The Press.
London, England, 1857-04-18 00:00:00

384

THE WEEK.

WHEN we wrote last week, we said that 635 members had been re•
turned out of the total number of 654. Of the remaining nineteen, we
can now enumerate sixteen additional returns, viz., the eight Irish
counties of Longford, Wicklow, Dublin, Antrim, Clare, Cavan, Down,
and Kilkenny, each sending two members to Parliament. The only
election now remaining to be settled is that of Leitrim County, re-
turning two members, which will be decided on next Monday.
Adding the sixteen returns of this week to our number of 635, there
remain but three members to be accounted for. Leitrim County, as
we have said, is to be reckoned for two, and the remaining one is de-
ficient owing to a double return for the county of Huntingdon.
The sixteen Irish returns of the week have not resulted in any
political change, though the eight counties have been hotly contested.
As before, nine members belong to the Conservative and seven to the
Liberal connection. On the supposition, therefore, that our classifi-
cation of last week was tolerably correct, thcte are now returned to
Parliament 359 members disposed to attach themselves to the Liberal
party, and 290 inclined to support the Conservative side. As we have
previously said, it appears to be very immaterial whether the Liberal
majority be 20 or 30 less or more than the estimate here given.
Experience has shown that the weakness of a Ministerial party is
often its strength, while, on the other hand, its strength may be its
weakness. So long as the majority of a Government is extremely
narrow, its divisions of opinion may be concealed by a tacit abandon-
ment of the distinctive principles of the party. But it does not appear
that this can be the case--without total loss of political character—
when the majority is so strong as to furnish a fair presumption
that the professed objects of the party might, with earnestness, be
carried into operation. This is one of the difficulties with which
the Ministerial party will have to contend, by reason of that
very majority of which they boast. Should they attempt to give
effect to two of the main principles of Electoral Reform on
which they profess to rely the ballot and degradation of
the suffrage—the party of Opposition will have no difficulty, we ap•
prehend, in showing that those objects are not only undesirable in
themselves, but totally impracticable. Should those schemes be
shelved by the Liberal party in the present Parliament, or be practically
repudiated by the bulk of Liberal members consenting to support
a Government decidedly adverse to them, it is difficult to understand
how they can ever be brought forward even as hustings questions
again.
A considerable majority to a sincere and zealous party must of
course be of the greatest advantage in enabling it to carry the
measures it has consistently advocated. But a large majority to a
party neither sincere nor zealous, with no measures to propose, and
with no political object beyond the retention of power, may be very
much less safe and convenient than such a narrow majority as affords
it a pretence for postponing all important questions, yet which may
be rallied to considerable bulk when a question of confidence is
raised.

Most likely the first session of the new Parliament, short as it
must be, will not pass by without ground being broken on both sides.
The Opposition will, of course, in the first instance wait on the moves
of the majority. They will endeavour to ascertain what is intended.
They will give to the Ministerial majority all the latitude of action
they can possibly desire. But they may not- improbably show the
general inclination of their own policy. It is simply ridiculous to assert
that there is or can be any really independent party in this country averse
to action in the direction of its own principles. The current of society
demands legislative movement. The India of our day is not the
India of a century or even of twenty years back. Time has brought
out the radical defects of the Reform Bill of 1832. New aspects of
finance require new principles of settlement. It is intelligible that a
Ministerial party solely anxious to hold together may be indisposed to
raise any question which may menace division ; but it is not intel-
ligible that an Opposition should be actuated by any such interested
motive. It would be a singular commentary on the boasted majority
of Liberalism in the new Parliament should it turn out that that
majority is, as a whole, indisposed to any movement whatever, while
to the Opposition minority is left the task of struggling for those
measures which will at once assert its principles, and fulfil the social
requirements of the age.

Since we last addressed our readers the firing of guns and the
ringing of bells have announced the birth of another English Princess.
All true lovers of our ancient monarchy must rejoice at an event which
rivets its foundations still broader and deeper. The more numerous
are the sons and daughters of royalty, the more certain are they to
contract more and more of national habits and sympathies, and so to
avert the ill effects of that almost inevitable isolation which is the lot
of Princes. All the children of GEORGE 111. were singularly
popular, for they were forced to mix with the nation ; and the influ-
ence of their memory still hovers round Queen VICTORIA, in addi-
tion to her personal claims on the loyalty and affection of her
subjects. To speculate on the destiny of this numerous offspring,
of whom the majority are still children, may appear an imperti-
nent task. But there are some who, having already begun
to talk of the impropriety of the Royal Marriage Act, render a few
remarks on this subject perhaps not wholly superfluous. At first
sight it might certainly appear that a wealthy English noble of the
first rank were a more fitting match for maidens of the blood-royal
than some of those husbands who have occasionally been found for