The Press.
London, England, 1858-04-10 00:00:00

THE PRESS,

THE WEEK.

THE allusions of Lord DERBY to the India Bill in his Mansion-house
speech of last Monday, were admirably calculated to calm down the
acerbity of hostile criticism which was becoming too prevalent. Since
the delivery of that speech the only remarkable feature has been the
vexation of a few bitter opponents of the Ministry, that the Cabinet
will not make a standing-or-falling question of every clause of the
Bill, and resign office rather than allow of the least alteration.
The Government will meet Parliament in the spirit of that speech.
The very object of the frank and bold proceeding. of casting the Bill
upon the table before the recess, was to allow time for criticism of
every kind, in order that, when Parliament re-assem!ded, the Government
might have gathered the opinions of many competent judges, and
might be prepared to act on those opinions. It is probable that, when the
second reading is proposed, those clauses which have excited the
most hostile remark will be modified, and the whole question placed
in such a position as to make it difficult to refuse assent.
At the same time it must not be forgotten that there are three
parties in the House of Commons ready to unite their forces to defeat
the Bill Those who, for good personal reasons, wish to bring Lord
PALMERSTON back again ; 2. Those wbo, with Mr. BRIGHT, are against a
d want a single responsible Minister; 3. The adherents of
tho,,E4tl India Company, who will oppose this and every Bill. If
these.three parties, united, should prove sufficiently strong to defeat
the Second Reading, the question would still remain whether Lord
PALMERSTON could gain more support for his measure. Should his
Lordship not succeed in this, then the effect of both votes would be,
a declaration that the House of Commons could not see its way to
legislate for India at all this year.
The present administration of our Foreign-office has been
eminently successful. Lord MALmEsBuRY has cared less for mere diplo-
macy than his predecessor, and more for practical results. In the
few weeks which have elapsed since the accession of the present
Government to office, WATT has been released, PARK has been
released, and HODGE has been released. Those who had lain for
months in prison, and whose very lives were in jeopardy, are now free.
The only questions remaining are, the legality of their capture ; and,
if it were not legal, then the claim for compensation which naturally
follows. And there is no reason to fear that there will be any back-
wardness on the part of the Foreign-office to enforce the just claims of
British subjects, whether at Naples or elsewhere.

Unless circumstances should compel a change, the CHANCELLOR of
the EXCHEQUER will probably make his financial statement on Friday
next. There is no ground for expecting any novelty, or any startling
proposals. The chief difficulty of the case arises simply from the fail•
ing due of some of Mr. GLAnsToNE's Exchequer Bonds ; and the general
opinion is, that the simplest course will be merely to renew them.
Every. one can see that the extraordinary circumstances of the past
year must have precluded a surplus; and it will be surprising if they
do riot: sooner or later, necessitate a small addition to our debt ; but,
wP3ther funded or unfunded, it would be premature to attempt at
present to indicate.

•
16
Mr. A. H. OAKES has been appointed to the.. vacant Clerkship in
the Librarian's department of the Foreign-office. ""The selection was
made by competitive examination. Lord CLARENDON, before he quitted
Downing-street, had named two candidates, but had not selected the
third. Lord MALMESBURY nominated Mr. OASES as the third, and in
the examination he proved successful.

The following paragraph has just appeared in the Art-Journal :
THE WELLINGTON Morrusrmer.—There are strange rumours afloat concerning this
work The thousand tongues " are noising it abroad that, notwithstanding the awards
of prizes in Westminster-hall, the competition will lead to nothing, except • return to
the original scheme of giving the commission to Baron Marochotti ; indeed, it is
added, that the arrangement was " in progress " when the competition was mooted ;
'and it is to be carried out now that the competitive designs are either sent home or
shelved into one of the ante-rooms of the new Palace at Westminster. We cannot
credit a statement so utterly opposed to every principle of honour; we do not believe
that any Government would dare to commit so gross an outrage on common decency.
We therefore abstain from more than a mere note to state that such a rumour is in
circulation.

If this story be true, here endeth the third abortive attempt of the
Welsh Baronet who recently managed " her Majesty's Works and
Buildings."
1. He would cleanse the Thames, and complete the main drainage
of London. To do this he set up a Metropolitan Board of Woras, and
when that Board of Works had formed some plans, he created a second
Board, or Commission of Engineers, to revise and amend the plans of
the first Board. The consequence was, that we had two plans and two
Boards, each objecting to the other ; and after two years and four
months have passed away, we seem as far off as ever.
2.• He would build some new palaces for the Foreign office and
the War-office ; and he persuaded the Treasury to allow him to offer
premiums, and to fill Westminster-hall with designs. Tho artists
naturally concluded that all 'this was real ; but it turned out in the
enu to he all a sham. Some premiums were awarded, but the erection
of the new offices is to be given to Mr. PENNETHORNE, just as if there
had been no competition, and as if sixty or a hundred artists had not
spent much time and money on the competition. And now,
3. It appears that the Wellington Monument is going to be managed
in the same manner. All these affairs, however, took 'place under the
late Government, which must have allowed Sir BENJAMIN in these
freaks to fool away from 30,0001. to 50,000/. of the public money.

APRIL 10, 1858.

We did injustice—i.e., we awarded more or less than justice would
have prescribed—to the Saturday Review in our last number. Finding
in that journal Lord Jo as pitied for his failure—Lord PALMERSTON scoffed
at as one that has been " found out "—and Lord DERBY ridiculed, as
" burying Derbyisin in the cross-roads with a stake through it "—we
naturally concluded that JOHN BRIGHT was the only hope left to the
Reviewer. The Conservatives, the Palmerston Liberals, and the Russell
Whigs, being all smothered beneath the Reviewer's rotten eggs, there
seemed nothing left but that little clique of " advanced'Liberals " which
fights under the banner of BRIGHT and ROEBUCK and MILNER GIBSON.
And to that clique we accordingly consigned the Review. But nothing
so practical, nothing so near the confines of common sense, will suit
that journal. At the very moment when we were placing it under the
leadership of JOHN BRIGHT, the Review was showing its indepen-
dence of all leaders, and all parties, great or small, by demolishing
BRIGHT himself, as it had previously demolished PALMERSTON, and
DERBY, and RUSSELL. In its number of last week, the Saturday Review
thus puts down JOHN BRIGHT :

Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden cannot get out of their heaths their former position as
leaders of one of the belligerent classes. . . . Whatever it be that is under discus-
sion—the defences of the country, or what not—they have an incorrigible propensity to
turn it into a due question, and make themselves the leaders of the aggrieved
class. .. . Mr. Bright cannot forego the opportunity of proposing a class League,
and putting himself forward as the head of it. . . . Every man, he says, who is not
prepared to take part in this League, should at once, as the only alternative, emigrate
beyond the reach of English expenditure and taxation. There is no help for it but a
general exodus from this Egypt. Ages of ever-deepening pauperism are the assured pro-
spect of those who remain behind. Such is the fulfilment of all the promises made by
Mr. Bright and his associates when they were advocating Free Trade. Such is the
plenty and happiness from which the working classes were excluded by the barrier of
Protection !

This is very fair. It is just and true. But we must come back to
the Reviewer himself. We are threatened, in its pages, with a speedy
onset of " the great Liberal party," " with fitting leaders and a dis-
ciplined army." But are these leaders to spring out of the ground ;
or to start forward, from Rugby or the Temple, with beards scarcely
apparent ? For, seeing that RUSSELL and PALMERSTON, DERBY and
Joux BRIGHT, are now alike dismissed in disgrace, it " passes our
comprehension," as Sir ROBEhT PEEL used to say, where these " fitting
leaders" are to come from. But, never mind ! doubtless, when the
right moment has come, the good folks at 39, Southampton-street, will
provide us with the " fitting leaders," as well as with the " disciplined
army."

What have the " Liberals" and the " Opposition" (if there be one)
done during the Easter Recess ? Just nothing. They have held their
peace, and have attempted neither demonstrations, nor great popular
meetings, nor attacks on the Ministry. Nothing can possibly be
calmer than the current of our domestic politics ; the world has rolled
on quietly, and without the least turmoil, although Lord PALMERSTON,
who was written up as being indispensable, is reduced to the ranks of
a private gentleman, and actively superintends the affairs of Broad-
lands instead of those of the Biitish empire. Dangerous as a Minister
and delusive as a politician, the ex-Premier is excellent as a country
gentleman, and we trust that he may have a lengthened enjoyment of
his paternal seat, free from the anxieties of Ministerial toils. Far dif.
ferent has been the last Easter Recess from the same anniversary
holidays twenty, fifteen, ten, or even five years ago. In those days, if
a Conservative Cabinet came suddenly into power, and if an " Easter
Recess" shortly afterwards occurred, there was " agitation," and
it was announced in " second editions" that all Little Pedlington was
on the verge of an outbreak. "Brutus" and " Cassius" gave up pri-
vate theatricals, and " starred " it in parochial meetings ; " Oliver
Cromwell" laid down his needle, took up the pen, and, with the help
of " Mr. Editor," addressed himself to an imaginary Charles
1., while " John Hampden" showed extreme readiness to spill
in the public cause the last drop of his ink. Such was
the case with the " Liberals" during the last few years.
How conies it that so greet a change has intervened? The answer is
easy : they have exhausted their capital, and they have not resources
for further speculations. It is useless for them to talk of a " New
Reform Bill," as two can play at that game, and the country would
prefer Conservative to Radical Reform. In foreign politics, after
the conduct of Lords PALMERSTON and CLARENDON in the Walewski
despatch, the Liberals have nothing to say. The " Irish question "is
at an end, and on social progress, Administrative Reform, and the
national interests, the Conservatives are ready to give battle to the
Liberals. The sum of all this is, that the age is moving
onwards. Old stereotyped cries have lost their charm, and there are no
passwords now in politics. It is an age bent on solid realities.
Good government is what the British public wants, and it is
cheerfully ready to accept it from either side. Comparing the past
and present, it is, certainly, most instructive to observe the change in
the times. Not one " indignation " meeting has been held during the
recess by the Liberals. In Radical Marylebone the friends of Sir
BENJAMIN HALL find it as much as they can do to organize some suiall
appearance of support for the demagogic Baronet. The metropolitan
constituencies, the great towns of the north, and the hives of manufac
turing industry, are perfectly quiescent. Surely there must be some
partie.nlar cause for such quiet on the part of the Liberals, as con-
trasted with their conduct in other " Easter recesses" during the last
twenty years. That cause is simply, that four times within eight years
the Liberals, with all their boasted strength and arrogant self-
complacency, have broken down. The fact cannot be gainsaid that
the Queen and the country have been obliged to go to the Conserva-
tives for aid. Lord PALMERSTON has lost his popularity; the prestige
of Lord JOHN RUSSELL is dimmed ; the place-hunting " Liberals " dis-
like Mr. CoaDzx and Mr. Baton, and these latter distrust the ejected