NEWS OF THE WEEK.
'Havrife- taken their time for reflection, Ministers announced in both Houses of Parliament, on Monday, the course which they intended to take on the receipt of the last communications from the United States. Lord Palmerston endeavoured to give to these declarations an appearance of spontaneity : "If no Member had expressed a wish to hear an explanation from the Govern- ment," he said, "Ministers could not have allowed a day to pass without putting the House in possession of thcir intentions on the subject." The American Government had intimated, that though it thought fit to discontinue relations with Mr. Crampton, in consequence of which he had left Washington, that Govern- ment did not intend to go to the extent of a rupture of diploma- tic relations with this country.. Ministers, then, "considering the question in all its bearings, have not deemed it their duty to advise her Majesty to suspend diplomatic intercourse with the American Minister at this court."
Lord John Russell stated preeedents,—the dismissal of M. Poussin the French Ambassador in America' in Louis Phi- lippe's day, and of Mr. Jackson the British Minister in America in 1809 ; steps which neither the Government of England nor of France retaliated. These precedents no doubt should have had weight with our Government, on merely technical grounds ; but still more in supplying for the action of the United States a definitive warrant which must have induced the Government at Washington to believe that it could take the course of dismissing a disagreeable or troublesome Minister without necessarily inter- rupting friendly relations.
But we suspect that among the " oonsiderations " which Lord Palmerston confessedly took into view, the very fact of Lord John Russell's rendering himself the organ for expressing the general public opinion upon the dismissal of Mr. Crampton and the continuance of Mr. Dallas, exercised a still stronger influence on the Cabinet than the precedents, or the political consequences of retaliation. Lord John Russell was cheered when he said that England and America have great duties to perform, which they must not sacrifice by mutual conflict ; and Lord Palmerston was cheered when he announced that he did not intend to break oft' friendly relations with the American Government.
Mr. Disraeli, who seized the occasion to read both England and America a homily on their respective pretensions, did his best to fasten upon our Government the blame of haying incur- red some humiliation in the dismissal of Mr. Crampton. There is no doubt that this feeling does exist in English society— chiefly, perhaps, among those classes who are most elevated in rank and who stand socially nearest to the Government. There is an apprehension that the success of the United States in turn- ing out Mr. Crampton and. making our Government submit will incite President Pierce's countrymen to expressions of triumph offensive to this country. But if we have incurred any disgrace through the dismissal of Mr. Crampton, it is our own doing : if we sent to that country a man who was unequal to his post—if, notwithstanding the first evidence of his unfitness we persisted in retaining him there—the humiliation is the direct penalty which we have brought upon ourselves by suffering our affairs to be so conducted ; and we ought to draw profit out of punish- ment: if we would spare ourselves these crosses for the future, we must take care to prevent them by conducting our affairs better. The position taken by Lord Palmerston had the immediate effect of averting the attack of the organized Opposition. 'Mr. Baillie had given notice of a motion casting censure upon ,the Government for having drawn upon itself the humiliation ; .the motion was at last fixed for Thursday ; Mr. Baxter had given notice of an amendment, expressing a friendly feeling towards the United States, but taking the sting out of the original mo- tion. As soon as Lord Palmerston had. stated the course which Ministers intended to take, the disappointment of the Opposition was manifested in Mr. Disraeli's speech. If Ministers had been hostile to America, he stood ready to oppose them, no doubt as the champion of commerce and friendly intercourse ; but since friendly intercourse was not to be broken off, in sticking to the duty of opposing he was obliged to attack America as much as Ministers. The position for his party became untenable, and Mr. Baillie's motion,- first-postponed, then softened to snit the change of affairs, was at last withdrawn from the Notice-paper. On Tuesday, Mr. Walpole asked the House of Common!, to pass u resolution the practical effect of which is to lend assist.: anee to the schools established by the Church Education Society in Ireland equally with that given to the schools under the Na- tional system, The Church Education Society is formed of Pro- testants, who not content with keeping away the children of Protestant fa;oilies from the National schools, have established schools in different parts of Ireland to compete with those under the National system, to draw away the pupils, and to seduce them from the Catholic faith. Notwithstanding an earnest re- monstrance by Mr. Horsman, and his proofs that the National system enjoys a constant progress in its success and in the num- bers of its scholars, which now exceed 550,000, the House of Commons consented, by 113 to 103, to address the Crown in the terms which Mr. Walpole proposed. It is impossible however, that any practical effect can be given to this vote. On the first blush it might appear is if there were nothing but even justice in permitting that certain schools which are at present excluded from the aid should receive it. But we should remember that the National schools are as open to the Protestants as they are to the Roman Catholics, and that in these schools both sects are equally protected against proselytizing ; whereas-the Protestant schools are established because their founders desire to make proselytes. Mr. -Walpole's resolution is the first step towards restoring that clerical system which has been replaced by a lay system in Ireland. The Protestants do not require the aid : they are generally the more wealthy class in Ireland, and they already possess the only territorial property for ecclesiastical purposes. Small in its immediate object, the vote is important as a sign of reaction ; and politically it would be fatal to the tran- quillity of Ireland or to the maintenance of the National system. The House of Commons has repeatedly passed judgment against such disturbances of the present law. The explanation of the recent vote is, that on Tuesday evening the majority' of ,the House was not at home, having gone out to -it iart-p-- namely, to the Queen's ball at Buckingham Palace. It was not so much the Government that was defeated as the Hout0; and Mr. Forteseue, as a private Member, took up the cudgels on behalf of the House of Commons, in announcing, next day, that, he should move a counter-resolution. As leader of the House of Commons, Lord Palmerston gave "his honourable friend" Mcin- day next for the purpose ; and the haphazard decision will be deliberately reversed. Yet the consequences will not be en- tirely effaced. The Liberal party -incurred some discredit for leaving such a motion to be brought forward in the absence of those who are the guardians of popular education in Ireland. Before going to the ball, Members ought to have ascertained whether Mr. Walpole intended to persevere with his motion, and if he did, to have compelled him either to drop it or to fix another evening.
