The Press.
London, England, 1858-04-10 00:00:00

THE IMPENDING CONFLICT.

THERE never was a period in the constitu-
tional history of this country, so far as we
can remember, at which such serious respon-
sibility devolved upon the House of Commons,
and especially upon those Members of the
House who are described under the general
term of " Independent." The state of parties and
tho position of political Leaders, with and with-
out parties under their command, has for
some years been such that no one party nor
any one statesman has the power to govern
Parliament, in the sense in which govern-
ment was understood in the days of Pr•rr, nor
co dictate to the House of Commons the de-
tailed provisions by which a general policy
shall be carried out. The power, and with the
power the responsibility, is in the hands of
the independent members of Parliament. It
would be absurd and mischievous not to
recognize the fact. Lord DERBY, with great
wisdom, has done so, and having frankly
accepted the great stewardship intrusted
to him by the Crown, has determined
to administer Public Affairs to the best
of his ability, with such materials as he finds
within his reach,—at all events till new circum-
stances or the appearance of new phases in
public opinion enable him to put the organi-
zation of parties upon such a footing as may
restore the modes of transacting Parliamen•
tare business to the condition with which we
and our forefathers were familiar. This, at
least, is our interpretation of the course which
Lord DERRY has stated he is prepared to take
with regard to his India Bill.

It is for the independent members of the
House to support him in that course—a course
which, as we need scarcely point out, must
needs have involved great self-denial and
great command of temper and of feeling, espe-
cially in the face of the conduct adopted by
the Minister whom the House of Commons
has just displaced. Lord PALMERSTON thinks,
evidently, that he sees in the India Bill of
Lord DERBY an opportunity for party divisions
and for personal triumph. His successor,
with a frankness of policy and an openness of
conduct which the astute member of a dozen
Cabinets of differing principles would laugh
at and contemn as a false move in the game,
has placed his measure upon the table of Par-
liament, under the most unfavourable circum-
stances, on the very eve of a sixteen days
adjournment—an absolute and unprotected
cock•shy for writers in public journals, and
speakers at public meetings.

Few measures that have ever been pro-
posed, especially measures affecting a sub-
ject so difficult, so delicate, and in its
nature so complicated, could have passed
such an ordeal unscathed. There are, un-
doubtedly —we feel it ourselves, highly
as we think of the statesmen who have framed
it, and high as is our opinion of the general
views of the principles of government
exhibited in the Bill of Lord DERBY'S
Cabinet—there are undoubtedly one or two
questionable points which it is not easy for ob-
servation to miss. These points—we allude
particularly to the provisions of the 12th
clause in the Bill—have been the sub-
ject of remark, n.it only from the declared
opponents of Lord DicaßY—not only from
those who, although owning no allegiance to
him as declared partizans, are not unfriendly,

342

but also from his warmest and most fast
friends, who deem it inconsistent with the
principles of the Constitution that paid ser-
vants of the Crown—and that the members of
the new Council will become the moment the
transfer of government is complete—shluld he
subject to election by Parliamentary consti-
tuencies. Lord PALMERSTON, in whom age and
a political career of more than half a century
have converted natural quickness into prat
tised astuteness, has not permitted these phe-
nomena to escape him, and he thinks
evidently that they present to him an oppor-
tunity of taking a stand upon a Conserva-
tive position, and of avenging himself,
by a show of constitutional principles,
upon the Radical Party, by whose support,
alternated with that of the present Govern-
ment, he maintained himself till that day of
last defeat, when there was no China to give
him cheaply the chance of a claptrap appeal
to the British Lion—and he hopes, probably,
by presenting himself in a new phase of
political management, to wipe out the
recollection of his gross and reckless
prostitution of the patronage of the Crown in
almost every imaginable department, his be-
trayal of the highest duties of his trust in the
transactions with France and with Naples,
and to return to the post of Piime Minister,
with Mr. VkRNON SMITH as Secretary of State
for India, Lord CLARENDON as Foreign Secre-
tary, and Lord CLANRICARDE as the general
adviser and overlooker of the cards of the
Cabinet.

With this view Lord PALMERSTON intends to
proceed with his Bill and to pit it against that
which Mr DISRAELI has laid upon the table.
He hopes, of course, to place Lord DERBY in a
minority, and to compel either a resignation or
a dissolution—the latter, a step which, however
justifiable it would be constitutionally, would,
as Lord PALMERSTON is aware, be anything but
popular at the present moment. It rests with
the Independent Members of the House of
Commons to decide whether they will permit
this palpable game to be played with a chance
of success, at the expense of the business of
the country, at the expense of its dignity and
position in the eyes of Europe, and in reversal
of their own solemn vote of only a few
weeks ago.
Putting the 12th clause aside, which
stands by itself, unaffected by any other
enactment in the Bill, we have no hesi-
tation in saying that the measure of Lord
DERBY'S Cabinet makes far better and far
more complete provision for the future govern.
ment of India than that of Lord PALMERSTON.
The Council of Lord DERBY, in the instance of
its first nine members, has, with a wise prin-
ciple of organization, been assimilated in con-
stitution to that which aids upon the spot the
Governor• General at Calcutta, the qualifica-
tions being as nearly as possible the same,
with the important addition of an ex-political
Resident at the Court of a Native Prince ;
while the remainder, provided for under the
11th clause, are elected in a manner which,
while it involves no infringement of Royal
Prerogative, embodies in the Council the pith
of the old East India Company, and will aid
at the same time, we confidently hope, in
giving to private capital and corporate enter-
prise an Indian tendency, and thus relieve
Indian Revenue from the heavy drain which
Public Works have for so many years imposed
upon it. The Council of Lord PALMERSTON
consists of eight members, all to be nominated
by the Crown, and under no other restriction
than that imposed by a condition that • each
shall have been either an East India• Director,
or ten years in India in the service of the
Crown or of the Company, or resident in the
country for fifteen years. Does anybody be-
lieve that such a Council is meant to be a
working machine; is it not made with an evi-
dent view to its falling into decay and
desuetude ; and is it not manifestly a mere
sham concession to what is conceived to he a
popular feeling? We cannot believe that the
House of Commons will permit itself to be
taken in by it, or that they can be induced to
forget or to ignore the ability and promptness
in the transaction of business which the mem-
bers of Lord DERBY'S Government have
already exhibited. The India Bill of Mr.
Difilt,LHlJ may require pruning; but it is