NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Livuanoor, has for the week been the great emporium of ideas, and the town, usually absorbed in the traffic of buying and sell- ing, has been excited into an ecstacy of polite attentions to the savans of England who more particularly devote their studies to subjects of social amelioration. Mr. William Brown, who re- presents the statesmanship of the Mersey, has had, as household gods, Lord Brougham and Lord John Russell—the ex-President and actual President of the National Association for the Promo- tion of Social Science. The town has been aflame with "the inaugurals" delivered by the President for the yearned by the Chairmen of the sections ; while Lord Brougham, formerly Presi- dent of the Association for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, has now proved his own progress by admitting the value of orna- mental as well as useful knowledge, and paying tribute to those London Journals, Family Heralds, and other penny periodicals, which have taken the place of the defunct Penny ..ilayazine. The information conveyed in the newer form of literature for the million is not so precise or so utilitarian ; it goes somewhat further than the " entertaining" style sanctioned by the ancient Society ; but at all events it reaches "the million," and the million is benefited accordingly. Lord John's inaugural was a comprehensive preface to the volume which has been in course of delivery orally before the assembled members of the Association ; Lord Carlisle, Lord Shaftesbury, the Honourable William Cow- per, and Sir James Stephen have delivered introductions to the spe- eial books of that volume,—on Punishment and Reform, Health, Education, and Social Economy. It is rather remarkable that Social Science can scarcely consider itself to be established in public discussion until it procures its prefaces to be written by noblemen and right honourable gentlemen ; the public is not quite sure of a q. e. d. unless it has a testimonial from a Peer or a Privy Councillor that the Euclid of the question is in the right. Lord Brougham, however, is correct in saying that principles for which he and a minority laboured against the constituted authority and the obstinate majority of the country are now admitted as established facts. Lord John's inaugural address, as a survey of the field upon which the society is to labour, is remarkable in proving the very advanced starting points from which our re- formers now make their commencements. On the other hand, we suspect, no small number of admissions might be discovered in these addresses, proving how many questions most deeply con- cerning the life and welfare of the people in their social relations have even yet to be opened ; for the questions which the Society does not touch would probably make as large and as important a list as the questions included in their programme. The gathering at all events brings a number of gentlemen together, who by their
mere numbers and reciprocations convince each other ier how much ey are in the right ; and occasionally they subserve rather an Interesting rapprochement, such for example, as bringing Lord John Russell's orbit within the sphere of Knowsley.
Meanwhile the more ancient institutions, the annual meetings of agricultural associations and the like, continue to be upheld in different parts of the country, the landowners, Members, and grandees, of the district, attending to develope their ideas. The elnp of that produce is sufficient proof that we are just now in a more than commonly "transition state." If Lord John Man-
ners in Leicestershire is still found discoursing on games and so- cial gatherings, he has been enabled to point out improved cottages asfaits accomplis ; and he is permitted to murmur some few words indicating that the ministerial sense of their reform responsibilities is a verity. So in Norwich, while Sir Samuel Bignold looks to Lord Derby's Reform Bill as likely to be more Conservative than that of the Liberal Ministers, Sir Henry Stra- coy avows that his horror of the Ballot has given way to recon- cilement, if the Ballot can shield electors from "the screw" which is so unjust and injurious. Again, at the meeting of the Ross Agricultural Association, while Mr. Booker Blakemore, un- certain which way he shall be called upon to steer, trims his bark under the flag of "independence," we find Mr. Bradstock speaking out against farming leases, which, with their covenants, he says, must soon be sent to the British Museum as antiquated curiosities. And at the South-west Middlesex Agricultural meeting, while the Whig Mr. Byng preserves a discreet silence on polities, Mr. Hanbury, the Conservative, announces that Ministers are "better employed at present than in making after- dinner speeches." On the whole, the Conservatives appear to feel bound to evince their Liberality in something like a direct ratio to their individual intelligence, and the best among them evidently regard the position of Ministers as one of serious re- sponsibility.
At last the formal decree of King Frederick William has been issued, appointing the Prince of Prussia his deputy, as Regent, until the moment when the King shall be able to resume his royal functions. This is, of course, understood to mean perma- nently. The Royal power is handed over to the Regent without qualification, " according to the inspirations of your conscience, and being responsible only to God." And the change in the state of the Royal authority has been notified to foreign courts. The Regent has signalized his entrance into permanent authority by the dismissal of Westphalen, the Minister of the Interior who has been so active in placing police restraints upon discussion and the press. The strengthening of the Prussian Throne has been hailed with satisfaction, amongst other places in Austria, although it is expected that the Prince Regent will prove to be more truly constitutional than his largely professing brother. It is not difficult to understand the motive for this apparently inconsistent feeling. On the ground of Italy, and in her Sclavonian pro- vinces, Austria is undergoing severe pressure from the antagon- ism of Russia and of France in combination. Prussia may be constitutional, and might patronize reforms of the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom within Viennese ideas of propriety ; and while she has no interest in encouraging Masonic turbulence, she has every interest in maintaining the balance of power in Europe. Thus, for the time at least, while the question of an Imperial ascendancy in Germany is in suspense, the weight of Prussia might be decidedly useful to Austria as a drag upon the more dangerous ambition of France and Russia.
According to telegraphic intimations, both Sweden and Ham- burg are expressing uneasiness at the mustering of the German Bundes-contingent, which is regarded in the Sdavonian kingdom, and the free town, as menacing the Danish province of Holstein and the peace of Northern Europe. The account of the proceed- ing; in this behalf is very imperfect, but they appear intended to draw forth explanations.
Tile announcement that France and Portugal have agreed to accept the mediation of a third power in the disputes respecting the Charles et Georges is received in this country as an evidence of good sense. The question could scarcely be settled in any other way. Portugal cannot give up her right to enforce her own authority, and her slave-trade treaty pledges, in the waters of her own settlement at Mozambique. If it is true, however, that the lee-'authorities have systematically winked at the shipment of "free black emigrants" in French ships, for Reunion, the firm stand which King Pedro's Government might justly take has been rather undermined. The Emperor of the French is, no doubt,
turd hard by those around him who have obtained the Imperial - -
sanction for the Regis plan of free African emigration ; and he might be compelled to take advantage of flaws in the Portuguese case ; while obstinately refusing to perceive that the free Africans are bought and sold, are provided with chsins, and are treated independently of their free will and &aka quits as nosh as if they were called slaves—quite as much as the German " redemp. tioners," for whom, in early days, the emigration agents and land cultivators of the -United States would bargain, in presence, in good round English wholly unintelligible to those palefaced Teutons. Under this pressure the Emperor has already sent two ships of war in order to go through the usual forms of menace towards the Portuguese Government, for the purpose of extorting a sur- render of the ship and compensation. If Portugal had given way, all would have been well ; but as Portugal resists, and as she stands not more upon the law than upon the merits of the ease and the independence of the kingdom, the responsibility is thrown back upon the Emperor of commencing a war with a very close ally of England. That war might become European ; and the Emperor would rely on a case more technical than substantial, while the flaws on the Portuguese side are of a purely technical kind, the merits substantial. Thus the question would form a very awkward caves belli for that empire which is peace ; and the proffered mediation may be regarded by both sides as a rescue. But who is to be the mediator ? For France persists in regarding England as virtually a partner in the affair with Portugal.
The Emperor Napoleon is receiving the homage of his sub- jects in that ancient town of Rheims where he might be crowned, if he thought that it would be expedient to make the attempt of identifying his parvenu empire with mediteval associations of royal France. Probably he will see the greater expediency of reserving the pageantries of his coronation for that Paris whence the spectacle may be seen by all Europe, and whose population it is so important to conciliate. Imagine the feelings of Paris de- prived of its rightful pageantry !
While he is thus doing the ceremonial work of state, his Ministers have some difficult questions upon their hands. A large emigration from the Basque provinces carries away la- bour from the farms and recruits from the Army ; and the Go- vernment has been asking the Prefect the reason why. The re- plies of the provincial functionary are edifying. The canals have discovered that they suffer from the competition- of railways, and they are asking for a redress in the balance of state dues and fares or freight. The petition is preferred to a Government which is pursuing inquiries in. the direction of free trade under circumstances that leave it comparatively little choice between stopping and going on. The opening of the butchers' trade in Paris has proved so successful that the Echo Agricole comes out strongly as a free-trade organ ; so that M. Michel Chevalier has made other conquests beside that of the Hermit. The Minister of Agriculture, Commerce, and Public Works has transmitted to this country a series of ten questions, designed to draw forth practical information from our agricultural societies on the farming, commercial, financial, and social results of free trade. And while the Emperor has to satisfy these somewhat incom- patible expectations, he has, let us remember, also to satisfy those individuals who once shared his speculations while he was still an unsuccessful adventurer, and who now expect from his gratitude, at his peril, their share of the prosperity. And they are prospering,—witness their position all round, with the suc- cessful soldier of the Crimea, Pelissier, marrying his Spanish bride amid a pomp and circumstance almost royal.
We see increasing signs of painful complications in Turkey. The retrenchments of the Executive continue to exasperate the officials ; and the discharged servants, no doubt, become agents for discontent ; while it is more than probable that the ill-inform- ed Mahommedan population,—which knows really little of what is going on abroad, nothing more than can be conveyed from mouth to mouth, and which necessarily takes the foreground before its eyes as representing the actual state of the world at large—should believe in the possibility of shaking off so in- jurious a regime and restoring the Ottoman greatness. Fer- mentations in Candia continue, and the troops there are to be reinforced. Still more formidable is the position of the &la- vonian provinces, claiming representative assemblies ; and the new Vienna decree, prohibiting the export of arms into Servia, while it may be taken to attest the loyalty of the Austrian Go- vernment, discloses the character of the danger.
The report from British India is remarkable for the number of minor conflicts recorded, and for the unequivocal testimony afforded to the fact that we have actually recovered our supe- riority in all directions. The reports of the mutiny at Mooltan, and of its destructive suppression, are confirmed. Small actions have been fought in different places throughout the whole valley of the Ganges and Jumna above Benares and below Agra, aetioas in witich 6ikhs and Police have sufficed to defeat the rebels, Or more properly marauders who continued to tempt fortune. in Oude, the movement of Rope Grant upon Fyzabad and Sul+an. pore bas had the effect of interposing British forces between the rebel bodies, and of separating those south of the Goomtee into many bands ; against one of which, on its way to Tanda, Mann Singh himself had promised to march. The talk of the Bur_ render of Nana Sahib by the Begum is only talk, resting on se authority ; but if not true it is not unlikely. Chased froin Rajpootana by the attacks of Roberts and the movements of Parke, the Gwalior fugitives, after plundering Julra Patina, and supplying themselves with new artillery at the expense of its chief, sought to penetrate southwards ; but, met by General Mitchell with the Malwa Field Force, it was totally defeated with the loss of the greater part of the guns stolen from him Patun. The wreck of the contingent fled to Seronge in the bilis between Malwa and the Gwalior state. At the latest dates General Mitchell stood in a position between the struggling contingent at Bhopal, and Brigadier Parke farther westward at Augur, General Roberts, of course, guards the Ajmere country, while General Napier is in charge of Gwalior. The rebels are there- fore in a net.
