The Press.
London, England, 1858-02-13 00:00:00

THE PRESS, FEBRUARY 13, 1858.

The Liberal party, as at present constituted,
is a transparent imposture. They are anxious
to keep up their numerical standard ; but that
can only be dose by asking no questions and
declaring no policy. There are so many men
who like to call themselves by whatever is the
popular title of the day, that the Liberals can
have no difficulty in filling their ranks, as long
as they abstain from action. But they know
that the first forward movement in the direc-
tion of democracy would he the signal for a
large secession to the Conservative camp.
Members of the Conservative party, on the
other hand, have lately been too remiss—
have shunned the fatigue of duty, and been
disposed to straggle from the line. But the
first real danger would at once recall them to
their colours, augmented as we have said by a
considerable accession from the enemy's quar-
ters. The present political situation is, we
should remember, wholly artificial. When
that shall be dissolved, and parties have re-
turned within their natural limits, we shall be
better able to estimate the comparative
strength of each. We believe that the people
of this country are still separated into two
great classes, much more evenly balanced than
the aspect of Parliament would lead us to
suppose. But the truth cannot be known till
Parliament is again divided in accordance with
flat classification. _ _ .

On the prospect of a new Reform Bill his
lordship's views are worth extracting at some
length :

Lastly, it is of the highest importance that, before any
measure of l'arliamentary Reform is brought forward or
supported by the Ministers of the Crown, the means by
which it is to be carried should be very carefully con-
sidered. An abortive attempt made by the Government
to effect a change in the Constitution must inevitably
produce mach evil, and might lead to even fatal results,
so that the responsibility of the Ministry that brings for-
ward such a proposal would be very great. But, unless
am entirely mistaken in the views I have endeavoured to
explain in this and the preceding chapter, a measure of
Parliamentary Reform, in order to be good and safe, ought
not to be limited to merely extending the privileges of the
people, but ought also to furnish securities against the
overthrow of the balance of the Constitution by the undue
extension of democratic power.
A hill framed upon this principle must, however, contain
among its provisions some that would be unpalatable to
each of the two great divisions under which political
parties in this country may be classed. If such s bill,
therefore, were brought forward by any Minister in the
ordinary manner, that is to say, without having secured
the previous concurrence of the leaders of different

parties, there would be no probability, or rather no possi-
bility, of its success. If proposed by a Conservative
Minister ( which is most unlikely), it would he viewed
with jealousy by the majority of the nation ; and
those parts of it which were designed as a safeguard against
democracy, coming from such hands, without the concur-
rence of the known friends of popular privileges, would
provoke an opposition that could hardly be surmounted.
If, on the other hand, any large measure of Parliamentary
Reform were brought forward by a NVhig or Radical Ad-
ministration, without concert with the Conservative party,
they must be expected to oppose it, since their opinions
would naturely lead them to take this course. but the
resistance of this great party could be overcome only by
the strenuous support of a still larger and more powerful
party. This there would be no chance of forming, in the
present state of the country, without obtaining the co-
operation of the great body of persons who hold ultra-
democratic opinions; while their assistance could not be
expected, unless for a measure from which all that would
be distasteful to them had been omitted.

Hence it may fairly be concluded, that no bill making
any considerable change in our representative system is
ever likely to be carried through Parhanment, unless it is
either adopted by the general consent of political parties,
as a compromise between their conflicting views, or else is
of so violent a nature as to secure the energetic support of
the great democratic party. There would be no prospect
of carrying a new Reform Bill of this last description
through both Houses of Parliament without a fearful
struggle, or without the use of means of a character more
or less revolutionary. Little doubt can be entertained on
this point by those who will consider how great would be
the strength of the Conservative party, when reinforced by
that numerous and powerful body of men who would be
driven into their ranks by the proposal of a highly demo-
cratic measure of Parliamentary Reform. The danger to
which the country would be exposed by a fierce and pro.
lunged contest on this question, and the amount of evil it
ntubt certainly produce, can hardly be exaggerated.
After admitting the defeats of the last Reform
IWI, and attributing them partially to the
violent opposition of the Tories, ho pro-
ceeds :

At the same time, it would be most unjust to throw the
whole blame of the struggle by which the Reform Bill was
carried upon the Tory• party. It must in fairness be admitted,
that the violence of some of the partisans of the measure
war well calculated to increase the alarm which its magni-
tude might reasonably create, even in men influenced by
no selfish considerations, but only by an honest concern
for the good of 'the country. Sufficient anxiety was not

felt by many of the reformers to reconcile adversaries of
this class to what was, in truth, shazardons experiment,—
an experiment which I believe it to have been absolutely
necessary to make, but of which the result could not fail
to be a matter of anxiety, not alone to its opponents, but
also to those of its supporters who understood its real
character.

The error committed by the Tory party, in IR3I, seems
therefore to me to have been natural and pardonable ; but
it ought not the less on that account to be a warning to
them not again to fall into a similar mistake. To avoid
doing so they ought to consider dispassionately the present
state of the country, and the direction in which the tide
of public opinion is setting on the subject of Parliamentary
Reform. Looking with this view to the declarations of
candidates on the hustings, and to the result of the recent
elections, it must be admitted that they afford clear evi-
dence that a general desire does exist among the people
for further changes in the constitution of the House of
Commons, though this desire does not at present seem to
be very strong or to be founded on a sense of any real
evils arising from causes that such changes would remove,
and is to a great extent factitious.

Lord Grey's estimate of the Tory party in the
reign of George I. is substantially the same
as that we submitted to our readers some seven
weeks since. It was perfectly " natural " that
men trained up during the first French Revo-
lution should be "alarmed" at "the magni-
tude " of the change proposed ; and, indeed,
if his lordship's opinions are so fairly stated
as he says in his extract from the North
British Review, we do not see that he is justi-
fied in his warning to their present representa-
tives :

No one will now deny that it was a great experiment.
No one will deny that in some respects its opponents
judged it more truly, and saw further into its consequences,
than its promoters. For ourselves we confess that, ap-
proving it as we did and do, believing it to have been a
just, a wise, and a necessary measure, tracing in the main
to its secondary influences the rapid progress of reforms
in other lines, we yet see in it several dangers, drawbacks,
and extensive seeds of future and questionable change,
which we did not see when it was passed. We acknow-
ledge much weight and wisdom in many of the hostile
arguments, which at the time we scouted as the mere
dictates of selfishness and folly ; and we look back with
something like remorse and shame at the violence of our
language, the acrimony of cur feelings, the imperfection of
our philosophy, and the shortness of our vision. We were
blind to much that our adversaries saw ; we were obsti-
nately deaf to many representations that ought to have
been listened to with deference and profit; and if the
thing had to be done again, we should act with greater
modesty and temperance, with far less confidence, and far
more misgiving.—North British Review, August, 1854.

If all political discussions were conducted in
this admirable spirit hardly any changes would
be formidable.

Lord Grey's proposal is that Parliamentary
Reform should be submitted to a Royal Com-
mission, composed of the leading statesmen
of all parties. Of so equitable and patriotic
a suggestion we can express no disapproval
and if Lord Grey, with his long political ex-
perience, does not think it impracticable, it is
not for us to say so.
Lord Grey has devoted a considerable por•
tion of his work to the question of Ministerial
patronage, to which he !seems to look for the
restoration of that Government influence
which was destroyed by the abolition of close
boroughs. This is too extensive a subject to
discuss at the close of our review, and we shall,
perhaps, return to it hereafter. Wo may
state, summarily, that his lordship is opposed
to the system of competitive examinations for
the Civil Service, and wishes to see more posts
to which Ministers can appoint at their own
discretion. This is the only chapter in the
volume of the wisdom of which we entertain
any doubt. In his lordship's general views
we fully concur. He is a disciple of De Toc-
queville and Remusat, and, as such, a sincere
and sagacious friend to constitutional princi-
ples. Men sometimes require to he reminded
what these principles are. Every Government
which is not absolute is not necessarily con-
stitutional. ' The term represents more than a
mere negation. It signifies a Government
composed of constituent parts. The elements
of the English Government are the Crown, the
aristocracy—titled and untitled—the middle
classes, and the lower classes. To each of
these only so much representation can be ac-
corded as is consistent with the due promi-
nence of the rest. At present every one of
the four has only a limited share ; and so to
increase any one of them as to make it virtu-
ally superior to the others, would be to over-
throw the Ealanee and to repudiate Constitu-
tional Government. We can understand those
who do repudiate it, either from the kingly or
the popular point of view. But what we can•

161

not understand is that class of politicians
who, while professing to think Constitutional
Government synonymous with rational free- .
dom, uphold changes which render the estab-
lishment of democracy curly a question of
time. The eyes of all such must be opened
by his lordship's essay, of which not the least
valuable passage is that wherein the peril of
" little changes" is pointed out with that
clear and forcible logic which attests mastery
of the subject. That man must be either
knave or fool who, after reading these pages,
would seek to mend the Constitution by mul-
tiplying mob constituencies.

7'eneriffe, an Astronomer's Experiment : or,
Specialities of a Residence above the Clouds.
By C. Piazzi Smyth, F.R.S.S.,ISte. Loudon :
Reeve.

A LEARNED professor undertaking a "light
book of travel " irresistibly reminds a reader
of those elephantine gambols by which
Johnson's domestic endearments are reported
to have been characterised. Instead of an
affectionate embrace in the one instance, you
got a hug worthy of a brown bear, and in the
other you are struck breathless by a scientific
diagnosis that is meant only for a lively saran
of original genius and untiring industry.
Our learned author, who conducted the ex-
pedition the events of which are related
in the volume before us, is amusingly tech-
nical in all his terms. He starts from
the " parallels " of the trade-wind, talks of
" cumuloni," and of " cumulostrati " clouds;
calculates in millions the number of "
we-
dusie" to a given "stratum," and the number
of " diatomes " in the stomachs of the medusa; ;
describes the sea " scintillating with stellar-
" looking points," and the moment he enters
his hotel on shore notes the " vesicular
basalt" wherewith it is paved, and, with
the keenest of eyes, detects a "parasitic or
"terminal crater," a " volcanic blowing cone,"
and a " sympathetic eruption." Not that this
detracts from the interest of the book Tout an
contraire, it gives a scientific zest to it, which
though occasionally apt to pall, will be as-
cepted as the amiable weakness of a distin-
guished saran, from whom a learned essay
upon the outer ring of Saturn, or cn the vol-
canoes of the moon, might be more reason-
ably expected than a light and descriptive
account of a two months' " residence above
the clouds."

But the account of the astronomer's experi-
ment, although in great part interspersed with
the incidents of travel, is mainly devoted to
the chief object of the expedition, which was
to ascertain in what degree astronomical ob-
servations can lse improved by " eliminating
" the lower third part of the atmosphere."
Newton, in his " Optics," was the first who sug-
gested the probability that a serene and_
quiet air, pre-eminently fit for astronomical
observation, would be found to exist " on
" the tops of the highest mountains above the
" grosser clouds." But the probability sug-
gested by that master-mind was disregarded
and denied until this expedition was under-
taken, the result of which has been practically
to confirm the remarkable prescience exhibited
by Newton. "Pascal's suggestion," observes Mr.
Siny th, "of a mountain ascent, barometer in
" hand, produced an epoch in the science of
" pneumatics. Newton's idea of going up
" with a telescope may be of more signal ad-
" vantage still to astronomy, if it be energe-
" tically carried out into practice." The
truth is, the atmosphere at the tops of
high mountains has been " sadly misunder-
stood." The cold, wet mist invariably enve-
loping mountains at a certain altitude has led
to the hasty generalisation that " the summits
" of mountains are misty and wet in direct
" proportion to their height." The result
of the expedition treated of in this volume
satisfactorily dissipates that notion, and tends
conclusively to prove that, above the level of
these " grosser clouds " alluded to by Newton,
moisture " suddenly and greatly decreases to
" more than African dryness." Such an atmo-
sphere is of course most favourable to astro-
nomical observation, and science in all r ro-
be bility will now be greatly benefited by the
discovery of this fact.

162

The Professor of Practical Astronomy in
the University of Edinburgh was the fittest
person to undertake such an experiment as
the ascent of the Peak of Teueriffe, and to render
us an account of his astronomical observations
above the clouds. His previous expeditions at
the Cape had given him that practical experi-
ence so essential to the success of such an
undertaking, while his high scientific attain-
ments peculiarly fitted him for the conduct of
the proposed expedition. It was in May,
1858, that the Admiralty, upon the recom-
mendation of the Astronomer Royal, intrusted
Professor Smyth with 500/., and no instruc-
tions, and towards the end of June in that
year the learned Professor, accompanied by
his wife, set sail fin. Teneriffe in Mr. Stephen-
son's yacht Titania, whicb, with a liberality
that did honour to him, had been placed at the
entire disposal of the astronomer. The expe
dition arrived in safety at Santa Cruz, and it
having been resolved to send the yacht round
to Orotava—a port on the other side of the
island, and from which the ascent of the Peak
is most easily achieved—on the 1 lth July the
instruments and camp equipage were safely
landed, and three days afterwards, with more
than twenty horses and mules, and as many
muleteers, the ascent was commenced. Our
estimate of the Professor as a practical man
is best sceu in his little losS of time to attain
the object of his journey. With true scientific
thirst he rested not until he had "eliminated
" the lower third part of the atmosphere."
The ascent was first directed to the top of the
Guajara, a mountain nearly 9,000 feet high,
and four miles south of the " Pico," the sum-
mit of which was unattainable by mules, and
the abundant escape of hot vapours from
which, it was believed, would seriously interfere
with the accuracy of telescopic vision. So the
Gutijara for first operations was agreed upon,
and on the third day the whole party started.
With the exception of loose lava and dead
wood, the ascent was easy—a gentle slope ;in
fact the whole island is one slope, at from
5 deg. to 12 deg. from the level of the sea to
the top of the world-famous Peak. The top
of the Guajara was reached in one day with-
out any remarkable incident, except that the
mules, unaccustomed to the weight of delicate
scientific instruments, became unusually
spiteful, and either kicked into one another's
1 tad or relieved themselves by an occasional roll
•;er the loose lava. The top reached, the obser-
vatory was at once established, and the Equa-
torial telescope mounted in position. At that
height the temperature was still high, 74 deg.
Fah., but in the dryness of the air there was a
remarkable change. The depression of the dew-
point from 10 deg. in Orotava had increased
to 50 deg. "No wonder," writes the learned
Professor, " we felt our lips cracking, our hair
" frizzling, our nails becoming brittle, and
" saw each other's faces scarlet ; for the sun
" too was now shining down vehemently
" from a high altitude, where the dust
" haze no longer dimmed his rays."
Cracked lips and frizzled hair were not the
least ill the scientific flesh was heir to iu
these attitudes of drought—" over aridity de-
" stroyed the cohesive power of animal
" matter," which means that the glue of all
the Professor's packing-cases gave way, the
handles came off, and the sides carne out, and
great occasionally was the fall thereof. Then
the cork of a bottle of Canada balsam would
shrink " to such an extent, as to let out the
" sticky fluid amongst microscopical glasses,
" and glue them all into one odious lump ":

Worse still, the wooden base of our electrometer, in
shrinking on the glass bell, had broken it; and finally the
well•seasoned mahogany box of the magnetometer had
contracted on its plate glass cover, and forcibly held it in.
Fortunately the glass, being half an inch thick, resisted
the pressere, until we could come to its assistance with
chisels and pen-knives, and cut it out safely from so mur-
abrous a grip.

" These little incidents," observes the Pro-
fessor, with an eye to business, " has their
" scientific uses; for our wet bulb therm°.
" meter only gave the measure of dryness at
" the instant of observation ; while the effects
" on our baggage acted, though vulgarly, the
" part of a cumulative instrument, and indi-
" cated the sum total of drought fur the entire
" period of our mountain residence."
Some curious atmospheric effects were wit.
n-Ased at this elevation. Ahuge stratum of cloud.