The Express.
London, England, 1867-02-05 00:00:00

MR. OOLDWIN SMITH UPOB PITT.

Yesterday evening Mr. Smith concluded his
series of lectures on English politiail history by delivering
the second of the two upon

- .
The lecturer said the root of the whole failure of the
French revolution lay in the absence of faith. Without a
new faith humanity comet advance into • new order
of things. The present military despotism is an improve-
ment upon the Bourbon monarchy, in so far as it embraces
social equality and religious toleration ; but if it be
thought that, to Europe in general, Bonapartism
is an advance with all the bloodshed, suffer-
ing, and havoc of the Napoleonic wars, let us
fast consider the progress which had been made before the
revolution, under the tones of the old institutions, by
such reformers as Frederick the Great, Joseph 11., and
William Fitt. The lecturer condemned both the coalition
of despots against the revolution, and the proclamations
of universalism by the revolutionary propaganda. Let
us, he said, thank God that our (lay sees the fortunes of
humanity, in this its critical transition from feudalism to
the era of equality and justice, placed in safer and nobler
hands. Italy had been oppressed, both by despots and by
priests, yet nothing for which liberty need blush, nothing,
in which liberty cannot glory, is associated with the fair
fame of Garibaldi. libacini has a breadth of sympathy,
a largeness of intelligence, a grandeur of soul, far
beyond those of any actor in the breech Revolution. The
German people is advancing through unity to political
freedom. Freedom of the mind beyond all other races it

already has. The French will not attempt to interfere
with the development of new members of the community
of nations. if the Bonapartes do they will find that
Bonapartism can exist only in the hour of despair which
follows an abortive revolution, and that the bourof despair

is past. (if the bad effects of' the French Revolution on
the general interests of progress there could be no more
signal or sudden proof than the conversion of Pitt
to the aide of reaction. He was as far as ixis-
cible from wishing to attack the revolution.
But the fears and passions of the court, the
aristocracy, and the clergy had been aroused, the progress
of the revolution daily increased their excitement, and it
was raised to the highest pitch by the declamations of
Burke. No doubt, in his " Reflections" Burke was sincere.
lie was a worshipper of constitutional monarchy ; it was
his fetish ; lee loved and adored it with the passionate
loyalty which, as an Irishman in his own country, he
would have felt towards the chief of his clan. His philo-
sophy afforded no firm and lofty ground of immutable faith
in things unseen, from which he could form • rational
estimate of political systems as things merely sub-
servient to the higher life of man—venerable only
for their utility, not to be altered without good reason, but,
when there was good reason, to be altered or abolished
without superstitions nruple, and destined like all other
parts of the outward vesture of humanity to pass away
before the end. When the French Revolution got beyond
his consecrated type it forfeited his sympathy, and with
a nature so passionate as his, to forfeit sympathy was to
incur hatred. Fox behaved unwisely. He ought, in the
interest of his cause, to have repressed the ardour of
his sympathies, to have blamed the excesses while he
showed the benefits of the revolution, to have pointed
out how inevitable it was in France, how different was
the case of the English from that of the French euo-
starchy, how small was the danger in England of French
contagion, and to have insisted that for whatever danger
there might be, the right antidote was not war or violent
repression, but timely measures of reform. He would
thus have strengthened the hands of l'itt in the resist-
ance which he was undoubtedly making to the war ten-
dencies of his party and of the court. But he was
the leader of the opposition, and the function of a
leader of opposition is at all costs and hazards
to assail and to embarrass the government. While
the system of partygoveromeut lasts it must be so. But
let us hope that party government is not to be the end of
all things, and thin in the course of our political develop-
ment we shall And a way of establishing a government to
wnich we may all feel loyal, and which we may all desire
to support as the government, not of a party, but of the
nation. Pressed by his own party, unsupported in his re-
aistance by the opposition, Pitt, though the spirit of
Adam Smith struggled hard and long within him, anto
slide towards war. The execution of the King decided him.
In the lecturer's belief, Pitt felt that be was doing
wrong ; but though a patriot and • man of honour, he
had not a God in his breast. He could not
resign power, and break with all his friends.
Reasoning like a financier, and seeing the depreciation of
French assignats, he thought that it would be a short
war. When he found himself undeceived in this, he made
earnest and even humiliating efforts to buy • peace.
The lecturer reviewed the several grounds which have been
assigned for making war in this case, and found them all
indefinite and insufficient. Among other pretexts it was
said that we went to war in behalf of pnbhe right. But
though the conduct of the Republican armies in the
countries they overran was infamous, it was the fortune
of war against those who had first attacked France. And
our unite' in defence of public right, what sort
of champions of it were they! Austria, Prussia, and Russia
had jest consummated the partition of Poland, the most
flagrant violation of public right in history, and one
against which, let them roll as many stones to the
mouth of that sepulchre as they will, nature and justice
will protest till right is done. It was sad to say it, but
when Pitt had once left the path of right, he fell head-
long into evil. Measures of repression were adopted
throughout the kingdom, and a tory reign of terror com-
ineuced, to which a slight increase of the panic among the
upper classes would probably have given a redder hue.
The juries in Loudon and the large town deserved grati-
tude, but the judges behaved not quite so well. The
tenure of the judges is independent, but after all
they belong to a political party, and to • so-
cial class. We were reminded of this pretty strongly
the other day by the new Chief Justice of the Common
Pleas. How to appoint judges who shall be strictly im-
partial in political cases is, it is to be feared, a problem
still to be solved. Perhaps the nearest approach made to
it is the Supreme Court of the United States. The worst
reign of terror, and in no figurative sense, was in Ireland,
which was put under martial law. When the appearance
of the French army of liberation made it manifest that the
Orange government of Ireland was not only criminal hut
dangerous, Pitt resolved to carry the union, and the union
was carried by bribery and corruption of every kind. The
union was a good and all indispensable measure. It
was, as Pitt saw, the only chance of saving
lrehind from protestant ascendancy and provincial
tyranny ; and legally of course it was perfectly valid.
To give it moral validity it required the free ratification
of the Irish people. When the union is what Pitt de-
clared it was to be, • union of equal laws, that ratification
will be obtained. The lecturer policed l'itt's deficiency as
a war minister. He had not his father's eye for men. He
was open to a worse censure than that of failing to distin-
guish merit. When he allowed himself to be made
minister by an unconstitutional use of the king's per-
'meal influence, he had sold himself to a fiend, and the
fiend did not fail to exact the bond. Twice Pitt had the
criminal weakness to gratify the king's personal wishes
by entrusting the safety of English armies and the
honour of England to the incompetent hands of
the young Duke of York. But could promotion by
merit he expected at the hands of governments
whose essence was privilege! It was against promotion
by merit that they were fighting. To accept it would
have been to accept the revolution. Pitt did not know
why he had gone to war, and therefore, when lie found
himself abandoned by most of his allies, the rest requir-
ing subsidies to drag them into the field—the cause of
Europe, as it was called, thus renounced by Europe
itself—everything going ill, and no prospect of amend-
ment, he did not know how or on what terms to make
peace. This was called his firmness. At last, in 1801,
peace, and an ignominious peace, was inevitable, and Pitt
retired. But he came into power again to conduct
a war, and this time a necessary war; for with
the perfidy and rapine of Bonaparte no
was possible. The struggle with him was a struggle
for
the independence of all nations against the armed and
disciplined hordes of a conqueror as cruel and as barbarous
as Attila. The lecturer looked with pride upon the forti-
tude and constancy which England displayed in the con-
test with this universal tyrant. The position in which it
left her at its close was fairly won, though she must now
be content to retire from the temporary supremacy, and
fall back into her place as one of the community of na-
tions. But Pitt was still destined to fail as a war minister.
Trafalgar was soon cancelled by Austerlitz. " How I leave
my country !" were Pitt's last words, and perhaps his
truest epitaph. They well expressed the anguish of a
patriot who had wrecked his country.

Ateet-Rret•Lnim.—Yeaterday a public meeting
was held in the Exchange, Wolverhampton, " for the pur-
pose of memorialising the lord bishop of the diocese to
exert his influence to check the spread of Romiah doc-
trine and ceremony in the established church." During
the past three weeks lectures have been delivered in the
above-named building by clergymen from a distance, all
opposed to ritualism. On each occasion one or other of the
six clergymen in Wolverhampton, by whom the movement
was set on foot, and en average of 1,200 persons were
present at each lecture. About that number attended the
meeting yesterday, when the chairman was Sir John
Morris, the mayor of the borough. A memorial in accord-
ance with the object of the meeting was adopted.
FEMALE A POTHE-CAREASES. —Three young ladies
the preliminary examination in Arta last week at the
'sty of Apothecaries. No alteration in the usual ar-
rangements was made on their behalf, the fair candi-
dates taking their places in the examination room along
with some thirty or linty of that sex which has hitherto
enjoyed alms% exclusively the privilege of becoming apothe-
caries. Two out of the three ladies plumed "the written" so
satisfactorilyon the Friday that noturthertestof proficiency
was required. The third, however, was asked to favour the
examiners with a ilte-a-tfte on the fallowing day, and the
invitation having been accepted, a passage of Virgil was
translated vi re! yore, to the satisfaction of all parties con-
cerned. And so the interesting proceedings terminated ;
and we may look forward, we suppose, to the
time when these young ladies will be admitted into
the ranks of the medical profession, to take their
places by the side of Miss Garrett, at present the
only representative of her sex in the Medical Directory.
We shall require a new title for these fair votaries of
science. They will not be " physicians" or " surgeons."
" Licentiates" is strictly correct, but not pretty. Shall
we have to call them " apothe-caresses?"—Lancel.