The Press.
London, England, 1856-09-06 00:00:00

The stillness of the political atmospin‘re.
according ttl Mr. ROEBUCK, is but " the
" torrent's smoothness ere it dash below."
He anticipates that the time is coming when
" the great nationalities of Europe will rise up
" as one man against the oppressive despotisms
" which now weigh them down." This is
language which the Liberal party in this
country have been so long accustomed to use,
that they seem to have lost all sense of its
danger and its absurdity.
Since the settlement of Europe in
there have been two great insurrectionary
movements, both originating in France. Those
risings, however, have been so far from con-
tributing to the progress of political liberty,
that they have had the direct effect of checking
it, and have tended to strengthen those prin-
ciples of absolute government they were in
tended to overthrow. The insurrection in
Hungary has thrown that country back for
half a century. Before it broke forth, Hungary,
by the testimony of its most enlightened
public men, was rapidly advancing, not only in
material prosperity, but in the freedom of its
institutions. Unhappily, advantage was taken
of that freedom to precipitate a revolution
which destroyed the flower of her people, and
i❑ the end laid her prostrate at the feet of the
power from which she had vainly endeavoured
to emancipate herself.
What probability is there that the new
rising which our Liberal politicians antici-
pate with so much glee would be attended
with any other result ? A Government might
be overthrown, but the system would remain
unchanged, or would give place to harsher
rule. Those absolute monarchies on the Con-
tinent, which a certain order of shallow politi-
cians among us are inclined to regard as mere
accidents which may be overthrown by a
breath, are the result of causes deeply laid in
the very constitution of the States, and inter-
woven with the whole fabric of society.
This continual laudation of the sacred right
of insurrection is attended by some incon-
venient consequences. It tends to keep alive
a revolutionary spirit on the Continent which
is incompatible with practical progress and
rational liberty. At the same time it has some
effect in rousing the jealousy of the Govern-
ments so grossly abused, and in retarding the
political ameliorations, which with a greater
feeling of security they would not be unwilling
to introduce. _

But it is in our intercourse with other
nations that it operates most perniciously. It
is laid down as a fundamental doctrine by a
very influential portion of our press, that our
diplomacy must be employed for the purpose
of propagating Liberal opinions—a policy
which is so far from effecting its purpose, that
it only operates to deprive England of that
moral influence on the Continent which her
history and her power fairly entitle her to
exercise. At the present moment it is par-
ticularly insisted that only a person of the
most decided Liberal tendencies shall be sent
as our Minister to the Court of Naples. The
effect of such an appointment would at once
be to throw our representative into the arms
of a faction, and to deprive him of all influence
with the Government. Committed to the
espousal of one side in the politics of the
Neapolitan kingdom, he would be unable to
give those moderate counsels which might allay
the violence of contending parties, and bring
about a happier] state of feeling ; or if able to
give such counsels, they would be received by

one side with susnirion. and the other with
discontent. He would be placed in a false
position from being sent out, not as an able
and upright diplomatist, but for purposes of
political propagandism.
This system has in the eud failed wherever it
has been tried. Even second and third. rate
Courts will not submit to have a policy they dis-
trust dictated to them by the representatives of
a foreign power. Through this mischievous
interference the influence of England on the
Continent has fallen to the lowest point, nor
is there the slightest probability that it will be
regained till the governing party in this coun-
try ceases to extol insurrection, and our mis-
sions are employed for their legitimate pur-
pose of promoting friendly relations with the
Governments of those countries wherein they
exist, instead of fostering foreign factions and
encouraging insurrectionary movements.

MR. DISRAELI AND SOCIAL REFORM.
Wncs Mr. DISRAELI directed public attention
specially towards " Administrative Reform,']
certain politicians took occasion to impugn the
soundness of the advice then given with pre-
scient common sense by the Right Hon. Mem-
ber for Bucks. Since that time it has been dis-
covered that questions of administrative and
social reform are exactly those to which the
public will attend ; and what course is then
pursued by the parties who tried vainly to de-
cry the soundness of the public policy traced
out by Mr. DISRAELI ?
The question is asked, " What special claim
" has Mr. DISRAELI to take up such a question
"as social reform ?" The persons asking the
question forget that Mr. DISRAELI was the first
who tried to give it an emphatic prominence
in our political discussions, and the idea of ex-
amining public questions from the practically
" social " as opposed to the abstractedly " po-
litical " point of view, runs from first to last
through all Mr. DisaAELL's literary and Parlia-
mentary exercitations. llis early successes in
the House of Commons were on questions
which he debated in that style. He traced
the consequences of the Penal Laws (passed
originally by the Revolution Whigs), and he
exposed the fallacy of supposing that political
remedies could cure Ireland; and events since
then have completely confirmed his views on
what was called " the Irish difficulty."
Again, too, we might recal attention to the
significant fact that Mr. DISRAELI was the
Member of Parliament who threw strong light
upon the whole of oit consular system. He
showed, on that occasion, the waste of public
money, and the political jobbery of the system.
He described, also, how, by a different " admi-
nistrative system," that important department
might strengthen the arm of the Executive,
and how its resources might be employed for
diplomatic and commercial purposes of na-
tional magnitude. There were many diffi-
culties in obtaining knowled, thr
tion, and the rare research
DISRAELI won him Brea'

diately secured the ear of
mons. He treated the
from a " party " but from
view, and in elucidating

played how deeply he u,
springs which are cum
strati ye Reform."
The tone and matter of
their practical character,

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