confer rewards
(that had been previously refused them) on
Sir JOHN WNEILL and Colonel Ter.Lant. The
appointment of Lord MULORAVE appears more
glaring, when we recollect that Lord PALMERS-
TON was so miserably niggardly in his treat-
ment of the illustrious hero now mourned by
the country. A pension of one thousand a
year for one life, and that life aged sixty-four,
was the pecuniary reward recommended by "our
modern Chatham " to the glorious HsvELocir.
The House of Commons, with more gene-
rosity and public spirit, interposed, and the
hero's son will now obtain the tension.
And then comes tire scandalous appoint-
ment of Lord CLANRICARDE. There are nume-
rous facts connected with the career of that
Noble Lord on which we cannot comment.
We are entirely opposed to the introduction
of private scandals into political discussion,
but really this nomination of Lord CLANRI-
CARDE is far "too bad" taken by itself, besides
being most dangerous as a precedent. Our
readers cannot forget an extraordinary article
that once appeared against the Noble Marquis
in the Times. We do not tax Lord CLANRI-
CARDE with all of the conduct laid to his
charge in the abominable Handcock case, but
we do say that the public man who took no
notice in any shape of the article in the Times,
who made no explanation in the House of
Peers, and who had no recourse to any of the
various means open to him for the vindication
of his character—we say, openly, that such a
man is not fit to sit as a Cabinet Minister.
After charging the Noble Marquis with certain
acts that wo shall not here repeat, the Times
concluded thus:—
Let Lord Clanricarde explain these things, and it will
be well. Let him leave them unexplained, and we think
he will do wisely to abstain from again taking his seat
among the assembled peers of England.
But Lord CLANRICARDE, whose audacity can-
not be denied, took not the least notice of such
charges. If they wore true, his character was
tainted, and if they were false, it showed
want of self-respect and of true personal spirit
(not to be confounded with the recklessness
of empty bravado) to allow the propounders
of such charges to circulate them with impu-
nity. We believe that the example of this
fatal appointment will be of the most perni-
cious kind if it still be persisted in.
But, from certain symptoms of public opi-
nion, we think that this last nomination of
the Premier may he more fatal to the conti-
nuance of his own power. A variety of recent
circumstances show that the Premier is losing
his old shrewdness. Intoxicated with past
successes, the Noble Viscount fancies that he
can do just as he likes. Lord PALMERSTON is
mistaken. Far greater men and more illus-
trious statesmen have been obliged to cancel
appointments which had too strong a flavour.
The Premier may plume himself on being
able to tell Lord JOHN RUSSELL and Mr. GLAD-
STONE that " he did not care what they
" thought," but, with all his " assurance," even
Lord PALMERSTON would not venture to say so
much to the moral opinion of all England.
And this is the Premier who is to reform
our Parliamentary system, and to give India a
new code of Government !
The Court of Queen VICTORIA stands illustrious
amongst the nations for its speckless honour

and purity untainted by the breath of calumnYr;
JOHN SADLEIR was turned out of the Lordshis
of the Treasury for his false arrest of a voter
at the Carlow election ; and after all the
" exposures" in which Lord CLANRICARDE has
figured, and 'after his shrinking from taking
up the gauntlet of the Times, is such a man fit
to appear before the Queen as one of the
trusty Counsellors of her Cabinet?

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1858.

THERE never was a period when it was more
necessary than now that Conservatives through-
ov4o) the country should concentrate their
stivngth with energy. The new year is
liZely to witness great changes in the admi-
nistration of Party. The spell of Lord PAL-
MERSTON is beginning to wear out, and the
outrage on public opinion of having appointed
Lord CLANRICARDE a Cabinet Minister has
made even the partisans of the Cabinet admit
that Lord PALMERSTON has gone too far at last.
People see that favouritism, jobbery, and ex-
travagance in the public expenditure are car-
ried to excessive lengths; and the profuseness
of the means by which the Minister has con-
trived to gather his dependants is at last
arousing attention to the extraordinary me-
thods taken for keeping the Cabinet in power.
The return recently issued authenticates the
fact of an enormous increase having taken
place in the Civil expenditure. From 1852 up
to the present time there has been a constant
advance. Taking 1852 as a starting point,
there was, up to 1856, an increase under the
head of " Public Works" of 270,769. Under
" Salaries " the increase has been positively
enormous, amounting to not loss than 485,243/. ;
under "Law and Justice" the increase is
962,709/., and under " Education" 408,181/. ;
under Class 7 (" special or temporary") the
increase is 225,4711., a vast augmentation for
such a class ; under " Superaunuations " the
increase is 13,176/. The total increase under
the head of " Civil Services " has been
2,305,5491. ; but against this has to be placed
decrease under the colonial head of 49,0431.
—making the exact net increase amount to
2,316,5061. And we have a party in office who
boast emphatically of being " economists."
The Premier must recollect who it was that
taunted the Wellington Ministry in 1830 with
" canvassing for political support by extrava-
" gance in official patronage."
The official jobbery of the party now in office
!s still worse. The Phipps family is a case
in point. The Marquis of NORMANBY is our
Minister of Florence ; his brother, Colonel
PHIPPS, is a C. 8., Keeper of her Majesty's
Privy Purse, and Treasurer of the Household
to the Prince Consort; the Gallant Officer's
son is Page of Honour• to her Majesty, by which
he will obtain a commission in the Guards,
and the Colonel's son in-law (Captain SAYER)
is Deputy-Assistant-Quartermaster-General at
the Horse Guards. Another brother of Lord
NORMANBY (Hon. E. PHIPPS) is Commissioner
of Encumbered Estates in the West Indies;
and the youngest brother of all (Hon. and Rev.
A. Peipps) is Chaplain in Ordinary to the
Queen. As if all these good things were not
enough for one family, Lord PALMERSTON
appoints the young Earl of MULORAVE to be
Governor-General of Nova Scotia! Here we
have one family loaded with Court and official
patronage. The Phippses may boast that each

CONSIDERATIONS ON REFORM.
WE cannot concur with the Times of T hurs-
day, that "all discussion as to the details of
" the now Reform Bill is premature." It is
admitted that Sir ROBERT PEEL and some of
the Conservative leaders erred in 1830, in
leaving the Whigs to organise their scheme
silently, while the Conservative party was not
prepared with any definite views on how far
change might safely be introduced. Tha t
fault cannot be committed again. Conserva-
tives have now the experience of the last
twenty-five years to guide them, and they are
acquainted with the bearings of the question.
The injustice done to the representation of
the landed interest, and to the Conservative
body generally, under the existing system, is
understood, and it is not likely that any
violent aggression upon existing Conserva-
tive power would be allowed to pass the Legis-
lature, but still it is absolutely necessary on this
question to be forewarned and forearmed. We
have no confidence in the present Govern-
ment, and it is impossible to say what danger
would be incurred if we were to wait in apathy
until the new scheme was propounded, and
then suddenly enter upon its discussion, when
the publie mind had not been enlightened by
previous discussion.
At the close of the article in the Times de-
precating discussion on Reform it is said,
" With a further extension of the county
" suffrage, aided by the watchfulness of party,
" intimidation will be pretty well extinct.'
This language is open to variety of construc-
tion, and it may mean this, that by increasing
the county voters, and lowering the franchise,
it will be possible to obtaiir,as marked an
ascendancy for Liberalism in the counties as
now exists in the towns and boroughs. We
must ask, on the part of the Conservative
body, whether it is intended that any equiva-
lent will be given in that case for the increased
Liberal power in the counties ? There is
danger that the Ministry may propound an
unfair measure, which, though not aiming at.
revolutionary projects, would undermine
the Conservative interest. Such a measure
would be greedily adopted by the followers of
Mr. BERKELEY for ulterior purposes. They
would use it as a for
another and more
Constitution would be
all power would be gi,
and England would
cendancy which would
which would inevitably
to shake it off.
country would be
having a satisfactory
cannot be too strongly
public mind that all
should be taken that
should he of a kind
safely accept as a

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