brance; but he will not leave Rome, to allow the POPE to become a fugitive, and a dependent upon the bounty of some other sovereign. The non-possumus of Pius IX. will insure the continued presence of French bayonets, unless the logic of events render the occupation impossible. It may be that the opinion of Europe and the wishes of the French people will become strong enough to permit the withdrawal of the army. But it is certain that, without the continued moral intervention of England, this peaceful solution of the question is impossible. It may be that NAPOLEON will invite an attack from the Italians and then retire in the face of a hostile demonstration, which the author of Italy "free from the Alps to the Adriatic," may well excuse himself from opposing. But the friends of Italy will be doomed to disapointment if they infer from the recal of General GoYON and the rumoured ultimatum, that the end is directly at hand. We have reason to believe that the EMPEROR has resolved that Rome shall no longer be the hot-bed of the reactionary brigandage. Car- OF THE WOMAN QUESTION. natural laws would be recognised, yet conventional exigencies preserved, in full and just proportion. It can be done. Careful selection in the first place, strict overlooking during the voyage, and kindly reception when arriving at their new home, under the control and superintendence of wise and thoughtful women, would take off all that might else be thought forward or equivocal in a scheme, which has for its professed object the restoration of the natural balance. and the supplying of a terrible social deficiency. The thing was done a few years ago, when the Morning Chronicle Commission drew so much attention to the starving needle-women of London, but done on a very small scale, and without sufficient public prestige; and that brave and good Caroline Chisholm, too, has given her well-spent life to the same object. But what can one labourer do where the harvest is so large and the sheaves stand so full and rank? We want the subject taken up publicly-nationally—under the sanction of the Church and the Government,-recognised as a national need, and applied as a national remedy to a very great and crying evil; and we think the time is coming when this will be done, to the removal of one of our most serious difficulties. arranged system of preparation. Save in Miss Coutts's schools, And yet, before it can be done, we must have some well we know of no place where the girls of the labouring classes are taught to be really useful and practical women; and the result of this neglect is to be seen in the thriftless homes, the frantic rage for dress and finery, the waste, disorder, and travestied fine ladyism which are fast becoming the rule of cotter life instead of the homeliness and steady working of the brave and old-fashioned times. For there is more schooling and less practical learning does so much good, has sadly warped from their true purpose the than used to be; and the national ambition which, on occasions, women of the lower classes. That purpose is work and thrift; their present condition is uselessness and extravagance. When free, before any system of female emigration can be carried out well or wisely, we ought first to have places of home training schools, or class-rooms where they may learn some of the oldfashioned economies of life, and how to make the most of everything, and the true use of their hands. Needlework and cookery, and the management of children and real cleanliness of house of turning everything to account, are what our women used to be arrangement, and the provident thrift which knows the best way taught even here while at home; but doubly so if they are to emigrate to a wilder country where the appliances of life are simpler, and the means of mechanical help fewer. And perhaps it was because this was not understood and provided for in the needlewoman some twelve years ago, that the scheme was comparatively unsuccessful, and by no means the panacea it assumed to be. And herein lies the root of many of the evils belonging to the F all the questions of social reform now before the world, condition of women, both brain and hand workers alike; they none exceeds in importance that of the rightful condition of are imperfectly educated for their duties. As brain workers they cannot compete with men, either for solidity of work or in conwomen, and what circumstances are best for the due development sequent rate of remuneration, because they have not undergone of their natures and the most faithful fulfilment of their duties. a man's previous training; because they attempt to be masters Some of those who have made this question their main study before they have been apprentices, and think they may dispense advocate celibacy and the adoption of manly professions as the be essential to his success. They are impatient, slovenly, superwith that thoroughness of education which every man holds to quickest issue out of all difficulties, regarding marriage and maficial, and want to jump into its highest places at a bound, instead ternity as rather degrading to a woman than otherwise; by no of toiling painfully step by step, as their fathers and brothers are means desirable for the nobler sort; and, unfortunately, this content to toil; and as hand workers the same deficiency is just section contains many of our intensely thoughtful and "advanced" as apparent. As an instance, which of us knows a really good women, who have suffered themselves to be bewildered and led less hussies who whisk a duster in one hand and baste a leg of thorough-bred female servant? It is easy to find plenty of careastray from the truth; while others see, in the fulfilment of her mutton with the other; but the real handmaid, who thoroughly natural functions, through these same portals of marriage and understands her work, and does it is as difficult to find as the maternity, the only means of salvation for her-the only harbour Sangreal of the old romances. They are all fine ladies to the in which her drifting life may safely anchor. To this last party utmost of their power; and the most usual form of remonstrance, we emphatically and unequivocally attach ourselves, believing that now-a-days, in the kitchen is-"That is not woman's work," God's ordinances and Nature's laws are better worth obeying which we take to be a perilous delusion, and one which comes than any amount of crude reasonings; and that to remedy one singularly unfortunate at a time when the women of a higher wrong by advocating another can never be the way to truth. class are seeking to possess themselves everywhere of the men's But granting that marriage and maternity are woman's best places and maintaining the equality of the sexes and woman's conditions, as they are undoubtedly her natural rights, how are natural right to a like life with man. The best remedy for all this they to be obtained for a surplus womanhood half a million strong, nonsense would be emigration emigration to Columbia and the with their apportioned manhood congregated wifeless together in Australian colonies, carried on in a wise and liberal spirit: and foreign countries? A surplus womanhood half a million strong, embracing all grades, according to their need. We should then not counting the inappropriated section by right belonging to the hear no more of those false doctrines of the degradation found non-marrying men at home, is a very large number, forming in wifely submission and motherly devotion; of the right of likea problem of grave social import, and one imperatively demand- ness with men, and the unimportance of the home in comparison ing earnest thought and careful treatment. So the Bishop of with the greater glory of an outside career; we should not hear Oxford said the other day, when speaking of the State of of so many women living miserably and wastefully, ever in a Columbia, and the immense need there is of women out there state of war with society, and ever denying the holiest instincts among the settlers,-women of all classes and degrees, from of their sex; we should have no more underpaid governesses or kindly ladies, benevolent, refined, and organizing, to well-starving shirtmakers; woman's work would no longer glut the educated governesses, and the sturdy helpmate of the labouring market, and the present flux of incapacity and weakness no man. The Bishop of Oxford touched the root of the matter. longer dilute the stronger stream; the tyranny of capital would Instead of attempting to thrust women into men's places at home, be somewhat abated, and the claims of labour better understood. where the only economic result is work of an inferior character, Women as wives and mothers in the colonies, cared for, worked and the rate of wages lowered to all; instead of attempting to for, and protected, would be better off, and immeasurably happier, palliate one evil by another evil, (because, in a new flowing out and more virtuous, than they are at home, as wretched, starving, of the human tide, the women have been left stranded on the home underpaid strivers in the fight for food with men; while the men shore,) attempting to root them in the barren sand, and make them now living there unwived, would be saved from ruin of soul and independent of man altogether, and it would be wiser and better body, by the aid of those who have been created to become their to organise some system of safe and modest emigration, where helpmeets. THE PRESS eight centuries of victory and endurance. Mr. Disraeli flung over both, as he would fling over the Ten Commandments if they THE BID FOR OFFICE. stood in his way to power. He, the chief of the country party, of the men who still revere the memory of Wellington, and who Saturday Review—(Independent Liberal.) in office are always talking of the suicidal impatience of taxaThe main debate was a surprise to the House and to the tion which leaves the country defenceless, actually took phrases Government. It had been generally reported that Mr. Disraeli as well as arguments from the member for Lambeth, and talked intended to criticise the Manchester speech, and Mr. Gladstone about "bloated armaments," and ridiculed what he called rewas evidently disappointed when the attack was delivered by peatedly "our influence in the councils of Europe." And then, Sir S. Northcote, who, if he is a less formidable opponent, is also because our armaments were bloated, and our revenue far too far less vulnerable. As the contest proceeded, it was found that large, he deprecated taking off taxes. Indeed the whole speech the financial assault was merely a feint, and that it was Mr. was a mass of inconsistencies. He denounced hostility to Disraeli's main purpose to bid for office by delivering a political | France, and then exerted himself to prove that throughout the and diplomatic confession of faith. Before the Easter recess, he world the two countries were not in agreement; advised the had prepared the way by a not unsuccessful duel with Mr. Glad- country to reduce its armies, and then ridiculed the notion of stone, and it was not his interest to discuss, in further detail, a moral power. He uttered, in short, all the ideas which Tories Budget which which he had found it impossible to resist. Having denounce in the Manchester School as undignified and un-English. repudiated with lofty contempt all desire to notice any There is not from end to end of his speech a line suggesting a out-of-door proceedings, Mr. Disraeli proceeded to deli- constructive policy. It is all criticism, intended to destroy the Gover all the sarcasms which seemed available against Mr. vernment, but really effective only to pulverise the Conservative Gladstone's Manchester speech. Having thus followed up party, whose members must blush with annoyance as they hear Sir S. Northcote's attack, he proceeded to show how a change that their true principle is to follow meekly the policy of a Napoof Government would gratify the wishes of every float- leon. This, however, was not the test. With that strange incapaing and undecided section in the House. It is not Mr. city to understand Englishmen, which will always debar Mr. DisDisraeli's habit to rely on general sentiment or on abstract raeli from the sway his intellect might secure, he uttered a dozen reason, nor does he address himself either to safe supporters or sentences which, if they could but reach all English voters, would to irreconcileable enemies. As the unpolled voters concentrate put an end to Tory hopes for at least another decade. The on themselves the attention of candidates and agents at three Pope, he said, ought to be independent, and morever must be ino'clock on the polling day, so Mr. Bright, Sir G. Bowyer, and dependent at Rome. So earnest was he upon this dogma that he the Irish members form the audience which the leader of the threw caution to the winds, forgot that he had just denounced Opposition really desires to convince. The Ministerial majority all insults to the Emperor, forgot that the country clergy study is narrow, and it is thought that a score of votes would tilt the his speeches with a weary respect, which a word would devolope scale in the opposite direction. The calculation is founded on into criticism, and declared "if the Roman question were settled an erroneous assumption, for both the great parties include in the underhand manner which some seemed to expect and moderate politicians whose votes may be determined either desire; if to-morrow the Pope were an exile, a fugitive, or a priway by a political measure which they approve, or still soner, he who is the ruler of France, whatever may be his name, more certainly by a party alliance which they distrust. Mr. or family or dynasty, could not afford to view that circumstance Bright himself commands more negative than positive with indifference, perhaps not with impunity." "If," continued the votes, and his energetic support might not improbably speaker, "there was a fact with respect to which there was a defeat the most hopeful attempt to overthrow a Minister. The general concurrence of opinion, it was that the occupation of political Roman Catholics exercise a still more repellent influ- Rome by France was an act not of ambition on the part of the Emence on questions in which their special prejudices are involved; peror of the French, but of self-defence." There is no mistaking but, of all assoctates in the enterprise which Mr. Disraeli is under- the import of these words; if the Tories come into power taking, the most unprofitble is a foreign Sovereign. A con- they will urge the Emperor with all the weight of English infidential knowledge of French secrets, whether genuine or pre-fluence, not to abandon Rome, to maintain the "independence tended, is the worst possible recommendation to any candidate of the Pope," which, if not the temporal power, still involves it, for public favour. The peroration addressed to the advocates of and to retard as long and as openly as he dares the unity of reduced expenditure formed a curious illustration of the pur- Italy. We thank Mr. Disraeli for this open avowal of the policy pose and character of the speech. It was necessary to com- which his wiser chief has hitherto carefully concealed. The pliment Mr. Cobden and at the same time to reassure the country would pardon much to any party which promised large large section of the House which by no means adopts the retrenchments, but we ask no better fortune for the Whigs than conclusions of the author of the "Three Panics." Mr. Dis- to go to the country against an opponent who promises to take raeli, accordingly, explained that he supported the Vo- off the income-tax, but will exert the strengh of England to mainlunteers and the Channel fleet, that he had no intention of tain the temporal power. Mr. Disraeli has a reputation for abandoning the Colonies, and that he was not disposed to shrewd Parliamentary management, but the strategy which sells abolish the maritime belligerents. As none of these questions the English clergy to buy up the Irish priests can be excused are at present practically open to discussion, there was no risk only by ignorance, and palliated only by the certainty of ignoin taking the popular side, as there was no danger of alienating|minious defeat. The member for Bucks never proved his the professed economists. Mr. Cobden and his friends, if they courage more completely or more unwisely than when he held trust Mr. Disraeli, will be abundantly satisfied by the proposal to out as the new banner of the Tories, "Peace, Retrenchment, and disarm and to maintain unbroken peace by a deferential alli Rome." ance with France. Sir G. Bowyer, again, and Mr. Maguire cannot expect Mr. Disraeli to avow religious sympathies which might disturb the numerous members of the Opposition who voted a few days ago against Maynooth. They are quite contented with the defence of the French occupation of Rome, and with the distinction between the independenre of the Pope and his temporal power. A year ago, indeed, Lord Derby declared that the maintenance of the Pope as an Italian Sovereign was a cardinal principle of English policy. Mr. Disraeli is content to argue that the independence of the Holy See is incompatible with the residence of the Pope in the dominions of any temporal sovereign. Lord Palmerston replied by the only suitable criticism when he repeated the word "independence" with a shrug of the shoulder or a twich of the elbow, which excited the sympathetic applause of the House. There was a highly characteristic absurdity in Mr. Disraeli's confident assertion that England would never tolerate the translation of the Holy See to France. Such an arrangement is in itself highly improbable; but if the Emperor Napoleon thought fit to establish the Pope at Avignon or at S. Cloud, no sensible English statesman would raise the smallest difficulty. Mr. Disraeli is extremely clever, and he probably influenced all the little knots of members whom he wished to conciliate. The only sympathies which he failed to touch were those of the House of Commons and the country, CONSERVATIVE FOREIGN POLICY. Spectator-(Independent Liberal). Had Mr. Disraeli wished to destroy the moral cohesion of his following he could not have made a speech better adapted to its end. If they have any distinctive principles these two are distinct, that English policy should be a Protestant policy, and that this country should maintain herself in the rank won by "OUR PROFLIGATE EXPENDITURE." Morning Star-(Democratic, anti-Ministerial). Mr. Disraeli has never been wanting in the sagacity to perceive that the economical professions of the Liberal party must be mere idle wind so long as the head of the party was permitted to indulge in a foreign policy of general intervention and disagreement. But even he could scarcely have anticipated, in his most cynical contemplation of Parliamentary human nature, that the Liberals would have allowed such extreme divergence to obtain between the language of the Finance Minister and the action of the Cabinet. He seems to have thought, however, that Mr. Gladstone's recent speeches at Manchester marked the termination of that divergence; and to determine on setting up Sir Stafford Northcote to ascertain the fact. The experiment has resulted in the avowal of Mr. Gladstone's unreserved acceptance of the Government rule of expenditure. Thereupon Mr. Disraeli utters what we are quite willing to receive as the manifesto of future action. Justly remarking that our expenditure is ruled by our foreign policy-a principle to which the gentlemen below the gangway will no doubt make him welcome, though friendship with them is disclaimed-he points out that hostility to France has been the inspiration of that policy. He recalls, as he has a right to do, that me morable speech in which Lord Palmerston characterised the great neighbour nation as extending to us the right hand, but grasping the sword-hilt with the left. He repudiates-not for the first time, in justice be it said-the policy of which that exciting utterance was the epitome; and he announces a cordial friendship with foreign Powers as the essential but the only condition of material retrenchment in our domestic expenditure. It of course suited the purpose of Lord Palmerston to make his reply an imputation of abject servility to the French Emperor, and unsympathising indifference to the liberties of Europe. Such a re ing, straightforward in his actions, earnest in his feelings, swayed by heartfelt anxiety for his fellow creatures, able to appreciate their needs, eager to enrich their opportunities, glorying in their progress and elevation of all classes. The multitude is quite able to tell whether a public servant is dealing with the realities of State business-with the actual resources, the dangers, the advancement of the community, or only with shams and pretences, got up" for the market," and designed merely to catch custom. It can tell whether this man is allotted to the Military department because he knows it thoroughly, that to the Navy because he is at home amid ships and sailors and the statesmanship of the Marine; this other to Finance because he is master of economy in theory and practice; and a fourth to the head of the Cabinet, because to extraordinary energy and experience, he adds no less insight into the characters of men, and a manly heartiness which makes his colleagues friends and trusting companions. It can tell whether the statesmen are flung together in a policy common to all, understood by all, sustained by all. It knows such men when it has them, and it is not likely to long for others in the mere love of change, still less to disgrace from office the true representative of the nation, its sentiments and purpose, in order that a few party men, suddenly professing their belief in Peel as a political prophet, may enthrone as the leading Minister of this great and practical country that surviving Curiosity of Literature" who has made finance a farce and statesmanship a sham. joinder may be effective with those who are content to forget the antecedents of the speaker. But the public mind is not in that condition. It is as little regardless of the cause of freedom abroad as of the tendency of great armaments, in the hands of aristocratic diplomatists, rather to obstruct than to promote that cause. It does not forget that Whig statesmen have been as little disposed as Conservative to afford to the aspirations of European populations the encouragement of English opinion. Even of Lord Russell it is remembered that Italy got from him no help until Italy was beyond the need of it. The non-intervention practised by our Government, whoever was their head or organ, has been a non-intervention forced upon them by a public too well aware that interference would be upon the wrong side. It is certain that Austria has had no fewer complments paid to her by Lord Palmerston than by Lord Derby; and that France has been the object of our Liberal Premier's inveterate hostility exactly in proportion to the liberality of French policy. It is, therefore, an impudent pre-by the gambling associations of faction, or by genuine agreement. text, exceeding the submissive capability even of this trustful people, to answer the most serious proposal of retrenchment yet made by professions of devotion to Continental freedom. Lord Palmerston cannot be suffered to make his compulsory abstinence from a pro-Austrian crusade an excuse for building enormous armaments against France. If the Conservative leader be really about to compete with Mr. Gladstone in measures of economy, let not the competition be disturbed by false issues. Not a shilling of the millions spent on military or naval preparations has gone to the aid of Italy-though much might have gone the other way if the English people had not taken alarm at Whig menaces of Italian development towards the Adriatic. A resolution pledging the house to a reduction of public burdens will deserve support, come whence it may-and none the less that it be preceded by a formal repudiation of that policy of universal domination which has gone far to leave us without a friend abroad. while it has crushed political progress under heavy burdens here at home. THE SOPHIST AND THE STATESMAN. Morning Post-(Aristocratic-Ministerial). The difference between the sophist and the statesman was never more strikingly exemplified than in the contrast furnished by the speeches of Mr. Disraeli and Lord Palmerston on Thursday night. We have no hesitation in saying that the Conservative partymust be lost to every sense of shame or honour if, after the harangue now inflicted on them by their leader, they still consent to "THEY MANAGE THESE THINGS BETTER IN FRANCE." follow his reckless guidance. For any assurance they have to Standard (Anti-Ministerial). France has got a Finance Minister who preaches economy and means it, who enforces his views not by whining drivel about popular agitation, but by taking up a resolute stand on the alternative of retrenchment or resignation; and France is, therefore, month by month reducing her army, and thus giving all Europe assurances of peace. In this auspicious state of things a patriotic Minister would rejoice to find an opportunity for easing the strain upon the country's exertions, for slackening the pace of her expenditure, for relaxing if not for unbuckling her armour. But we can quite understand that a Minister of a different type would see in such a combination of events only a means of pushing forward with more eagerness his own ambitious designs, for pushing forward his own projects, for insisting with more arrogance than ever in taking the foremost place in the Councils of Europe, and aspiring to be the arbiter of the destinies of the world. We do not deny that the position, if it could be attained, is a dazzling one. We will not here dispute whether our Minister is capable of filling it. If he were we should be far from grudging him the glory. All we say is, that the mere effort to attain it is a very expensive not to say a dangerous process. And it happens that both the expense and the danger are to be incurred by the people. The time has come when the people are compelled to ask themselves whether they are willing to incur that expense and that danger for the sake of retaining Lord Palmerston in power. the contrary, he may stand up again next week, and proclaim that imperialism or socialism forms the true foundation of the English State, and Methodism or Mormonism the life and soul of the English Church. They would, in the event of his doing so, have no greater right to feel astonished and to complain than they would have when, after having voted with him, whether in office or in opposition, year after year, on every occasion in which it has been thought necessary by the House of Commons to increase the defences or to augment the military and naval force of the country, he now suddenly turns round upon them and denounces the folly of" bloated armaments." Followingthe movements of this treacherous will-o'-the-wisp, they have voted for coast defences and Armstrong guns and plated ships, and they have done all this only to find themselves suddenly immersed in the Radical quagmire from which Mr. Bright croaks forth his unpatriotic notes. There are moments when one is almost tempted to frame from Mr. Disraeli's political career the theory by which some writers have attempted to explain away the writings of Macchiavelli and the acts of Sunderland. One is almost lead to the conclusion that the member for Buckinghamshire would prepare by temporary and short-lived triumph the final ruin of his party; that he has assumed the Conservative mask in order to sow more effectually than he could otherwise have done the seeds of revolution; that he wormed himself into the confidence of the old aristocracy of England to obtain the opportunity of stabbing it to the heart; and that the "organised hypocrisy" with which he taunted the late Sir Robert Peel is a charge to which he has made himself far more amenable. There is no necessity, however, for any such refined theory to explain the true character of Mr. The real objects of the attack made by the pretender to place Disraeli's tactics. It was unconsciously revealed by himself in his in the interests of party were the policy of free trade, and the most characteristic denunciation of moral power and influence as most distinguished living master of that policy. It was a game an instrument of international policy. By the exercise of that which relied upon an appeal to the disguised and obsolete super- moral power and influence, Lord Palmerston, the Conservative stitions of Protection, as an instrument to ruin the man; and leader affirms, exasperates in his foreign policy the allies of Engthe personal character of the assault came out undisguisedly. land. There is very little doubt of the fact that, by the exercise We do not, however, complain of that. At one time, when of moral power and influence, Lord Palmerston checkmates his rulers were despotic and their followers corrupt, personal in- political opponents at home. Hence all these bitter tears. Imfluences were flagrant and rampant; at a later period, decorum potent to wield, because unable to understand and appreciate, suppressed the abuse, and etiquette dictated a polite silence the moral artillery of enlightened European opinions, Mr. Disabout things so vulgar; but the danger has passed, and the raeli now proposes to carry on a political warfare by the small reserve has grown to be a cant, which is in itself an abuse. party tactics of Walpoles and Pelhams. He has secured the So long as men govern men, personality will be a powerful favour of one section in Parliament (the Ultramontanists) by element in political rule, and heaven forbid that it should professing a profound interest in the independence of the Pope, be otherwise. Poor indeed must be the genius of that states-taking very good care to ignore the fact that the dependence of man who, not sympathising with his countrymen heart and Pius IX. on the Austrian garrisons in the Leglations was so soul, is unable to understand how to guide them, to qualify absolute as to compel him to maintain, out of his own private their errors, to evoke their powers, and to make them his purse, the women of loose character following the Croat allies and coadjutors rather than his slaves, his obstructions, regiments; and that his present dependence on the French perchance his enemies. In their turn, the people, and most general commanding-in-chief at Rome, though in practice especially in a constitutional State, must judge of their Go- less humiliating, is quite as complete. Ignoring such facts, vernments most often, most chiefly, and we believe, most safely, Mr. Disraeli, as the champion of Papal Independence, by their personal characters. You cannot divorce the deeds of has increased, by a few votes, the phalanx of his supporters. the man from his qualities. You cannot teach the multitude to And now he has made a similar attempt with Mr. Bright and the form its judgment on every technical or departmental point; politicians of the Manchester School. The cry of Papal Indebut it is able to learn how far a statesman is frank in his reason-pendence" has gained a few votes, the cry of "bloated arma PERSONALITIES OF POLITICAL WARFARE. Daily Telegraph-(Democratic-Ministerial). ments" may gain a good many more." We may be sure that another cry more captivating and popular is behind, and that it is intended to detach, if possible, a greater number of supporters from the present Government. Mr. Disraeli evidently intends to gain over his reinforcements by tactics akin to those by which the survivor of the three Roman brothers obtained his legendary triumph. It is, by the way, rather a curious coincidence that the elaborate political disquisition in which Mr. Disraeli has just set forth the imminent danger of a rupture of our alliance with France, from a possible disagreement on the Roman question, should have been preceded only a very few days by the article to the same effect in the Austrian journal to which we yesterday thought it necessary to call the attention of our readers. The chords of English and Austrian Conservatism vibrate together in a significant and suggestive sympathy. } "BLOATED ARMAMENTS." John Bull (Conservative, Anti-Ministerial.) Lord Palmerston chuckled over his retort to Mr. Disraeli, "Why, if the expenditure is excessive-if we maintain bloated armaments-you made no objection when the votes were passed," evidently in the belief that he has rebuffed the whole country in the person of Mr. Disraeli. The retort is equally feeble and fallacious, both in its application to Mr. Disraeli and to the nation at large. The Government came down to the house and told us that certain sums were necessary for the defence of the country. On the faith of that statement Parliament granted the sums, Mr. Disraeli did not oppose, and the nation grinned and bore it. It is perfectly consistent with all this that we may have a foolish, petulant Government which is likely to drift us into a war, and on that account we may find it necessary to burden ourselves with extensive preparations. It is not the less incumbent on us when we have found the money to make ourselves safe, to take our Government to task and urge them to avoid the follies which bring us into so much danger, and mulct us in such heavy expense. This was the lesson which Mr. Disraeli read to the Cabinet, and we hope that they will be the better for it. PEACE WITH ROME. Examiner (Ministerial, Liberal). A party cry is sadly wanted, and last year it seemed that the Church was to be taken under Mr. D'israeli's special care, but by some curious legerdemain the Church of Rome has been taken up instead of the Church of England, and truth to say, Rome has not been ungrateful for the preference. But that is only sectional, so economy is now the word, and down with bloated armaments, and up with peace and good-will with all nations. But, unfortunately, the country, which is of a suspicious, distrustful turn, asks what were your votes upon the estimates for the said bloated armaments? and to make the matter worse, Mr. D'israeli's righthand man, Sir Stafford Northcote, advocates an economy consistent with an expenditure for all means of strengthening our military resources and the adoption of every new scheme for manslaying. If this be reformation, what is abuse; if this be economy, what is waste? FRIENDSHIP FOR THE POPE. We have only room at present to notice the salient points of the manly and powerful speech of Mr. Disraeli. The right hon gentleman carefully re-affirmed the policy of the Conservative Party in the Affairs of Italy; and in particular emphatically repeated his opinion that it was the duty of a British statesman to look carefully to the preservation of the independence of the Pope. Lord Palmerston, in reply, began by distinctly laying down that absolute difference between his foreign policy and Lord Malmesbury's, which Catholic Whigs both in Ireland and England were once so eager to deny, and are still so reluctant to admit, and when he spoke of the independence of the Pope, for want of words to express his contempt, he made a gesture,' says the reporter of the Times, so expressive as to call forth loud and prolonged cheering." his inference was that we ought to leave the settlement of the Pope's affair cordially and unreservedly in the hands of Napoleon. Those then who are satisfied with Napoleon may be satisfied with Mr. D'Israeli's declaration. Those who distrust the French Emperor will continue to distrust the English Tory. At the present moment of uncertainty it is at least curious that he should thus have broken his long silence by a declaration in favour of Napoleon. Is there any connection between this move and those which Continental Catholics, with or without reason, believe to be going on for a compromise between the Courts of Paris and Turin ? POLITICAL PROFLIGACY. Daily News-(Radical-Ministerial). Mr. Disraeli does not pretend that the policy of the Govern ment is changed; yet, whereas a year or two ago it was too favourable to French interests and designs, it is now too independent of the French alliance. So, too, with respect to the bloated armaments" which Mr. Disraeli denounces at this convenient season for condemning the budget of the year. These "bloated armaments." it seems, represent the "moral power" which a Liberal English Government claims to exercise in the Disraeli was a burning and a shining light, that in a fit of pauic councils of Europe. Yet it was the Government of which Mr. and passion, when the Italian war of Independence was declared in '59, suddenly, by Order in Council, swept into the navy ten thousand bounty-men, at an enormous cost, in order to support Lord Malmesbury's moral demonstrations in the Mediterranean in favour of Austria, and against France and Italy. Doubtless the sincere and eloquent author of the "Three Panics" has not forgotten these antecedents of his latest and most unexpected disciple. That Mr. Disraeli should abound in sneers at moral power," is not more surprising than that he should treat any mention of "political morality" as almost a personal insult. He is terribly afraid of the Holy Father's going to one of the cities on the Danube " some fine morning. Where, we should like to know, did Mr. Disraeli expect the Holy Father to go to in the spring of 1859, when he came down to the House of Commons to announce the immediate departure of the French troops from Rome? Austria, it is true, was at that date in occupation of the Romagna, and in possession of Lombardy, and the legions of France had not crossed the Alps. And this is the statesmanship with which the member for Bucks proposes to secure the wavering allegiance of the honest country gentlemen of England, and to seduce the intellect of independent Liberals below the gangway. 64 W THE KOH-I-NOOR, E can hardly wonder that this-the queen of jewels-attracts so much attention in the International Exhibition. It is something to see the finest diamond the world has yet produced; but we shall add very largely to its interest by, giving some brief particulars of its history. Many are probably aware that it was surrendered to the Queen of Great Britain upon the annexation of the Punjab empire, and passed together with the Sikh dominion from the hands of Dhuleep Singh, to the possession of Queen Victoria. It had long been the property of the Khalsa Rajahs, and was believed to carry with it the evil influence of the genii of the mines, who were supposed to be envious of its possessors. Karna, King of Anga, was its first owner. Passing through many hands, it came to the Rajah of Ujayin, who lost it, together with his kingdom, by an invasion of the Mahommedans. Subsequently we find Ala-ood-deen, Sultan of Delhi, grasping the unparalleled jewel, but it was again lost by his son to his Mogul conqueror. The influence ascribed was, no doubt, well-founded upon the consequences of its possession. One Eastern potentate had prudence enough to decline the dangerous treasure. My son, Humayon," says his memoirs, "hath won a jewel of the Rajah, valued at half the daily expenses of the entire world, the which when he would have given me for Peskash, I presented it back to him." The want of such caution cost Mohammed Shah dearly. When he advanced with the "Mountain of light" glittering on his turban to meet his conqueror Nadir Shah, the Affghan chief saw the jewel, and felt his power. "We will be friends," he said, FRIENDSHIP FOR LOUIS NAPOLEON. "and change our turbans in pledge of friendship." Suiting Weekly Register-(Romanist and Philo-Gallican.) action to his words, he compelled rather than invited the exMr. Cobden and Mr. Bright, if they believe Mr. Disraeli is change. It remained among the princes of the Doorannee empire sincere, will hail him as a new partisan. But, as Lord | until Shah Soojah, the last of his line, visited the powerful and Palmerston said, he threw out friendly signals to every portion ambitious Maharajah Runjeet Singh. Then it became part of of the house-except the Ministers. Among others, he tried the gorgeous regalia of the Sikh empire. When Runjeet lay on to win Catholic support. Major O'Reilly's election, no doubt, his death-bed, Brahmins begged the jewel for the forehead of has alarmed him, lest other Catholic constituencies, instead of Juggernaut. It is doubtful whether they obtained his consent, allowing their just anger against Lord Palmerston and Lord but certain that it never adorned the idol. Shere Singh wore Russell to make them his creatures, should, like that of Long-it, and his son, the last of the Maharajahs, handed it over to her ford, return independent Liberals, as little disposed to become Majesty. We are glad that the Maharajah has followed its slaves to him as to them. Accordingly, professing entire in- fortunes, and is often the honored guest of the Royal Lady, the difference on the question of the Pope's temporal power, he present mistress of the jewel. The genii of the mines are doubturged the importance, alike to France and to England, of his less satisfied, and seeing Victoria surrounded by the still more spiritual independence. His declaration will no doubt be made queenly ornaments of an affectionate people, and a pure and a great deal of by those few Catholics who only desire an excuse virtuous life, cease to envy its possession to so richly endowed for supporting him. Among others, it will weigh little. For a monarch. " LITERATURE PEACE THEORIES AND WAR EXPENDITURE.* ful avoidance of any comparison between England and America, to leave his followers in doubt as to what his opinions are, after the experience of more than a quarter of a century. "These are times which try men's souls." No honest politician, therefore, can take refuge in neutrality. The country, so far as they are politicians rather than socialists, have been in the habit of looking upon the American Constitution, in Church and State, as the perfect model we ought to imitate in all our attempts at Parliamentary or Church Reform. From father to son, for three-quarters of a century, they have been educated in this creed. Paine's "Rights of Man" has been the political gospel of English Democracy ever since 1792, and all the speeches and pamphlets of Mr. Cobden, and other "certificated masters" of the Manchester School, have been calculated to strengthen their faith in the doctrines of that Handy Book for Revolutionists. NOR good or evil, the people of Great Britain and the people of upon each other. Speaking the same language, living under the same laws, professing the same religious creed, and carrying on a perpetual interchange of sentiment and opinion upon all the great questions which most deeply concern humanity, the two peoples cannot but feel that they have a common interest in each other's social, political, and religious condition; that whatever promotes the welfare of the one nation must be beneficial to the other; and that everything which materially injures the one must, sooner or later, inflict a corresponding injury upon both. With motives so powerful for taking a mutual interest in the respective opinions and policy of each other, it is natural that the American people, through the hundred tongues of its journalism, should indulge in pretty severe comments on the real or alleged defects and errors of our aristocratic Republic, and that English journalists-when a hostile comparison has been provoked-should pronounce a no less severe condemnation of the faults and blunders of the American Dem ocratic Republic. When Mr. Cobden, under the well-known signature of "A Manchester Manufacturer," made his first appearance as a pamphleteer, the prevailing tendency of English statesmen was to eschew all such comparisons, as likely to do more harm than good; but this reserve on their part was not ascribed to any honest motive by the majority of English Radicals, who were eager to assimilate our institutions as much as possible to the Jeffersonian pattern, and, therefore, always on the alert to draw comparisons between the judicious economy of the United States and the wasteful expenditure of Great Britain. Hence the complaint of Mr. Cobden, in his pamphlet entitled "England, Ireland, and America," that English statesmen obstinately ignored the importance of American affairs, while they were continually mixing themselves up with the paltry disputes of petty states on the "It is a singular fact," said Mr. Cobden, "that whilst so much of the time and attention of our statesmen is devoted to the affairs of foreigners, and whilst our debates in Parliament, and the columns of our newspapers, are so frequently engrossed with the politics of petty states, such as Portugal, Belgium, and Bavaria, little notice is taken of the country that ought, beyond all others, to engage the attention and even to excite the apprehension of this commercial nation." There could only be one motive for such conduct on the part of Whig and Tory statesmen, in his opinion. They were afraid lest the people of this country should find out that the affairs of a great nation were managed in so excellent a manner as those of America, and at so very moderate a cost compared with what we spend annually for a similar pur-tinental brawls, and by diligently pursuing our peaceful industry, pose. Not that he was quite prepared to advocate the adoption of Democracy pure and simple, at least in the meantime. All that he then urged upon our Government was, that we should follow the example of the Americans in the management of our home and foreign affairs. Unless we did so, he would not answer for the consequences :— Continent. "The example held forth to us by the Americans, of strict economy, of peaceful non-interference, of universal education, and of other public improvements, may, and indeed must, be emulated by the Government, if the people are to be allowed even the chance of surviving a competition with that republican community. If it be objected that an economical Government is inconsistent with the maintenance of the monarchical and aristocratical institutions of this land; then we answer, let an unflinching economy and retrenchment be enforced-ruat cœlum." In the pamphlet entitled "England, Ireland, and America," Mr. Cobden endeavoured to show that "our oppressive public establishments are, throughout, modelled unnecessarily for the service of the Commonwealth, upon a scale enormously disproportioned to those of our more economical rivals." In 1835, when that pamphlet was written, our annual expenditure was about £46,000,000, a burden far too heavy, as he alleged, for the people of this country to bear with patience, and, therefore, he proposed a sweeping reduction of the Army and Navy Estimates, as the first step towards reform. Should it be urged that the assimilating our institutions to those of America would be the work of Revolution rather than Reform, he was quite prepared to risk the consequences. "If it be objected that an economical Government is inconsistent with the monarchical and aristocratical institutions of this land; then we answer, let an unflinching economy and retrenchment be enforced-ruat cœlum." State policy was no great mystery at bottom. "Nearly all the revolutions and great changes in the modern world have had a financial origin." We have only, then, to look sharply after the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if we wish to prevent a revolutionary overturn. "To nineteen-twentieths of the people (who never encounter a higher functionary than a tax-gatherer, and who meet their rulers only in duties upon beer, soap, tobacco, &c.,) politics are but an affair of pounds, shillings, and pence." It is all very well for aristocratic Army and Navy officers to talk as if a knowledge of foreign affairs were of great importance to a statesman. In his opinion, the less we have to do with the affairs of other nations the more prosperous we shall be in our trade and com merce. between two or more European States, however remote, or how"Hitherto, whenever a war has at any time been threatened ever insignificant, it has furnished a sufficient pretence for our statesmen to augment our armaments by sea and land, in order to assume an imposing attitude, as it is termed; forgetting, all the while, that by maintaining a strict neutrality in these conwhilst our neighbours were exhausting themselves in senseless wars, we might be growing in riches, in proportion as they become poorer; and, since it is by wealth, after all, that the world is governed, we should, in reality, be the less in danger from the powers on the continent, the more they indulge in hostilities with each other. "It is a common error with our statesmen to estimate the strength of a nation-as, for instance, is the case at this moment (1835) in their appreciation of the power of Russia, Prussia, or Austria-according to the magnitude of its armies and navies; whereas these are the signs, and, indeed, the causes, of real poverty and weakness in a people.' It may be said that these are the crude opinions of a young and ignorant speculative politician, who was only repeating, at second hand, a few of those half truths which are so much more Why do we quote these passages from a pamphlet written dangerous than downright error, when addressed to men who twenty-seven years ago? Why not allow all this juvenile effer- are only too ready to believe that the science of legislation and vescence on the part of Mr. Cobden to be forgotten by the men of Government is much more easily acquired than the art of weavthe present day? Simply because we believe that the dexterousing or printing calicoes. But although Mr. Cobden is now much manipulation of statistics, and the fervid eloquence of "A Man- older than he was when he first began to give lessons to English chester Manufacturer" produced an impression upon young Lan-statesmen in the art and mystery of Government, he is not a cashire and Yorkshire, in 1835, which, although latent just now, is whit wiser. He still believes that "the aggregate wisdom of far stronger than our statesmen seem to be aware of; and because humanity" is to be found with the ill-educated, numerical we hold that, after having done so much to Americanise the pub-majority, rather than with the well-educated minority; and, lic sentiment of this country, Mr. Cobden ought not, by his care- therefore, he would still contend for the Americanisation of our institutions, as the grand panacea for all our worst social and political evils. He still believes also in the Benthamite *The Three Panics: An Historical Episode. By Richard Cobden, Esq., M.P. London: Ward and Co. |