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    No. 437, August 7, 1858.] T H E I. E A.D...

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    THE ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION BETWEEN ENGLA...

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    THE PAST SESSION. At the meeting of Parl...

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    Lady Bulwer Lytton's Case And The Lunacy...

    facts of this case , so far as it is necessary to advert to them in renly to the exaggerated statements that have been published . Into the private history of cither Sir E . Lytton , or Lady Lytton , we have no desive to cuter . But it must be recollected that public notice has been attracted to domestic differences , not by Sir Edward Lytton , but by La < ly Lytton herself . Indeed , some ot the indefinable eccentricities of Lad y Lytton , for instance her extraordinary and unfeminine exhibition at the Hertford election , must have been a sore infliction on the sensibility of a high-minded

    English gentleman , and appears to us to warrant something closely ap p roaching to a belief in ail unhealthy condition of intellect . In setting right the public mind upon this painful case , we do not desire , by any means , to oppose a searching investigation into the mode in which thelunacy laws are administered . The last report of the visiting commissioners proves that there have been shameful delinquencies on the part of the managers of certain asylums , and that the Commissioners themselves have neglected to discharge their duty . Had they exercised their authority with less

    lenity the cruelties of a Metcalf never could have been perpetrated , and the- protracted mismanagement at Haver ford west and Eals wood House would have been impossible . In bur judgment , what is chiefly wanted is , first , a more rigorous and frequent inspection , which can be effected only by increasing the number of commissioners or other officers appointed for such a purpose , and getting rid of the two venerable gentlemen who now do the Chancery business ; and , secondly , a more resolute determination , on the part of the Board , to see its own orders faithfully executed . More energy , and less red tape . ; .

    No. 437, August 7, 1858.] T H E I. E A.D...

    No . 437 , August 7 , 1858 . ] T H E I . E A . D E R . 7 ? K

    The Electric Communication Between Engla...

    THE ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION BETWEEN ENGLAND AND AMERICA . The unexpected / fulfilment of the laying down the electric wire between this country and America has excited some of the most lively feelings of our nature . Every class of the community feels its vast importance , and hopes of every kind are stimulated by it . Tlie two disappointments incurred in the first attempts haves , but added a zest to the satisfaction with which this . important result has Tbcen received . __ It is , indeed , a fact to be proud of , and the indomitable promoters deserve the thanks of the nation ; and they will certainly receive a substantial - acknowledgment in the honourable profits that will accrue to them in working this grand application of science to commercial purposes .

    In a political and social point of view , the suggestions of the advantage of rapid communication , indeed , in the complete destruction of space as regards the transmission of ideas , are too numerous , and in the present early state of the invention , too crude and too crowded to be detailed . The crossing such an immense ocean as the Atlantic , and the constructing , by a thin , wire through it , a solid connexion between the great continents , arc such conquests of physical dilJQcullics , and of apparent impossibilities , that the mind finds itself , like Columbus and his followers , entering upon a new

    world . The imagination will trace results that arc not exactly logical ; but the practical man will perceive that the electric telegraph thus shortening and annihilating such an immense space , will produce effects far beyond those gained by the shorter electric lines . It must in some degree supersede the post ; rumour will be quite put to silence , and conjecture willform a much * smaller portion of the speculator's business . Every circumstance of consequence in the political ana commercial world will be instantaneously communicated , and the action on sucli intelligence will be equally rapid . Perhaps , however , the most advantageous of the results of the

    successful fullilmcnt of the project is iliat it is possible to lay down and eoimmmicato through two thousand miles of wire . This fact being proved , the system must become universal , and every colony and every place of importance will have its electric lines . Such a bringing together of communities clearly proves that science is appointed to curry on the great work of civilisation for providential purposes . Very pretty writing might ho indulged in , by contrasting how sit the sanae time the bmzen mouths sent forth volleys of the warrior's thunder , and the waters rushed juto the great excavation at Cherbourg , the peaceful and comparatively frugilc wire was gliding along lu the deep waters to unite the two great

    Anglo-Saxon families . Much moralising , also , might a political Jacques or a literary Touchstone utter upon this momentous fact ; but even the genius of a bhakspcare could not narrate , much less exhaust , the results of the successful voyage of the Agamemnon , and the Niagara . Let us hail the electric line as a , fresh bond between us . and our American brethren !

    The Past Session. At The Meeting Of Parl...

    THE PAST SESSION . At the meeting of Parliament on the 3 rd of December , 1857 , for the purpose of passing a Bill of Indemnity to the Directors of the Bank of England , the then Premier ' s following was some four hundred strong . Lord Palmerston had appealed to the country upon the question of his Chinese policy . He had signally triumphed , and seemed to stand upon the topmost pinnacle of popular favour . He had triumphed in that way most dear to the wishes of a popular statesman—he had unseated his most troublesome political opponents , the representatives of the Peel and Manchester parties . On the 4 th of February the Administration , to all outside appearance , commanded a host as true , numerous ,

    and bold as ever . The hurricane which had torn through the commercial interests of the country in the preceding December , and had been stayed by the suspensioa of the Bank Charter Act only when Lombardstreet quaked ' -with , fear , had ¦ blown over . A state of comparative ease had supervened , and so far there were ho breakers ahead of the Administration . Although Lucknow had been relieved and many triumphs achieved by our arms in India , there seemed so little chance of immediate pacification there that the aristocracy of all political shades had fair excuse for pursuing their views upon , the East India Company ' s patronage . As leader of the raid , it was clear that Lord Palmerston would command the countenance of the high court party and

    of " the upper ten thousand . " The majority of tha Indian Directors had been made safe ; the passage of an Annexation Bill was looked upon as a certainty ' ; : and the position of so hyper-aristocratic an Administration upon the back of the public camel was , to all appearance , far too secure to be agreeable or advantageous to that long-suffering animal . But during the adjournmen t which succeeded the passage of the Indemnity Bill , a cloud arose -which burst upon the budding glories of the Palniersionian' majority . The first violent shock to the Palmerston prestige was given by the return to the Opposition benches of the Manchester nartv , vindictive with rage at their

    temporary humiliation , and burning to revenge it . The attempted assassination , of the Trench Emperor by a band of conspirators who unquestionably had enjoyed the advantage of asylum in Great Britain during tho progress of their" design , succeeding , as . it did , a . long series of attacks upon the French Government and institutions by a portion of the English press , naturally drew an exchange of compliments , after their fashion , from the Imperialist party and their organs . A bitter uiUt'aillade , conducive ., perhaps , to the sale of newspayers , but far less so to the permanence of pacific relations , or the advancement of French liberty , was going ou between the advanced posts on cither side , when our session opened definitively on the 4 th of February last .

    The lirst business of both Houses was to congratulate the Sovereign upon the recent marriage of her daughter , and tho next the arrangement of the Parliamentary campaign , with the announcement of their programmes and the muster of their forces by tho leaders of her Majesty's Government and her Majesty ' s Opposition respectively . On ihe lirst night of the session , Lord Derby , who had evidently no conception of the wholesale leek-eating in store for him , threw down the gage of Opposition in the

    House of Lords . He challenged Ministers to take steps to afford security for the lives of foreign princes against tlie machinations of foreign assassins resident among us . lie censured the War Department for their dilatory remittances of troops to India . lie urged that every available man of llio regular army should bo sent out to tlie East , and that our defence at homo should bo entrusted to the nulitin , whom he would embody throughout England . He revived , nlso , tlie Chinese war grievance , and derided the very idoa of negotiating at l ' ekin .

    The answers of tho Cabinet were of course cut and «! ry . The Premier gave notice that ho -would liriug in a bill to amend tho law in relation to conspiracy to commit murder . Lord Punnture declared that his department , which includes Weedon , wo presume , whs perfection itself , and informed the house of the steps ho had taken to raise the 100 th IJuglment in Canada . They wore of courxo full of hope and uncertainty about JLiulin , but Mr , Yovnon Smith would introduce a measure to enable the Company to raise loans , and Sir Ui'orgo Clroy , by way of saucu piquanto , promised a bill to reform tho Corporation of London . Lord John Ihissell took an early opportunity of introducing his Oaths Hill . Sir John Pukington moved in educational mnttern , and Mr . Ayrtou announced hid unfortunately abortive intentions about tUo equalisation of noon- rated : and till the

    crocheteers of Parliament were intent upon developing and submitting their legislative projects to tlie House , still unconscious of the white squall which was blowing up . l » ut it is clear . / that about this time the grenades of Orsini had carried unusual perturbation into the councils of Napoleon III . The French Government had already permuted the appearance in the Moniteur of absurdly bombastic addresses to the Emperor , in which the services of certain regiments were proffered to his escaped Majesty for the invasion of this country . Understanding as -we do the dependence of every Trench dynasty upon the bayonet , the occasional presence in commands , unavoidable under a French army system , of a few mere nre-eating " rouglis , " and the extreme jealousy of the vast and petted Imperial Guard which pervades the line

    regiments , we can readily comprehend that the rejection or suppression of an effusion , however absurd , from oner of the latter , might have teen construed into an insult , not to that particular corps alone , but to a brigade or even to an entire army . England , we thought , could well afford to let the idle puff blow by and to compassionate the position of a ruler the source and mainstay of-whose power was so manifested . But when from the laboratory of the Trois Freres Napole ' oniens there issued the ponderous admonition of Persigny to our civilest of civic councils , and the unguarded assassination despatch of Walewski , followed as they were by diplomatic rallies yet more plain spoken , we were not without apprehension oa our neighbours' account , whom a change of dynasty might perchance involve in a r « ign of terror , that premonitory madness had seized the Imperial family .

    The propriety- of an alteration in the law of conspiracy was so patent to every -well-principled Englishman who could , call himself a friend " of order , and irrespectively of all sentiment for or against tie Trench Emperor , that there was no indisposition , on the part of the country at large to proceed with the Conspiracy to Muider Bill , which passed its first reading by a large majority , including many gentlemen now m office . I 3 ut it was otherwise ordained . The anti-French section « f the English ifress -were malung political capital by fanning the flames of international hostility with the 5 r eternal columns of cheap patriotism ; two parties wlio had long sighed for office saw tneir

    in a tuaely fusion . Personal foes of the once petted Premier swelled the ranks of tlie most singular coalition that ever attained power . When Lord Palmerston moved the second Teaming of his Conspiracy to Mttrder Bill , the conspiracy to dethrone Lord Palmerston . defeated him by a majority of 234 against 215 votes . On Sunday , the 2 lst of February , Lord Derby -was summoned to Buckingham Palace . He immediately accepted offieej and proceeded manfully to face the difficulties of his inheritance . These were due in part to the blunders and conceit of his predecessors , and in part to the conduct of his own-party in opposition , seeing -that the Derby it es in the House of Commons could not number more than 160 or 180 .

    This was in the opinion of the Whig Tadpoles both indecent and unconstitutional . But they had omitted from their estimate the powerful Manchester and Peace party , whose bellicose discontent with , the pacific tendencies of Lord Palmerston had given tho coup de grace to tho outgoing ministry . It -was passing strange , indeed , that the Apostles of peace and economy , and the leader of the Opposition'in the " Arrow debate" of 1857 , should "be found in 1858 jointly censuring the Ministry for the heinous crimes of deliberation and reluctance to take oirence . And now , the industrious member for Birmingham i 3 the buttress of Lord Derby ' s Administration , while the little band of preriupliiieHte politicians who follow his more natural ally ,

    Mr . Gladstone , are still in chastening exilo . To a man of the Premier ' s autocratic temperament , indebtedness to the Manchester school may , as his rivals sny , be gall and wormwood indeed . But all we have to do-with is tho account of the public in the matter , and from this point of view we can imagine no alliance more pregnant with disappointment to the country than would be that of the Peulito of to-day with so much of tho old Tory as is left in my Lord Derby . The secret of Mr . B right ' s power is this . He can at any moment , with his ready oratory , his largo capacity , the wide-spread influence of his immediate partisans , and tho political mechanism at his command , rouse the Commons of thin country to the demanil of a lnrsjro and comprehensive measure of

    reform . TUo patriarch of progress , Lord John Russell , daro go no further in tho direction of large reform than such an addition to the electoral rolls as would in no way increase tlie popular power or disturb the aristocratic supremacy . Mr . Bright has inscribed upon his standard that any reform bill to be worth a moment ' s thought or tho smallest effort to carry it , must at lea ^ t doublo tho representation of the metropolitan boroughs nn < l of all tho grent cities of tho United Kingdom . These are reasons why Mr . John Bright i * to bo fumed by every aristocratic Administration ; and these , ngnin , why the alliance of Mr . Johu Bright and his party wart peculiarly a matter of imporlunco Lo Lord Derby when ho told up his supporters before accepting ollice . Deprived , as we very properly are , of all access U the great Government liud-taperics , we arc ohviounly ir no position to deli net the complications which had in directly led to Lord Mahiiusbury ' a installment , and whicl

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 7, 1858, page 775, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_07081858/page/15/