The Press.
London, England, 1853-12-31 00:00:00

MOTES AND MOTIVES.

" \MEN he beginneth to see all things as
motes," says a very old inedield work, " then
you shall hear that he is near unto his disso-
lution." If this ancient physican be right, her
Majesty's Ministry must be in artieulo, fur the
fatal symptom is presented. The Cabinet
" begins to see all things as mutes," things
which to a healthful eye would appear unmis-
takable beams. The day for the meeting of
Parliament is appointed—why does not the
Premier of a moribund Ministry resort to the
funeral rites of his nation, and append to the
proelamation, " Friends at a distance will
please to accept this intimation "?
" The temporary suspension of Lord PAL-
MERSTON'S relations with the Cabinet afforded
the means of proving, not only the secondary
character of any differences which may have
arisen, but the deep anxiety with which all
classes of Liberal politicians regarded any cir-
cumstances which seemed to threaten the sta-
bility of the present Government." So writes
the ablest organ of the Cabinet, and it else-
where insists that the dissensions must have
been small indeed to have been so quickly
made up. Mere motes, in tact.
We are not surprised, if the truth must be
told, at this way of viewing the subject. The
eountry has learned, upon the statement of
the Ministerial witnesses, whose credibility
the Cabinet can hardly assail, however the
nation may appraise them, that Viscount PAL-
MEIorroN left office because he could not; regard
the grand measure of Ministers, that " for
" which they breathe, orhave no life,"—the pro-
mised Reform Bill, as anything but an unjus-
tifiable disturbance of the existing landmarks
of the Constitution. This we were told, day
by day, in the uncouth Aberdeen dialect by the
reckless Times, in seholastie amplitude by the
courtlier and more Gladstonian Chronie/e. Let
us accept the statement. Lord PALtit:asToN, to
adopt the language of the Cabinet advocates,
had always been a concealed Tory, and abruptly
left the Ministry because it was concocting a
seheme which his Toryism taught him to
believe hostile to the interests of the nation.
While his Lordship was out, this difference was
regarded as no mote : the Tomes, indeed, mag-
nified it into a great fact, in order to base upon
it a gratulation to the Earl of ABERDEEN and
his colleagues on getting rid of such an ob-
struction as Lord PALMERsTON.
WIIVD Lord PA IA cIiSTON returns to office, the
Ministry, relieved from its immediate agony.
revives a little ; and this terrific ToryiKin,
which was to defeat the grand measure of the
most pretentious Cabinet that ever vaunted, is
suddenly dwarfed and dwindled into a " seem-
" dare difference "—a mere mote. We are not
surprised, as we have said. Lord PAL MERSTON
returns to office on his own terms—the wildest
sycophant of Coalition has not dreamed of
denying this—and it' it be true (which is pos-
sible, despite the witnesses) that the Viscount
did go out on the Reform Bill, the Reform Bill
at this moment lies slashed and hacked into
what he deems harmlessness. But this is a
mem mote. The Cabinet says (with HAYLEY
on Lord CHESTERFIELD) :
If lin this Noble Lora we may rely,
" Reform" is but a mote in " Russell's" eye.

Why not ? Has the Cabinet seen no other
things I's motes? Lord ABERDEEN Wits sup-
posed to be a sort of Conservative for many
years. and to believe that Church institutions.
among other things, were not so very undesira•

SATURDAY,

ble ; yet he consents to take the nominal head-
ship of a Ministry whose very first measure is
designed for the destruction of the Church en.
dowments in Cunada,—and a measure, by the
way, unlike most of the Government acts,lor
it has completely succeeded iu its object.
Here was Lord ABERDEEN'S mote. Mr. titan-
nose was known to have considered theo-
logical Copies longer, if not more deeply, than
most other public men, and to have an ideal
of Church and State, which, to say the least
of it, is not that of the colleagues with whom
he agreed to act, and who has not only con-
sidered theological topics, too, in his way, but
has pledged himself to his constituents to give
his conclusions a legislative form, if he can.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER has there.
fore his mote. Does anything of the kind
dance before the earnest gaze of the First Com-
missioner of Works? He is a pledged Radical,
yet, for the sake of office, Sir WILLIAM NOLEN-
WORTH joins a body most of whose members
are equally pledged to oppose his views. while
others give them only that half-hearted tole-
rance, so elastic when it has tube produced ho-
admiration on the hustings, so shrivelled and
flaccid under the Bude lights of the House.
Mott:mount's mote is a large one, almost
as large as a volume of HOBBEIL And
the Duke of NEWCASTLE, and Mr. HERBERT,
and the venerable Lord LAssnowsK, have they
made no sacrifice in order to have the happi-
ness of serving between Conservative Mr.
GI [Amos R and Radical Sir N'ILLIAM ? One
would not dwell on what their modesty would,
no doubt, have us forgot. But we are loth to
believe that they see much more clearly than
their chiefs, for, if they did, two at least out of
the three we have named would scarcely
recognise such chieftainship. They, too, " see
" things as motes."
The sign is a bad one. But, if it be bad that
any man should discern objects wrongly, what
is it when such man is the watchnuni in the
tower, the pilot at the helm? The foe at the
gate—the keel on the rock—and all because
we are in the hands of men whose moral vision
is impaired. However, the oculists are ordered
to be in attendance on the 31st. We shall
hear whether their opinion coincides with
that of our ancient physician.