The Press.
London, England, 1857-03-28 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

ports, and all " states of facts." They shortened,
simplified, and cheapened the whole trans-
action of business in Chancery. They were
successfully carried through both Houses with
scarcely a single amendment.
The Suitors in Chancery Relief Bill was
another great measure of Equity Reform passed
during that session. It greatly reduced the fees
of suitors by curtailing the number of officers,
by lowering the salaries of those retained, and
by placing salaries to the amount of 23,0001.,
on the Consolidated -Fund.
The Law of Wills Amendment Bill, brought
forward by Lord ST. LF.oNanns, removed those
difficulties in former acts which were found
in practice to prevent the establishment of
the legality of wills, equitably valid, and to
give rise to much unnecessary litigation. This
measure also became law.
A Patent Law Amendment Bill, for re-
ducing the expense of a patent for three
years from 100/. to 23/., had been prepared by
the preceding Government. It was taken
charge of by Lord DERBY'S law officers, and by
them placed on the statute•book. The same
may be said of another useful act—the Com-
mon Law Procedure Bill—for the permanent
establishment of officers at Nisi Prius, and
other useful regulations.
The testimony of Lord DERBY'S political
opponents was freely given to the utility of
these great measures. On the 28th of May,
1852, Lord TRURO, in his place in the House of
Lords, said :
This session was expected to be shorter than usual,
but it wou'd be more remarkable in the history of England,
in reference to the amendment of the law, than almost
any other ussion. They had had a full inquiry made into
the administration of the common law such as had not
taken place since the time of Edward 111. The most
deliberate examination had been made into matters affect-
ing the administration of justice in every department by
the most competent persons; and measures had been pre-
pared to carry into effect their recommendations.
. _

_
On the Equity Bills of Lord DERBY'S law
officers, Lord Tatum remarked :

The progress of these measures had been most expedi-
tious; it had marked an earnest desire to meet the wishes
of the country on the subject.

Lord BROUGHAM expressed his "great and
hearty gratification" at the legal measures of
the Government ; so did Lord CA3,113E1.1. ; and
even Lord CRANWORTH could not withhold his
approval.
The party of Lord DERBY is sometimes
accused of intolerance. One noticeable mea-
sure of his short administration was a bill to
relieve Dissenters from the grievance of being
compelled to registrar, under heavy penalties,
their places of worship in the ecclesiastical
courts of the dioceses in which they were
situated. This provision was entirely abo-
lished, and registration in civil courts substi-
tuted. This bill, introduced by Lord COL-
CHESTER, had the good fortune to give equal
satisfaction to the whole body of Dissenters,
awl to the Heads of the Church of England.
The Archbishop of CANTERBURY said, in ex-
pressim.., his approval :

The inconveniences of the present system were so
evident, and the remedy [provided so suitable, that not a
word need be said except to express his complete appro.
bation.

In the HOME DEPARTMENT, Mr. WALPOLE
successfully carried a Militia Bill, which, by
voluntary enlistment, provided a force of
80,000 men, at an expense of 230,0001. ner
annum. Sir DE LACY EVANS manifested Ills
patriotism by virulent opposition to this mea-
sure; he was backed by Lord JOHN RUSSELL.
It is a striking testimony to the substantial
excellence of the measure that, notwithstand-
ing this opposition, it was carried in the Com-
mons by a majority of 315 to 165.
Lord JOHN MANNERS, RS First Commissioner
of Public Works, carried two measures of great
public utility. The first. a Bill for Improving
the supply of Water to the Metropolis, and for
subjecting the Companies to Government
Control; the second, a Bill for carrying out
the principle of Extramural Interments.
Previous legislation on this subject had failed
to fulfil its purpose. Power was now given to
the Secretary of State to close burial-grounds,
and parochial officers were authorised to ob-
tai❑ new lands for interments. From this date
the practice of intramural burials rapidly
deolined. Sir B. HALL expressed his strong
sense of the usefulness of this measure :

SATURDAY,

He begged leave, as one of the metropolitan represents.
Lives, to thank the Government for having introduced this
Ili I. Nothing had given greater plea,ure to the metro.
polis, than to hear that this matter had been taken out of
the hands of the Hoard of Health.
The Coutoit. Goverfigiatit of Earl GREY had
been a series of broils, in which the Home
Authorities had been equal:y intemperate and
unfortunate. When Sir Joint PAKINOTON took
the seas of that department, his inexperience
was derided by censors! nut Acquainted with
his, practical nbilitidi. Alit• three months'
ridicule teased, and political adversaries
frankly exprea-ed that they had been mistaken
in his powers. He carried a bill of eighty
clauses, conferring a constitution on the colony
of New Zealand ; and when the gold disco-
veries in Australia occasioned great ferment
in that country, and the question of the right
of the Crown to all geld mines seemed likely
to:cause great embarrassment, Sir JOHN, by his
Hereditary Casual Revenues Bill, quietly set-
find the q ties tion, and gave complete satisfaction
to the colonies. His despatches for regulating
the government of Victoria during that hazar-
dous period when a great part of the refuse
and desperate population of the globe poured
into the colony, show that he was possessed of
first-rate administrative powers.
During the period that Mr. DISRAELI held
office as Chancellor of the Exchequer, the net
expenditure was between fifty-one and fifty-two
millions. Under the management of Lord PAL-
MERSTON'S Chancellor of the Exchequer it will be
about sixty millions. It was Mr. DISRAELI who
proposed that gradual reduction of the tea
duties which was adopted by succeeding
financiers ; and lie attempted to establish a
difference between the rating to the income
tax of realised property and precarious income
—an object which Radical politicians profess
to have at heart, but have never made any
practical effort to carry out. It was Mr. Dts•
RAELI who carried the St. Alban's Disfran-
chisement Bill ; lie proposed to allot the four
seats vacant by that measure, and by the
disfranchisement of Sudbury, equally between
great borough and great county populations,
but had not the opportunity to do so. Not a
single step has since been taken in this im-
portant matter. It was Mr. DISRAELI also
who quietly instituted a Commission—Lord
CHANDOS being one of the Commissioners—to
forward the work- of Administrative Reform
before the public mind had been directed to
the subject.
The Government of IRELAND was assigned to
the Earl of &MINTON. He was practical in
his measures, princely in his conduct, and
popular in his Court. His frankness won
respect where the intrigues of Lord CLAREN-
DON had excited distrust, and "the Castle" was
freed from a worthless race of subordinates
whose names have received odious commemo-
ration in the courts of law. Mr. BLACKBURN,
Mr. NAPIER, and Mr. WHITESIDE filled the
higher legal posts. They succeeded to officials
who have since been passed over by those who
originally promoted the m•
The Foreign office under Lord MALMES-
BURY'S rule had many delicate negotiations to
conduct. In February, 1852, we were at
daggers drawn with Austria concerning the
refugees who had chimed the protection of
our• soil. To the demand for their extradition
or banishment, Lord NIALMESBURY had but
one answer to give. The demand could not
be listened to. He firmly maintained their
right to protection, yet at the same time re-
stored our cordial relations with Austria.
Lord MALMESBURY found Switzerland about to
be invaded by the French President, also on
the question of refugees He accepted the
good offices of England, who settled the
matter to the satisfaction of both parties.
The good relations of Lord Derby's Cabinet
with Russia and Austria , enabled it to protect
Switzerland against the King of Prussia's
claims on Neufchatel, by inducing those
Powers to join England and France in a pro-
tocol, by which it was agreed that the Treaty
of 1815 should be recognised, but on the un-
derstanding that the altered state of affairs
should be examined with a view to a resettle-
ment. The succeeding Governments left this
protocol on the shelf, and the present compli-
cation was the result of their neglect to carry
out the settlement Lord MiLlIZOBIIII! had
initiated.

MARCH 28,1857.

Herat was taken by Persia, but evacuated
through the remonstrances of our Minister,
Colonel SHELL, without the necessity of any
hostile demonstration. The Treaty of the
great Powers guaranteeing the independence
of Greece was altered by making it obligatory
for the future Sovereigns to profess the same
religion as their subjects, thus placing the
Treaty in accordance with the Constitution.
The great rivers of South America, the
Panama and Paraguay, were opened to Euro-
pean commerce by a special mission under Sir
CHARLES HoTtrAm, who concluded a convention
with the riverain States. This was done at
the suggestion of England and in unison with
France.
Lord DERBY'S Government came into office
three months after the coup •d'etat in Paris. It
was .evident that the President would make
himself Emperor. The great Powers foresaw
that they would be obliged to recognise him
in the face of the Vienna treaties, which bound
them to oppose the dynasty of Bonaparte.
They urged England to wait until Russia and
Austria should make the recognition simul-
taneously with us, but Lord DERBY'S Govern-
ment thought it more becoming to take an in•
dependent course on that occasion. Their
recognition was frankly made three weeks
before that of the other Powers, and this was
really the bolt which clenched our alliance
with France. In the face of this fact it re-
quired no little hardihood for the Post of the
20th inst. to assert that the accession of Lord
DERBY to power would endanger the French
alliance, and place England at the mercy of
"a pitiful, feeble, halting" foreign policy.
During the negotiations with France which
preceded the recognition of the Empire, Lord
DERBY'S Cabinet obtained a distinct declara-
tion from the French Government that the
assumed titletof Napoleon lll.was an historical
fact, and that the new Emperor acknowledged
all the rulers of France since 1814 and their
public acts. Yet at that time Lord DERBY'S
Government was accused by the Times, the
Peelite Chronicle, and the Radical papers with
truckling to NAPOLEON and the despotic Powers.
No term of abuse was too strong for the Em-
peror and " his tool," Lord MALMESBURY.
We have already stated the results of this
policy. When Lord MALMESBURY quitted the
Foreign•ofpice, there was not a State in the
world with which England was not on terms
of amity.
It will not do to ascribe the success of Lord
DERBY'S Administration in so many different
departments to chance. If his colleagues
were the feeble persons the Nlinisterialists
malignantly represent, the Noble Earl himself
must have possessed extraordinary adminis-
trative powers to have guided them so success-
fully. But the fair conclusion is, that the
various offices of Government must have been
filled by competent men ; and that the success
of the Administration was owing to the union
which prevailed in the Cabinet, and to the
wise resolve of the Ministers to devote their•
energies to the prosecution of practical and
salutary measures.