The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-06 00:00:00

Conservative. It is natural tl
should sometimes miss the

tween cause and effect, and accordingly the
English public at times lends itself to agita-
tions of which it does not foresee the results.
But will any man intimately acquainted with
the English middle classes pretend that they
are desirous of organic changes ? Whatever
Radicalism exists in these classes points
rather to a social than a political revolution.
it may be true that the one would be a fore-
runner of the other ; but we do not believe for
a moment that its disciples have any such
object in view. That professional demagogues
who have, may take advantage of these senti-
ments is if course possible, and that is a
danger to which the Conservative'press should
more especially address itself. But we do not
think the danger imminent; and we are certain
that the middle classes, if counted by the
head, would at this moment be found in
favour of existing institutions.
The preservation of these institutions is not
incompatible with that relief to minorities
which the spirit of the age demands. But it
has always been characteristic of the highest
statesmanship not to push theories too far.
There is a point at which minorities cease to
be parties and become factions. Yet the
importunity of these latter is often in an in-
verse ratio to their magnitude. It requires
some moral courage to resist their assaults, and
brief tranquillity may often he purchased by
yielding to their clamour. Nothing, however,
can be more obstructive to constitutional
legislation than so weak and temporising a
policy. Yet it cannot be denied that Govern-
ments of the last few years have exhibited a
tendency in that direction. One difference,
therefore, between a Conservative and a Liberal
Administration, if we may trust the known
characteristics of the former, will be this, that
while the one has been adapting its legislation
to cliques and coteries the other will legislate
for the entire nation. The spirit of Progress is
WAY tio thoroughly established that Ws able to

take care of itself. A stationary Government
has become absolutely impossible. But the ques
tion that remains is this,—Are all the forces of
the Constitution to be kept moving together,
or do we mean by movement that one should
overbalance the rest ? It need hardly be
pointed out which of the two is the meaning
of Conservative Progress ; nor which, we fear,-
on looking at their recent mode of government,
is the character which the Liberals havo
stamp3d upon the word. It is, then, to the
former we must look for that more broad and
comprehensive policy which is at once the
truest Toryism and the truest progress. The
latter class of politicians do not perceive that
they are being ridden to death by their own
hobby ; that the business of Government is
now not so much to stimulate the spirit of
improvement—for that, as we have said,
cannot again be laid to sleep—as to guide,
control, and inform it. A Government that
fears to resist any popular cry whatsoever for
fear of forfeiting its character or losing its
place would in a few years be the ruin of the
country. We now require statesmen whose
antecedents justify them in a deliberate and
regulative policy, while their dispositions gua-
rantee a generous and enlightened creed. We

prosperous to be in a hurrr crude
suros. Like rich men, they can afford tt
And under the circumstances we cannot
that the Government best adapted to th 4
sion is one in which Liberal minds are
with Conservative opinions.

HOW LORD PALMERSTON FELL.
THE extremely sudden fall of Lord PALMERSTON
from power is one of the most curious .inci:
dents in modern Parliamentary history.
Although the - unwritten answer to Count
WALEWSKI'S 'despatch deeply compromised
Lord PALMERSTON'S reputation as a diploma-
tist, it •is evident that the Noble Viscount
must on other grounds have completely lost
• If;
the confidence .'of the Houso of Commons,
else he would not have retired from power at
the first hostileivote. He might havo counted
on the opposition of his avowed adversaries;
but how 'did it happen that numbers of his
former supporters declined any longer to give
him their • aid? We believe that the answer
to that question may be found in the utter
recklessness and in the overbearing manners
wantonly assumed by the late Prime Minister—
a most painful subject, on which we have often
commented in these columns.
There
tory fo

Premier

majority.

lesson tal
proper

represem

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highest
rack • Lord

.?. is no parallel in Parliamentary hie-
nr the arrogance assumed b the
r after he had obtained ,•. - :1
y. Grave, indeedV4 f;:.,
:aught by the N0b1et.1",:'1,.,. \r. silr` d.,
respect
1,
respect for the gen • .." .- -:,.,-,
ntatives of the pe..; ~A 1 . - - -: •
tenutry leaders we •
,Tr . A. yiß,Erti
order—in which n. ~5,' .r,
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ord l'Aufzunox • ,
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... -

218

been men of admirable address. WALPOLE
was genial and goodhumourod ; GEotioE
GRENVILLE, if formal and ceremonious,
was a gentleman of the old school ; Lord
NORTH had charming amenity and a temper
that nothing could rule ; the younger Pi r, if
stately. solemn, and proud, was incapable of
aught that could be eotifoundkd with low vul-
garity; the stinging satire of Mr. CANNING waif
occasionally too poignant, but it was polished
with classical refinement ; Lord eisit.EßEAott
owed much to manners that were admired by
his most bitter detractors ; and assuredly
Lord PALMERSTON could not find precedents in
the demeanour of Sir RouEttt Pgy.t, or of
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, for those impetuous out-
bursts of grossness which tarnished his recent
career.
The delusion that he could play the part of
a Dictator completely turned Lord PALMIeRS••
TON'S head, and he forgot the manners duo to
an assembly of the first gentlemen in the
world. He fell into the same mistake as the
great Irish demagogue, O'CONNELL. In the
first Reformed Parliament Mr. O'CONNELL had
a large following, and his demeanour towards
several of the leading English Liberals became
actually intolerable, and alienated many even
of the Radical party from the cause of justice to
Ireland. Faults of manners that were natural
in a democratic chief, bred up in the coarse
turmoil of aggregate meetings, could never be
tolerated in an English senator at the head of
the House of Commons. Never, certainly, did
any Leader of the Commons expose himself
to such severe reproofs. The Noble Viscount
sneered at Mr. BRIGHT, as " the honourable
" and reverend gentleman," and, soon after, he
had to endure from Mr. BRIGHT the most
scathing invective that has been heard since
the days of BROUGHAM ; he told Lord JOHN
RUSSELL and Mr. GLADSTONE " that he did not
" care what they thought ;" the questions of
a most accomplished Member of the House
(Mr. STIRLING) lie called " very absurd ;" and
certainly Sir BULWER LYTTON gave the Noble
Viscount reason to recollect how " very
absurd " such a style of sarcasm must ever
prove in an assembly of English gentlemen.
Our readers will recollect that THE Pans
has called their repeated notice to the reck-
lessness manifested by Lord PALMERSTON
Have not our views on the Noble Viscount's
faults proved to be true ? His own political
friends rapidly became alienated from his
affectation of autocracy ; they were ready to
follow a great chief, but they would not cringe
to a dictator, and they left the Parliamentary
despot in a minority on the first legitimate
opportunity. They knew well enough that
the appointment of Lord CLANRICAROE was
only the consequence of the utter recklessness
of Lord PALMERSTON, and that other acts of a
similar kind were to be expected from the
Noble Lord.

The political lesson taught by the fall of
Lord TALMERSTON is of the highest constitu-
tional significarce. Let a British Minister
surround himself with a devoted body guard
of political adherents, let him organise a
majority without scruple and lavish places
without care, let him mesmerise a large por-
tion of the public press, and let him at the
head of his great array mock at his adver-
saries, and laugh to scorn the precedents of
offit••e and the courtesies of Parliament, and
then he may calculate upon ejection without
sympathy, and a fall without dignity. The
House of Commons will turn upon a defunct
dictator. Greater men than even Lord PAL-
MERSTON has ever pretended to be—a Chatham
and a Wellington—were taught the tremendous
power of the free Parliament of England; and
no one knows better than Lord PALMERSTON
that, the Huskisson connection left the Wel-
lington Cabinet chiefly because they thought
that the Great Duke, then rather inexpe-
rienced in Parliamentary leadership, was not
sufficiently conciliating in his demeanour.
But the illustrious WELLESLEY, though stern
in tone and laconic in phrase, was incapable
of offering deliberate rudeness to any gentle-
man. His letters to persons who needlessly
intruded on his valuable time were answered

curtly, but never coarsely ; and even when his
Grass was severely assailed in Parliament,
Oat 11111ty nature never forgot what was due