The Press.
London, England, 1854-05-20 00:00:00

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immediate events, and made provision for
the future. The Derby Government, short
as it was, established a lasting claim to
our remembrance and gratitude. Unable to
leave to its successor itit own qualities of vigour
and foresight, it beqtiblithed to gig country
their fortunate conseqUerices.
Though war has , Hitt bomrdotictiti, every
family in the kingdbih must libw begin to
understand what thistnahagettibpt of our
foreign relations means. It is made intelligi-
ble to the hearth of every family. It stints
the labourer's noonday draught—it dimi-
nis.hos the..prqfita of the trader—it restricts
the dettlihga tit tibitraCis
weighty .per tentage , from the landowner's
rehtal. In every &billy some little comfort or
luxury will be lost. It is impossible that ten
millions oi' additioiial taxation can be levied
froth the country without some check to in-
dustry, and a sensible diminution of indivi-
dual ease. And yet we know not how soon
*e may have to groan beneath heavier
bUrdens.
• .

T. CHAMBERS AND THE CONVENT
QUESTION

itt doubt whether any of • his friends could
congratulate Mr. THOMAS CHAMBERS on his
conventual exploits. He took up a great
question, handled it awkwardly, and aban-
doned it abjectly. We do not blame him for
his withdrawal, but we do condemn him for
hastily assuming the management of a sub-
ject requiring discretion and foresight. On
a subject where Protestants have suspicions,
and the right of inquiry, and where Roman
Catholics have feelings, and the power of being
offensive, it behoves a public man not to em-
bark without having sounded its shallows
and mapped out its currents. The hardiest
Mariner would not put to sea without charts
and chronometer.
The ideas, however, of statesmanship and
Mr. THOMAS CHAMBERS suggest ludicrous as
sociations. English Radicals have their poli-
tical traditions, as well as Conservatives and
Whigs; but in this instance, after their ex-
perience of him, the root-and-branch men
will not accept the Roundhead member for
Hertford as a leader for a politico-religious
party. There is something incongruous in
the idea of a religious Radical in modem
times. Zeal for Protestantism seems strange
in those who have learned BENTHAM'S " Cate
chism of the Church of England" (which
Sir SAMUEL ROMILLY tried to suppress), and
who are familiar with Column's " Hornbook
for Parsons." It gives us not the least
pleasure to hear Babylon vituperated by men
who, in the next breath, would sneer and
scoff at that Church in which, for three cen-
turies of progress, the manly mind of England
has chiefly derived its spiritual nurture. It
would not be a comfort to us to know that
the Vatican had fallen, if we were certain
that Lambeth would be next laid in ashes.
Papists are bad enough : they hide the truth,
obscuring and disfiguring it with human in
ventions. Levellers would be worse with a
morbid hatred to the altar and the throne,
assailing the ecclesiastical system of scrip-
tural religion, and, with shallow politics and
sectarian rage, never ceasing until society
should be " pulverised into the powder of
" individualism."
We may, therefore, be on the whole content
that the conventual case has been taken out
of the hands of one who, while embroiling
Protestants and Catholics, has evidently not
the abilities required for treating what
Sir JOHN PAEINGTON well called " a grave con-
" stitutional question." On the right of in-
quiry there cannot be two opinions, for pub-
licity and personal responsibility are the
primary principle on which our social system
depends. The policy is another issue, subject
to considerations of time and circumstances.
We cannot, however, suppose, that the pre-
sent settlement of the case will be accepted as
satisfactory by the opinion of England. We
fear that the unconstitutional attitude as-
sumed by the Roman Catholics will raise a
question as to the expediency of placing some