The Press.
London, England, 1856-05-17 00:00:00

458

day. It has alluded to the tendency of the
House of Commons of late years " to become
" a mere assembly of jobbing lawyers, and
" men who seek a seat solely with a view to
" individual interests ;—iti fact, of men who can-
" not afford to be independent " Unfortunately
this is notoriously the ease. England is
menaced with a Legislature powerfully swayed
by speculators, by trading tribunes converted
into senators, and by stipendiary represent*.
tires. It is by a majority manufactured out
of such course elements that the Whig oligar-
chy retains its rule. By means of some rotten
iiarcitighs (like Peterborough. Caine, and such
places), and by the territorial influence of
soity civergrewa proprietary, the Whigs tan
rittitter. of their own faction about seventy
members. Many popular representatives do
undoubtedly really represent some consider-
able constituencies ; but a still larger number
are not " capitalists," nor " landed proprietors,"
nor " eminent merchants." They are men
who hams got into the House of Commons in
search of sotustliirg lucrative for themselves.
They have notPthe trained habits, the public
science, and the high ambition to reap his-
torical laurels, which characterise the profes•
sional politicians, like BURKE, CANNING, SHERI-
DAN, HORS'ER, and ethers. There are amongst
them "no ipromisalne young men," like the
Macaulays and Charles Bullers of other days
Crafty, not profound; bastling, not energetic;
interested rather than, "ambitious," they are
little more than trailers in,politics.
Two luminaries of the past shed light on
the perilous course which . England enters
upon with a House of, Coraznons in which
there is a " Liberal" patiy composed of mate-
•rials like that which we havealescribed. The
wisest of ELIZABETH'S statesmen declared that
England could never perish except by a
House of Commons, , and -the penetrating
MODITESQUIEII, who was as enthusiastic an ad-
mirer of' our Constitution as gaunt MOSTA-
LEMBERT, and a far more sagacious observer of
the follies of mankind, said that the English
Constitution would sink " whenever the Legis-
" lative power should become more aorrupt than
" the Executive." Seeing what has passed be-
fore our eyes in the last three years, we might
well tremble for " the future of England," if
it should become a normal law in our modern
politics to tremble before organised clamour,
and to succumb to an anomalous force called
" the Independent Liberal M.P.'s.". And " in-
dependent" they are—per antiphrasis.
There is, beyond doubt, the certainty that
the "Liberals" meditate a new movement in
favour of what they will call " Reform." They
intend to preserve their force by keeping up a
factitious clamour, and Conservatives must be
prepared to encounter their adversaries. Lord
STANLEY, in his masterly speech at King's
Lynn, alluded to the impropriety of a Minister
keeping a measure of Reform impending over
the country, for the purposes of a party. Such
a policyrah much to be deprecated, and there
can be no meal security against unscrupulous
combiut}tiorrsk,and revolutionary designs, ex-
cept in the firmness and vigilance of the Con-
servatives.l Nat let it be forgotten how much
reason the Conservatives have for recollecting
with pride their political course since the Re-
form Bill. If there had been no Conservative
party, the country would have been surren-
dered to the d‘tiigns of those " who" (in Lord
DERBY'S warning words in 1834) " wished to
" set up a naked American Democracy in Eng-
" land.' The Ballot has been successfully op-
posed only by the votes of the Conservatives.
The Church of England has been preserved
from " Appropriation Clauses" by their energy
and power. " Reform of the House of Lords "
and levelling revolution was stopped fifteen
years since by the Conservatives rallying for
the Peers; and more recently we have seen
that the " Liberals," if they were allowed their
way, would "swamp" the Upper House with
life-peerages.
Our mixed Constitution is preserved only by
the resolution of the Conservative party.
The Whigs profess, in words, to admire the
institutions of the country, but by their acts
they show that they are ready to obey any
kind of populat clamour got up by any de-
scription of ilehons. Thus, while living under
'a Constitutional Monarchy in form, the people
of England might be exposed to all the

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