The Press. — London, England, 1854-08-05 00:00:00

f RiqrwmprolllllllWillgWlMMV r """7"'F otzxelyL Qxm_ t ritls -91 I : • =I ( • 1, I LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1854. PRICE SIXPENCE. i No. GG.—VoL. 11. • 2c Vrtss. himself has never sate in the House of Com mons, and never taken, until his present sorry LONDON,S.4TURDAY; AUGUSTS, 1864. NONE but a violent and thoughtless partisan could find subject of unmixed exultation in the present parliamentary condition of the Coalition Ministry. However degrading to the Government, it is still more dangerous to the State. It is impossible to shut our eyes to the conclusion, that, if persisted in, the Constitution of this country must receive a great shock, and that the government of pub lic opinion, through the agency of parties, which has hitherto been our security against violent political revolution, must gradually cease. The first effect of this change will probably be to throw the Administration of the. country into the hands of courtiers, and, with a popular or discreet Court, the inevitable injury to public spirit and peril to public liberty of such a course may not immediately be recognised. ifo rocess of dVidation or disorder is certain. Either a powerful.cen tralised Government will be established, and its resources of multiplied corruption brought to bear upon members of Parliament in detail, or the House of Commons wrestling with the Court, and seeking refuge in an unconstitu tional organisation, will resolve itself into committees, and invade the various offices of the Executive. The most corrupt form of government in the world is that which com bines a centralised Administration with a popular Chamber, as was seen recently in France ; and the most offensive and tyranni cal form is that which invests a popular assembly with executive as well as legislative duties, as was felt two centuries ago in Eng land. Yet there are the possible alternatives, which may be offered, and even soon, to the only country in which parliamentary govern ment has succeeded, and which, only so late back as 1841, gave, by its agency, to Sir ROBERT PEEL the most powerful administra tion of the century. It is clear, therefore, that it was not the Reform Act of 1832 that destroyed, or even that impaired, party govern. ment in England. We are far from supposing that the members of the present Cabinet are blind to these evils, or not discouraged by them. Many of them are men of great station in the country, who have risen to public eminence iu the atmo sphere of the House of Commons, and who, we doubt not, highly appreciate our system of public life. Although the distempered ambi tion of Lord JOHN RUSSELL has been mainly instrumental in bringing about the present lamentable state of affairs, it is quite impos sible that such a man, now that the heat and fever of upsetting the Ministry of Lord DERBY have passed, should be insensible to the errors which he has committed, and not feel that, with a little patience and constitutional re straint, he might perhaps at this moment have been First Minister of the Crown, at the heg of a homogeneous party. Lord ABERDEV . - displays, a leading part in the other House. No one ever imputed to him any fervid admi ration of our parliamentary system. His mind was formed in the Austrian Chancery : he has always been a votary of political, - and not public, life, of power without responsibility, and therefore as little as possible in the public gaze. He is now advanced in years, ambitious, quite unprincipled, and very vain. There is nothing he will not do to retain the position which Court 'intrigue, and not parliamentary following, gave him. He will make war with or for Russia; oppose parliamentary reform, or pro pose universal suffrage ; become a brother of the Oratory, or seek refuge in that Free Kirk which his blundering legislation called into existence. The cleverest thing that Lord ABERDEEN ever did was to persuade the Whigs that he meant to abdicate at the termination of the first session of the Coalition. It was an act of the most adroit deceptiozi since the election of Pope Sirrus. Such a man will.not have any twinges about the fate of the Eng lish Constitution, and. we doubt not, is quite pLepared to close his career as one of those courtier. Ministers with which his country has: so proaigally furnished us,,and add another to the resplendcnt list of the Carrs, the Hayi, -said 111C- , Mutes. Nothing, however, wilLimr-, suade us that English gentlemen, a Sir James Graham, or a Mr. Sidney Herbert, statesmen educated in the House of Commons, Parlia ment men, can, however serene may be their countenances in public, contemplate the pre sent state of affairs without great disquietude and disapproval. It is difficult to comprehend how, indi vidually, they can endure it. Take the-in-' stance of one who was described the other night by a rebellious Liberal as " the popular " member of the Cabinet." Lord PALMERSTON is Secretary of State, and in his department has, this session, had to prepare, and to intro duce into Parliament, a larger number of bills , on important questions than any other mem ber of the Administration. This Secretary of State has proposed to the House of Commons to repeal the law of settlement, to establish a general system of police, to carry a militia bill, to institute a Government board of health, and every one of his propositions has been contumeliously rejected. These are not speculative subjects. They intimately concern the welfare of the community. The Secretary himself tells us that confusion and disorder, disease and rapine, will be the consequence of the withdrawal of his measures ; and he remains Minister, responsible for cholera, which he says is inevitable, and incendiarism and burglary, which he assures us will be practised on a large scale. Yet this is the fate of " the popular member of the Cabinet." Eight months ago Lord PALMERSTON withdrew from the Coalition, and the sympathies of the whole nation' gathered round him. Never was a man in a more commanding position, or apparently had a grander future. He returns to the Cabinet to find that he is unable to carry even a bill for the prevention of nui sances, to be bullied by confederate bakers who will not consume their own smoke, to sanction the crude schemes of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, and to be tainted by a participation in the ambigu9us policy of Lord ABERDEEN, and the organised corruption of the Duke •of NEWCASTLE. Instead of rivalling the reputa4 tion of a Chatham or a Canning, he will be re-I membered in our annals, if remembered at all, only as a political VICAR of Bast The runners and hangers-son of the Govern ment, in order to divert the storm of public indignation from the heads of "their patrons, have the cue to abuse the House of Commons, and to hold up that assembly as the cause of the inefficiency of the public service. This will never do. It is not true that the House of Commons, like the Ministry, has done nothing. The House of Commons, this ses sion, has done a great deal. It has stopped parliamentary reform; it has vindicated the Protestant character of the Constitution ; it has checked centralisation ; it has given another blow to the scheme of secular educa tion, which is continually brought forward in so many insidious forms. These are not mean services ; and a grateful country will on reflec tion not fail to recognise that it is indebted for these benefits, not merely to the House of Commons, but to that spirit of party disei.. pline whioh still largely prevails in that as sembly. It is the rallying of the Conserva tive party that has steadied the ship. That great operation has been effected this year with skill, courage, prudence, and un ceasing vigilance. A body of two hundred and eighty gentlemen, acting together in a apirit , confidence and sympaiiiy, must necessarily (yertass a considerable coptiol over publ'a affairs. Amid a crowd of 'hostile and rival sections,—old Whigs headed by Lord SEYMOUR, discontented 'Radicals pushing on Lord DUDLEY STUART, the Manchester school in flamed by the indignant logic of Mr. BRIGHT, Sir WILLIAM HEATHCOTE crossing himself at the head of the .Tractarians, and the Popish recusants „brooding in sullen vengeance over the ruins of their betrayed confederacy,—there is still in the House of Commons a numeroxis and compact party ; not, anxious for power, . yet not afraid to assume it, and resolved nevi; to retain it unworthily,—annmerous and conk pact party prepared to uphold with all their energies rim ENGLISH CONSTITUTION. MINISTERS ON THE STOC: EXCHANGE. UNTIL Thursday last Englishmen were in the habit of believing that, whatever other re proach might rest on persons engaged in ad ministrative affairs, their hands were at least free from the stain of pecuniary corruption. Travellers in continental countries shrugged their shoulders and smiled triumphantly when they heard the rumour so current abroad that this or that eminent statesman was in the habit of dabbling in the funds. If report be true, it is but a few months since the Emperor of the FRENCiI, in talking with a friend, ex pressed admiration. not unmixed with Bur• prise, at the purity, in this respect, of English public life. There is an end to these boasts now. One offence detected leads, and leads naturally, to the suspicion of many more. A stigma unknown since the days of WALPOLZ rests on our public offices. It will not soon be wiped off; the story will be repeated with malicious alacrity among the inhabitants of every small State which envies our national greatness, or fears our power; and for this humiliation in the face of Europe, this moral weakness exhibited before the eye• of our enemies, we have to thank the party which, I • 4 .