The Press.
London, England, 1856-10-11 00:00:00

To the want of labour is added want of capital :

There is no opportunity for great capitalists because
there is no labour, or, rather, no labour suitable to be had
at prices that would make the results remunerative.
Nearly all the colonists who came out with capital have
failed. The little men who settle and clear their plot do
so with their own hands; they are often waiters at cafés,
or workmen on the roads, or disbanded soldiers, who have
scraped together a few hundred francs, and, in spite of the
Jardin d'Essai and the Imperial prizes, their first crops
are of a very indifferent character. They have to learn
their trade.

The Abd.el-Kader of 1856 in the Metidja is the dwarf
palm tree. If Louis Napoleon is prepared to clear six
hundred square miles of forest—for the roots are as bad
as those of forest trees—he will get rid of one great ob•
stacle to the establishment of a European population in
this plain. This is a somewhat more arduous task than
Changarnier or Lamoriciere accomplished, for you cannot
drive away 10,000 wild palms by cutting down a few hun-
dreds of them, and a razzia of fire and smoke among the
jujubes won't prevent their reappearance next spring.
When this has been done he must go further if he would
produce cotton or tobacco in large quantities. He must
build reservoirs in the hills, and dig canals through the
plain. The rains which fall from October to March may
sufficiently saturate the earth to carry a corn crop through
the heats of summer and up to a July harvest, but nothing
but artificial irrigation will cover the Metidja with cotton
and tobacco.

If this were done, and a quarter of a million of French-
men were at work tilling the land and tending the mills,
the Metidju would doubtless be a miracle of wealth. But
a miracle is required to fulfil these conditions, and it is
yet unwrought.
France has done wonderful things in Africa. Cities, and
military roads, and bridges, and vast draining dykes rise
into active being wherever her armies set their foot ; per•
haps she may even do this. But if it is to be done within
the next hundred years, it must be done by the Govern-
ment. With us the energy of the people does everything,
and we ask no more of our Government than to give us
security and freedom for its exercise. The French have
not the spirit of colonisation, and at present, although
every industrious colonist is thriving and healthy, coloni-
sation makes no progress.
The probable late of Algiers is hinted at by the
same correspondent. Describing the city, he writes :
Moorish Algiers consists of passages that we should
never think of calling streets. Wych-street or Holywell-
street, diminished in breadth till the protruding first
floors nearly touched each other, would best exemplify
them. Little beams of wood perfect the contiguity ; so
that the whole of the upper city forms a connected mass.
It would take a great deal of shaking to bring all this
down, and it has, in fact, withstood some very sharp
shocks. Not so the new French town. At the first tremble-
'nest de ler►e it would all fall to pieces like piled cards.
The Place du Gouvernement, being built upon arches,
would certainly share the general ruin, and in ten minutes
the whole of the French town, with the bronze Duke of
Orleans, and the column of the eagle, would be as utterly
demolished as the dominion of the Turks. Now, there is
a tradition in Algiers that an earthquake happens every
sixty years. It is just fifty-eight years since the last great
Algerine earthquake took place. Blidah some time ago
fell, with the destruction of 1,500 people. A tremendous
catastrophe of this kind has within the last few weeks
occurred in the province of Constantine. Collo and
I)jedjelli were nearly shaken down, and many lives were
lost. But the French official papers, out of tenderness for
the nerves of coming colonists, say little or nothing of this
matter. Philippeville is even now undergoing a succes•
mon of small secousses. it is by no means impossible, or
even extremely unlikely, that within the next two years
the whole of the French town may be a heap of rubbish.

ADVANTAGE is to be taken of Mlle. Piccolomini's
passage through town, at the end of the month, to
give two performances at Her Majesty's Theatre.
Selections from Don Pasquale and La Figlia
del Reggintento constitute the attractions of one
night, and the other will of course be devoted to La
Traviata, which, now that it is pronounced " o
dreadful," must be witnessed by those who have not
hitherto had that advantage.
CREIIORNE GARDENS have closed after a most suc-
cessful season. The patronage of the Queen and
the various members of the Royal Family, have
raised these gardens on flower show days to a posi-
tion in which they may fairly compete with the
Regent's-park or Crystal Palace.

SATURDAY,

gorrtspoullente.

ELECTORAL INEQUALITIES.
TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS."
Sir—lt is one thing to attack a political system
which has grown up gradually in a country on the
ground of a real or supposed discrepancy between its
practice and its theory, and quite another thing to
make the same objection against a system which has
just sprung spick-and-span from the brain of a set of
doctrinaires. In the one case it may be supposed
that the manners and customs of the country have
adjusted themselves to the anomalous system, and
therefore any extensive change may, by disturbing
the prescriptive balance, produce unforeseen disasi
trous consequences ; but a new system always rests
its claim on the public upon its theory, and therefore
it is only asking its promoters to carry out their
project honestly, to insist that the practical working
and the theory should be in harmony. Besides,
when an old constitutional system is to be removed
and a rationalistic one substituted in its place, the
logical carrying out of the theory is, on the whole,
the best thing within our reach. Hence it appears
to me that a Conservative who deprecated the Reform
Bill is quite entitled, without any loss of consistency,
to call upon the Reformers to carry out their prin-
ciples, and to reform their Reform Bill.
Now, it is not difficult to prove that the Reform
Bill, es it stands, is nothing more or less than a
great political hoax. It gives practical expression
to none of those principles of equity by which the
Reformers professed to be actuated, but is in direct
opposition to them. The cardinal principle of the
Reform Bill was equal representation—that is to say,
that different localities should return members in
proportion to the numbers of their constituencies.
I don't enter into the question here of the suffrage,
that I may also hereatter demonstrate to involve
injustice ; but it is undeniable that the Reformers
held that, the qualification being fixed, the right of
election should be distributed in a just proportion
among the electors. Indeed, that it was not so
under the old system was the principal argument
used by its assailants; and that argument, and
terror, mainly contriouted in effecting its overthrow.
Old Garton and Old Larum were difficult anomalies
to justify, as it did not very clearly appear how an
omnious full of freeholders should return a member
of Parliament, when Birmingham, although she
manufactured idols for all Polynesia and buttons for
the United Kingdom, bad not the same privilege.
But are matters so much better now? Just turn to
the almanac, and see how the purists have carried
out their principle. I am somewhat versed in
mathematics, and have tried with all my might to
find a series or a curve which could let me in to the
numerical relation between the number of electors
in different places and the number of members they
return, but without effect ; and I doubt not that
Babbage's machine, with its million of millions of
circulating decimals, would fail to solve the problem.
The fact is, there really is no principle in the matter
except one, and it is a principle of glaring, undeniable
injustice.
This principle of injustice is the monstrous dispro-
portion between the number of members returned by
the towns and by the counties.
According to the almanac, there were in 1855, in
England, 482,38; electors for counties, representing
a population of 9,770,210. These returned 144
members. Now, the number of electors for the
English towns is nearly the same, namely, 418,785,
but they represent a population only of 7,151,670,
which itself is a palpable injustice : but the iniquity
of the case consists in this, that the towns return
319 members. In Wales, 38,342 county electors
return 15 members, while 11,520 town electors re-
turn only one less. In Ireland, 149,854 county
electors return 04 members, while 29,634 town
electors return :39 members. In Scotland, just as if
to prove that the Reform Bel is not even consistent
in its injustice, 49,149 county electors return 30 mem-
bers, while 49,044 town electors return 23 members.
But this approximation to fair play is so small as to
leave the aggregate injustice untouched and inde-
fensible ; for, taking the whole United Kingdom, the
figures stand thus,-508,989 town electors return 395
members, whereas 719,732 county electors return
only 253. Therefore, by the rule of three, it follows
that if the counties were to return members in the
same proportion as the towns, there would require
to be an increase of 305 county members.
Now, I think it full time this injustice should he
put an end to. lam not aware that the voters in
towns are a superior race to the voters in the country.
I do not believe they are more virtuous, and I am
convinced they are more liable to democratic pas•
sions, and therefore the less safe to be intrusted
with a preponderance of political power. If there is
to be any partiality, it would be safer, for the sake of
steady government, to exercise it in favour of the
county constituencies. I argue, however, for IR)
injustice to either class, but simply for equality. I
ask the Whigs to carry out their own princi plea,

OCTOBER 11, 1856.

really and honestly to take the sense of the country,
and not to disfranchise one class of the population
by giving twice the say in the government of the
country to the other class. But, as I know it is in
vain to expect the Whigs to be honest against their
interest, I propose that the Conservatives should
take the initiative, and turn Reformers.—l am, &c.,
J. A. G.

THE EXPEDIENCY OF INTERVENTION.
TO THE EDITOR OF "TILE PRESS."
Sir,—" Trouble your head with your own affairs,"
as we are told in the words of an old song. It is a
trite axiom, and worthy of attention and considera-
tion. It is socially and politically true—and, strange
to say, it governs, or at least ought to govern, our
social and political rights equally and respectively
alike. In social life, unless any danger is likely to
result to ourselves from any misdeeds or eccentrici-
ties perpetrated by our neighbours, we are but too
well pleased to leave them alone and allow them to
do, think, and act for themselves in such manner as
it may seem agreeable to them—we are always un-
commonly chary, not only of actual interference in
their domestic concerns, but even of tendering our
advice or good actions when we are called upon by
them to do so. It seems to be indigenous to
humanity not to intrude upon nor interfere unne-
cessarily with the domestic joys or grievances of
another party. And if this be true with regard to
our social condition, and tends to the preservation of
friendship and goodwill among men, as it un-
doubtedly does, how much the more is it likely to
benefit a nation when practically applied to its go-
vernment, foreign as well as domestic—to its internal
as well as to its external policy. The policy of non
intervention is in the abstract a just one, and should
as a rule govern our social and political actions. I
do not, however, mean to imply that it should be
adopted at all times and in all cases; as, of course,
on some occasions it would be suicidal and fatal to
the best interests of the country. But in this
country, especially as regards its foreign policy, in-
tervention has been the rule, and I apprehend that
no one will be found rash enough to say it has suc-
ceeded ; therefore, just for the sake of variety, I
should like to see how we should exist were inter-
vention to be made the exception and not the rule.
Merely for the sake:of novelty, even if for no better
mason, it would be refreshing to have a change in
this respect.
But our foreign policy has become a matter much
too serious to jest about; and, if it be continued,
must before long lead to serious and grievous re-
sults. It is a vexatious, worrying, frivolous, and
meddlesome policy, utterly unworthy of a nation like
Great Britain, and calculated to deteriorate and im-
pair the character and dignity of the country.
Besides, there is no excuse whatever why this
country should be for ever embroiling herself with
third or fourth rate foreign powers. Were we a con-
tinental nation there might be some slight justifies-
ton for our pursuing such a policy. But we are just
the reverse of being a continental power; we are an
insular one, separate and detached from any foreign
power whatever. We are not consistent either in
our political relations with foreign powers. We
have laid it down not only as a moral but as a
political rule that no weak power ought to be
oppressed by the stronger—an excellent proposition,
theoretically considered, but, practically, simply
absurd and ridiculous. Was not the late war with
Russia justified by England on the ground of de-
fending the weak against the strong ? and now, what
are we about tO do ourselves ? Why nothing less
than the sending our vessels of war into the Bay of
Naples in order to dictate to King Ferdinand how he
shall govern his own subjects ! A more despotic
act I cannot imagine, nor a more unjustifiable one
on the part of a country which prides itself upon
freedom of thought and liberty of action. Why, we
reverse our own political creed, and the strong
ninon insults and harasses the weaker one.
Of course I am not going to be the apologist for
the actions of the King of the Two Sicilies. That
they are despotic and tyrannical must be admitted ;
but I cannot see, even if they continue to be so,
what possible good can accrue to this country from
our objecting to King Ferdinand ruling his subjects
as ho pleases. Until we see that danger to our-
s3lves is likely to ensue from our non-interference,
we ought, I maintain, to remain neutral, and keep
ourselves aloof from such political Quixotism,
instead of making ourselves the ridicule of the
world, by acting, as we are continually doing, the
part of a political knight errant. Are we so jealous
o, the continued occupation of the Italian peninsula
by the armies of France and Austria in Central Italy
aid the Legations, that we are desirous of occupying
a portion ourselves ? If so, in the name of honesty,
I3t us at once frankly declare it.
I do trust, sir, that in the ensuing session of Par-
liament what ought and should be the foreign
Tolley of this country shall be clearly and concisely
defined. It is manifestly impossible that things can
go on as they have been. If it be true that our