The Press.
London, England, 1857-06-13 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 1857.

between pence and disturbances. At Dublin,
with its fermenting population, great diffi-
culties might occur if her Majesty's troops
were left to the command of the Lord Mayor
of that city. He might be a great agitator,
like Mr. O'CONNELL, or a man of still less
loyalty and far more audacity. What the
Duke of WELLINGTON said on this point should
never be forgotten by the advisers of the
Crown.

In a political point of view the scheme can
be looked upon only as a fresh attempt at
more centralisation. Even in that respect
the measure would fail. A new political
organisation would be founded at Dublin on
the ruins of the Viceroyalty. A large ingress
of Irish politicians certainly might he looked for
in London, and feelings similar to those so
harshly excited by WILKES and CHURCHILL
against the Scotch would, possibly, be raised
against a new, noisy, and exasperated settle-
ment of those whom Lord JOHN RUSSELL in
his peculiar style called " Irish immigrants."
We deprecate all such unsocial feelings ; but
we believe that the extinction of the Lord
Lieutenancy would be the prelude to a new
series of feuds. It is far more fitting that the
agitators should surround Dublin Castle than
that they should besiege Downing street
Upon this latter point the late Lord MEL-
BOURNE, who had been Chief Secretary in
Ireland, once gave the House of Lords some
shrewd and sensible advice which is not yet
forgotten.
The propertied and professional classes in
Dublin, and generally throughout Ireland, are
strongly opposed to the abolition of the Vice-
royalty. The patronage and personal influence
now wielded by her Majesty's representative
would be transferred to the Irish Members of
Parliament. That body, we are happy to
record, has greatly improved in tone, rank, and
dignity of late years; but we say it without
offence that many of the Protestant and Roman
Catholic gentry of Ireland do not place confi-
dence in some of the Irish Members of Parlia-
ment. Both Protestant and Roman Catholic
gentlemen seeking to serve the Crown, or with
just claims to its notice, would feel far more
confidence in a local and dignified Executive,
with a Court at Dublin, than if they were com-
pelled to solicit the interference of political
" persons " accidentally in Parliament, and
without just social pretensions to that rank.
The aggression of Cardinal WISEMAN in
1850, the subsequent proceedings of agitators
in Ireland, and other transactions on which
we shall not dwell, combined with external
considerations (not here to be discussed), have
seriously changed the complexion of this
scheme since last it was crudely brought for-
ward. It is erroneous to assert that the two
great sections of the Irish population are now
assimilated into one. They aro still divided
and antagonistic. We may regret that such
should be the case, but we cannot deny it ;
and while, as Lord LIVERPOOL phrased it,
" there are two Irelands shut up in one island,"
it will be of the highest importance that oral
communication on the spot should take place
between the leaders of Irish parties and the
chief personages of the Queen's Executive.
A Court at Dublin, also, is a valuable counter-
poise to the arrogant ascendancy of aspiring
agitators.
But the higher reasons of State ought to de-
cide this question. The scheme, i f accomplished,
would be utterly delusive, and would be dan-
gerous in many ways. The Viceroyalty was

STAMPED .... SIXPENCE.
UNSTAMPED ..FIVEPENCE.

left standing in 1688, in l 782, in 1801, and
1829, and from the days of King WILLIAM to
those of the Welle.leys it has potently aided
in preserving the connection of the countries;
while the discharge even of its subordinate
duties has helped to complete the education
of the rising statesmen of the empire. Its
existence is doubly beneficial to England and
Ireland.

" SIR BENJAMIN THE MAGNIFICENT."
" No. 9, Great Stanhope•streot, Mayfair," is a
house likely to receive literary commemoration
from the Mr•. Peter Cunniughams of the next
century. Its remarkable inhabitants will be
duly chronicled in sterotyped ana, and a
distant posterity may be told:—" It was at
" No. 9 in this street that the lighthearted
" statesman Lord PALMERSTON lived, while
" taking part in the deliberations on the
" Reform Bill of 1832, by which his former
" friends the Tories were so injured. His
" Lordship was then a bachelor, and many
" excellent things were eaten and said at his
"pleasant little parties. (Vide that scarce
" work, ' Luttrilliana.') It was while he was
" residing in this street that Lord PALMERSTON
" composed the protocols, abont which there
" are so many amusing particulars in the
" memoirs of the famous Prince de TALLEY-
" RAND, who so often duped the gay Viscount,
"as he has so charmingly recorded. It was a
" standing reproach to PALMERSTON that he
" bad served under ten Prime Ministers, of
" opposite parties and politics, before accident,
" aided by a shabby intrigue, made him a
" Prime Minister himself in 1854. (Vide 7th
" vol. of the Stanley Papers' for an exposure
" of that intrigue, the particulars of which
" were not known at the time) While living
" at No. 9 in that street Lord PALMERSTON
" was serving under his seventh Prime Minis-
" ter. Ample illustrations of the inconsis-
" tency and levity of the debonair Viscount's
" character and politics will be found in
" BARROW'S edition of WILSON CROKER'S Per-
" sonal Recollections of My own Times.'
" ( Vide the sixteenth volume of the Anecdotes.')
" It is curious to observe how little is now
" (1957) thought about the character of the in-
" consistent PALMERSTON. He is now seen in
" a true light, stripped of his false colours,
" &c. &c."

Here we may skip the moralising topo-
grapher, and take him up a little lower down.
" Another political notoriety of the days of
" the good Queen VICTORIA lived at No. 9,
" also. This was HALL, the Marylebono
" demagogue, the licence of whose railing
" tongue has been chronicled in the journals
"of the time. The 27th volume of 'Barrow's
" Croker's Memoirs' (already quoted) has
" some odd particulars about the way in
" which HALL obtained his Baronetcy. But
" he was remem'

" titie given to
" (the third eal

" in' idable in

" mock-patriots
" Benjamin the
" to the finale
" enjoying his ,
" 9 in this stree,

" grasped at

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