The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-20 00:00:00

TO THI IDITOD OF TUI DAILY NEWS.

8111,—A very general wish in expressed to see the
ministerial party placed on a broader basis. But in
order to know how thin can be accomplished, or
whether it is possible, it will be necessary to form
more accurate conceptions of tlw nature and relative
strength of the various parties or connections into
which parliament is divided.
The ministerial party proper is called the whig
party ; but the word " whig" has at different times
had many different shades of meaning. The whigs
proper of the present day are, perhaps, pretty fairly
represented by Lord John Russell, LordLausdowne,
and Earl Grey. There are, however, material points
of difference between the last named and the other
two lords; and in the ranks of their party are to be
found many whose connection with the whigs dates
no further back than the disruption of the tore party
at the time of Mr. Cunning's accession to office.
The Reform Bill ministry, as it is called, embraced
these elements :—l. Earl Grey and his personal re-
tainers who had stood aloof front the alliance with
Mr. Canning,. This section represented the purely
English wings who remained true to their principles
when Burke, the Portland family, and others, went
over to Pitt about the beginning of the first French
revolution. 2. The Lansdowne, Russell, and
Brougham whigs, who coalesced with Canning, were
of the Edinburyh ATieso school of politicians ; the
Scotch education of the leaders here named had im-
bued them with political views and sentiments some-
what ditkrent from those entertained by the
Greys ; more systematic, less practical. 3.
The Canningites, who were again subdivided
into two sections, the whig families who had
deserted to Pitt, but had gradually been reverting
to their old allies; and Writs who, like Mr. Canning
himself and Lord Palmerston, had been led by the
course of events to adopt views more consistent with
the actual relations of society. 4. A few new men,
like Mr. Poulett Thomson and Sir J. C. llobhouse,
who did not exactly belong to any of the above ca-
tegories.
At the outset the largest share of :official expe-
rience was possessed by Lord Palmerston and the
other Canningites. The Russell and Lansdowne sec-
tion had picked up a little of this kind of knowledge,
but the Grey section was very deficient in it. In
general, however, the leaders were well versed in
the tactics of parliamentary debate, for which some
of them—Lord John Russell, for example, and Lord
Stanley—possessed great natural and acquired apti-
tude. _ !

The first election under the reform act gave this
party an enormous majority in parliament ; but the
composition of this majority was rather heterogene-
ous. The skilful selection of boroughs to be retained
under the new system, and the equally skilful settle-
ment of the boundaries of these boroughs, enabled
ministers to bring into parliament a pretty numerous
phalanx of personal retainers. But along with these
were the ()Connellites from Ireland, and the imle-
pendent liberals from England and Scotland. The
Irish phalanx, servilely submissive to O'Connell, had
views and aims entirely their own. The indepen-
dent liberals were composed in the main of a small
connexion of highly educated men who had adopted
more or less the principles of the Westminster
Review, and of a more numerous body of represen-
tatives from the manufacturing districts, sturdy and
vigorous, but with infinitely more zeal than Know-
ledge.
Ministers and their personal retainers had little
sympathy with any of these new-comers. The whigs
had always been aristocratic and exclusive; and the
Canningites retained many of their tory predilections.
Irish politics were the first apple of dissension.
Ministers and their personal retainers resolved to
abide by the old tory mode of treating Ireland.
Against this the iris& party naturally revolted. Of
the English independent liberals, some threw them-
selves without reserve into the Irish scale ; others
attempted to mediate, and bring back ministers to
more liberal dews. The result was the secession of
lord Stanley and Sir James Graham, with a few fol-
lowers, almost all whip. It was some time before
the residuarics coalesced; even when they did renew
their alliance, it was with distrust and discord.
Lord Brougham had, by the vivacity of his nature,
been carried further than any of his colleagues into
the advocacy of a semi-tory policy. On the other
band, I.ord Durham, from his dissenting education,
had more sympathy than most whigs with the Eng-
lish independent liberals. The dissensions which
hence arose were increased by personal incompatibi-
lities between Lord Brougham and tho Greys, with
whom Lord Durham was so intimately allied. The
Russell and Lansdowne section leaned to Lord
' Brougham, but his imperious temper compelled them
' to abandon him, and he was, like a Jonah, thrown
overboard.

The Lichfield House compact was the result. Be-
tween ministers and the ()Tonneßites it led to little
more than an armed neutrality, with occasional co-
operation. The alliance with the independent libe-
rals was drawn more close. Some of them were ad-
mitted into subordinate offices. These had no power,
however, of deciding the course which ministers
were to pursue ; their compliances soon made them
lose caste with the independent liberals ; and like all
men in such a position they became the most ma-
nageable of muusterialists. The discord between
Lord Durham and the Premier kept alive the ill-
concealed hostility of tho Grey section towards the
Russell and Lansdowne party and the Canningites ;
the tamed independent liberals associated them-
selves with this latter—the more conservative por-
tion of the ministerial party.
The internal dissensions of the Melbournites, the
Grey retainers, and the O'Conncllites weakened and
paralysed the ministerial majority. Meanwhile Sir
Robert Peel was indefatigably reconstructing a
party which he called conservative. The members
of his party were largely augmented by timid and
vacillating politicians, who had been earned away by
the contagious enthusiasm of the Reform Bill era,
but now relapsed into conservatism. This reduced
the numbers of the majority, previously weakened by
intestine dissensions. . .

The anti-corn-law agitation brought a new ele-
ment of dissension into the ranks of the majority.
The " educated radicals" and most of the members
from the manufacturing districts favoured the anti-
corn-law movement; Grey and Russell, whigs and
Canningites, for the most part opposed it. The dis-
trust entertained of the party by the independent
liberals of Scotland and England, their apathy to-
wards it, was thus increased. The ministerial party
became daily weaker, and at last Sir Robert Peel
was enabled to take office. The commercial
policy ho adopted, though it broke up his
own party, increased and continued the dis-
sensions in the liberal ranks. Many of the
independent liberals contracted a habit of regarding
the whigs and Peelites as differing in no essential
points from each other. The ministerial party pro-
per shrunk into the combination of Grey and Rus-
sell whir and Canningites, diminished in number by
the first secession under Lord Stanley and Sir James
Graham; the second of those vacillating politicians
who fell off and joined Sir Robert Peel when form-
ing the conservative party ; and the third under
Lord George Ilentinek.
At the close of last session, the ministerial party,
though the most numerous in the House of Com-
mons, was a minority of the whole house. Since
that time its ranks have been further reduced iu
consequence of the elimination of Lord Palmerston,
the last surviving Canningite of any note or emi-
nence.

Nor is its weakness in respect of numbers the
greatest difficulty against which the ministerial party
has to contend. Its leader, with many estimable
qualities, and still retaining much of the prestige
which once attached to his name, is, unfortunately,
one of those who " bear, like the Turk, no brother
near the throne;" he would fain engage new sup-
porters, but shrinks from the idea of -equal allies,
still more of a possible superior. The most respected
names of his own section of the whigs are far ad-
vanced in lite. Of the Grey section one is weakened
in public estimation, notwithstanding his great
natural abilities and understood popular sym-
pathies, by his peevish ; another by
his infirm health nail conservative leanings;
a third by his financial incapacity. Again, men like
Mr. Labouchere and Sir F. Baring, though valuable
colleagues, are deficient in energy; and Lord
limughton is a positive incumbrance.
It is obvious, therefore, that new leaders as
well as new followers and auxiliaries arc required to
strengthen the ministerial party in parliament.