13 FEBRUARY 1858, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

TEE proceedings of our First Minister in Parligapent lead us back to earlier times at the beginning of the preseMentury, when the First Consul, then ruler of France, was making demands upon England. It is a period that we had almost forgotten—one of which the very recollection is painful for both countries ; and we should be glad to be relieved of the fear suggested by recent pro- ceedings in France, that they may be followed by such events as grew out of that bad period. We know that there are differences between the specific de- mands now made and those enforced by the First Consul ; but the differences, such as they are, are unimportant, and they are not to the advantage of this country. If professedly more friendly, France is not really more courteous than she was then, and England is certainly less firm.

In pursuance of the demands thus made upon him, Lord Pal- merston has introduced a " bill to amend the law relating to con- spiracies to murder." The bill provides that- any person who shall within the United Kingdom, including the Channel Islands, con- spire With-other-persons to commit murder, either within or with- out her Majesty's dominions, shall be guilty of felony, and shall be liable to penal servitude for any term between. five years and life. A . second clause extends the liability to any person who shall " incite, instigate, or solicit" any other person. In England, Conspiracy to murder has heretofore been a misdemeanour, subject- ingthe offender to fine and imprisonment ; in Ireland, it appears, there has been a severer law, no doubt arising from the conflict kept up between those who were within and those who were without the Pale,—conflicts we have forgotten together with that discreditable law. By the bill now introduced, thelaw of conspiracy to murder is made uniform throughout the United Kingdom, while its extreme severity in Ireland is mitigated. This is a representation of the measure which enables the Premier to layit before the House of Commons as a law amendment, while doing his best to keep the political bearing of it out of sight. But how was it that Lord Palmerston came to introduce the bill at all? In answering that question, we pay no attention to the addresses from Louis Napoleon's Praetorian bands, the spirit of which we sufficiently noticed last week ; we refer entirely to the official statements of the French Government—to the care- fully-composed reply of the Count de Persigny on receiving the address from the London Corporation' to the despatch of January the 20th addressed by Count Walewski to the French Ambassa- dor in London, and to the answer of Count Walewski when the inconvenient erects of the publications in the 4(oniteur were pointed out to the French Government. In all of these official documents, it will be found that the French Minister, by the order of the Emperor, has expressed an expectation that the English Government will alter the law of this land; in order to prevent conspiracies against the life of the ruler of France, which it is assumed are invariably concocted in England. It is distinctly intimated, that if the law be not altered, the French Government will be unable to prevent the French nation from being convinced that we toleiate conspi- racies ; and the hint is conveyed, that on refusal we,inight forfeit the French affiance. The intimation- is clear in Count' de Per- Signy's note ; it is put much more forcibly in the more official communication of Count Walewski; and it lurks even in the note of apology. In obedience to this peremptory request it is that Lord,Palmerstonlas introduced his bill. Now what is the effect of the proposed enaetinent ? The Imperial_ Government demands preventrie meSsilie's ; but this measure is not preventive. It re- verses the whole progress of our penal. legislation. We have heretofore,pought efficiency of preventio in diminished severity of punishment, and we have persistentlp refused to admit into ?lir system that species of preventive surveillance and summary interference by the police which is the real meaning -of " preven- tive" measures. On the face of the 14,112 therefore, it does not

[LATEST EDITION.] serve the purpose. We have no conspiracies of the kind against our own Government ; we can control any breach of the law with- in our own jurisdiction ; the new bill is not only unneeded, but is an injury to our statute-book; the only object of its ostensible provisions must be to soothe or to compliment the French. Such a demand made by Naples or Spain would have been met by a point-blank refusal ; and if now it is not conceded to fear, it must be yielded to subserviency.

It is possible, indeed, that the real working operation of the in- tended act may, not appear upon the face of the bill. The offence has remained a misdemeanour under our code, because it is assumed that a man who has not committed a murder may repent of his intention, and the conspirator who repents before the fact cannot be a proved murderer. It is a great principle in our penal legis- lation to diminish crime and the inducements to it, by keeping open this locus penitentite. By converting the offence from a mis- demeanour into a felony, the bill incidentally confers upon the police powers of arresting, seeking, and pursuing the accused, even, we believe, in private houses ; and it is a question, whether, under the Extradition Treaty, by establishing a prima facie case, —or on a mere accusation—the new law would not enable the Home Office to hand over the accused for trial in France. At all events, it would enable the English police to act as an auxiliary for the police under General Niel, in the spirit more of Paris than of Lond.on.

It might naturally be supposed that such a bill would not bd admitted by the House of Commons as a matter of course ; and accordingly it was discussed, we might say opposed, in two nights of earnest debating. Some few Members uttered distinct protests against the measure ; amongst them the most forcible were Mr. Roebnok, Mr. Kinglake, and especially Lord John Russell. Lord John showed, from historical precedents, that the French Govern- ment could not have expected such a concession from ours—that the proposed legislation is inconsistent with the spirit and progress of our laws ; and he indicated how Lord Palmerston might have answerer tbe French Government by throwing back upon the Em- peror's Ministers the responsibility for enlightening France, while saying, :Show us the criminal, and we will have him punished in our own courts. At last, on a divison of 299 to 99, leave was Oven to introduce the bill. But if that division expressed any opinion; it is adverse to the Minister. When any Member of the Cabinet asks leave to introduce a Government bill, it is given almost as a matter of course ; to resist and divide upon the merits, is in itself an ominous opposition. Lord Palmerston no doubt found some genuine support in those who are apprehensive of a rupture with France; who look not only to the ' danger," but who have an eye to the effect of any disturbance upon trade. These fears are a reality, and they have their head-quarters perhaps in " the City" • though that illus- trious town can be sufficiently warlike too when it is in the mood. Another feeling which has been at work is the good English ha- tred of assassination : under an access of horror, some who are told that assassins are amongst us fall into the common cry that "something must be done," without waiting to ask what ; and no doubt there are persons even in the House of Commons stupid enough to accept any proposition because it is the so much desired "something." There also remains amongst us a party which has a sincere, almost a religious sympathy with arbitrary rule—believes it to be the proper administration upon earth ; and which would be glad therefore to see such a regime extended on the Continent and permanently established in France. We have little more than the relics of such a party, whose members are daily dying out. Its organization was destroyed when Peel broke up the Tory ranks into theoretical " Conservatives" andgenuine Moderate Liberals. Lord Derby. and Mr. Disraeli, the official heirs to the political property of the Tory party,' may not be sorry to keep open for Lord Malmesbury the position which he held in 1852, or to renew for him any support in Parliament through his French prestige. Lord PalMirston may also have for the nonce the eid of some stra1 Members stirred by exceptional motives ; as in the case of Mr. Thomas Duncombe, whom Gore House traditions con- vert into an advocate of his quondam associate Louis Napoleon. The popular Member for Finsbury has become a teacher of French history, which he reads as it is read out of atcredited• books to French schoolboys ; even the Boulogne expedition being beauti- fied. But what of Lord Palmerston 's majority, with which he

was said to be ruling so prosperously and so resistlessly? Un- doubtedly it witnessed the introduetion of this French measure

with dismay and annoyance. It may bethink itself that if the bill were rejected- Lord Palmerston must resign; and parties in the House of Commons, speaking generally., are not yet prepared to reconstruct a Ministry. Nevertheless, in the ulterior stages of

the bill, the Parliamentary miqd might become familiarized with the idea of a resignation, while familiarity with the bill can only bring out more evidently its odious characteristics ; and if the Minister persevere, the House of Commons might ultimately pre- fer the inconvenience of a Ministerial crisis to a national .]isgrace.

The great Indian debates have begun this week, with an un- usual degree of uncertainty as to the course which they will take ; an uncertainty suitable to the magnitude of the subject, the com- plication of the interests involved, and the diversity of views which have hitherto been indulged in all the licence of abstract specula- tion but have now received a sudden summons to become practical. The calculations as to the result, which always precede a conflict on "great measures," have changed almost daily, and are in fact based upon data the most fallacious. It may, however, be safely said, that the opponents of the bill, though many, speak in a tone the reverse of confident ; while the Government are strong in the assurance of being able to demonstrate that their plan will secure unquestionable advantages to India and the empire. The vote of thanks to the officials, the Army and Navy, and the civil volunteers in India, was not allowed to pass without question in either House. In the House of Lords, there was a demur to including the Governor-General in the vote ; and in the House of Commons Mx. Walpole saved Government a division by suggest- ing an assurance from Lord Palmerston—which he gave—that no advantage should be taken of the vote in bar of the indictment of Lord Canning's administration by the Calcutta petitioners, or in anticipation of the judgment. Lord John Russell's Oaths Bill has passed its second reading in the Commons with extraordinary smoothness, the positive opposi- tion being reduced to a minimum. The objection to Sir John Pakington's motion for inquiry by royal commission into the state of popular education in England and Wales—that every fact is already known—was not felt to be conclusive. The pruning of the motion by Mr. Cowper did not touch the essential part of the subject, and, no doubt, in deference to the resolution, a commission will issue. The report will not be valueless as a resume of known facts, but it will be far more valu- able as a new point of departure for those who agree on the main object though they stand committed to conflicting views as to the means, and will hail an authoritative warrant to justify them in oeming together again with mutual concessions.

The Imperial doveriiment of France continues its course of re- pression. In order to a more effectual keeping down of any " an- noying opposition," the Ministry of the Interior—the French Home Office—has been reconstructed. The police has been di- vided from the main bureau, and is to be placed under a military officer of higher rank than bolonel Pietri—General Niel, one of the most rising men under the administration of the present Em- peror. But the most important change has taken place at the head of the Home Office, which M. Billault has been compelled to resign in favour of General Espinasse ; one of those soldiers whom the Emperor Napoleon has employed upon the most im- portant of his personal occasions—such as the coup d'etat.

Notwithstanding the official expression of regret transmitted to this country, the latest acts of the French Government do not tend to support the belief that the regret is real, or that the mili- tary articles were published in the Moniteur only through " in- advertence." It is probable that the note stating the effect in England of that publication reached Paris on the 3d or perhaps the 4th of this month ; on the 5th the Moniteur published more addresses from the French Army, one of which still talked about " marching." In the Moniteur of 29th January there appeared an address signed by Colonel d'Azemar, hoping that the " thought " of the President of the Legislative Corps would be realized. ; the " thought" being one of the many vague hints of aggression. The Moniteur de l'Armee of the 6th instant an- nounced the promotion of M. d'Azemar to be an officer of the Le- gion of Honour; and only a few days back one of the editors of the paper whose " inadvertence " is now disclaimed was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour.

The reports from Naples are humiliating, and doubly so when they are taken in conjunction with the present relations of this country and France. The trial of the captain and crew of the Cagliari was proceeding. The leader of the insurgents who had seized the steam-ship, Baron Nicotera, exonerated the captain and the crew, including our English fellow subjects. The Baron himself was treated by the Court in the most arbitrary manner, and was refused those forms of justice which the Neapolitan con- stitution professes to guarantee to every prisoner. Meanwhile, the two Englishmen Watt and Park, whose innocence appears to be established from the very opening of the trial, will be released with health permanently destroyed ; so that the half of their life, it may be said, has been sacrificed under the Neapolitan mockery of justice.

The advices from India and China report progress. The born- bardment 'of Canton, which was beginning when our last despatches left off, had been finished ; and the English troops with their French contingent had taken possession of the town. The only difficulty before them was, how to deal with the intractable Ce- lestials.

In India, Sir Colin Campbell was steadily advancing with those operations in the field that appear to have been so ably designed,

and thus far so well carried out. He had defeated the rebels at Furraekabad ; routing them completely, with the loss of their ar- tillery, heavy as well as light. Walpole had pacified Etawah. Seaton had effected his junction with Sir Colin Campbell ; who had thus acquired a great increase in men and valuable supplies. The communication between Delhi and Calcutta had been re- established ; the Douab had been cleared ; the Nepaul chief Jung Bahadoor had fallen upon the rebels at Goruckpore, and beaten them. Thus, in all directions, Campbell with his lieutenants was advancing ; Oude still remaining in the midst, the object of his future operations.