The Press.
London, England, 1857-03-07 00:00:00

POLITICAL PROSPECTS.

THE fitness of any body of men to undertake
the government of this country depends on a
variety of qualifications. The chief of these is
undoubtedly that they should be a fair reflex
of the British people—that, in other words,

MARCH 7, 185.

their policy should be a national policy. But
when we come to consider all that the word
" national" means when applied to the inha-
bitants of these islands we shall easily see
that a national Administration is not likely to
be one of every-day occurrence—that, owing to
a variety of intervenient causes, we are often
governed instead by only a semi-national
section of politicians, but that, w'nenever an
opportunity shall present to itself for the
accession to office of a really nationaljparty, it
will probably•form an Administration of great
strength and considerable duration.
There are foreigners who tell us that
England, after all, is the most aristocratic
country in Europe. There are others who
nickname us a people of shopkeepers. We are
alternately taunted with X respect for rank
amounting almost to servillity, and with a love
of independence amounting almost to factious-
ness. But all this only points to the singu-
larly heterogenec us elements of which English
society is composed, and the freedom with
which all conflicting interests are allowed to
express themselves. The character of the
people is neither inconsistent nor unstable.
It is, on the contrary, more than commonly
single-minded and conservative.
A Government, therefore, which shall com-
mand the permanent support of this country,
must, we are confident, rest upon a truly broad
basis. It must be a Government of gentle-
men ; it must be a Government of economists ;
it must be a Government with common and
well-defined objects. It must represent those
old aristocratic and chivalrous traditions which
we have been permitted to preserve through
so many surrounding perils, and which are
now the envy of the highest political philoso-
phers. It must represent, moreover, that por-
tion of English society which has resolved
that self-government shall not be a farce, but
a reality—which has determined that our
national expenditure shall not form the only
exception to our habits of commercial regu-
larity, and that the people shall not be taxed
to support the demands of nepotism and sine-
enlists. It must represent, also, that love of
fixedness, of law, of long-settled habits and
institutions for which Englishmen are pre-
eminently conspicuous ; and this it must corn
bine with such attention to existing wants as
shall render impossible the perpetuation of
abuses. Could such a policy be defined better
than by the name of Conservative Progress ?
It is clearly, however, not sufficient that a
party should only represent these principles :
it. must possess also the men who can carry
them into effect. To descend to particulars,
let us consider a little how far the leading
statesmen of this country, on either side the
House, answer to the character we have drawn.
If we are looking for a statesman imbued with
a sincere love for the ancient institutions of
Great Britain, with eloquence to defend them
when attacked, and truthfulness to make them
all the more respected for the defence of such
a man—a statesman whose foreign policy,
if his past life can be trusted, would never be
deficient in spirit, nor, if present conduct
proves anything, be ever devoid of mode-
ration ; whose actions would never belie
his words, because he is not such a slave to
popularity as to be always promising impossi•
bilities—if, we say, the country is looking for
such a man as this, let them place Lord PAL-
MERSTON and Lord DERBY side by side, and
make their own election.

If, again, we are seeking for a Minister to
whom the control of our disordered finances
may safely be trusted—who to a knowledge of
business unites ,that native talent and power
of addressing public assemblies which a Par-
liamentary leader must possess—would the
choice of the county fall on Sir GEORGE
CORNEWALL LEWIS? Sir GEORGE is a gentle-
man and a scholar, and that is high praise.
But a gentleman may possibly be dull, and a
scholar may possibly he heavy. The pages of
a ()Lee popular Review are, we fear, sad evi-
dence against the present CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER, whose Liberal friends would have
smiled but a short time ago at the bare men-
tion of his elevation to such a post.

ri/111