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    o entertain the question in any form or under any contingency , the temporary Lord Hi g h Commisr siorier proceeded to expound , with his usual precision and clearness , the constitutional changes by ivhich it is hoped , some of the causes of discontent in the islands may be removed . . Without entering into ' all . the minute details of these alterations , we may say that they present a copy of our own approved system of parliamentary government , adapted , as far as circumstances will p ermit , to the peculiar condition of the Septinsular State . The right of taxation is frankly recognised in the popular branch of the legislature , subject only to the

    two checks upon abuse which have- long prevailed amongst ourselves , namely , that every vote in the way of expenditure should orig inate with some responsible minister of the Crown , and that the Upper Chamber should have the power of interposing its veto when any money bill came before it , but not of discussing its provisions or modifying them . The first of these reservations lias in every free government been sooner or later adopted , with a view to prevent , inconsiderate votes of public money in accordance with the impulse of the hour ; and the preservation to the more aristocratic branch of the legislature , of the

    privilege to say aye or no when any new outlay is proposed , acts in its way likewise as a wholesome check upon additional expenditure , which is sometimes lavish and wasteful , though momentarily popular . The mode of constituting the Senate , or Upper House , is not full y explained to us in Mr . Gladstone ' s address . All we are told is , that in default of any hereditary class claiming by right of birth to constitute a chamber of nobles , One is to be composed of a majority elected at fixed intervals , by the wealthier and more highly-educated section of the community , and of a minority named by the Crown . . The proportion which the latter element is to bear to the former is nbt precisely

    stated * ; and obviously upon its fair adjustment much would depend . The nominative element in our own House of Lords is really greater than people sometimes remember . The bishops and law lords , together with the eminent soldiers arid sailors , from time to time raised to the peerage , constitute fully one . in ten of the total number privileged to vote in what is called the hereditary branch of the legislature ; and it is not too much to say that practically they constitute a fifth of the deliberative and voting power of the House of Lords . We see , therefore , nothing in the principle of direct nomination by the Crown to seats in the Senate inconsistent with our own

    constitutional usages : the length to which the exercise of such a prerogative oxight to be carried is , of course , a different matter . The viceroy , instead Of direct and personal communication with bis little Greek Parliament , is to be represented by the heads of departments having seats in either chamber , and who are to form the cabinet responsible . for hia administrative as well as legislative acts . These ministers are to be removable on- the joint address of the two houses ; and , like all other officers of the government , are to be liable to impeachment . The Lord High Commissioner himself is to be amenable to complaint' duly preferred by the Ionian legislature against him , and- triable by the Queen in council , or otherwise as may be determined ; find the charges of an agent in

    . England sent to conduct such accusation are to be legally payable as an item of civil contingency . We own we think this last a somewhat questionable provision : it ought , at all events , to bo very rigidly guarded , lest it should become a source of exaction And imposture . We do not venture to anticipate an immediate acceptance , by the discontented Greeks , of those propositions . They will , in all likelihood , reiterate their favourite demand , and unay not easily be ccm * vinced of its futility . Explanations will , no doubt , be sought from the gifted member for Oxford , on his reappearance in the House of Qommons ; but we do not belioyo that any politician of mark will venture to ball in question the acts or the motives of bis mission when he is on the spot and able to defend thorn .

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    . DIOKSON versus WILTON . It is yery fortunate fop tho military reputation of this country—* alread y sufficiently undervalued abroad—that , our neighbours aoross tho Channel do not possosa a single available satirical writer who knows anything about English affUU-8 . M . Jolin Lomomno might have taken uh in hand , but

    he is fast * bound to do rigid and cautious doc ' trinaires of the Journal des Debate , who are merciful towards England , through delicacy for Clermont . M . Alphonse Karrniight have directed some stinging guesses to our address . ; but he is— - O factum bene !—busy planting his cabbages at Kice , and forcing asparagus for the Paris market . The continental press , indeed , teems with abuse of the English army ; ' but its publicists deal tlrrousrh ignorance in generalities and in platitudes . That " we have an army of mercenaries' who ' are flogged to the charge like' hounds to the chase ; that we were too stupid to know when we were beaten at Waterloo ; that the Duke of Wellington murdered Marshal Ney ; that the defeat of St . Cast eclijised the victory of Blenheim ; that in default of the " rosbif" and the " monstrous

    grogs , " without which the British soldier cannot fight , we were reduced to destitution , to pusillanimity , and almost to cannibalism in the Crimea . These are topics' on which foreign journalists are never tired of dilating , but which have scarcely more novelty now to recommend them than the narrative-of ' the capture of the Guemere by the Constitution , the woful history of our vandalism in burning ' the archives at Washington , and the recapitulation of our errors at the siege of New Orleans . Fortunately , we repeat , our military chronique scandaleuse is a sealed book to the alien gazetteer . It is probable that the I > roit or the

    Gazette des Tribunavx will give a summary- of the egregious trial of Dickson versus the" Earl of Wilton ; , and will point to its concurrent exposures as only another proof of the barbarism of a people who sell their wives in Smithfield , stupify themselves with ' " -porterre beer" during the Parliamentary debates , and occupy their leisure moments in torturing the enslaved and oppressed Hindoo , and wringing the life-blood from the docile and kind-hearted Irish peasant . But if France could only send over here a " duel " capable of " taking notes ainong us , ' . ' and if there existed a public across the water who could-

    understand when he was moved to " print it , ' how overwhelming might be the ridicule brought upon our military system by a writer who combined humour with observation , and malevolence with both ! There is the Earl of Wilton , doubtless a benevolent and urbane , certainly a gay and courtly nobleman , but a carpet knight , a warrior who has never smelt powder save at a battue of snipes and partridges , and who is about as well qualified to have a regiment as is Mr . Thomas Sayers to edit this Journal , and who is appointed to the full Colonelcy of the Second Regiment of Tower Hamlets Militia .. On the other hand , is

    Lieutenant-Colonel Dickson , an oflicer who ¦ ' ¦ has seen service in the Queen ' s army in almost every part of the world during a period of nearly thirty years , who is appointed to the virtual command of the regiment , who is responsible for its training , its discipline , its internal economy , its soldierly bearing and efficiency , and who yet is at the mercy of a cabal composed of two or three inferior officers of his . regiment , who concoct a series of chargeshalf absTird and half false and malignant — against their commanding oflicer ; the charges are brought under the cognisance of Lord Wilton , who , we hope , more through carelessness and ignorance

    than through tho desire of satisfying a potty vendetta for having been sued on an unpaid crockery bill , forthwith writes a letter to Lord Combermere , imputing conduct very little short of peculation to Colonel Dickson , arid requesting his immediate removal from his service . The noble and nonagenarian Field-Marshal—albeit , he confessedly is unable to " make head or tail " of the case—is onl y too ready to assist his noble friend in ruining and disgracing a gallant veteran of the Queen ' s army . General Peel , when appoaled to , grants with much reluctance a Court of Inquiry , composed of military red-tapists , who

    sit with dosed doors , dispense Lord Wilton from attendance for the purpose of being examined , and never send in any report at all . Meanwhile , a quiet notice appears in the Gazette that Lieutenant-Colonel Dickson is displaced from his command ; and he is , to all intents and purposes , kicked out of the army , ostracised from an honorable career , without trial , and without condemnation . Fortunatel y , Colonel Diokson had yet two tribunals remaining to which to appealthe Court of Queen ' s Bench and tho columns of Ero ss—and justice has been awarded to him in oth . A jury has oast Lord Wilton in two

    hundred and five pounds damages for the libels he wrote concerning Colonel Dickson to Lord Combermere , and the slander he spoke regardin g him to the gentleman who acted as amicus curia in the matter , Mr . Thomas Duneombe ; and in almost every journal possessing the . slightest influ ence , and in journals ' . of almost every shade of political opinion , a cry of indignation Las been raised at the scandalous injustice received by Colonel Dickson , not only from Lord Wilton , but from the incapable martinets who seemed to have coalesced to thrust him from the Army List .

    We will not inflict upon our readers anything like ail analysis of the evidence ottered in a casS whose proceedings bade fair to be interminable , and of which every person concerned in it—excepting , of course , the plaintiff ' and defendantfrom Lord Campbell to the crier of the court , must have been heartily tired . From the charges of malversation o f the funds over which he had control , Colonel Dickson has been , virtually , most thoroughly acquitted , and it now only remains to be " seen whether pur military authorities are disjjosed to render a modicum of justice to the officer so unworthily traduced and so scandalously ill-treated , by re-instating in that regimental rank from which he should never have

    O . . ' si .. 1 ¦»¦• . been ousted , save after a searching and impartial investigation . As for the Right Honorable the Earl oi * ' Wilton , we dare say that the verdict of the jury , the perusal of a two-fold bill of costs , aiid the obloquy he has brought upon himself , by his unwarrantable conduct , will be sufficient to cure him for some time of his passion for soldiering , and that lord-lieutenants of / counties will henceforth be chary in nominating him to the command of militia regiments . The . conclusion at which Mr . Stephen Blackpool , the hard-handed and ' hard--headed hero of "Hard Times , " arrived anent the conduct of piiblic affairs in this , country was , that it -was " nwlus a muddle . " If Oliver CJoldsmitlrs ' Chinese

    Philosopher could oiice more revisit . England , '¦{ he ' would . doubtless , be of the same opinion ai - \ Mr . Blackpool . A lioyal Highness command- j ing-in-chief stating calmly in a court of justice 1 that he " knew very little of militarv matters , " a field marshal once entitled to our respect and ;\ admiration as the gallant Sir StapylUm Cotton , but in whose memory there are lapses of forty ¦< years , and who gravely avers that he came to town last January twelvemonth to attend the : ' j marriage of the Princess Charlotte , meaning that ;

    of the Princess Frederick William , and who owns that he had counselled the dismissal of an officer from the army , of whose case he had not been « able to make head or tail ; a . . parcel of militia officers squabbling about cups and saucers , unpaid dinners , and Cremornc fetes , and ii peer ^ of the realm soiling his ermine with the libeller ' s cUrty ink . The whole affair is such an imbroglio of- : meanness , petty vengeance , and petty spite , that itwould be ridiculous , were it not disgraceful , that we fool inclined to agree with . Jieaumarohab I Figaro , and hasten to laugh at such a' ( ira-nuii , U ' st we should be compelled to weij ) at ii , i <> r very shame . '

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    AN EXPECTED OVATION . [ Commiiniontcd from nn Ionlnn CorroHiioiidrnt j mxl W 1 '' 1 " " sort it ; nlthough wo do not indorsv nil lil « ^ 'Uiliuriitri , nor n ] togotJut approve llio style , wliioli hlciiim tn \ o \\ ov wmi of tiio cflobnitocl didpatch from the tiwrrUivy oi w . ( Jolouiuu . ] , Bi . ow geiitly , ye breezes—V > o eahn , ye wave * , flint waft our Gladstone homeward * from diu } , ' ^ nm Isles . Since the vessel big with tho fate of Xrov , that bore Helen and her paramour ai-rosd tho sclisamo wfiters to tho shores of llion , never luw w > ' 1 ' been loadod with a freight ao precious . nuftt would be the fate of Greece—what would become of England — whore would be tho hopes o Oxford , if tho bark were to founder , orator iuw all P The grief of Venus when Adonir » < liucl wouiu

    bo nothing to our sorrow- Great , however , a * »« our fears , our hopes are groutor still , if tn , ancient gods of Grocoo be not all unmumlui oj the past ; if from the Walhalla , aaorud to deposed deities , they still cast ft fond and longing g lance on the land whore once they reigned supremo , tnoy will surely protect tho fortunou of the l » st n " most illustrious of their worahippord . ,, - 1 ti P * m will bid his aubjoot waves bo Htill , and iLojus w restrain tho fury of his rebellious blasts . U-Aon » tho power of tho old gods be altogether dopnitoa from them , wo are not devoid of hope . p Xho i > rie 8 t 8

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    242 TflE LEADEB . [ No . 465 , February 19 > 1 859 ^

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 19, 1859, page 242, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2282/page/18/