The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-01 00:00:00

THE WEEKLY PRESS

" OUR ISTHMIAN GAMES."

The national games at Epsom held our legisla-
tive business suspended, and summoned society to
witness that importaat event—the triumph of a
horse. Lord Palmerston this year dubbed the
Epsom races " our Isthmian games," and as he has
so long had in charge the conduct of foreign affairs,
it has always been assumed that he must know
everything about the transttetions of business and
public recreations in Greece, from the time of Don
David Pacifico back to the days of Pericles. or even
to an earlier date. It was, no doubt, on this
account that the public acquiessed in his remark-
able statement that the name of Ilione, " maxima
natarunt Priarni," should be pronounced " Hillee-
onnee." Virgil and we thought differently, but
Lord Palmerston ought to know. We stand
corrected. But as to our conception of the
Isthmian games, which we now learn to have
been analogous to Epsom races, we have
some difficulty in perceiving the aptness of the
comparison. If we are not mistaken, those who
took part in the Isthmian games competed, not in
horse-racing, but in poetry and music; they did
not remunerate themselves by winning bets at
long odds, but the victors were crowned with gar.
lands of pine leaves. Some authorities, indeed,
say that the pine leaves were afterwards changed
for parsley : but, imagine the face of Admiral Rous
on being offered a garland of parsley ! And,
to carry out the analogy more completely,
the reward ought to be plated upon the head of the
real victor—not upon the head of Mr. W. I'Anson,
the owner, nor even upon that of Charlton the
jockey, but upon the head of Blink Benny," the
victorious horse. We doubt whether that would
be accepted in satisfaction of all claims. The plan
at Epeo►n, indeed, is not very Isthmain. " Tulit
alter honoree." The owner takes the winnings,
the real victor only has his usual measure of oats,
and perhaps an extra rubbing down.. The Athenians
had only as much room allotted to them as the sail
of a ship could cover ; but it would be difficult to
find in a Folkestone smack, or even the Great
Eastern steam-ship, that piece of canvass which
would cover Lord Palmerston's Athenians on
Epsom Downs. Is it possible that Lord Palmersto❑
meant the Olympic games? They come nearer to
horse racing, since there were trials of manly skill
in wrestling ; and if we remember rightly, racing
also, only on a plan which may be still witnessed
in Florence, though it would rather astonish an
Epsom jockey. But even here there are diffieul-
ties. At the Olympic games, the Athenians tried
their own skill and strength; at Epsom, it is the
skill of the jockeys, and the strength of the horses,
that they try. For Lord Palmerston's Athenians go
down in a first-class carriage, and shield their
faces with a woman's veil, lest they should taste
the dust, or the sun stain their delicate complexions.
The keenest man in the country needs no teaching
as to the distinctions between Isthmian games and
Epsom races ; he knows the difference, as well as he
does the difference between the horse presented by
Neptune to Pallas Athena and a three•year old colt.
His speaking of the two as something alike was a
stroke of covert satire. He has, we believe, alto-
gether relinquished the turf for " another place,"
and he sees through the huge trifling. He is
not the man even to admit that Epsom races can
be called, as they sometimes are called, "•the
English Saturnallia ;" for what freedom do they
give to popular speech which we have not already ?
Nor do they bring classes together, except topo-
graphically. There is no oblivion of the distance
between master and servant, no social fusion of dif-
ferent ranks. The only part of the group I where
such a thing is to be seen, perhaps, is " the ring,"
and there the fusion is almost enough to frighten
a democrat with its ugliness. Here, indeed, you
may see rough fellows, whom no gentleman would
like to talk to in the streets, flinging about their
betting offers, as if they were more than the equals
of the highest in the land. " Who will bet on
Tournament ?—who will bet on Saunterer ?" cry
the coarsest of voices, with an inviting leer to lords
and baronets " Will you take twenty to one
against Saunterer, Sir Robert ?" Sir Robert
chaffers, and the bargain is concluded
There is some fusion here, and some con-fusion
afterwards ; hut we can scarcely consider it
politically instructive. We read, indeed, that after
the conquest of Greece by the Romans, the old
Greek spirit broke out at the Olympic games. Greeks
were heard to proclaim " the freedom of Greece,"
long before Joseph Hume thought of a Greek loan.
But, in our day, we scarcely look to Epsom for any
political demonstration. Lord John Manners would
not even think of resuming there the manly games
that have degenerated out of our island. And
as to " the breed of horses," the demand for
light weights and short distances is giving
us a race of horses that are but puny sketches
of the tribe over which Eclipse was king. Oar Isth-
mian judge in the cabinet is too keen-sighted, not
to have detected the moral which might be found
on that populous course, even before we can point
it out for him. The ruse was a surprise to every-
body, to the sagest as well as to the least learned
in Epsom science; and yet, it appears to us, the
simplest can read the riddle without difficulty.
Blink Bonny was a child of promise; everybody
expected the young prey mare to win the race at
Newmarket; but she failed. This instant May,
therefore, Tournament became the favourite; on an
" appeal to the country" he would have had an
overwhelming majority; and when the race was
about to come off no one thought of Blink Bonny.
Even Baron de Rothschild scarcely remembered that
there was such a mare, although he was in the race
himself. Yet, behold' when the moment of the
race comes, Tournament is distanced. and Blink
Bonny :s the winner! The simplest mind can
perceive that a sound policy would suggest the
sparing of Blink Bonny at the early race, in order
to make the winnings the greater at the great race.
It seems to us that this story of the Derby in 1857
is a moral for the great reform Derby in 1858 ; for
some of us, even Baron de Rothschild, have almost
forgotten the high-mettled and once favourite
"John," who certainly did not stand first at the
last race, but sees in the Tournament of " our
Isthmian games," just now, the reigning favourite.
—Spectator.

EXTRAVAGANCE OF LIBERAL GOVERN.

VENTS

We must acknowledge that we have been per-
fectly amazed at the revelations in Lord Malmes-
bury's exposure of the astounding extravagance of
our civil expenditure. We read the noble earl's
speech with the attention due to his rank and
consideration as a practical Statesman ; but it is
only when we have the returns actually in our
hands that we can fully estimate the value attach
ing to Lord Malmesbury's most important state-
ment. The astonishment we feel pervades every
rank of society. The middle classes have the noble
lord's spceeh by heart, and there is reason to believe
that the patriotic ten-pounders who exult in " Sir
Benjamin the Magnificent" having at last got a
title, are beginning to frown and get sulky at
finding what Sir Benjamin's most particular friends
have been doing with the public money during the
last ten years. Last week we showed the extra-
ordinary expenditure on the royal parks, and we
qouted returns to prove that when the conserva-
tives were in office, the expenditure was less than
while the liberals were in power. We shall new go
through the tables seriatim. The returns made in
obedience to the order of the House of Lords of
16th February, confess to the following figures.
" Civil Services, usually termed Miseeilaneous":-
1846, 3,482.4861 ; 1856, 6,72a,250/. That is to say,
on the last ten years, as admitted by the Ali-111113
(p 3), there has been All increase in the civil expen-
diture to the eno. ii,eus sum of 3,241,7641. And
yet gentlemen, vi it faces quite innocent of " the
jobbery of liberalism" (though several of their
supporters and constituents have not their
hands clean from this excessive expenditure),

attempt to say that Lord Melmesbury took an
exaggerated view of the case. They hold debate.
forsooth, on the question whether the eldest.
royal child of the most illustrious daughter of the
House of Brunswick ought to receive a moderate
Carriage dowry of £40,000, and £B,OOO a year, and
they sat by complacently while in the last ten
years the increase in the miscellaneous estimates
' has reached three millions :Ind a quarter ! Letue now
I see how this prodigious outlay has been incurred.
Turning to " Class 2" (op 4,5,) under the heal of
Salaries, & i., Public Department," we ceme to rho
modest item of" Stationery," which has progressed at
a pace by no means corroborative ofits name In fact,
one might surmise that some " fast" officials must
. have rule over the managemen tof those inn oeen i little
" SL: , (Sz{;." In 1846, the charges for " Stailetiery"
reached 249,0761., and in 1856 they rose to 458,2751,
being an increase of 209,199/. But we may he told
"to recollect the war." We do so, and .we reply
that the whole charges of stationery to he debited
to the country are not included in this table of " Mis-
cellaneous Estimates." We answer, besides, that it
is impessible that an army in the Crimea and a fleet
' in the Baltic could possibly have augmented the de-
' /need for public stationery to the enormous rate 01
1 eighty-four per cent, on what had been paid in
, 1846. Let it be recollected that officers and men
of both services, and their correspondents at home,
paid for their own postage, and for their own
private stationery How is it possible that such
an enormous increase of eighty-four per cent. could
have legitimately occurred in the public stationery
merely upon the official correspondence of the war ?
' The other departments of the State consumed
- r.,ther less stationery during the war than at other
periods. The orders, counter-orders, and replies
could never honestly have mounted up to such a
sum as is eharged in this account. A quarter of a
century has not elapsed since in this department
of "Public Stationery," there were con side, able
country:tt,hihveae(i.there
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a mere particular account of these prodigious
style of the stationery used in the public depart-
ments ? So far as our own observation goes, we
should say that the quality of the paper used in
expediting her Majesty's service has decidedly
become inferior, and our opinion on the matter is
confirmed by other observers. It is worthy of
notice, also, that the Stationary-office costs the
" third class," tabulated under " Law and Justice,"
and our readers may prepare to be amazed. In
1838, the country was charged under this head,
with the sum of 591,9441., and the charges
amounted in 1856, to the enormous sum of
2,257,0831. lii round numbers, since 1838 there has
been an increase of nearly a million and three
quarters of money in this one department. We
know how troublesome long rows of statistics are
to the eye, and we shall put the matter as simply
as we can before our leaders. We shall take two
dates, and contrast the expenditures under this
head. We shall first take 1846, the year when the
conservative party left office, and the last year :
Law and Justice, 1846, £880,089 ; 1856, £2,257,083.
The difference is truly enormous, and the
balance against the country on this head,
counting for the last ten years, shows
the prodigious sum of 1,376,994. It is indeed
most extraordinary to reflect how the liberals in
office are sure to mismanage the finances of the
country We are perpetually forced to remem-
ber that the Whigs never possessed a financier
since Walpole. They broke down in 1841 on
a financial question, and the middle classes
deserted) them when the money market
became deranged. People find it a hard
task to shout for " progress" when the funds are.
going down, and the empire getting into difficulties
But, certainly, after the lessons read to the whigs
in 1841, one might have supposed that they would
have been more cautious than to neglect the de-
partment of the public service, on which they lost
the confidence of the people of England. Accident
brought them into office again in 1846, and no
sooner were they in Downing-street, than their
reckless financial mismanagement recommenced.
Year after year they have crammed on the expendi-
ture under this head, until it has reached the
present portentous dimensions. And now, when
the Earl of Malmesbury has roused the attention
of the legislature, and of the whole country to this
great subject, the whigs begin to quake, and they
know not what to do or to say. They feel that
Lord John Russell has again committed them with
his hard and hasty words. It is not the first time
that " Johnny has upset the coach ;" and the
" frightful increase of the civil expenditure" is a
back-handed stroke, long to be felt by the friends
and colleagues who jobbed, intrigued, and vacil-
lated along with himself during tan years. The
fundamental rottenness of the whig system, is, by
evidence "of the most singular kind, fully revealed
by this identical table of expenditure under the
head of " Law and Justice." Its systematic
jobbery, its false glare of a flashy philaithropy, its
delusive appeals to platform sympathies, its un-
practical results, its habitual recklessness of aim,
and last, not least, its utterly un-English modes
of thought and action, are all completely exposed
to-public view in the peculiar mariner by which
these vest increases under " Law and Justice" have
been incurred. We shall, in detail, convict the
whigs of expensive and mischievous blunders
under this head of " Law and Justice." We shall
show that their system is positively a complete
squandering of the public money, and that there
is strong reason to believe that, practically, the
wig system of " law and justice" Iris had a fatal
tendency to the sowing of criminality broad-cast
throughout the land. That this " frightful expen-
diture" is of a most extraordinary character can be
perceived by other means than an appeal to figures.
Have any of our readers observed the shrug and
tone of disparagement with which the liberals in
society received the name of the late Mr. Hume ?
The mention of that financial reformer is more un.
palatable to them than Mr Pitt or Lori Castle-
reagh. His reputation seems to trouble them with
spectral admonitions. His name is nevermentioned
in the liberal circles but there is sure to he some cri-
tical disparagement of that eminent man,recalling to
the memory the sarcasm that once fell from the lips of
Grattan. - When Lord Jeffrey penned his smooth
and superficial piece of detraction from the fame of
Swift, the Whiglings enjoyed the abuse of the
renowned tory writer; but Grattan, who had noble
sympathy with traduced genius, silenced them one
morning at Brooke's :—" I do not like this
Scotchman scraping together his handful of
peebles and flinging them against the bones of a
huge giant. Swift was a great man, and Mr.
Jeffery is a small one; but his article proves one
thing satisfactorily, that if Mr. Jeffrey he alive,
Swift is dead, and Mr. Jeffrey knows it." And so
say we. The increase of the civil expenditure
since 1846, when it reached 3,482,4261., up to 1856,
when it stands at 6,724,2501., shows that while the
Whigs are alive and jobbing " liberally" in office,
Mr. Humo is dead, and the Whigs know it.—
Prim