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London, England, 1857-10-15 00:00:00

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LONDON. TIffI2BDAT. OCTOBER I.

IN the course of his admirable and powerful ad-
dress delivered to thelltimismary Meeting at Chester,
Mr. GLA tx• rosig spoke of "we system of absolute
" oreresy" as one cause of "dr impenetrable screen
"between the ordinary awl babitaal and daily
" routine of governmental Alike in England mad the

of Indian affairs." Here Mr.
OLADITOXE hit the great blot and defect not merely
of Indian Administratioo, but of our system of coo-
rhietiog all external affairs. With a very anxious
desire on the part of the public to become perfectly
acquainted with both—with a sincere wish to form
sound and correct opinions on all questions of Indian
administration and Foreign policy—with a craving
for knowledge on these subjects that is often sup-
plied with wrong, where it cannot get right, in-
telligence—with the press furnishing at immense
expense correspondence from all parts of the world—
the English people arc deliberately and pertina-
ciously kept in ignorance of what their Government
intends and of what the Government of India is
doing in matters which affect both the honour
and conscience of the nation, which influence
their reputation and their interests. And when
they become anxious to know what is going cos,
what their Government is saying and doing, the.
they are told that this " absolute secrecy" is all tor
their good. When they ere suddenly surprised by
the explosion of • question on which they are not
informed, then the governing clams coolly and con-
temptuourly remark, " What • pity it le that
" Engiirhimen take no interest in foreign affairs r
This " system of elvoleite secrecy," as Mr. GLAD-
irroxe—who has large ministerial experience, and
who has sat in Cabinets who have practised it just as
freely as other administrations—expressively de-
scribes it, is a discredit and an injury to the coun-
try ; it converts the Foreign (Mice and the Buard of
Control into great mysteries; it enables Ministers to
escape from parliamentary control and responsibility,
and to exerciee authority and power in the name and
on behalf of the nation which the country would not
tolerate if better informed; it confines the diplce
matic service to • class and a caste which have no
popular sympathies; and it is constantly bringing
odium and reproach oo personages who, after all, may
not really deserve them.

There are some very strains instances of this last
remelt. When popular instincts become offended by
the line of policy pursued by Government towards
any of the Continental Btatee—as, for instance, in the
obvious inclinations which have been exhibited
towards an Austrian connexion, what so common
now-a-days se to hear the exclamation, " The
" Court is at work again—the Prince is mid-
.. dling r Now, either this popular belief of the
omnipresent influence of the Count in continental
affairs in well or ill founded. If it be well
founded, if we are indebted to irresponsible and
unlawful influences in the highest circles for the
direction given to our foreign policy, then we are to a
large extent deprived of our constitutional securities
for good government, and in foreign affairs the Court
is governing as well u reigning. We do not say that
this is so—we hope and believe that it is not. But
if the impression be ill-founded, if the reputation
and the osefulnese, in other and legitimate epheres,
of the PILINCE CODDOILT be lowered and lessened by
unjust reproaches, if alienation between the public
and Court be thus causelesaly fostered, what is to
blame for it but " our system of absolute secresy ?"
The public wish to cultivate only the kindliest and
most affectionate relations with the Court; and as
regards ►ll other points, nothing can be better then
the relations which exist between the People and the
Palace. But on this point of the supposed Con-
tinental 'Annie" of the Court, the cane is different,
and the only mode by which it is now possible either
to restore the former confidence, or to remove the
causes which bare produced alienation, is the com-
plete abandonment of thin "system of absolute
" secrecy" in the foreign policy of the country.
It may be—and one suspicion on such a subject is
just ea rational as 'anthers when there is no reliable
evidence either way—that Ministers themselves
are not indisposed to cultivate the popular impres-
Ina of Princely interference. In Parliament they
have, of course, no alternative but to profess them-
selves responsible. Buret of Parliament, in society
and M the clubs, it is exceedingly tonvimient to en-
courage the belief that Ministerial liberality of policy
is fettered and outvoted by powerful personal pre-
judices and inclinations. And it is impossible not to
observe that every now and then, when public
°piano becomes exasperated by seeing the power
of England used for purposes and objects for which
Englishmen have no earthly sympathy, and from
which they utterly dissent, Ministers manage to
escape from an odium, which falls on personages who,
by the same exalted position that sets them above
responsibility, are deprived of the ordinary means
of elf-defuse. then, it is impossible under
the present system to ascertain aathoritatively
whether these imputations be teas or fake, in-
annual as they tend to mitigate the responsibility
of Ministers, and to prevent Parliament deem sour
ing that control which is its especial function, the
public ought to be very wary of indulging i•
them. At all events—we repeat it—the true remedy
is to be found in publicity.
There is another illustration of the mischievous.
nen of this " system of absolute sures, " in the
present position of Lord Jose Rreen.L. Mat
parities, whirl% we arm with Mr. Bateau. OSBORN.
is a public misfortune, is immediately attributable to
the impressions the public entertain of Lord lons's
Conduct at and after the Conferesess of Vienna.

Some papers, professing to give an account the
negotiations at that capital, have Jima laid Wpm
Parliament. But at Sheffield, the other day, Lord
Ione; RtmAtm. plainly said that the whole tenth
had not been made public. And so much lie Lord
JOHN under the influence of that seersny of which
he is the victim. that while professing to have no
fear of what the public judgment would be on his
conduct when that conduct was fully and completely
known, he added that the time for publicity had
not yet come. The consequence is, that possibly
for the remainder of his public life, because of
this =oestrous system of concealing, and in this
nee it would appear of perverting, the truth,
England may be deprived of the =reins, the
experience, and the capacity for legislation of one of
the ablest statesmen she possesses, and that the
blame which Lord lons bears with such unmur-
muring resignation may be justly due to Lord
Ccaaexims, who has won all the laurels. We do
not, again, my that this is so, because no man out of
the secret circle can pretend to say what is and what
is not, in the ass ; but we do say that this is •
monstrous example of the injury which "our system
" of absolute eecresy " can work out.
And what Lord lons Ermet.t. intimates is his fate,
viz., to suffer under unjust imputations because of
sserrsy, has been the fate of other public men, and
may at last be even Lord P.ttaee•eroa's or Lord
CLARENDON'S.

Tors addressee delivered at Birmingham, by the
Presidents of Departments, bare been worthy of
the repetition of the topmasts and the importance of
the ease. The friends of Law Reform have no
ream to regret that the Presidency of the Law and
Jerkpirmienee Section was assigned to Lord JOHN
RVIIIELL. Bringing to the illustration of the sub-
jest the 111101a0118 if a cultivated and statesmanlike
mind, his Lordship dealt with the problems it pre-
mated is a broad and comprehensive spirit of prac-
tical phiknophy, which left nothing to be desired.
He dwelt with especial emphasis on the necessity
et creating a Department of Public Justice, to be
presided over by • Minister who should be a
member of the House of Commons. It is really
impossible to over-estimate the importance, or to
exaggerate the necessity, of such a functionary as
thin As matters stand, the amendment and super-
vision of the Law are virtually left to a sort of
chance-medley, and the natural result is a mam of
coefusion and perplexity which is highly discredit-
able to a civilised country, and eminently pre-
judicial to some of the moat important interests
of the community. The thing wanted is a
presiding mind, an organising power, a respon-
aisle Minister, and till this first object is attained
we most forego ►ll hope of that methodical and
systematic reform in the Law and Jurisprudence
of this country, the urgent need of which is yearly
becoming more apparent to an increasing number of
reflective minds.

The illustrations selected by Lard JOHN RCASELL
soeclusively proved how thoroughly the Statesman
was at home in the peculiar province of the Law
Reformer. The recommendation to confer on the
County Courts a limited jurisdiction in Equity,
instead of confining them, am at peewit, to a limited
jurisdiction in Common Law, evinced a clear insight
into one of the most pressing wants of the poorer
clue of litigants. In the prevent absence of such a
jurisdiction there is the same absolute denial of
justice throughout the country in small Equitable
claims us there was, before the establishment of
the County Courts, in small Legal claims, and in
both cases from the mine cause—the preposterous
costliness of the tribunal in which alone the
claim can be enforced. We am exceedingly glad
to see that Lord JOHN Ress•r. has taken
up in earnest the question of improving and extend-
ing the local administration of justice. We can't
stop where we are. People like cheap law and local
courts. They have got both up to a certain amount,
and in respect to certain daises of claims. They
will never, they ought never, to be content till
they get this round and valuable principle carried
infinitely Sather. Why should justice be local and
cheap, and monthly, up to 50/.—itinerant, and costly
and biennial, beyond that amount? Why, again,
should that unnatural divorce between Law sad
Equity, unknown in other systems of jurisprudent*,
still exist in oars? Why should Common Law
suitors be drives into Chancery, and Chancery suitors
into Common Law? Such are some of the questions
which Lord loam Itesscu. has started, as President
of the Law and Jurisprudence Section. There are
few problems to whose solution the labours of those
he addressed can more profitably be directed. As to
that work of which we have been talking ever since
the time of BACON, and in which we have done next
to nothing down to these present days of CIUNWOITiI
—the Consolidation of our Statutes and the Codification

of oar Law, we will only remark that Lord Jonv
RISIWELCA views on the subject are sound and states-
manlike. He utterly repudiates the notion of merely
rearranging the Statute-book, and re-enacting its
provisions without change of style or amendment of
natter. Ili. view is, that in consolidating we meet
ansail--a view in which we need hardly say we
nod entirely concur.
As head of the Education Department, Sir Sow;
PAKINGTON had to traverse ground more exclu-
sively his own. In his advocacy of an extension of
the half-time system to the rural as well u to the
tnanufseturieg districts; in his designation of the
present method of Government grants and central
supervision without the assistance of compulsory
local aid, as a half system from which no results
an be expected at all commensurate with the
magnitude of the national need ; in his strong ex-
hortations to the Government and the Legislature to
trample down all obstacles and scorn all difficulties
in their determination to rescue our population from
the reproach and demoralisation of ignorance, Sir
JOHN must have been of course ►ware that he could
not reckon upon carrying all his hearers along
with him. It is among our national misfortunes
that this question of National Education has
not yet passed out of the domain of Poli-
tics and Theology into the calmer region
of Social Science. In urgently representing the
necessity of raising the quality and improving
the standard of Education, Sr JOHN was upon less
debateable ground: little objection would probably
be entertained in any quarter to his proposal that
Parliament should grant a further inquiry into the
present state of the question, though we hardly
think it likely that he will succeed in persuading
Government to introduce a permissive measure for
the purpose of trying his improved school system.
All these, however, are points on which the free dim-
ensions of reflective and enlightened men are emi-
nently calculated to throw considerable light. In an

Assoaation for the Promotion of Social Science
philosophy ought to triumph over polemics, even
when the subject under discussion is the Education
of the English People.
Happily, men sre more agreed about the mode of
preventing Disease than removing Ignorance, and

Lord STASLEY, In hia very thoughtful and masterly
addram on the subject of the Public Health, wee
able to urge the adoption of remedial meuuras in
which all concur, for the attainment of an end in
which all are interested.