The Press.
London, England, 1853-06-18 00:00:00

assailable by his literary adversaries. But on
great occasions he could rise with the subject,
and the manly animation of his hearty spirit
gave life and confidence to the supporters of
his politics. It is impossible to overestimate
the services which he rendered on the death
of Mr. Perceval, when in arduous times he un-
dertook to lead the Commons.
As evidence of those services we may appeal
to a passage in this series of despatches from
the pen of Lord Aberdeen, written in 1t4.1.
Even for the sake of curiosity, if not for any
better reason. let us see what so eminent a
" Conservative liberal" thought of that ma•
ligned nobleman. He says :
I cannot too often represent to you the veal state of the
minds of those weak men by whom Europe is governed.
The seeming agreement at Langres covered distrust and
hate. A little success will cement them again ; but, if they
are to be severely tried in adversity, their dissolution is
certain. Your presence has done much, and, I hare no doubt,
would continue to sustain them in inbfortone. but withont it
they could not exist.

And again he writes :
Firmness and perseverance will certainly do all ; and, a-
Imeg as you remain, the Allies may have these qualities.
whatever may be their fortune. But, as your absence must
sooner or later take place, it is well to be provided against it
in the only manner in which it can be done effectually.
The best evidence of that " firmness and
perseverance" is the whole tenor of these
twelve volumes of correspondence now given
to the world. The spirit of the writer
may be truly judged of by the following
specimen which we extract from the present
series. Observe the truth and force with
which, just after Napoleon's escape from Elba,
Lord Castlereagh addresses the Duke of Wel-
lington :

I have nothing material to add to my letter. We wait
with impatience for intelligence from all quarters. The
great question is, can the Bourbons get Frenchmen to fight
for them against Frenchmen ? If they can, Europe may
soon turn the tide in their favour ; and, the process of fer-
mentation once begun, they may create real partisans, in-
stead of criers of five k Rua ! and doers of nothing.
If we are to undertake the job, we must leave nothing
to chance. It must be done upon the largest scale. With
Nlayence, Luxembourg, and Lille, you start on solid grounds,
and no fortresses in the rear to blockade as before. But
you must inundate France with force in all directions If
Bonaparte could turn the tide, there is no calculating upon
his plan, and we must always recollect that Poland, Sax-
ony, and much Js.cobinism, are in our rear.
I wish you would turn in your mind the principles to be
acted upon in France. The applying those you acted upon
in the south to the force you will now command of all na-
tions is out of the question. The utmost we could at-
tempt would be to be honest ourselves. and this would only
make our allies more odious. My notion is, that France
must pay the price of her own deliverance—that the King
should consider the allied troops—that every corps should
be accompanied by a French ordonnateur, through whom
all requisitions for forage and subsistence should be made ;
the value to he paid in bons, the liquidation of which
should be assured upon a peace, either in whole, or in the
greater proportion, at the expense of thy• French Govern-
ment.

Unless some system of this kind is agreed upon, the war
will either degenerate, as it did last year, into an indiscri-
minate and destructive pillage, or ire shall he haat-nos,
and driven out of the field in three months. I know the
difficulties of what I suggest; but the alternative in the
less objectionable sense leads at once to impossibilities a►d
ruin.
Pray consider whether the territorial acquisitions of
Austria must not he redneed into articles. I think she
cannot rest her title merely upon the secret and very gene-
nd article in the treaty of Paris.
We cannot set down to mere malignity the
blunders upon his character committed by his
hostile censors. Some of them involuntarily do
homage to his merits. Thus, in his " Life of
Canning," Mr. Robert Bell incriminates the
policy and &rides the character of Lord
Castlereagh. But mark this sentence :
" The Duke of Wellington PRODIGIOUSLY
.UfIIIRED Lord Castlereagh."t
Indeed ! And we ask whether ten persons
could now be found in England who would
venture to doubt the great qualities of any
man "prodigiously admired" by the Great
I►uke, who was no enthusiast ? The assertion
about the extent of the Dukes admiration is
perfectly true. How strange that a litterateur
could not have seen the irreconcilable dif
ferenee between the picture of Lord Castle-
reagh, as drawn in that unsatisfactory " Life
of Canning," and the foregoing assertion about
the sentiments of the Great Duke !

• L► this letter Lord Aberdeen says, " It will do yon uo harm
t.i glee the interior of a Coalition." the admirers of "antiquated
imbecility " will pr►bahly refer tit this sentence as a proof of
the writer's present sagacity! We must desire better authority
un the "no harm " of a Coalition.,
" Life of Canning," p. 325.