31 JANUARY 1857, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

IF we may accept the amended utterance just issued by the prescriptive organ of the Tory-Conservatives as a manifesto, we are 'neither to have a Session without party, nor an Opposition without life, policy, and hopes. The Quarterly _Review, discussing "prospects, political and financial," gives us a clear outline of the Anti-Ministerial policy. Palmerston is tube systematically, assailed, as a Minister morally worthless, without principles or purpose ; as a man who has "never staked his fortune upon any cause except such as have enjoyed the manifest favour of the gods " ; who never, like Peel in 1833 or Derby in 1846, or John Russell in 1822 or Charles Villiers in 1838, east his lot with a prostrate party ; but who was always in at the death. Without interest in domestic policy, he has a foreign policy specious but dangerous : " the' rule of his life has been to bluster and to in-. timidate " ; he has bullied little states, while, as he said at Manchester, he always managed to discover that great states are willing to render justice. To prove Lord Palmerston's discriminating perception in that way, the Quarterly adduces one unfortunate example—the incarceration of Coloured sailors entering the port of Charleston ; a practice that we believe has been discontinued. His Government has inspired the Tinzee, however, to proclaim for "England and her progeny a universal supremacy " ; England being "the great Mussulman power." To support his Government, he bands together men who are like himself, irrespective of parties ; Radicals, who like to brawl without paying the bill; and Whigs, who believe themselves to have an hereditary vocation for office, and for some Reform Bill. Public disappointment necessarily attends on the working of such a Government; and the Opposition puts forth its own programme in rivalry. As to Lord John's RusselPs Reform Bill—if he 4 bringing one from Italy— whether it be great or small, it will be set aside by Lord Palmerston's Reform Bill, which will be just big enough to get between it and the popular breeze. Meanwhile, the Conservatives lay down a course of rescue from the interminable foreign brawls of Lord Palmerston's Government, with accomplishment of measures which he only promised, or does not promise. Lord Derby

has proposed nonintervention, an equal friendship with all foreign states, as the rule of our foreign policy. The Quarterly adds retrenchment of the large: establishments developed by the Palmerston Ministry ; calling to mind that "the Government of the Duke of Wellington was the first really retrenching Govern ment " ; readjustment of finance, Income-tax included, follows as a matter of course ; and the cautious Conservative organ significantly "forbears" to speak on "the great subjects of religion, education, social improvement, and the distribution of patronage,"—intimating that on these subjects there are measures which await the settlement of more urgent questions. Here is a Programme of Conservative Reform, so designed as to take advantage of every weakness in the Ministerial position.

An ugly reminiscence of the late war comes out this week, almost as if to strengthen the position of the Quarterly Review, During the hubbub of the Crimea dispute, Sir John M`Neill maintained a dignified silence; he has now been called upon to break that silence. Leading men of Liverpool have drawn him

ott with an address, signifying high approval of his Si,ruices as a Commissioner of inquiry in the Crimea ; and Sir John conie.ses that he did perform his task with "painful fidelity." He pursued the "unflinching inquiry " which he understood Lord Palmerston to wish, and he carefully excluded personal considerations. His reward consists of two acts of approval—one wrung from Lord Palmerston in Parliament, the other given spontaneously by Lord Panmure after a silence of twelve months. Colonel Tulloch, also applauded by the Liverpool men, is restrained by his commission from an outspoken reply, but the warmth of his thanks is eloquent. Serving the public,, the two Commissioners receive their sole reward from the public. It would seem from their treatment that they ought to have flinched, and ought to have considered persons ; in default of which, they are, as it were, officially "cut." They are left to appeal to the public ; and thus the Inches of the Government call into existence a species of "direct legislation." Sir John M`Neill has a right to say that thb ease proves the unfitness of the Government to make such inquiries ; perhaps the Quarterly and its friends will hold the ease to prove something more.

Mr. Roebuck has been conspicuous among political portents this week, in a curious sequel to his last week's display. At Liverpool he seems to have been invited for a talk on Finance ; what he did furnish was a sermon on Administrative Reform, as the only thing to save the country. Corruption, he said, pervades every public department, from top to bottom. Members who go to London, resolved to be independent in Parliament, yield to the seductions of Peers and Peeresses, who sneer at them behind their backs ; and the country is lost. It can only be saved by forming an independent party in the House of Commons. But at Sheffield,. Mt. Roalsaak,h108110 " the adoring pupil of Art." It wat.hivmission to preach to the waking man the solace to be derived from art; to the artisan, the master principles which will enable British manufactures to win their lost place in the markets of the world. In art, however, Mr. Roebuck yields the pas to Mr. Henry Cole ; the Member for Sheffield modestly professing to be only the expositor of "truth." For this most direct of our politicians is as merciless in his candour respecting other men's failings, as he is supercilious in his disclaimers for himself; peculiarities which may operate to intimidate less perfect men in approaching even to support him.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has been subjected to a second deputation on the Income-tax, and with the same result as at the meeting described in our Postscript last Saturday. Sir George Lewis attempted no evasion, professed not to make a specific reply. He could not, indeed, anticipate his financial statement without committing the Government to arrangements that it cannot finally have considered ; nor could he do so without creating all kinds of speculation in a trading community ever on the watch to dabble in any of the hundred forms of stockjobbing. The announcement of any largo reduction in the Income-tax, or of its removal, would set at work conjectures as to the substitution of taxes on articles of consumption, and for the next three months all kinds of markets would be deranged by fantastical notions based upon any premature financial statement. The demands before the Chancellor of the Exchequer ranged themselves into three kinds,—improvement in the mode of distributing and assessing the tax ; reduction of the amount; and remission of the impost on smaller incomes. Sir George Lewis treated the suggestions of improving the machinery of the Income-tax as worthy of "consideration," but as being already settled upon a deliberate comparison of all the arguments and difficulties ; so that he dismissed it as not belonging to "the practical part of the subject." Then with regard to the reduction, he showed that, with the falling-in of other war-taxes, and with charges that still have to be met, such as Exchequer Bills, there could not be this year that disposable surplus which some imagine. At the same time, he pledged the Government not to stand upon the letter of the statute, but to consider the whole question upon its merits. The tone of his answers certainly implies that the reduction will not be very considerable.

The meeting of the Mercantile Conference., under the auspices of the Law Amendment Society, ie an important event, and it must lead to important results. The Conference of 1852 did so ; though the progress made during the last four years is less apparent in our legislation than in the opening of professional minds, and of the public mind, to the possibility of much further improvement. Hitherto, law-amendment has been left to a particular and not an extensive class of men, animated by intellectual zeal, while on the other hand the commercial public has interested itself mainly in obtaining pertioular reforms—" practical" measures they were called, because they were narrowed to certain points, and colliel be executed as a job of work. Now, the mer°until 4ionrinunity is acting mere as a body ; is expressing its

wants with a clear-headed perception of the mode in which it desires any amended law to work. As Lord Brougham said at the meeting of the Conference, the principle which has animated himself and other law-reformers is the gradual substitution of natural procedure for technical procedure. The law-reformers are now aiming to construct statutes which may work in, not alone with the practice of counsel and the dicta of judges, but with the business of daily life. These facts are of the greatest importance with a view to working legislation, and we certainly, may anticipate that next four years will be yet more productive than the four past years.

But there is a further consequence which is still more important. The Conference has been attended by representatives from the commercial bodies of the most important towns in the country; it has thus formed a species of Parliament for the mercantile community ; and is the first and at the same time a very grand step towards commercial self-government. The permanent Committee will constitute a consulting body for commerce, which will at once control and support both the Executive and the Legislature.

Abroad, the " nouveautes " of the week are few. We have further particulars of the British lodgment in Persia ; and the details show that the victory in capturing the fortified works of Bushire was a substantial gain, rendered more certain by a spirited resistance. The report that Persia has actually submitted to the British conditions seems to be made on authority, and it is not contradicted on evidence. Perhaps Russia thinks the time for resistance inopportune.

In China, Sir John Bowring's difficulties increase. Yeles retaliations are not unfelt, for they are severe ; and Sir John seems to be unable to master the Governor of the Two Quangs without reinforcements.

The Austrian amnesty is reported, as usual, to have sweeping exceptions—to exclude whole classes, comprising, apparently, all Austrian subjects abroad. You never can finally trust an Austrian amnesty without looking at the back of it ; but it would be a pity if this large promise were spoiled in detail.