The Press.
London, England, 1857-02-28 00:00:00

MONOPOLISTS OF OFFICE.

OUR readers cannot have forgotten the remark-
able speech of the Right Hon. Memler for
Bucks at the close of last session, when atten
tion was drawn to the anomaly of Liberals in
office endeavouring to carry out a Conservative

195

policy in order to satisfy the feelings of the
country. Such a plan of Administration re-
veals a worn-out party, and convicts its
upholders of being mere monopolists. The
evils resulting from the Executive being swayed
by an exhausted connection are well worth
•
consideration, as it gives us an opportunity of
contrasting the strength and resources of
" Conservatism" with the increasing weakucss
of " Liberalism."

That. Parties have a natural tendency to wear
out, under a long tenure of office, is a conclu-
sion proved by political history. The Walpole
Whigs degenerated into the mediocre eof
the Pelham faction, when jobbing henna. gn
organised system. The Court party, which
obtained office in the earlier years of the
reign of GEORGE 111., gradually sunk down
into the imbecile politicians who lost our
colonies in America. The last days of the
great Tory connection, which ceased to hold
power in 1830, did not exhibit the steady
resolution of the years when it first obtained
office. So, also, in our own times, the Liberals
now in power show a remarkable decline in
persons and principles. The monopoly of
influence leis exhausted their freshness. For
principle they substitute cant. For earnest
convictions they otter a conventional creed.
Fur measures, they refer Parliament to the
reports of a committee; and for " a cause,'
they strive to stay in Downing-street.
Such is the degeneracy of a great party,
which went into power in 1830 with a cry of
" Peace, Economy, Retrenchment, and Reform "
Its cries are now extravagant estim aes, no
retrenchment, a policy or embroilment with
China, or Persia, or America (as best may suit
the caprice of the Premier), and, last, not least,
"No Reform." In 1830 the party now in office
boasted of the leadership of statesmen of
considerable weight, like the late Earl GREY,
Lord BROUGHAM, Lord ALTHORP, Lord DUR
HAM, Lord JOHN RUSSELL, Sir JAMES GRAHAM',
Mr. STANLEY, and other eminent persons
Ranged behind these were several younger
politicians, who since either rose to distinction,
or were cut off iu their youth. We allude to
Lord Howiek (now Earl GREY), the accom-
plished Earl of KERRY (a nonleman of the
highest promise), Mr. MACAULAY, Mr. CHARLES
BULLER, Mr. POULETT Tnomsos (Lord SYDEN.
HAM), and others.
Look at the contrast between the staff of
the Liberals then and now. Earl IiREY is a
statesman to whom we have sometimes been
opposed, but his abilities are unquestionable.
The Noble Earl is not iu office ; and, after
Tuesday's debate, it can be no secret that thu
Foreign Folicy of Lord PALMERSTON is not
approved of by one with hereditary instincts
in favour of " peace, economy, and retrench-
ment." Lord JOHN RUSSELL is content to
wield power over, and not in, the Cabinet.
Where are there any rising Liberal statesmen
like those whom we have enumerated above?
Thus, both in persons and principles there
is evident exhaustion iu the ranks of dill
Liberals.

But that is not all. The degeneracy of the
Liberals, under the monopoly of office, is
shown most forcibly in the Cabinet having
become a clique, and in its ruling connection
being a mere caste. Office is closed against
the vast bulk of the Ministerial followers, and
even the cry for " The Ballot " is scouted as
" nonsense " by the Prime Minister whom
the Liberals support. Mr BAINES is the only
Cabinet Minister unconnected with the Whig
nobility. The members for large towns h we
turned Radicalism into a mere imposture. It
is bawled for on the hustings, and abandoned
in the ante-room at Downing-street. The
tenets of BENTHAM are professed before clubs
and constituencies, and (according to Mr.
RuEsucK) they are relinquished for invita-
tions to the Queen's ball.
We trace this signal degeneracy of the Libe-
rals to the lethargy produced by a long tenure of
office. They have had during the last quarter
of a century twenty-one years of office, to
show against six years of rule by the Con,er-
vatives. They are advancing no new men, and
are making no reputation as administrators.

Their noisy tribunes, like Sir BENJAMIN HALL,
or Mr. OSBORNE, or Mr. LowE, have become
supple placemen, mute about grievances, and
contented with a long course of compulsory
taciturnity or servile acquiescence. It is a
bad sign of the Liberal party that none
of his predecessors were ever so powerful as
• Mr. Ilsrma. The manner in which the
Liberal, and especially the Radical, repre-
sentatives answer to his " whip" exceeds aught
ever seen of the trained docility shown in the
well-trained packs of the Belvoir or Pytchley
hunts. it can never be forgotten that Mr.
HATTER'S mysterious services were so appre-
ciated by the Liberals that they bestowed on
him a glittering piece of porcelain. The
brittleness of their gilded gift was felicitously
emblematical of their system.
On the other hand, the great party which
rallies for the conservatism of English institu-
tions, and for a sound national policy, exhibits
a prodigious reserve of strength. The great
standing influences of the empire are decidedly
upon the Conservative side. Our adversaries
are in a petty minority within the Church.
In the great Universities of Oxford and Cam-
bridge Conservatism is predominant by an
overwhelming majority. In Dublin and the
Scotch Universities there has been a great
increase of Conservative support. At the Bar
there is a wonderful superiority of talent
amongst the Conservatives. In the Hereditary
Peerage and the landed gently the Conserva-
tives have a great majority ; and although the
Liberals may loudly boast of their Rus•-ells,
Cavendishes, and Howards, there is a prepon-
derance of the first-class historical families of
England in favour of Conservatism. We need
only cite the great families of Manners, Somer-
set, Percy, Cecil, Bentinck, Grenville, Lennox,
Stanley, Herbert, Lowther, and many more.
But not only the great territorial demarcations
of landed property are to be included amongst
the Conservative resources ; what may be
called the commercial aristocracy is also Con-
servative in its opinions. The banking inte-
rest has a prepondetance of Conservatives ;
and the shipping interest, representing the
active force of our mercantile marine, has
always been on the Conservative side. Nor
can the conclusion be demurred to that far
the greater part of the secure and genuine
wealth of the realm is in the Conserva-
tive ranks.
We believe, also, that the Liberals cannot
boast of the best administrative abilities.
Neither Lord DERBY, nor Lord ELLENBOROUGH,
nor Lord DALHOUSIE, nor Lord MALMESBUITY,
nor Lord CANNING, nor Lord EGLINTON, nor
Lord ST LEONARDS, in the House of Lords,
nor Mr. DISRAELI. Mr. GLAthiTONE, nor Sir JOHN
PAKINGTON, nor Mr. CARDWELT., in the House of
Commons, belong to the Whigs The two
great social questions of the day, " Education''
and " Law Reform," find their most vigorous
champions in Sir JOHN PAKINGTON, and Sir
Ferzaor KELT.Y, and Mr. NAPIER. The Par-
liamentary talents of Mr. WALPOLE, also, are
admitted on all sides.
It is under these circumstances that people
begin to ponder over the obvious consequences
resulting from the monopoly of political power.
The rising men, also, are at the Conservative
side. When the Ministry sought to recruit it-
self in public estimation the Colonial-office was
tendered to Lord STANLEY, whose masculine
understanding and extensive knowledge
would in any rank of life signalise his powers.
The Liberals have not a single young noble-
man exciting so much expectation as Lord
ROBERT CECIL. The \Vhig Bar is positively
sterile in lending talent—a fact acknow-
ledged in the mode in which the Crown offices
are filled lip.
It is evident that from such an exhausted
party "Administrative Reform " could not
possibly be expected. What the country
wants is a change of rulers, which by itself
would be a great official improvement. New
energies, new minds, new ideas, an entire
departure from the canting routine of mock
" Reformers," would prodigiously benefit the
public at large.

THE NEXT LIBERAL PREMIER.
Noss of the present Cabinet has suffered so
much in the debates of the week as the Noble