The Press.
London, England, 1858-05-01 00:00:00

ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM.

WE have lately had frequent occasion to
remark on the questionable means employed
by political agitators, and the disappointment
which generally follows their apparent
success.* It may be scarcely less instructive
to contemplate a case where agitation, though
directed towards an object not plausible
only, but praiseworthy, and though greatly
favoured by time and circumstance, has never-
theless signally faile:l. Where is the Admi-
nistrative Reform Association? where has it
been any time these two years? Is it, gone to
Bath, or keeping a prolonged " Saint Monday"
at Sheffield ? or is it "absent on duty " in
India, helping the " special correspondent " of
the Times to make slaughter romantic, and
regenerate the British army by picturesque
description and shallow criticism? We know
not, but it has long ceased to give any signs of
life. To the often-quoted Irish appeal, "If
ye're dead, spake!" it could render no more
satisfactory answer than the familiar Hiber-
nicism, " I am not dead, but spacheless !" It
died away just when Par.mEasTort and jobbery
were triumphant—" Like a summer-dried foun-
tain when our need was the sorest " The how and
the why contain a grave lesson for all those poli-
ticians who hold, and for the more numerous
class who profess to hold, that agitation is the
best road to useful reforms. For observe, the
evil which the Administrative Reformers pro-
posed to remedy was real, the want which their
Association undertook to supply was a grave
one. " The right man in the right place " is
the great desideratum in our system of
government—partially supplied from time to
time by the foresight of a wise, or the integ-
rity of an upright, Minister, but otherwise
painfully felt in stirring times and grave emer-
gencies. They stood, moreover, upon a great
principle. Sal us populi supremo lex ; the
nation's work must be done, and it is a grave
offence against the public safety to lavish
patronage on men incapable of doing it. A
high legal authority even in the days of ram-
pant prerogative laid down a proposition
which we recommend to the penitent conside-
ration of Lord PALMERSTON in his occasional
serious moments :

" The common law," saith Sir E. Coxx, " doth
disable some men to take any estate in some
particular things ; as, if an office either of the
grant of the king or subject, which concernes
the administration, proceeding, or execution
of justice, or the King's revenue, or the Com-
monwealth, or the interest, benefit, or safetie
of the subject, or the like; if these, or any of
them, be granted to a man that is unexpert,
and hath no skill or science to execute the
same, the grant is merely void, and the partie
disabled by law, pro commodo regiset populi ; for
only men of skill, knowledge and ability to
exercise the same are capable of the same, to
serve the king and his people."
Oh, that these weighty words were butas true
in practice as they are sound in theory that the
appointment of a Sadleir or a Clanricarde
were indeed ipso facto void ! But the Associa-
tion at least upheld the truth in saying that
they ought to be so ; that the abuse of
patronage was a crying evil against which all