The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-10 00:00:00

THE PRE S S, JULY 10, 1858.

victorious phalanx. The declension of the party
in 1845-6, is recorded, and was explained, in the
speeches of Mr. DORM= while the party was in
the agonies of dieeoludee in 1846. With these
facts before us, how is it passible to mistake our
way ? If Conservatives would triumph, they
must take the course wbieh Sir ROBERT PEEL
took in 11189-1840, If Conservatives would be
discomitai, theyilnit tike the course which the
same leedertook in 1844 end 1846.

THE AMERICAN EAGLE ON THE WING.
IT cannot be asserted of the young American
Eagle, as it has been reported of the gilded bird
erected under the bowsprit of the Niagara, that
it has lately lost its wing. We know upon the
best information that the real bird has not had a
single pectoral feather ruffled by the recent hur-
ricane—that its pinions are in superb muscular
condition, and ready at any moment to fan the
air and absorb the sun in their onward flight of
annexation and conquest. As far as we are
aware, there is no description of sublunary bird
which is able to approach within range of the
American Eagle. On its own promontory and
within its own republican circle it is in corn-
parable, omnipotent, without dispute the highest
ornithological development—in fact, its own beau-
'deal of a bird.

All that has been fabled of the size of the roc
or the vitality of the phcenix, or that is known of
the sleepless wing of the albatross, or that is gene-
rally understood respecting the habits of the jay
or the peacock, if multiplied by all the figures of
speech and increased by an infinite series of
cyphers, could never represent to the understand-
ing that quantity of p eculiar power which the
American Eagle, for the weal or woe of the world,
is able to secrete in its larynx. There is no
extant bird at all like it. Of course, it is a rap-
torial and hot-blooded bird; but, unlike birds of
that order, remarkably restless and demonstrative.
It is endowed with wonderful organs of vi sion,
has a wonderful instinct after every kind of prey,
and a structure exquisitely adapted for any kind
of motion. Upon a rough surmise, it would be
unsafe to predict the actual area of sky and earth
which this victorious bird in its fullest expansion
is likely to cover, or from what height in the em-
pyrean it can descry and swoop down upon any
casual quarry ; but if wishes are always fathers of
thoughts, and words are invariably to be con-
sidered signs of ideas, it may be asserted that,
compared with the eagle of the United States,
Roman and Russian eagles were undoubted! y
birds of feeble wing, fowls of most puny an d
ridiculous grasp. Perhaps to the wondering
world beneath, the American Eagle, when it
rises from its ledge, throws back its neck on the
wind, and utters its wild independent note over
every sea and land, may appear to be " nothing
but fuss and feathers" ; but the initiated and the
wise know better. They know it is an astonish-
ing fact, whose centre is itself, and its circum-
ference nowhere. Every country at present, it
would appear, is appealing to the American
Eagle, as the apples and loaves in the German
fairy tale are reported to have done, crying out,
" Come and take and Americanize me." Following
its benevolent instincts, the American Eagle
cannot rest as long as " men eat, and drink, and
toil, and know " nothing of its indep end ence.

As invoiced at the London Tavern, the
American Eagle is wanted everywhere. E very
deep moans for it, as the Poet Laureate says, with
many voices. Africa longs to hear the declara-
tion of independence—Cuba wants ,I,mericanizing

lexico,
Australia, and Central America, are
rival candidates for an American Protectorate.

There is a large demand for Americanism in
Canada, in China, in the Mediterranean, in the
Persian Gig and In g great many desolate

islands, and generally thre4gl3out the Indian

Ocean. "The conquering principles" of the
great Republic are Wanted immediately in Eng-
land. It is impossible to have a strong Govern-
ment or u popular policy without them. British
admin*ration, enr represesistive system, modes

of election, the whole civil service, the courts
of law, public schools and universities want
thoroughly Americanizing. "The conquering
principles" of independence ought to be carried
out more generally in our dress and taste, in our
speech and manners. We ought to have clipper
Governments, clipper railways, clipper banks,
clipper schools, clipper children, and clipper
churches Once for all, we ought to divest our-
selves of any old-fashioned monarchical or eccl e-
siastical attachment : we ought to put away the
idols specas,—to become enlightened in our
opinions,—to talk sensibly a bout fillibusterism
and slavery, and, in short, nobly to tread the
quick march of progress, our feet beating time,
and our hearts swelling high, to the music of
Bunkum and Yankee Doodle.
Behind the bar of the London Tavern, where
the American Eagle was imprisoned for a whole
evening, as far as we are able to make out from
the rather confused report, he fluttered and
soared and relieved his soul a good deal to the
above-mentioned effect. The occasion was in-
spiring, for it was the 4th of July, and he rose
from the earth after an excellent dinner. On
that day Young America is always in apogee,
and "takes up fixins " in regions of oratorical
nebulae and among groups of undiscovered stars.
The day is everywhere sacred to transcendental
liberty and hyperbole. The wise make no sign,
leaving it to the unwise to do the proper amount
of clatter.

On the eighty-second anniversary of this day,
which was celebrated by one hundred and twenty
American gentlemen and a few proselytes of the
gate who had erected the standard of indepen-
dence on British soil, the American Minister who
presided on that occasion in a very neat manner
alluded to the remarkable circumstances of the
meeting. Formerly, he said, Americans were
often considered intrusive and discourteous, their
language peculiar, their manners unusual, and
their demonstrations not attended to. It was no
longer so. They felt themselves at their ease
everywhere. They had planted their free and
independent flag over every marketable situation
throughout the world. Irregular though they
were, they had "cornered" all regular diplo-
macy. Their revolutionary "principles would go
"on conquering and to conquer." On behalf of
the Great American People, as a great commu-
nity, he had vindicated the honour of their flag.
" The right of visit and search was frankly and
finally ended." This announcement intoxicated
the meeting with delight, the tidings being unex-
pected, and, as the Chairman said, so creditable
to British "candour and fair dealing."
The morality of the United States being pro-
verbial, the Chairman said nothing upon the
subject. Why should he hang the national
morality on his sleeve for Britishers to peck at ?
The flag of the United States would henceforth
protect any chevalier of the seas in his free and
independent trade.
When the Minister had concluded his speech,
a young American gentleman rose and put a
commercial girdle round the earth in a very few
seconds, showing clearly that America must for
her own interest occupy a good deal of territory
which she does not at present occupy, and
proving also, though not so satisfactorily as we
could have wished, that England flourished
chiefly by means of American capital. After
applauding these important political and arith-
metical statements, the assembly dispersed to
consider them calmly in detail, and the public
will doubtless do so, and estimate them at their
proper market value.

11.1111111.1.11.1.11111.111.11. MM,
THE PRE S S, 3nty 10, 1858. 651 •

~ A WIDE AND SOLID BASIS."

"Tr is the interest of the Government to ob-
tain the widest possible support." So says the
Standard ; and the fact is undeniable, whoever
may be the propounder.
Our wish, too, is, that the Government may
take that course which will secure for it " the
widest possible support." Indeed, without a
large amount of popular support, no Government
in England can long continue to exist. To
object to a Government's propitiating as far as
possible the support of the people, is to recom-
mend it to commit suicide.
There is no difference, then, between ourselves
and the Standard as to the end in view; but we
differ considerably as to the means.
We both desire that the Ministry should pro-
pitiate public opinion. But how is this to be
done? "By conceding the Jewish claims," says
the Standard. Yet, in our view, the Government
loses ten times as much popular support, by con-
ceding those claims, as it can possibly gain.
If a question is to be conceded because some
persons loudly and pertinaciously press it, the
abolition of Church-rates had far greater recom-
mendations than the alteration of the Jewish oath.
Not a score of petitions had been presented for
the admission of Jews to Parliament, but the
petitions for the total abolition of Church-rates
were more than seventeen hundred! If concession
is thought the surest way to popular support, it
might have seemed more politic to concede to the
seventeen hundred than to the seventeen.

they, let us shut our eyes ;—walk, as much as
possible, in his footsteps, and take our chance of
falling as he fell.
The favourite idea, in some quarters, seems to
be that a policy of concession is a wise policy for a
Conservative Government. A policy, we mean,
of concession of principle. We are told to hope
that such a policy will accord with " the wishes
of the country," and will gain "the widest
possible support." Now this notion, we boldly
assert, is opposed to the whole experience
of the last five and twenty years. The history
of the Conservative party teaches an exactly
opposite lesson.
The Conservative party was formed, in 1834-5,
expressly to maintain, and to defend. Lord MEL-
BOURNE'S Government had avowed its intention
of " appropriating " some of the revenues of the
Church of Ireland to educational purposes. The
Conservative Leaders, Sir ROBERT PEE!., Lord
DERBY, and Sir JAMES GRAHAM, united, for the
first time, in withstanding that attempt. The
first effort of the Conservative party was di-
rected to defend and maintain the Protestant
Church in Ireland.

PEEL, in his early days,—his reforming days,—
and not in his later, is that which every Conser-
vative Minister would do well to follow.
We are now told that the " descent before no
is not precipitous." We have no doubt that it com-
mences gradually enough. It is all the more to be
dreaded. But what alarms any discerning Con-
servative is, that we should be urged to begin any
descent at all. We wish to make our Christi-
anity, as a nation, more emphatic, more decided,
—not less so. We wish to make our National
Churches more effective,—not less so. We wish
to raise the tone of morals and of religion. We
wish, in fine, to have no downward steps—no
flirtations with democracy ; because we believe,
upon the testimony of all experience, that the
overthrow of a well-balanced and ancient consti-
tution leads, not to freedom, but to confusion, to
anarchy, and, at last, to despotism.

But again we ask, As we desire the Govern-
ment to gain popular support, by what means is
that support to be gained ? And here we know
no way of arriving at a just conclusion so safe or
so sure as the old trodden path of experieZa
docet.

It is just five and twenty years since the Con-
servative party was firstformed. Sir ROBERT PEEL
had ruined the good old name of Tory by his
foolish weakness and his still more foolish stub-
bornness. He gave way on a question involving
religious principle, and thereby offended all the
earnest Protestants in the empire. He then
made a firm stand for the rotten boroughs, whose
preservation could involve nothing higher than
expediency ; and by these two blunders he made
the name of Tory thoroughly distasteful to the
people. He had conceded when he ought to have
been firm, and had stood firm when he ought to
have conceded. He had acuteness enough to see
the necessity of taking up new ground. Waiting
two or three years, therefore, for an opportunity, he
commenced a new party under the title of " Con-
servative." The history of that party is known
to all men who have reached the middle of an
ordinary life. We know when and how it bean,
when and how it flourished, and when and how
it drooped and declined. The causes of its pro-
sperity, and of its decline, are palpable, and
entirely beyond all question. Commonplace
men would say that this brief history ought to
be of great use to us; and that the facts of the
rise of the Conservative party, and of its decline,
ought to regulate mainly our present course of
politics. But some men who would hardly like
to be thought commonplace, seem to consider
that it is better to forget all the chief facts of the
history of political parties since the passing of
the Reform Bill, and to work out some new
and ingenious scheme of politics, wholly inde-
pendent of the lessons of the past. It will
be more expedient, they seem to think, to forget
as much as possible the whole history of the
last five and twenty years, and to act as if
none of those facts or changes were of the least
importance to us. Sir ROBERT PEEL reduced
himself; in five short years, from being the leader
of three hundred and eighty members of the
House of Commons, to a condition of desertion,
disregard, and almost contempt ; yet our would-
be tutors tell us that it is not worth while to ask
how this wonderful fall came about, or what
were the errors he committed. Rather, say

TRANSPORT OF TROOPS TO INDIA.
AT length we have before us the Report of
the Parliamentary Committee, to whom so long
ago as the Bth of February the House of Com-
mons delegated the task of ascertaining
what measures might have been available,
what were, and what for the future may be
resorted to for insuring the rapid transmission of
troops to India. It is no small nor important
subject, for if it be a fact that it is impossible upon
emergency to transmit reinforcements to India
with greater promptitude and rapidity than was
done at the commencement of the present war,
it is clear that we must either maintain perma-
nent armies in India on a larger scale than we
have ever hitherto contemplated, or we must
submit to live under the perpetual chance of
such desperate and unequal struggles as that
which we have only got under command at fearful
loss, and by exertions on the part of our officers
and men that seem almost superhuman. We
find, therefore, no fault with the Committee for
the length of time which they have taken for
their task : we only wish that their investigation
had been more thorough; that they had not left.
as they have done, important points in nearly
their original obscurity; and that the expression
of their conclusions had been more direct and
decisive.

Two years afterwards, the Whigs proposed to
give up Church-rates in England, and to provide
a substitute out of the revenues of the Church
itself. The Conservative party withstood this
proposal, and defeated it. Again, the function
and office of that party was, to maintain and to
defend.
Two or three years more passed, and now the
Whigs proposed to give up the Corn Laws. At
once, Sir ROBERT PEEL brought forward a vote
of want of confidence, and carried it, and was es-
corted back to his house in Whitehall-gardens by
an applauding multitude. Thus, from the com-
mencement of the Conservative party, up to its
final triumph in 1841, its whole course has been
that of resistance. Its every vote was in main-
tenance and defence of some long-established
principle or institution. And upon this leading
characteristic its popularity was founded.
So long as the Conservative party occupied
this posit►on, it found no difficulty in rallying
round it a decisive majority. All through 1839,
1840, and 1841, it carried every popular election.
Those years saw, in every great constituency,
a Conservative Association, embodying the elite
of the electors. In Middlesex, 1,100 of the elec-
tors dined together; in London, 1,700; at Glas-
gow, 2,000 or 3,000. Every step of the Conser-
vative party marked it as a popular party ; and
its policy everywhere was to maintain, to support;
—but of concession it said nothing.
Pass over a brief five years, and what a change
do we remark ! The Conservative Associations
are all dissolved. Colonel Woon, the Conserva-
tive candidate, is ejected from Middlesex ; Mr.
LYALL from London; Captain Rous from West-
minster. And what has wrought this change?
The new Peelite policy of concession. The
Minister who was brought in to maintain Pro-
testant principles has endowed Maynooth ; he
who was to provide for the wants of the Church
has been passing Dissenters' Chapels Bills ; he
who was to protect British industry has surren-
dered the Corn Laws and all other pro-
tective duties. The electors withdraw from
the Conservative Associations by hundreds,
saying, " We don't know what you mean by a
Conservative now." Eleven hundred voters who
supported Colonel Woon in Middlesex in 1837
refuse to vote for him in 1847, simply because the
Conservative Ministry, brought into support and
to maintain, has done nothing but concede.
These are the facts which are deeply engraved
upon the records of British history, and which
nothing can ever efface. Ought such facts to he
forgotten or disregarded ? Is it anything short
of the most deplorable folly to forget or shut our
eyes to the lessons of 1845-6, and to determine
to follow the same course which Sir Ronparr
PEEL then followed—a course which dissolved
his party, broke up his Government, and con-
signed him to a silent disregard for the rest of
his days.
Do we mean, then, that the duty of the Con-
servative party is to stand still F Far from it, we
say that, to amend, in order to maintain, is its
plain duty ;—to advance within the limits of
constitutional principle, which is true pro-
gress. We have repeated a dozen times that the
law of Church-rates ought to be amended;—
that the Reform Bill of 1832 ought to be re-
formed, and that the example of Sir ROBERT

The Report of the Committee consists of ten
Resolutions, and a large mass of evidence. Of
these the former only are published, the latter
being still in the hands of the printer. The
Resolutions as regard the past refer to what was
done, or what might have been done, and to the
mode in which the Government and the Court of
Directors respectively discharged their functions
and fulfilled their duty to their country. Those
that regard the future concern the use that may
be made, and ought to be made, in times to come,
of steamers and of the overland route to India.
There arc, also, two important Resolutions which
relate to our colonial resources, their value, and
their availability.
With regard to the conduct of the Court of
Directors, the Committee express themselves
with an explicitness that we wish they could
have carried throughout their Report. They say
that the Court of Directors from the first intel-
ligence of the mutiny at Meerut showed them-
selves sensible of the advantages of the Overland
Route, and that they appear to have lost no time
in recommending its adoption to Mr. VERNON
SMITH and the Government of which he was a
member. They express also a decided opinion,
that, considering the suddenness of the danger and
the distance to which the troops were to be sent,
great credit is due to the Court of Directors for
the promptitude and efficiency with which they
discharged the difficult task of transmitting re-
inforcements to our army in India. Thus
justice, somewhat tardy and after death, in-
deed, but still justice, will now be done to
the Court of Directors by public opinion ;
and the country will be able to judge, from the
Report of a Committee evidently reluctant to
pronounce judgment against the Cabinet of Lord
PALMERSTON, how little justification. Mr. VERNON
SmrrH had for his abnegation of responsibility;
and how little truth there was in his flippant,