The Press.
London, England, 1857-04-11 00:00:00

THE WEEK.

THE elections are nearly over. As we write only nineteen returns
are required to make up the entire House. Of the total 654 members,
wo have before us the names of 635 who are returned. Of these 451
occupied seats in the late Parliament, and of their political opinions
we can speak with tolerable certainty. The new members number
184, anl it is difficult to classify the whole of these with anything like
accuracy. The following statement is as nearly correct as we can at
the present time make it :
OLD MEMBERS :

CONSERVATIVER.

MBERALS.

Voted against Government on Mr.
Cobden's motion
Voted with Government on that
motion

Voted with Government on Mr. Cob-
Coliden's motion lB6
Voted against Government on that
motion

Absent 3O

Absent

213

NEW MEMBEnS :
Conservatives

Liberals

282 I 353
The positive loss to the Conservative party in England and Wales
may be estimated at four borough and twenty-two county members ;
and this loss will be partially balanced by gains in Ireland.
On the probable effect of this change in the constitution of the
House we have commented elsewhere. Of the fact of a considerable
Liberal majority there can be no doubt ; and without ceasing to regret
the loss the Conservatives have sustained, and without the least
desire to make the best of a bad case, we hold to the
opinion that while the Liberal party is predominant in the
Legislature it is better that its predominance should be decided than
uncertain, as with a large majority it must endeavour to give effect to
its principles. To put this point in the plainest light. Suppose that
out of the 654 Members of the House the Liberals had hut a bare
majority—as 330—they would still retain power ; and under plea of the
strength of the Opposition they had to contend with, they would keep
in the background all those distinctive questions on which they relied
for popular support, reserving them as a means of exciting agitation
when their political influence began to wane. No such cunning
policy can be followed if the Liberals number 400 out of the
654 Members of the House. The larger their majority,
the more decisive is the test to which their honesty and capacity must
be exposed. Their principles must now he put to the test of practice.
They must be subjected to that severe scrutiny which any real attempt
to bring them into positive operation necessarily entails. Will they
stand this scrutiny? Will the professions of Liberalism show as well
in bills on the table of Parliament as in professions on the hustings?
We shall see. it is true that should the Liberals give effect to their
professions, some measures may be passed very distasteful to Con-
servative sentiments. The evil is unavoidable. A Parliamentary
majority must be presumed to express the sense of the country, and
from that there can be no appeal. It is, on the whole, better that
questions which have long existed as a source of discord, should be
carried under vigorous protest from the minority than be reserved as
the stock-in-trade of mercenary politicians and dishonest. agitators.
We firmly believe that no means will be so effectual to rouse the Con-
servative feelings and instincts of the country, and to bring about a
truly Conservative system of policy, as the predominance for a time of
the distinctive principles of Liberalism. That state of parties is much
the healthier which gives them alternate predominance, than that
which keeps them in perpetual equilibrium.

In estimating the character of the new members returned to Par-
liament, it is necessary to recollect that nothi►►g in politics is so difficult
to calculate as the nature of an untried House of Commons. Fully one-
fourth of the whole House will be new, and the absence of a con stitu-
tional question on the hustings makes it impossible to reckon with
certainty on the votes of several independent gentlemen who were not
deeply committed in the last House of Commons. We cannot forget
how soon the mighty majority fur Earl GREY, in the first Reformed
Parliament, melted into nothing. We remember how the intervention
of a Church question shivered into fragments the Ministerialists at a
time whuh the Conservative party was apparently powerless. It has
been said by a philosophical contemporary that " from the time when
" Lord PALMERsToN, amidst applauding admirers, shall on the first day
" of the next session walk up the floor of the House, his power will
" gradually decline." The remark is likely to be verified. Re-
action must set in after the Palmerstonian movement.
The Premier sits in a Cabinet where all the other members are
merely " his appendages," and a month's knowledge of the House of
Commons will probably disenchant many "Palmerstonians " of the
notion that their idol has any legitimate pretensions to be accepted as
"another Chatham." It may be said that " his majority will carry
"him through." It remains to be seen whether a Palmerston policy
will command the majority. Lord ROBERT GROsVENOR told his hearers
at the Brentford hustings " not to suppose that all those gentlemen
" who called themselves Palmerstonians were Liberals." The Noble
Lord was right. It is only by the working of the House that its
character can be really ascertained.

It is authoritatively announced that Mr. E. DENISON, M.P. for
North Notts, will be the Ministerial candidate for the Speaker's chair.
Of Mr. DENISON the public knew very little until ho lately acquirel
some notoriety as au amateur bell-caster. Had be been appointed

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