The Press.
London, England, 1857-01-17 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1857.

FOR the last three years our relations with
Foreign Powers have engaged a large share of
public attention. This was a natural conse-
quence of the war with Russia, which con-
nected us more closely with the affairs of the
Continent, and showed how important a part
diplomacy must always play in the govern-
ment of the world. With rare exceptions, the
Foreign Policy of England, whatever might be
the rule of her Government at home, has been
essentially Conservative. It has not sought
to breed dissensions in foreign countries that
it might profit by them ; to take part in do-
mestic intrigues, or to set the People against
the Prince. It has loyally maintained friendly
relations with the Governments with which it
held intercourse, and has rather preferred
open rupture to secret enmity and treacherous
machinations.

Believing that there were certain recognised
and positive principles which should regulate
our Foreign Policy, we have laboured to keep
them steadily in view. We hold that it is not
the part of this country to interfere with the
internal affairs of other States, otherwise than
to use our legitimate influence to preserve
their peace, and to favour the welfare and good
government of the people ; that we should
take every opportunity to show our respect fix•
national independence; that our intercourse
with foreign Courts should be sincere and con-
ciliatory ; and that, viewing without the
slightest jealousy or alarm the legitimate growth
and natural expansion of foreign Powers, we
should be prepared to resist any violent and
unscrupulous attack upon the territories of
their weaker neighbours. It is an article of
the Conservative creed that this last object
can never he so surely effected as by a system
of alliances which shall always array against
dangerous ambition a force sufficient to re-
strain it.

We may congratulate the Conservative
party that these principles, after a period of
uncertainty, have prevailed. Our Foreign
Policy is no longer directed to promote revo-
lutionary ideas, or to favour Liberal propagan-
dism. It is not even employed to keep Conti-
nental Courts in a state of disquietude. It
has become moderate, conciliatory, and loyal.
We make this statement with sincere plea-
sure. The change has been gradual, but we
have now every reason to believe that it is
complete. To our view it is of far higher lin-
portanee that our Foreign Policy should be
governed by sage and equitable principles than
that we should have a just ground of accusa-
tion against the Ministers who preside
over it.

As regards this great subject, the Parliament
will assemble with widely different prospects
from those which were before it when it
met last year, and which prevailed even
to the close of the session. It was then im-
possible to tell what course our Foreign Policy

would take. It was guided by no settled prin-
ciples ; it was never explicit,lbut, so far as could
be gathered from its own conduct and as from
the language of its adherents, it held out hopes
of support to the revolutionary spirit of the
Continent, and vaguely favoured the notion
that a struggle was about to arise between the
Governments of certain Continental States and
their subjects, when England would be found
on the side of the latter. We appeal to every
one who studied the language of the Ministerial
press last year, and who recollect the tone of
many Ministerial speakers, whether the above
be not a fair representation of the hopes
excited by the doubtful attitude of our Foreign-
offiee.

We have said that the change has been
gradual, so gradual, that it is not easy to say
when it took effect. It has, as it proceeded,
advanced with accelerated pace. One step has
led naturally to another, and through their
sequence the public have become accustomed
to a policy, the announcement of which would
some months ago have inspired them with
amazement.

A year ago the Ministerialists expressed the
greatest dislike and distrust of Austria, and
nothing seemed more unlikely than that the
Administration of Lord PALmERsTox would
exert itself to the utmost to secure a cordial
alliance with that Power. Yet this has been
done during the recess. A most complete and
cordial understanding now exists between the
Cabinets of London and Vienna. There is no
subject on which they are at variance. Not
even when our Foreign Policy was directed by
Lord CASTLEREAGH. and when the sense of
common danger and common interests bound
the two Courts together, was the alliance
between them more sincere and intimate than
it is at the present time.

Again, the recal of our Legation from Naples
would, it was commonly supposed, be the pre-
lude to an attack on the sovereign indepen-
dence of that kingdom. It was confidently
asserted that, though nothing more should be
done, a demonstration would be made by our
diet, which would be the signal for the dis-
affected to rise in arms, and give our Govern-
ment a pretence for that intervention in the
internal affairs of the kingdom of the Two
Sicilies on which it was supposed our Govern-
ment had determined. In contrast to these
expectations the Legations of England and
France left Naples quietly, and, as no further
step was taken, it was evident that their recal
WAS only intended as a protest against the in-
difference which the Neapolitan Government
had manifested to the advice of a European
Conference. It was the mildest rebuke which,
under the circumstance, the allied Powers
could have administered. It is a proof of the
great moderation which must have prevailed
in their counsels that they took no more
decided and hostile means of expressing their
dissatisfaction. Whether the recal of the
Legations was in itself judicious may be ques-
tioned. It had no influence on the policy of
the Neapolitan Government, and it may have
tended to identify the cause of the State
prisoners, whose sufferings Mr. GLADSTONE so
eloquently revealed, with the policy of inter-
fering with the independent action of a foreign
Power. But we now see that howeveranxious the
allied Governments might have been to amelio-
rate the political condition of Naples, and soften
the lot of the imprisoned patriots, nothing was
farther from their intention than to coerce the

Neapolitan Government, or to excite an insur'
rection against it
The rccal of our Neapolitan Legation has
certainly not tended to strengthen the Liberal
cause in Italy. Lord NORMANBY is now the
principal organ of the English Government in
Italy. The political views of this nobleman
are well known. So far from sharing in the
advanced views of the Italian Liberals, he re-
gards them with the greatest distrust. His
convictions and his sympathies are all on the
side of the Italian Governments, and he re-
gards both their system and conduct as the
inevitable result of the position in which
they are placed, and as much rather entitled
to approval than condemnation.
Of the settlement of the Russian frontier
question we have previously spoken, and have
expressed our cordial approval of a com-
promise which, avoiding extravagant expecta-
tions on either side, has fulfilled the necessities
of European policy, without insisting on
harsh conditions, or wounding the pride of
national sentiment.

The same Conservative policy is visible in
the joint action of the Cabinets of London
and Paris upon the Neufchatel question. The
provisions of the Treaty of Vienna are re-
spected, while the changes made by time are
acknowledged. The honour of the King of
PRUSSIA will be preserved by the unconditional
liberation of the prisoners, and a settlement
will be effected to prevent the occurrence of
any similar complication.
In our relations with the United States an
equally conciliatory spirit may be traced.
Every one must recollect that the difference
between the two Governments threatened
serious consequences in the spring of last
year. The cloud has been gradually dispersed ;
the Central American difficulties have been
composed by treaty ; and after a suspension of
diplomatic intercourse for months, an English
Minister to Washington has been appointed.
In presence of these encouraging facts, we
are not disposed to look back upon a doubtful
past. The policy which has produced these
results, which has established cordial relations
with the Court of Vienna; which has respected
the sovereign rights of the kingdom of the
Two Sieilies ; which has finally settled the
Eastern question and removed the last
causes of difference with Russia ; which
has joined France to preserve the peace
of Central Europe ; which has firmly knitted
England and the United States in bonds of
amity, rtnd removed the only difficulties which
could distract them ;—this policy, whatever
Ministers may preside over it, cannot he other-
wise than truly, fundamentally, and completely
Conservative. So regarding it, we hail it with
pleasure. It is the policy which we have con-
stantly and earnestly, however feebly, advo-
cated, as most conducive to the real interests
of this country, and to the peace and pro-
sperity of the world ;—a policy which, however
repugnant to seine restless spirits, will, we feel
assured, be fully justified by its benignant
. . .
results, an

whatever
re view th,

, or, 0/
results, and be sealed with the approval of
whatever candid minds may hereafte calmly
re view the transactions of ourry.ge,"o N. •
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nent, as well as in Englan ~, • .'.,...-•:,0'.; , ~ii,
eagerly asked—" What will =•. , !
Lni. :di' il'' '","
" BELL do in the next sessiopf 41417 ••"" ( ' tr'"l
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50

It is known that the present Premier of
England looks with uneasy glances at the
once puissant leader of the greet Whig con-
nection. The Ministerial parasites scare*
hide their attempts to ruin the fi4ure pro-
spects of the statesman whose name shines
brightest in the records of their party for the
last twenty years. Silenced English deineof
gogues, famished Scotch economists, and
adventurous Irish jobbers, try to whisper down
a man who fears them not, and who has in
former periods risen triumphant over more
formidable foes. Unless we be seriously mis-
informed, the next Parliamentary session will
prove that Lord JOHN RUSSELL is keenly alive
to the critical situation in which he stands.
He knows as well as we do, that if his career
were to terminate now, his star would
set under a cloud. We believe that Lord
JOHN RUSSELL acutely feels that he has been
deceived egregiously by certain influences.
Reliance upon old feelings of gratitude in one
quarter, misplaced confidence in another
direction, have woefully misled him. Nor has
anything done him greater injury than the
fact that he allowed himself to be persuaded
against his own inclinations. We shall not
further tread upon delicate ground, but we
will state public reasons why we believe that
Lord JOHN RUSSELL must in the coining
session play a part worthy of his name.

In order to calculate how Lord JOHN Ilus-

SELL must work to retrieve his position, it is
right to state the causes which have done him
most damage. He sported with the Protestant
• feelings of England in first stimulating a cry
against the " insolent and insidious" advance
of the Papal power, and in afterwards suc-
cumbing to Lord ABERDEEN and the alders
and abettors of Cardinal WISEMAN. When
during the Coalition Lord JOHN Ru3sELL made
certain declarations about the rights of Pro-
testantism, Mr. JOHN SADLEIR (then Lord of
the Treasury) took umbrage, and indignantly
resigned, along with two of his (political) asso-
ciates. Lord ABERDEEN told Mr. SADLEIR, that
" the opinions of the majority of the Cabinet
" did not agree with Lord JOHN RUSSELL ;" and
after that humiliating episode, Lord JOHN RUS-
SELL, with a cowed crest, tried, as Leader in
the Commons, t•) look the Opposition boldly
in the face. But he could not act a hypocrite's
part. Nature was too strong for hire. He had
been mortified and derided by his Aberdeenite
colleagues. He owed them nothin ; they
owed him much. He hail given his name
to their patchwork combination, and to
their false pretences of " administrative abili-
ties." When the country was agonised by the
" horrible and heartrending accounts" from
the Crimea, Lord JOHN RUSSELL brooded over
the situation of the country, of the army,
and -- of himself. His part was taken His
colleagues had affected to disdain him; be
retaliated by exploding then►.
If matters had stopped there, Englishmen,
with their readiness to make allowance for the
rights of self-assertion, would not much censure
Lord JOHN RUSSELL for having given a demo-
lishing stroke to routine. But, unfortunately,
he inflicted grievous damage on his character
by his subsequent conduct. Lord JOHN RUS-
SELL well knew that Viscount PALMERSTON was
no proper chief for the Liberal connection.
He consented to abdicate in favour of a states-
man of chameleon mind ; and his Lordship
completed his mischief to himself by making
that warlike declaration which amazed people
after the diplomatic transactions of the time
were revealed. He says himself, and so say
his friends, that this most equivocal passage in
his career can be explained. As in a revolu-
tion, so in a negotiation for peace (thus argue
his friends), dates are of great importance ; days
and weeks ut a crisis are fraught with the
eventualities of years and ages. It is not
improbaLle that the conduct of the Noble Lord
at that time will yet be explained by him more
fully than heretofore. It is certain, however,
that the conduct of the noble Lord, as now
described, has considerably injured his fair
fame.

THE PRESS.

But the most remarkable fact in the history
of Lord JOHN RUSSELL is the wonderfully recu-
perative power 414 won*lß t 1 y seen in his career.
Fqr several years he was derided as a failure;
yet /414.xxisq, said his Reform Speech, pl
1826, " at ho d never heard the questiou of
" moderate Re rm so ably treated." For a
long time Sir . 14:4 affected to make light
of this *oble !s *opts, but Sir Roza
ff
lived -to wince under I,he galling taunts and
the moral supereilioysness tittered in barbed
sentences by the epigrammatic lips of the Whig
Leader. In 1834-5 the Reform party had
quarrelled with Lord BitottonAm ; Earl GREY
had retired; Sir F. BURDETT had left its ranks;
Lord DERBY and Sir JAMES GRAHAM, in defence
of the Protestant Establishment, had joined
the Conservatives; the lights of Liberalism
were extinct; but said the Duke of WELLINGTON
to Mr. ROGERS, " Lord .roux is a host in him-
" self." It was thought that his career was at
end in 1841, when "he was caught bathing"
by Sir ROBERT PEEL; but he s'tbsequently
held the Premiership lonwr than the anta-
gonist who had overthrown him with ninety-
one majority. Such a career of striking poli-
tical vicissitudes, of crushing defeats and of
avenging triumphs, is not paralleled in party
annals.

It is not likely that a statesman, of whom so
chequered and eventful a tale can be told, will
now tamely succumb and end his political life
under a cloud of disgrace. He is pledged to
proceed with a large measure of Reform. The
war, which alone prevented him from redeeming
his pledge, is at an end ; and whatever cause
the existing Cabinet may decide to pursue on
that question, we may be well assured that
Lord JOHN will place himself in the front rank
of radical reformers, mid attempt to play over
again the bold game which placed him in the
front rank of Liberal statesmen in the Reform
crisis, and secured for him a larger share of
governing power than has been enjoyed by any
man of his party.

We think it likely that Lord JOHN will,
during the ensuing session, attempt the rc•
construction of his party, and attempt to
combine all the Radical elements existing in
the country, in support of some startling
scheme of Reform.