The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-19 00:00:00

1228

THE WEEK.

TH ERE are strong' symptoms that the " Palmerston fit" is rapidly
leaving the public. Returns from the recent elections show that a
healthier action is taking place in opinion, and that the temporary
delusion about Lord PALMERSTON being the " man for the time'' is
beginning to subside. A year has not yet passed since the last gene-
ral election, when so many independent Members of Parliament were
sacrificed to the Chinese imbroglio. Since then Mr. CARDWELL has
been returned for Oxford, Mr. BRIGHT for Birmingham, Mr. W. J. Fox
for Oldham, and Mr. MILKER GIBSON has been triumphantly elected
for Ashton. It is to be noted, also, that Mr. CARDWELL was returned
without a personal canvass, and that Mr. BRIGHT was chosen without
opposition. Yet the Liberals clamoured against these gentlemen, and
subsequently acquiesced in their return. This tossing to and fro is
not creditable to the constancy of character in Liberalism. We are
glad to see gentlemen of talent and independence again returned to
Parliament, even though we cannot concur in their principles ; but it
would have been far better for the character of " Liberalism" if it had
never excluded them. A cry went forth from the Treasury, and it was
resolved to victimise all independent Liberals ; it succeeded for a time,
and the Liberal party was left with official chiefs, and a numerous fol-
lowing of undistinguished members. Neither Sir JOHN POTTER nor
Mr. ASPINA LL TURNER, the new Members for Manchester, have
as yet given any proofs of their competency to fill the seats
for Manchester from which Messrs. BRIGHT and GIBSON were ejected.
As yet none of the new supporters introduced at the last election
under the auspices of the Treasury have shown signs of Parliamentary
distinction. Mr. MILNER GIBSON is a gentleman of much knowledge,
and bis capacity for statement of his opinions has secured him " the
ear "of the House. He is not a place-hunter, and it cannot be said
that he is " a tribune," as many of his opinions run counter to the
coarse prejudices of popular classes in the country. He is a rich
Radical, with ready talent in discussion and great experience, and he
is certainly a most formidable opponent to the clique known as " the
servile Whigs." It is rather strange that the Radical party, which has
numbered so many reputations in modern Liberalism, should have
obtained such little official power. The Whigs still insist on retain-
ing the Cabinet exclusively for themselves, and that particular branch
of "Administrative Reform" is one peculiarly in the lino of Mr.
MILNER Grimm The subject is one of wide importance, and it could
be effectively treated only by a leader of the Radical party.

The frequency of Cabinet Councils within the last week has
excited very general attention, but there is one omission connected
with the official report of all these Cabinet Councils held under the
Administration of Lord PALMERSTON which must strike every observer.
No mention is ever made of the period of time which elapsed from the
meeting to the breaking up of each Council. This departure from
established custom is somewhat remarkable.

The Indian Reformers have hitherto not been very happy
in their efforts. They meet not to discuss the great question
of the future government of India, but to propose some crude
scheme or some hasty crotchet of their own, and tie it up with
an extension of the suffrage or the six points of the Charter.
This is not the way to arrive at any definite or satisfactory
conclusion. Do Mr ROEBUCK and his friends, when they pro-
pose to make Indian reorganisation dependent upon Parliamentary
Reform, really believe that these two great questions have a necessary
connection? It is altogether a contemptible effort to excite a reform
agitation through sepoy atrocity and Indian misrule. What the people
of this country want at this moment is information upon the point of
" responsibility "—who is responsible for the present state of India?
That is the question the country wants answered ; and we think Mr.
COLLETT, at St. Martin's-hall the other night, when he drew the
distinction between acts of policy and acts of Administration, hit the
blot. There is a separate responsibility attached to each. The civil
administration of the East India Company has been bad enough ; but
what more particularly concerns us at present is that system of policy
pursued in India which by its aggressive wars and ruthless annexa-
tions has brought upon us this inevitable crisis. If the Indian Re-
formers would devote themselves to the exposition of this point, the
public would derive some benefit from their meetings.

The Supplementary Report on the subject of the Purchase of
Commissions sent in by.certain officers who dissent from the Report-
given in by their colleagues some months ago is deserving of con
aid erable attention. The present document points out the extreme
difficulty of finding any efficient substitute for the purchase system—
the fact that promotion by merit is quite compatible with the
maintenance of that system—that so far from being opposed
to the sentiment of the time, the Indian army has been obliged to
adopt it under ;1.1101.111cY 118111 C—while the py:letiee is already creeping
intocontinentalarinies. They draw attention to the difference in the case
of the navy, in which officers are periodically paid ofl•, and dwell much on

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 19, 1857.

the hardship that would be undergone by a regimental officer who, after a
long period of irksome colonial service, should see some officer on the
staff selected for promotion over their heads. A still more important
point touched upon is the difference between men and officers in
England compared with the difference in other countries. Here, as
we do not profess to exercise the same rigidity of discipline, respect
must be maintained by the existence of social and traditionary
relations between the two classes—a basis of order, we need not add,
of a much more satisfactory character than one depending on mere
military rank. These are some of the principal reasons on which Com -
missioners ELLICE, WYNYARD, and BENTINCK ground their dissent
from their colleagues. We are inclined, on the whole, to take the
same view; and we hope their suggestions may be listened to.

It is often extremely difficult to give the exact authority on which
statements resting on the most solid foundation have been made. If
the real facts be disputed, it is not so easy to apportion to each wit-
ness his exact amount of responsibility. It is obvious, even from the
letter of Mr. ANDERSON, that thero were abundant grounds for Lord
DERBY'S believing that he was fully justified in his original
assertion about the communication between Government and the
Oriental Steam Navigation Company. The main point, after all, is,
was any communication made by the Board of Control
after the arrangements in question had been concluded?
Lord GRANVILLE, when on behalf of Mr. VERNON Spurn he denied the
authenticity of the statement made by Lord DERBY, did so upon the
ground that no written communication of the sort was ever made by
the President of the Board of Control, or received by the Chairman
of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Company. But what do we
find ? Though no " written communication" was made, a verbal
communication actually took place; and after all the arrangements for
the transport of the troops had been concluded with the Government
through the East India Board, a special messenger positively came
down from the President of the Board of Control to inquire whether
such an arrangement could be entertained ! In such a case as this,
the details do not affect the fact. Whether Mr. VERNON SMITH used.
black wax or red, or sent a letter, or a boy to carry the message, does
not relieve hint of the charge of hiving made the inquiry ; and, in
point of fact, it is no matter whether the communication was written
or verbal, so long as the communication was made. Lord GRANVILLE
is an amiable man, and anxious to do his best for the defence of hi
colleagues, but in what a position does he now stand? In his anxiety
to conceal the shortcomings of Mr. VERNON SMITH, he has relied on
the technical meaning of a word, and has emphatically denied, under
one term, the occurrence of a circumstance which took place under
another. It is impossible to regard without pity the indiscretion
which induced him to accept such an obvious subterfuge for emphatic
disproof. It is clear that Lord DERBY was substantially right in his
statement, and we observe that independent journals which have
commented upon the circumstances remain of that opinion.

The question of Penal Servitude versus Transportation has been
mooted again during the present week. The two great evils of
an extensive prison system have both received somo illustration. The
inferiority of prison discipline as a means of reformation on the ono
hand, and the invidious contrast presented by its gastronomic
advantages on the other, have been exemplified by the result of the
torture-belt at Dartmoor, and the comparative tables of prison and
workhouse diet published in a morning contemporary. Those violent
and rugged natures whom our artificial civilisation has driven into
crime can only be exasperated by the endurance of penal servitude;
and that punishment can only be rendered effective by a system
of severity alien to English habits of thought, and injurious to tho
national character. While, on the other hand, criminals of this de-
scription require but the freer atmosphere of a colonial settlement,
and the outlet thereby afforded to their superabundant energies, to
become honest men and useful pioneers of progress. The irritating
and demoralising spectacle of " pampered prisoners " is another
powerful argument against any home substitute for transportation.
And we most sincerely trust that no true friends of social amelioration
will permit this matter to drop. Our colonial facilities should be
taxed to the uttermost before we give up the attempt to
establish fresh penal settlements. Next to education this is the most
important domestic difficulty. Education will improve the soil, but
the law must weed the crop ; and our care should be to deport what
is worthless or mischievous here to countries where it may become
useful and profitable.

The great commercial epidemic which burst out in America, and
appeared soon after in London, is rapidly extending throughout the
whole commercial system of Europe. From New York to London,
from London to Hamburg, and from Hamburg to Sweden, and houses
up the Baltic and through Germany. it is now raging with extra-
ordinary vigour. It has seized Berlin, and it threatens St. Peters•
burg, and, like another epidemic, may only terminate by losing itself
for the time in the Siberian Steppes. In each great commercial city
we see tho State called in to give aid to the sinking houses. Without
State assistance scarcely a house could hare stood in any of the com-
mercial capitals. In Hamburg, Stockholm, Berlin, Vienna, and
London, State aid, or State interference, has been called for and given.
In Hamburg a " Commission of Confidence " has been formed to dis-
tribute the ten millions granted by the Government. A " Commission
of Confidence " ! What a comment on that mercantile system which
was the boast of Europe and the world. The whole commercial system