The Press.
London, England, 1854-04-29 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

It is right to distinguish carefully between
the promotion of individual Catholics, and
tamely permitting Romanism to spread its nets
around our community, Promotion of a wor-
thy Roman Catholic is one thing, and culpable
concessions to the wily audacity of his Church
is a very different matter. We can admire
eminent judges, like an O'LootitEN and a
WoutFE ; we know how to reward them ; but
we also know that Jesuits should not be pa-
tronised in a free country, and we deny that in
the realm of England secret and irresponsible
societies are to be allowed. The " Declaration "
expresses in a significant style a great horror
of the Habeas Corpus Act. It says, "We
"are opposed to inquiry, because the very fact
" of inquiry implies the dishonourable suspicion
"of abuse," a maxim which may pass current in
Southern Europe, but which is obviously con
trary to the rule of " publicity " that obtains in
these countries. We should like to ask the
lawyers who signed this "Declaration "—if such
sentiments are to be approved of—how they
could cry out against " Orangeism " and its
lodges ?
Upon this latter point we may have more
to say on a future occasion. It is enough hero
to record that we cannot accept this " Declara-
tion " as representing the Catholic body at
large. There is too much servility to Rome,
and too much of the slang of " agitation " in its
style, to allow its passing current as the ge-
nuine thinking of our Catholic fellow subjects.

THE EARL OF CARDIGAN, HIS REGIMENT,

AND HIS CRITICS.
A LETTER, signed " Common Sense," lately appeared
in the Times, criticising the equipments and certain
routine proceedings of the 11th Hussars, which
distinguished regiment is now under orders to em•
bark on foreign service. Why, it was asked, is their
commanding officer, Brigadier-General the Earl of
CARDIGAN, still in this country! We do not contest
the occasional utility of civilian criticism on military
affairs, and we should not notice this letter had it not
been pervaded by a tone of envenomed sarcasm in-
dicative of personal animosity which grates harshly
on the ear when applied to those who may soon dare
death in support of the honour of England. The
Earl of CARDIGAN has never been accused of holding
laxly, but rather of drawing tightly, the reins of
military discipline; and, if he is still in England,
the Times may rest assured that his stay is in obe-
dience to superior orders. Indeed, we do not exactly
see of what use the presence of the Noble and Gal-
lant Earl would be in the East without his brigade,
and why that is not there it is for the Duke of NEW
CASTLE and the Government to answer. Some have
thought that the courage of the Earl of CARDIGAN
amounts to rashness, but " Common Sense " has
assumed an inappropriate name if he would send the
Noble and Gallant Earl, like another ARTHUR or
ROLAND, to charge the Russians unsupported by a
troop. These are not the days of necromancy or
knights and giants ; artillery has nearly extinguished
the utility of individual daring ; discipline decides
battles ; and " Common Sense" may rely upon it
that the Noble Brigadier-General has not been
guilty of disobedience to orders.
But there is another reason why we allude to this
subject. The Earl of CARDIGAN addressed a letter to
the Times, briefly and clearly explaining why those
things which excited the umbrage of " Common
Sense" were not exactly as the latter wished. This
letter the Times printed verbatim et literatim, and it
contained precisely one mistake, and no more. We
need hardly say that all manuscripts, as a rule—and
we will not except even the leading articles of our
contemporary—contain many more. But our con-
temporary has more than once had the bad taste to
allow communications to be printed with errors ob-
viously clerical when it had personal animosity to
gratify.

THE SCHEME FOR UNIVERSITY REFORM.
THE Ministers were sorely puzzled on Thursday to
find reasons for persevering with the Oxford Uni-
versity Bill. They abandoned their scheme of
Reform because they felt unequal to the task of
persuading Parliament to sanction their mode of
altering the Constitution. Recollecting the moral
relations subsisting between our universities and the
national mind of the country, many persons feel that
a Cabinet unequal to dealing with small boroughs
could scarcely be competent to reforming colleges
of high renown. It seems clear that, if they had to

387

fall back upon postponement in the first case, a
similar retreat would be necessary in the latter.
That the Cabinet should retrace its steps would be
not unreasonable, as the principle of their University
Bill is in some parts retrogressive. Some of its
clauses are not drawn up in what the Whigs would
call " the spirit of the age," but appear to re •embody
the Presbyterianism of the times of the Protectorate.
As the Ministery appear partial to abortive legisla-
tion, and like to give as much trouble av possible
with the measures it intends to abandon, we are by
no means sure, from the stand it made for this bill
on Thursday, that they have any serious intention of
proceeding with it this session.

TESTAMENTARY JURISDICTION BILL.
TO THE EDITOR OF " THE rrtEss."

Oxford and Cambridge Club, April 27, 1854.
Sir,—ln reference to your clever though too super-
ficial notice of the Testamentary Jurisdiction Bill
you certainly have caught the popular, and, in all
respects but one, I will just advert to the correct,
view of the case. I would observe that there must
be some misapprehension in the notion that wills are
slovenly kept or allowed to fall into decay in the
country registries. For, not to mention that such a
practice would damage the registrar by the loss of
search fees, or necessitate expense iu the additional
time and pay of clerks to meet the want of arrange
ment, I have found the documents carefully kept in
such registries as I have inspected, whether in dir.
tricts remote a 14 St. Asaph, or of so limited a jurisdic..
tion as Ely. In our own important registry of Chea-
ter the wills and administrations have been indorsed

from an early period. And ever since I came into
office the wills have been enrolled at length in books
for the convenience of reference and additional
safety. With the same object another house was
purchased by me about seven years ago, which has
proved a great accommodation to the public.
Searches are carried on in so large and increasing a
scale as to show that the public appreciates the ad-
vantage offered, and is encouraged by the prompt-
ness and success of the investigations. It is not, of
course, reasonable, nor perhaps desirable, that we
should be able to meet the wishes of the low class of
fortune-hunters by always providing the wilt they
fancy or assert is deposited with us. But I believe
that no case has occurred of a will actually proved
being subsequently lost, except at one remote period,
in the time of the Commonwealth. And whether
this loss arose from the humidity of the climate, or
the public disorders of the age, the present officials
can scarcely be held responsible for what occurred
two centuries ago, any more than for the destructive
fire of London some ten years later, that is thought
to have destroyed a few important records iu the
metropolis.
Indeed, so highly do I think of the safety and
arrangement of the Chester registry, that. 1 deposit
all my own title deeds there, as well as such docu-
ments as friends and connections have trusted to my
care.

Had our position been less precarious I have no
doubt that all the improvements in method, and re-
duction in charges, that the increasing and valuable
business of the Chester office rendered a matter of
necessity and duty, would have been cheerfully
adopted in less important dioceses. But there has
been little encouragement to practical reform, when

unremitting attention has been branded as sinecurism,
and any surrender of emoluments been met with
a threat of abolition.—l am, sir, your obedient ser-
vant, H. RAIKES.

[Mr. Raikes has a right to the insertion of his
letter; for our allusion to the manner in which wills
are taken care of or neglected at the diocesan
registries was general. Still we never had the
slightest intention of imputing neglect to him ;
indeed, one of the authorities on which our state-
ments were made speaks highly of the manner in
which the Chester registry has been conducted since
Mr. Raikes has been registrar. But other statements
in the same pamphlet (" An Account of the Present
Deplorable State of the Ecclesiastical Courts of
Record," &c., by Wm. Downing Bruce, Esq., of
Lincoln's-inn, Barrister at-Law, F.S.A., &c.) fully
justify the general allusion in our article. Thus,
" at the Gate House at Lincoln are deposited, or
" rather gradually decay, documents, the loss of
" which would be the ruin of many families by
" needless ligitation." At this registry Mr. Bruce
himself, dining a casual visit, saved several valuable
documents from destruction, " some having been
" placed in a basket for removal." The registry at
York was described by Mr. Protheroe, M.l'., to be in
"a scandalous state;" and Mr. Bruce, on his own
authority, makes serious statements respecting the
wills in the official custody of Mr. Vernon Harcourt.
Many other instances might be added, but we have
said enough to justify our general allusion, and to
exclude the Chester registry from its scope•—ED.
OF THE PRESS.]

388

rEt6illg'S in V arliantent.

CONDUCT OF THE WAR.
Several questions referring to recent accounts from
the Black Sea, and the head-quarters of the British
forces in the East, were urged in the House of Lords
on Thursday.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH called attention to the
neglect evinced with regard to the British forces at-
; no preparation having been made, accord-
ing to the letters published in different newspapers,
for the arrival of the troops, and very insufficient pro-
vision made for their accommodation, either in health
or sickness.
The Duke of NEWCASTLE denied the truth of the
statements on which the accusation of neglect was
founded. The troops had been received by the in-
habitants of the place in the most friendly spirit, and
accommodated as well as the locality rendered possi-
ble. The noble duke complained of the recklessness
with which statements impugning the conduct and
care of the executive departments had been written
from the spot and circulated in England :
"We were told that the French, having first come to
Gallipoli, were first served. Considering that Toulon was
nearer to Gallipoli than was any port of Great Britain, it
would not have been remarkable if the French had been
there first. But such was not the case ; for our commis-
saries had been in Turkey for several weeks before any
French ones went there ; and, as regarded Gallipoli, the
French and English commissaries-general met there, the
former coming from France and the latter from Constan-
tinople, and concerted together the arrangements for the
arrival of the troops. On this occasion, he was happy to
say, the same harmony prevailed between the inferior as
between the superior officers. There was no quarrelling
or disputing, but they made an amicable arrangement. It
was said that the French had been located in the Turkish
quarter of the town, while our troops had been driven into
the Greek quarter, which was represented as being less
advantageous, in consequence of the supposed enmity of
the Greek population to us. Ho had, however, received a
letter from Sir George Brown, expressing his extreme
satisfaction that the Greek quarter had been allotted to the
English troops; and he had also seen a private letter,
which was to the same effect, and added, that had they to
choose their situation afresh they should choose this quar-
ter. After what he had thus advanced, he thought he was jus-
tified in doubting the details to which his noble friend had
referred ; and must say that it was unfortunate that a
gentleman, habituated to the luxuries of London life, miss-
ing his club and his glass of wine—he even al.uded to the
absence of butter—really he (the Duke of Newcastle)
hoped that oar brave officers and soldiers did not imagine
that they would be fed on the sweetest of butter and the
best of fowl—it was a pity that this gentleman, habituated
to the luxuries of English life, and not over wellinclined to
going out to Turkey, should not have waited until he had
time to make inquiries and ascertain facts, but should
have written accounts which were not fair to the persons
concerned in the service about which he wrote. Her Ma-
jesty's Government were fair game, let them be attacked ;
but the commissariat department ought not to be discou-
raged by undue and unfair misrepresentation. He did not
wish that any neglect should be concealed, or that any im-
perfections should be slurred over. It was not his inten-
tion, nor was it the desire of her Majesty's Government,
that such should be the case; but he did say that, upon
the eve of the great operations upon which we were enter-
ing, it was only fair to those concerned in them that no
one should publish his first impressions without being
satisfied that they were confirmed, and that what on his
first arrival at any place seemed to bim to be facts, actually
were so."

The Earl of HARDWICKE having afterwards referred
to the reported evacuation and destruction of some
forts on the Circassian coast by the Russians,
The Earl of CLARENDON gave some explanations on
the point :
" The Russian fleet, to the best of his knowledge, had
not come out of Sebastopol, and it did no% at the time of
the report convey troops from one part of the Russian
territory to another. What did take place, and what he
subsequently heard, was that one vessel (an English
steamer) was sent to survey the Circassian coast. During
that time they saw five small steamers that had been em-
ployed in removing the troops that were placed in the
different fortresses along the shore, which had all been
destroyed; and he must say that the Russians having, of
their own accord, and before the declaration of war,
evacuated and destroyed these fortresses, which had for so
many years been occupied by them, was some proof that
we, and not they, were masters of the Black Sea. The
steamers alluded to were small steamers, and not war-
steamers, and were employed from Odessa to Sebastopol.
Immediately on seeing the English steamer they made for
their port, but a transport was hoarded and ordered to re-
pair to the nearest Russian port, in pursuance of the in-
structions sent out in December last. The occurrence
happened on the 18th of March, and was not declared in
England until the 29th. It was impossible for them to
have done other than they did and obey their instructions.
(Hear, hear)."
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE wished for more
full explanation, and hoped that the Government
would produce the official despatches relating to this
transaction.
The Earl of CLARENDON expres 'Lei Lis readiness to
lay the required papers on the table.
The subject then dropped.

THE PRESS.