The Press.
London, England, 1853-05-21 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1853.

believe be is so. He is not like the majority
of our imblic Melt—with no excitement but
the council Ofamber and the senate. He is
really a man of literary tastes, and pursuits.
and feelings. He had something to tall back
upon, mad seemed to do 50 with sincerity. for
he embarked in more than one enterprise of
letters. We attribute. theretere, his strange
mingling in the intrigues of last autumn.
whichll3lW ended far more disastrously to the
Whig party than to Lortl !Naar, to the main•
hued.. influence which has on several °eva-
sions been exercised over him by the mean
and meddling ambition of the Duke of BED
10111).

This premature return to ofliee of I,ord .lottN
Ressini i. will probably end in destroying his
ammeter us a public man. It has already
placed him in a more than questionable posi-
tion. Nothing but imperial urgeney eould have
justified a Prime Minister, and especially it
Whig Prime Minister, in proposing in —52 a
new Reform of Parliament. If urgent, how-
ever, why is it now postponed? If Lord .loin
RUSSELL were sincere in —52, his sincerity eau
only be proved at the expense of his discri-
mination. It is now understood that Sir
.lAmEs GRAHAM WILM the illlliYidual who, in the
abortive negotiations Of —l5l, impressed upon
the fermi champion of finality the expediency
of further tampering with the elements of the
House of Commons. Lord JOHN was not for-
tunate in his counsellor. Cunning, versatile,
malignant, and andaeiotts, at least in theory,
Sir.lAmEs is always wrong. It was said of the
great Lord SuArrEsnuay, to neenunt for his
SUeeeSS in spite of all his errors, that he had
this great quality, "he understood the people
of England." Now, this is a sort of knowledg
that Sir JAMES GRAHAM never had; and in the
present instance Sir JAMES GRAHAM. making one
of his usual nistakes, has foreed Lord ABER-
DEEN to found his Government on a promise
of a " large measure of Parliamentary Reform,"
and has pulled Lord .lonN ItusmEm. into the
pit, without either Lord ABEiuiu or Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, or Sir .TAMES linAitAn having
any clear idea of what they mean or of what
they are going to (14).

Let us try to comprehend the situation.
There are two men in England who 111'44111y in-
telligihie positions. and only two. They are
both Libends, both Reformers, and both Lan-
cashire men, and these are Lord DERRY and
Mr. BRIGHT. Without lord DEttuv the Re-
form Bill of Lord tinEv, of whom he has been
the only faithful disciple, would never have
been earned. As Irish Minister he established
the system of National Editeation, abolished
tithes. and remodelled the Church. As Colo-
nial '.Minister he abolished slavery. Prime Mi-
nister for less than a year. he reformed the
Court of Chancery, established the conpiplete
defenees of the el /Mit ry, and, though baffled by
a combination of parliamentary sect' s with
which the country never sympathised, laid
down such a basis of financial reform, that his
successors cams only copy. appropriate, and ex-
aggerate his plans. Lord DERRY is a disciple
of 'progress, but it is progress in the spirit of
the English ci stitutipot and of the natipond
ch► racter. lie represents, therefore, English
progress.

Mr. Munn is also a disciple Of progress
but it is not—and avowedly it is not—progress
in the spirit of the Engli4l constitution and
of our national character. Speaking of our
electoral system, and especially of that half

PRICE SIXPENCE.

million of comity elector% whose purity awl
public spirit mainly 111410111 Rt present 01ir
representative scheme, he has declared and
lamented that politieal power is deposited
" with them," and that " he, for on. reeks to
change the depositary of power in this colt,
" try." Mr. ltimitiy, tlieretore, is against the
main eielili'lits of the Nouse Of OSIIIIIOII4. At
a banquet at Liverpool, retuniing thanks for
the health of the House of Lords, Lord
Dilitiv had taken oeension to viudieate the
character and usefulness of that assembly.
The next day, at hlaneliester, at a dinner given
to the Alimister Of the routed States, Mr. Banner
boldly eontroverted the arguments of Lord
Maur, mill gave it as his opinion that a
senate should be elective, and not territorial.
Mr. Hamm% therefore, is against the House Of
!MIAs. His opinion of all religious corpora
thins and establialuments is never concealed
He unequivocally condemns them. Mr
Ih therefore, is against the Church. He
is, in short, against all the estates of the
realm. Mr. Ilmuirr, then* also is a disciple
of progress ; but it is progress in the spirit of
the Amerienn eouatitution mid of the Anierietin
chanwter. reproenta, thierefore, American
progress.
Lonl DRAW! WOUM. et feet. all necessary
changes by the wise management of existing
powers, that is, by traditionary influences, to
which the eommunity is accuatomed, and to
which it defiers with a reverential recollection
of past services. The pulley of Mr. URIOHT is
to sweep away all existing authority, and, in-
stead of traditionary influences, to avail blew
serf of power in its enidest, or, as ho deems,
most logical, form—that of a " tyrant majo-
rity."
A " tyrant majority" is the strong and
natural go vern inen t of colonists,—independe tat,
but still eolonising—hampered with no traili•
ti1)11M. embarnissed with no classes—with no
sentimental or social obstacles to their energy
and enterprise ; with a vast and just eonseious-
ness of individual importainee ; with uo pau-
perism, uo public debt, and no ancient trea-
ties;—an illimitable wilderness, and an ab-
sence of all that responsibility which attends
ancient, and especially European, commit
nit ies. _ _

.........
We believe that a " tyrant majority " would
in England produce prolonged eonvulsion,
anitreliy, certainly military despotism, proba
lay foreign conquest ; but it is a distinct and
powerful principle, and has the force in theory
which all prineiples command. We know tho
consequences of a Governinunt conducted by
traditionary influences. England is the only
country in El Which is now so governed.
We have been prosperous when all have been
suffering, and free when all have been en
slaved.

But between these two intelligible systems
the people of this country must sooner or later
choose. Thome whom an intrigue has placed in
present lamer represent nothing, and have
made up their minds to nothing. I .ord ABER-
14:EN is to he the Minister of a
second-mte German state; Lord JOHN, follow-
ing up a parliamentary manteuvre of the
eighteenth century, finds himself, with Consols
at par, preuipitating a revolution, and begins
to talk wildly of " Conservative demoeraey ;
Sir JAMES IitiIAHANI, audacious in a fiilty, will
take fright, as he always does, at the critical mo-
ment, like a bold borderer at the sight of regular
troops ; Mr. GLADITONS has not recovered Atom