THE BRITISH PALLADIUM.
1VYk0 would seek the living of that clergyman that should have to preach, not on the seventh day, but on all the other six days, the seventh day alone omitted ; and to preach, not once or twice in the day, but thrice or four times ? Yet such is the task east upon our inaefatigable contemporaries the daily journals. Difficult at all times, their task at seasons like the present 'Le superhuman; and as they are human, the task is sometimes fulfilled in form rather than in substance. The journalist must every day have news and the newest hews ; and we some time ago* summed up the devices to which he is driven in fulfilling a task so like one dictated by a bad fairy. Events, it is true, happen every day; men sin also once at least in the twenty-four hours, and the moralist might I preach, as the journalist may announce. But, unluckily, such is the want of invention in mankind, that events sometimes follow each / other without variety, and sin itself grows tedious from sameness. , Obliged to give news without new events, the journalist must develop opinions without new_occasien ; and yet, so captious'and exacting is the tyrant whom he serve, that he meat not gene- ralize—must not lecture upon lasting subjects—must mit publish " sermons " as we call foolish commonplace and trite discourses. The iutunin vacation is always flat. Everybody who manufac- tures events—in Parliament, at Court, in scientific meetings, in drawingrooms, and other places where virtues crimes, benefac- tionseand romances, are coneocted-4sont of town, in rustic repose or Mowing the dogs. The raw materials of the newspaper are run to the dregs. But besides that ordinary source of dulness in the-present season, there is one absorbing subject upon which the ' Britiiti mind is intently filed. Wearied With common news, the putitio demands to have something specific, substantial, new, and explanatory, on the subject of Russia and the war, and demands it not only now and then but every day. *Under such measure of necessity we must not be surprised if the journalist occasionally halts. We are indeed proud and pleased with the ability displayed by our daily fellow workmen in using up their materials. Distinguished for the lability with which it is always eondueted, the Times is 'here preeminent. The Crimea conneg on the tapis, not an event passes that cannot be improved. Mr. Arrowsmith's map is turned into text ; the cruise of General Brown and General Canrobert lends life to the glance at the month of the river Katcha; the magnitude of the transport service- 70,000 . men and horse afloat under Admiral Boxer—the salt- marshes of the Crimea—" the Duke at Torres Vedras "—are among the legitimate accessories for the picture which the public expects -with its Monday breakfast. Happily, the Russian General is re- ported to issue a silly instruction to the inhabitants of Odessa, should they be visited by invasion ; a sally which serves for Tues- day, with the summary of the Russian resources published by the Moniteur in June last, and recently reprinted in a new edition of Fen's Funds. By Wednesday comes the blessing of a report that the British fleet is to abandon the Baltic ; opening the way for a sermon on giving up advantages just as the Czar had been made to know our power. The Russian note to t'he German Powers is a real event for Thursday. The Prussian note gladdens the anxieties of Friday, and eke Saturday ; Schamyl with his victory contributing a little salt to the second day's dish of Prussian hash.
There are, indeed, resources which human invention will dis-
cover for counteracting the painful effect of this attenuated series of subjects. Monday can bring the perfect confidence which befits the cheerful period of the opening week ; Wednesday, alike re- mote from two Sundays' is a fit season for depression and for anti- Ministerial lectures on desertion from the Baltic. By Saturday again, with the briskness of that closing day come cheerful hopes -on the score of Schamyl, and healthy -views of Prussian vacil- lation. If such are the necessities pressing upon a journal whose position renders it alike able to take advantage of the Ministerial, version, the National view, or the Opposition diversity, what must be the necessities of a journal that cannot ever be anything but Ministerial—cannot occasionally throw in a dash of the lemon 4' from St. Petersburg," or respond to patriotic claims urged by a Mazzini, echoed in Newcastle, and worthy to be clothed in the in- spiring strains of a Rossini asa new- version of William Tell. Yetmore distressing perhaps is the position of that journal which must not by any chance become Ministerial; which has voted it- self into Opposition; and which, debarred from using current facts or current opinions, is limited to the leavings of opinions and to facts inverted.
We are not without an example of this Opposition writing, at a
time when the total absence of different opinions on the main sub- ject, with the cessation of party distinctions, have rendered the dis- covery of an Opposition ground almost as difficult as the discovery of dry footing on the low, lands of Essex in winter. Monday, Tuesday-, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, are doomed to the urea Amin. 1:leaped4 indeed, for thieuniveriml feeling oc- . -5 Spectator, Ju1y1; ,page 7 •
On Wednesday, the journal accounts for the-fact that English Ministers, possessing a press, withhold information, while M. Drouyn de Lhuys lays information before the French public. "The Eastern European despots" being anxious to subvert the revolutionary dynasty of France the Emperor throws himself on public opinion ; but English. Ministers, uninterregeted by Par- liament, "put off the evil day as long as they Can."
On Thursday, a new reason is discovered' why -Ministers should be reconciled to the tall of Sebastopol— "It is an ugly fact, that the Sebastopol expedition was strenuously op- posed in the preliminary councils held to discuss its feasibility by Prince Napoleon, the cousin, of the ;Emperor of theFrench,- and by -the Duke of Cambridge, the cousin of the Queen of England. nese Princes will ne- cessarily be.believed by the multitude to know mole Of the minds of their respective courts than the generals less intimately connected with them ; and this belief will strengthen the still lingering suspicion that our com- manders in Turkey bare bad their hands tied throughout the year, by home influences." [In Paris the conviction is universal that the doggedness of Marshal St. Arnaud, and fear of mutiny in the army, have prevented the retreat.] "But.the victory will be owing to the gallantry of the troops alone; the. high -authorities, who seem to set them in motion will have been corn- pelted to gain a victory against their will. * * * They flatter themselves that the popular exultation awakened by the fall of Sebastopol will efface the memory of the inglorious part played by the Frenchand English armies in the East during the campaign on the Danube of 1854." "Something," says-a correspondent who assists the editor'. "may be done by careful non-provision of vessels for shoal water, and the many other recipes of men who are working for their friends. But if they Once get leave, the assailants will succeed."
On Friday, it is discovered that the Principalities under Field- Marshal Hess and General Popowitch are handed over to an .A.us- taian tyranny, which vents its brutality on Wallachians of every rank, age, and sex- " The spirit of Radetzky, the oppressor of Italy, animates Hess ; the spirit_ of Haynau, the woman-flogger, has migrated into Popovitch." [But of course the fatal transfer of the erinevalities to Austria becomes a new count in the indictment against Ministers.] "To take arms against Russia in order to wrest Moldavia and Wallachia from its grasp; and then to play those provinces into the hands of Austria, is one of the'inostliegrading farces recorded in history."
On Saturday, we begin to think that the writer has at last re- covered his English feeling ; for "the Sebastopol expedition," be admits, "does at last look like vigorous preparatioe foe action. If deeds come up to demonstrations in this enterprise "—[and now, you think, candour is rising to confession; ,but]--" it would seem that it is to Marshal St. Arnaud we are indebted for it.".
For our own part, we regard these harassing questions as the morbid result of nothing more than a supposed. necessity. What useful effect such writing can have at home we cannot conjecture. It is possible that a town may tolerate, here or there within its bounds—for English tolerance is great—a public meeting to de- . mend the impeachment of Ministers on the presumptien that the expedition to Sebastopol is to be "a farce and. a mockery"; but the aberrations of a people do not exemplify its ordinary character, and we look in vain for the demand which would call out such constructions as those that we have quoted. We can only account for them, therefore, on the supposed necessity that some, construction must be found different from that which is obvious usual, and consequently "Ministerial." What effect such writing can have abroad we do not know. It might indeed deceiee that mulh- abuied potentate whom Ministers are said to &weir.' What with journalists and Quakers, Nicholas may really think that there is some sympathy, with him an England, panife -desire to forward his plans. Even that delusion, however, has given way te facts. A-formidable question suggests itself in the poseible, event that the newspaper stamp-tax may be abolished, when WO 1311OUld have more journals giving us more intelligence, competing with each other to be more new, and supplying more of_ this "best possible instruction." Extremes meet, and in the multitude of wisdom we ' may come to know nothing. As the telegraph froth day to day , neutralizes itself, so the alternating conetrection of ,the,eoernaliet almost leaves us without coeviction e and, with oue.enanyjeelnUda free to speak as theysefeaseewe still remain as me/ at,tbeeMere. of scanty official disclosures as they do in France, where tither, official part" monopolizes the intelligence, , The elleneineetieet•liat in France they have the eztfgefinalti vp.,...4.49041ktiltritrafie. easions a iiddelinifeqdr,elfdilttinfrfhbVVIIRiy Z-1-aigirrAps and the possible fall of Sebastopol ;I-bet-JAW eicape ire effected by re_
presenting Xinisteee ea: eeluetaut ',end abouttelhetray their coun- try and its army.-Toesliew that-we are .noteputtfeg eonstructions, let us lake Seatcheeof Abe unceasing strain. eGnAteuday- ture will be turned to good account. On the co ry,j!, general fear pre- " No on is pangiiinOhat, even in the event of alistepokfalling, its cap-
Tails that it will only be used by the statesmen of e; wen as a dazzling exploit to Make the public forget their presicuti'alierffinminge." [The writer, indeed, prepares ingeniously for the inObnvenient eient that Sebastopol may be Wren.] "For weeks, perhape: for months, it will be in vain to argue against the generous, enthusiastic, delusion. - But a day will assuredly come when the questions will have to be answere4--7-Why was the siege of Sebastopol undertaken so late in the season ? Why wail the note of preparation emitted so long 'before to put' the Czar oh his guard ? * *■1" - The allied commanders have been systematically extending every facility to spies of the Czar for obtaining a knowledge of their councils and trans- mitting the information direct to Russia."
On Tuesday, " Tenax " relieves the editor=
"When it was suggested that we were giving Russia time, and that time is an important element in war, efficials sneered at civilian ignorance, and diplomatists added, 'We are waiting for Austria." [And the compiler of the news assists.] " 'Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot r —The Journal de St. Potersbourg contains the following paragraph Lord Haddo, son of Lord Aberdeen, has Just been elected, like his brother, a Member of the House of Commons. He was so sure of his return, that he did not think it worth his while to present himself before the electors.'"
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