The Press.
London, England, 1858-11-06 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 6, IRSB.

1084

THE WEEK.

WHAT a queer composite is found in some folks brains ! Wit and
folly, love and hate, tomfoolery and self-conceit, seem to play at hide and
seek amid the layers. These, again, are interspersed with broken gleams
of mind more resembling the phosphorescence of decay than the light of
genius. Generally, in such morbid minds one dominant idea abides, like
the nail in SISERA'S skull. JOHN BRIGHT is a creation of this soil. Were
he a Roman Catholic instead of a Quaker he would be canonized when
dead, and sent out meanwhile to get up a new Order. JOHN'S last article
has been produced at Birmingham. The material is coarse and flimsy, but
glazed and coloured to an extraordinary degree ; made like the man's
razors—to sell, not to shave. There is abundance of paste, plenty of
colouring matter, but so raw and loose withal, as to be barely a catch for
a Yankee store. The goods are thoroughly Brnmmagem, worthy of the
place, the manufacturer, and the market. JOHN does not, after the
manner of ordinary Christians, simply hate war and justify its occurrence
as an unavoidable necessity, but still a duty. He is against it always and
everywhere. He looks on a soldier as a sort of wild beast, and probably
nothing less than an order to clothe a battalion would reconcile the
peaceful orator to a redcoat. Were he not Member for Birmingham, he
would anathematize Enfields and Minies, and swords and bayonets, and
all the other atrocities of war. JOHN is happy to enjoy the good that turns
up in the nets of war. He has no objection to spin and weave, and carry
on business in the quiet sunshine that has broken out from battle
clouds. But he hates war; there ought never to have been such
a thing, and its evils outweigh and outnumber its contingent
good. He is happy to spin or speak long yarns in the enjoyment
of the protection which the blood of the fallen has won, and the swords of
the brave defend. But it is the price that the good Quaker grudges : not
the price which we common people deplore, and which the green sods of
the Crimea cover, but the hard cash ; not the soldier's blood, but his
pay ; not the sorrows of widows and orphans, but the Income-tax. There
is no beauty, no glory, no value, save in money. Cheap goods are his
glory and his greed. These he clutches with a Quaker's pertinacity. He
enjoys whatever advantage the war wins for him. But he refuses to
justify our national share in it. When the bill is presented for payment,
he prefers to draw the long bow in Birmingham to drawing a cheque on
his banker. Were a lot of rogues to invade one of his mills, he would be
the first to set the police at them. But were an ambitious autocrat to
launch his armies against his country, he would not incur the expense of
sending a single regiment to resist or repel them. Not that he loves his
country less, but that he loves an export market for his cottons more. To
be sure, were the invading army to seize on his mill for a fort or his
bleaching-green for an encampment, he might possibly refuse in such
special circumstances to turn to them the other cheek also. But as long
as the music of his machinery is not interrupted by the boom of big guns,
nor his per-centage lessened by war taxes and other wicked things, JOHN
does not much mind who reigns in England or who encourages " outdoor
relief for her aristocracy." And this is statesmanship !

The choice of Mr. GLADSTONE for the high office he is about to
assume in the lonian Islands is one more proof of the determination of
Lord DERBY'S Government to appoint the best man for the work wherever
he can be found. His qualifications for the task before him have already
been admitted by his political opponents, and need no repetition by us.
The necessity of his mission only shows how the best theories may be thwarted
by excessive zeal. In our desire to establish British institutions wherever the
British Crown is supreme, we have been led into the mistake of wholly over-
looking both the antecedents of the lonian Islands and the character of their
inhabitants. While under the dominion of Venice, a regime that extended
over some centuries, the islanders were left practically to the government
of their own chieftains, who, as long as their tribute was duly paid, enjoyed
all the luxuries of a petty absolutism. In fact, they stood towards their
ostensible rulers on the one hand, and their own vassals on the other, in
much the same position as our own Highland chieftains a century and a
half ago. This kind of feudal system was maintained to within the
memory of the present generation ; and the obstacle which it presented to
every species of progress and improvement will be found amply explained
by the account of Sir CHARLES NAPIERS administration at Cephalonia.
The seigneurs of these islands, we must remember, are not of pure Greek
extraction ; they are sprung from intermarriages between the old Vene-
tian noblesse and the native population, and probably have few sympathies
or lew points of resemblance with the genuine Greek. We are curious,
therefore, to ascertain from what order of lonian society the present hosti-
lity to Great Britain proceeds. And we more than half suspect that the
explanation of it will be that very obvious and common one—the discon-
tent, namely, of a class whose priviieges and real importance have been
destroyed or curtailed. Should this turn out to be the case, it will be un-
fair to accredit the Greek character with this suicidal opposition to the
interests of the lonian Confederation. At the same time we are very well
aware that a state of general lawlessness is frequently as acceptable to the
governed as to the governors--the former, in a life of alternate idleness
and rapine, finding more than an equivalent for the capricious tyranny of
their lords. Add to this that the inhabitants of these islands have been
born pirates and brigands from the days that preceded AGAMEMNON down
to those of LARA, and we shall see that there are very good reasons why
both master and servant may chafe under the system of law and order now
established among them, but not established long enough to have effaced
from their memories the rude license of the past. Pew Bntish officers return

from our Mediterranean garrisons without some experience of the spite and
treachery of the lowest class of natives. Time alone, as it seems to us, can
work the requisite cure. We have no faith in any alleged grievances on
the part of the islanders. They must be dealt with justly and resolutely.
Any concessions to them just at present would, in reality, be concessions to
the spirit of barbarism, and, let us add, to a spirit of hostile intrigue in a
quarter where we had little reason to expect it.

The principal public meetings reported during the past week have
been at Devonport, Burnley, Southampton, Edinburgh, and Gateshead,
dealing respectively with political, educational, and religious subjects. At
Devonport Sir ERSKINE PERRY and Mr. JAMES IVILsON addressed their
constituents on the leading public questions of the day. The first-named
gentleman endeavoured to account for the deposition of Lord PALNIEtisroN
by saying that his Government had grown timid, and was afraid " to carry
" out 'Whig principles to their legitimate results." But the fact is, that
Whig principles have long ago been carried out to their legitimate results.
and that Lord PALMERSTON'S Administration fell because it declined to
carry them any further. People too generally forget on what a very
narrow basis the Whig party rests. Whigs as well as Conservatives mal
be liberal men. But, as Whigs, their work is as much over as that
Lords ELDON and CASTLEREAGH. Both speeches, however, were rich spe-
cimens of claptrap and sophistry. What, said Sir ERSKINE, If the people
" were increasing in intelligence, should they alone be excluded from politi-
cal power ?" Now, this is a sentence almost literally without sense.
" Are increasing " may mean anything. A baby is " increasing •
intelligence." Is he, therefore, to be intrusted with political povier.
Practice has given to his colleague that power of plausibility in which
poor Sir ERSKINE is deficient, and, accordingly, Mr. IVu.sos's pet fallacy
on the Reform question was disguised with a certain amount of skill.
" He held that county classes were far too largely represented at present,
" because they represented but one interest only on whichever side they
" sat, whereas in towns we find a great variety of interests represented,
and it would be a great deterioration of our representative system if
" diminished the town representation and increased that of the counties.
Now this, if true, only shows that the agricultural constituencies are more
numerous than the commercial. If the commercial voters in towns were
as numerous as the agricultural voters in counties, they would return
commercial representative. But we deny that the fact is as Mr. WILSON
states it. We cannot doubt that all the members for commercial boroughs
are returned by the commercial interest; while, as we have repeatedly
pointed out, the borough members connected with agriculture are not more
numerous than the country members connected with commerce. A certain
party in this country will, of course, make a desperate fight to perpetuate
the inequality which the last Reform Bill introduced. But sincere and
impartial Reformers must keep their eyes steadily fixed on the real points
of the case, and not suffer dust to be thrown into them.—The Honourable
Member for Edinburgh dwelt more especially upon our foreign policy.
Mr. COWAN paid a tribute of respect to the Emperor NAPOLEON, and,
passing on to Mr. BRIGHT, made the very natural observation that that
gentleman in reckoning up what we paid for war had quite forgotten the
truth that war was the price or our security, and long immunity from inva-
sion. The spreading of this experience all over the continents of Europe and
Asia has been the true use of her wars to Great Britain—a more effectiv'
result than twenty subject provinces which cost more to keep than
conquer.—Nothing short of the impudence inherent in a Whig underling
could have nerved Mr. BLAcK to disinter the Roman-citizen reputation of
Lord PALMERSTON. The country submitted to the disgraceful affair of
Mr. ClumproN. It tolerated with silent anguish the misconception of the
Indian outbreak, and the fearful conseirences that followed it. But at the
third offence the voice of public opinion was irresistible. In the face of
facts like these, this bluster about Lord Piameasvos's vigour will never
do.—The meeting held at Burnley in Lancashire was a celebration
of the East Lancashire Union of Mechanics' Institutes, which is in-
tended as a kind of centre from which branch institutions are to
radiate through the neighbouring valleys. The meeting was ad-
addressed by the Marquis of IlawriNcros and Lord GODERICH, and the
topics usually handled upon such occasions were judiciously and impar-
tially discussed.—The meeting held last Wednesday at Southampton was
to express abhorrence of the Confessional.

We would not deny that the change of Ministry that has lately taken
place in Prussia is calculated to draw closer the ties which exist between
that country and Great Britain. The Prince of HOHENZOLLERN is con-
nected by blood with the husband of an English Princess; and we trust
we are not wrong in anticipating that English counsels may for the future
have more weight at the Prussian Court than at one time was accorded to
them. The people of this country will be only too happy to see Prussia
resume her proper place in Europe, and rise superior to the dictation of
any Foreign Power whatever.

To what extent the admonition to make the best of circumstances had
its origin in the customs of thai remarkable island lately thrown open to
British curiosity, and how far its connection therewith was merely the
result of a poetical exigency, we shall soon be in a position to understand.
One practice in three among the natives of Japan would certainly seem to
point to some peculiar recognition of the distich to which are alluding.
Not possessing baths, the inhabitants, it would appear,
the principle of "doing as they can " without them, men and women dm-
very wisely act upon
porting themselves in tubs at their thresholds with all the innocence of
Eden. The Japanese, moreover. in doiag..as they could without any in-