NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MINISTERS have been dispersed for their Easter recreations, and -the Premier honours Manchester with his selection. Manchester, much flattered, takes pains to treat him as an enfant gate ; picks but for him the largest factories, the largest stocks, and the largest compliments that it can muster. In this there may be somewhat also of selfseeking in the respectable city; Lord John serving as a de- eoy, exquisitely pampered, that more birds of the same feather may flock to the place, for its delight and adornment. The Manchester folks think that Ministers, like beggars and organ-boys, must know Where they are liberally treated. No doubt, Lord John, as is his wont, intersperses these more public recreations with the domestic relaxation of pleasant reading ; and the passing literature will furnish abundance of material for that employment. Imprimis, there are the addresses of the Corporation ; -where he will admire the refined tact with which the author has said as much that is pleasant as possible, and as little that is-dis- agreeable,—displaying Lord John's reforming services, making no mention of his shortcomings, backslidings, or oppugnances to po- pular advancement ; and yet, by expressing " hopes hi the most generalizing of terms, saving the intelligent Corporation from really committing itself to the negative policy of Lord John's later years.
Item, he may read in the local papers the reports of that re- markable meeting which was held in the Town-hall on Easter Monday, to promote the efforts of the Lancashire Public School Association on behalf of secular education supported by local rates and administered by local officers : in that singular report he will learn how much bolder educationists are in Manchester, how frank, how practical; how much further they are determined to go, in the way of bringing education home to every man's door, than the most advanced Whigs ever were, although education has been among their chiefly boasted measures. He may further learn that boldness is safe—that it begets neither disrespect, distrust, nor hostility. Lord John is a man who learns by practical experience more than by logical calculation; and probably his notion as to possibilities and feasibilities may have enlarged during his resi- dence with Sir Benjamin Heywood. Item, he mill have for his domestic readings the curious corre- spondence just published, between Sir Charles Napier and Minis- ters—especially rehearsing his own share in that strange string of letters. It is an entertaining story, and dramatic. Sir Charles Napier is, like most of his kin, clearsighted, energetic, and out- spoken ; he is experienced in naval affairs, keen to spy out naval abuses, anxious to bring about naval efficiency—for " there's no- thing like leather." -So Sir Charles, possessing the leisure and half-freedom of half-pay, expatiates on the momentous subject of ill-managed finance and ineffective administration in naval affairs. Whigs hate to be criticized ; and although Sir Charles's criticism was enthusiastically professional, ardently patriotic, perfectly ini- personal, and thoroughly impaitial,—for it comprehendedAdminis- trations of various times and parties,—Sir Francis Baring, First Lord of the Admiralty, chose to take it in dudgeon, and positively went so far as to write an official reprimand to Sir Charles for his " indiscretion." Astounded at being thus 'picked out from a string of illustrious critics headed by the Duke of Wellington, Sir Charles remonstrates with Sir Francis, and is coolly rebuffed with a re- newal of the indignity ; appeals to the Admiralty, with ditto ; to Lord John, with ditto, much aggravated by a certain cold modera- tion of terms and a patronizing recognition of the hero's services in arms. Lord John thus indulges in a degree of reprobation amount- ing to the insolent. Bat a son of " the house of Bedford" must
-feel that he is not bound to speak on equal terms with a mere fighting and writing Napier. So Lord John penned that very skilful specimen of sarcastic innuendo in response to a generous appeal; and ,he may proudly recite it to the gentle ear conjugal as an exploit of modern chivalry.
