The Spectator 1849-04-14: Vol 22 Iss 1085

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VIIM N® 1085. FOR WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 1849. Progress of Discontent in Jamaica News or tHe WEEK— tical Summaries ---++++++++++* 333 and Guiana «...---eeeeeeeeeeees 4S So. cc cceeubas 334 A Key to Practical Measures ...... 345 | eee 334 The Tenth of April....-+----+-+++- 346 | a ——— ee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeres 334 Taxation, Local and General....... 346 Treland .....ecececeeseeeercccese 336 pececeesecececeocesoecees 336 Booxs— ‘oreign and Colonial «----+---++*- 336 The Spirit of Art—St. John’s Visit le 339 to the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon— Craik’s Romance of the Peerage — PosTecuirT TO THE WEEK's NEWS—-- 340 Cooper's Sea Lions. ......+++.++ 347 Money Market «---++-+++++++++* 34al Publications Keceived..........++-+ 350 and Music «..-+++++eeeees a4 Births, Marriages, and Deaths ....... 350 Torscs or THE Dar— Military Gazette «....-...eeeeeeeeee 351 Ireland and Sir Robert I’eel .------ 343 Commercial Gazette ... 3 The New Hudson Testimonial. ...-- 344 = Prices Current ..--..-+ ‘The Convict Rush «---+--+++++++++ 344 Advertisements .......-+-++: «+. 353 —356 Ne NEWS OF THE WEEK. Hoxypaymaxinc is the business of Easter : politics sink to a recreation, or to the mere indulgence of an incorrigible habit. The business of the Sovereign People is to go to fairs, exhibitions, museums, theatres, and other spectacles, and to take their sons and daughters to the same ; and the work has on the whole been conscientiously performed. But, as the Irishman cannot enjoy a day of pleasure without a fight, so your hardened litician can only perform the duties of the season in sone political form. Thas we see inveterate offenders in the Free-trade line assembling at Wakefield, professedly to honour Mr. Cobden for having been elected by | them as Member for the West Riding, but in reality to steal a little ing. Mr. Cobden was in fine feather ; having fairly moulted his anti-mili- tary Plames so far as so thorough a civilian can. The most novel part of his speech relates to the proper management of the Colonies. We are not satisfied, indeed, that he quite understands the subject ; but of course 80 a man will mastec it before he undertakes to handle it in and he will be a valuable ally to Sir William Molesworth. of the League could not help going back to old associations : among the Hie-traders of the North he got back to his accustomed strain, and fell to rating the farmers. “ Out of sight out of mind ”—he quite forgot, we suppose, that of late he has been “ the farmers’ friend ” ; for he not only told them some home truths, as friends may do, but he spoke of them and their “ whining” in a slighting disparaging tone. He makes light of their distress, and insists that we are enjoying great “ prosperity,”—meaning good trade in certain manufactures with low prices of provisions. But low prices and deficient crops are a disastrous form of prosperity for the farmers. It is not politic to estrange a class really in want of true friends. For see how that want appears at the agricultural meetings this week. Scareely oneis held without the manifestation of soreness at the part taken by the Protectionist leaders. The farmers are directly at issue with the political gentlemen who patronize them: they mistrust Mr. Disraeli’s local-taxation tub to the whale, and call for the repeal of the Malt-tax, which the genteel Protectionists deprecate. The work of the election-candidate ceases only with his election, and Easter shines no holyday to him: Mr. Roebuck has been expounding his views to the electors of Sheffield ; which is the more necessary since he is a man of principles, and principles are too apt to be forgotten. It has been observed with some exultation among the consciously unstable, that Mr. Roebuck’s tone is altered—is more moderate and conservative than it used to be in 1832 and some subsequent years: Possibly ; we do not use the same tones when we speak in a riot and in a quiet conclave. The times are not only calmer, but there is a striking increase in the demand for a little reasonableness ; and, with the wholly altered circumstances of the time, men’s tones must alter. According to the blind dogma of poli- tical “ consistency,” we ought to organize a special constabulary every 10th of April because we did so last year. We see no change in Mr. Roebuck's principles ; any more than the pole-star changes, or the aim of the steadfast helmsman, because he handles the tiller so as to stem the shifting assault of the winds and waves. Spectator. France, like England, is engaged in Easter amenities ; and the business | of the Assembly would be dull, but for such incidents as M. Eugene Raspail’s slapping M. Point’s face for looking at him quizzically—or, as the man expressed it, “with a certain affectation ””—through | his eye-glass. The International Pleasure Party and Picnic Asso- ciation has been received by the Parisians with much courtesy ; “ God save the Queen” being substituted for “ Jamais en France’ with the most touching cordiality of applause. Our neighbours were rather dis- appointed at seeing no uniforms and no artillerymen among the visiters ; but they very politely concealed their contempt for plain clothes and round hats ; and the respectable Englishmen have had the run of Paris, just as the National Guard had of London. The French Socialists, however, know no relaxation of their labours. The truly earnest men on the Continent appear, after all, to be the Com- | {Latest Evrrion.] Paicr Ningrence. THE munists ; and no doubt their zeal means something. At one of their most re- cent banquets figured an editress; and the same lady has offered herself asa candidate for election to the National Assembly by the Department of the Seine : Madame Deroin puts the same interpretation upon “ universal suffrage’ which makes Mr. Roebuck object to it—she interprets it to include women. And truly her brief address is not less nervous or pithy than many which have emanated from masculine pens, Madame Deroin may plead an analogy in England : the parishioners of Ackworth have just elected Miss Tempest, a sister of Sir Charles Tempest, to be their overseer of the poor. The accounts from Italy are deplorable. Brescia has been sacked the Austrians,—in token of Austrian clemency. Genoa has rev against Victor Emanuel,—in token of Italian unity. Society is di ganized. Meanwhile, no man advances with sufficient will or influ to lead the country in one direction or another: Italy remains a prey more to “ the hated stranger” than to her own distracted councils. The Count of Montemolin has been arrested on the frontier of Spain, “ intrepidly " attempting to join his adherents, but untowardly stopped by the French police. Not many days since, a shortish stoutish young man, round-faced, and bearded like a Frenchman—he might easily have passed for a degenerate son of M. Caussiditre—was to be seen performing the listless part of flaneur about the West-end of London: he is now travelling “ back again” from the Spanish frontier, under the polite at- tentions of the French police. And many of the Spanish nation are still wild with loyalty for this easy opera-goer ! — Nothing further is ascertained respecting the result of King Frederick William's election to the throne of “ Germany.” The reports as to the counsel given by the Governments of Paris and London are diametrically opposite—that both Governments had counselled him to accept, and that both had counselled him to decline. If a conspicuous paper in the Lead- ing Journal is any foretoken of the course which the same journal will have to applaud as that of Ministers, our Government has taken its posi- tion against the completion of a German empire. The writer against “ innovation,”—as if that were less inevitable than tomorrow ; and he stands by the treaties of 1815,—as if every state in Europe would not kick against the enforcement of those treaties upon itself. Austria will as little give up Polish Gallicia, as Belgium will return to Holland, or Russia restore Warsaw. ‘“ Innovation”!—why one of Vulliamy's clocks has been set up in the arsenal of Mussulman Constantinople; so that the very Turks are learning to know what 's o'clock. The Germans have gained a naval victory over the Danes! That is an “ innovation” in itself. Yes, two small batteries in the small town of Eckenfirde have destroyed a line-of- battle ship and captured a frigate, with great loss of life. Immense exasperation the event will cause the Danes, immense exultation among the Germans; so that, with both parties entétés, a settlement of the Schleswig affair eeems to be further off than ever. In their disputes with Lord Grey, the two colonies of Jamaica and Bri- tish Guiana are taking up positions that threaten more trouble for the Colonial Secretary, and infinitely more discredit for the Cabinet to which he belongs. Sir Charles Grey is endeavouring to coerce the Legislative Assembly, by proroguing it until it shall submit to his dictation and waive its de- mands for retrenchment: the colonists respond to that absolutist stretch of authority by instituting a demand for “ responsible government” as it exists in British North America. This demand is likely to spread, not only in Jamaica, but throughout the West Indies. The position of British Guiana has special peculiarities. The Governor for the time being is carrying on the endeavour to coerce the Combined Court by adjournments; but the terms of his commission have opened a new point of attack. It reserves to the Crown the right of making laws for the colony; a right at variance with the terms on which De- merara and its appendages were ceded to England. The reservation is said to be “usual” in such commissions: it cannot properly be so in commissions addressed to the Governors of constitutional ies, and is manifestly unsuited to Guiana. It may back the lawgiving pre- tensions of the Colonial Office, but it exposes the Cabinet to a very odious kind of assault. The mail has arrived during the recess; but when Parliament reassembles, of course we may expect one more | in that admirable series of concise practical speeches by which the Mem- ber for Leominster has heretofore defended the colonists and their inte- rests ? What a mistake! Mr. Henry Barkly is no longer Member for Leominster, but the very Governor whose conduct he would naturally have been found protesting against—the successor and continuator of Sir Henry Light, the agent of Lord Grey and Mr. Hawes! Estimable and appreciated as a private gentleman—by qualifications and dispositions the best Governor that ever left England for Guiana—Mr,. Barkly is placed in a most unsatisfactory position through the false Imperial and Colonial relations.