The Express.
London, England, 1852-07-20 00:00:00

MINISTERS AND THEIR PROSPECTS.

(Ims the Ds* Nom)
A Cabinet Council la to be held this day. The
customs ry retailer of government office gossip
states that the Psalm?. will on this occasion
submit to his colleagues an outline of the measures
that are to be presented to the new Parliament.
If this statement is correct, Lord DERBY has hitherto
kept his cabinet as much in the dark as he has the
country at large, as to the policy he contemplates.
There may have been prudence in this; it must have
enabled such of his friends., had to bear the brunt
of an election to shape their stories to their consti-
tuents after the fashion most likely to give satis-
faction, without the awkward consciousness that
they were telling what they knew with certainty
was untrue.

But there is good reason to doubt that the intelli-
gence is premature. Lord DEBBY and his col-
leagues are not yet in a conditihn to decide
upon the policy they are to pursue in the
new Parliament. It is clear that they have held
themselves open to adopt any policy that has a
chance of meeting with support from a majority of that
Parliament. They will wait and reconnoitre and
feel their way in order to ascertain what is likely to
please the majority of the new House of Commons,
in order that they may shape their course accord-
ingly. Their political morale—like the social morals
of the Italian poet—are summed up in the maxim,
" eke piece sei lici,e." But in order to know what
will please the House of Commons they must first as-
certain what it is made of. This they have nut yet
had time to do. Lord DERBY has not yet got his
programme of the business of next session ready.
Nor will it soon be got ready ; for the parliamentary
returns, as far as they go, are of a nature not on 4 to
annoy but to perplezhim. An estimate formed of the
changes effected by the elections in the rrsonnel of the
House of Commons, up to the end of last week, did
not exceed eighty in all. Leaving out of view a few
nondescripts, it would appear the Derbyites had
gained forty-two seats from the liberals, and the
Liberals thirty-five seats from the Derbyites. Cp to
that time, the whole gain that accrued to Lord
DERBY from the toil and turmoil of the elections was
a total of seven votes. This is all he has been able
to do, though he has had the weight of office on his
side, and has been most unscrupulous in bringing
the " Government influence" to bear on every assail-
able constituency; and although the Carlton made a
heavy subscription. The positive results of the
elections, as far as they can be made out, were, up
to the same time, 237 Derbyites returned, and
307:anti-Nlinisterialists. Lord DERBY'S hard won
seven votes still left him in a minority of
thirty, with only one hundred and twenty members
remaining to be elected. The greater number of these
non-elect are Irish members, and it is not in Ireland
that Lord DERBY can count upon adding to his
numbers.

'The probability is, that ministers will find them-
selves in a minority of about forty in the new Parlia-
ment. It is impossible to speak with certainty. for
among the non-Ministerialists, it must be admitted
that there are some whom it would be folly for the
Liberals to count upon if there appeared any chance
of Lord DERBY'S remaining in office. On the other
hand, not a few members are set down as supporters
of Lord DERBY, who have been particularly careful
to pledge themselves to nothing more than giving
him a fair trial; and these, and even some who
have more frankly proclaimed themselves his
partisans, have secured their elections by promises to
their constituents which it will not be easy for Lord
DERBY to allow them to keep, unless he is to steer a
course that can scarcely fail to give umbrage to the
bulk of his party. The truth is that the floating
balance of " loose fish" or " waiters upon provi-
dence" in the new Parliament will be unwontedly
large. Some time may possibly elapse after it meets
before the actual strength of parties is positively
shown.

But of this Lord DERBY may be certain, that he
will be in a minority, and that the unaccountable
characters of not a i'ew of his own supporters, and
of all whom he has any chance of winning, will
make it a puzzling problem for him to shape a
course that will enable him to keep them together.
This, however, it is now obvious, will be
the sole study of ministers till Parliament meets
They have done their worst at the elections. They
have put on the screw in every constituency where
official influence could avail anything. they have
tried to obstruct the voting of Liberals—as in Here-
fordshire ; they have tried other means—as at
Derby; they have assumed, like chameleons, any
character or colour that promised to ingratiate them
with the constituency immediately addressed. But
in so far as the electors are concerned, all these un-
scrupulous practices have failed to give them a ma-
jority. Failing the elections they will now address
themselves to tamper with the representatives. The
constituencies will, therefore, find it necessary to keep
• sharp look out on the men of their choice for the
next few months, that is, till one or two testing
divisions have committed them one way or another.
What tack Lord DERBY and Mr. DisitAzzr may
try to sail upon defies conjecture. Two gentlemen
less burdened by principles or convictions—more free
to follow any course that promises to be advantageous
to themselves, have rarely presented themselves as
candidates for public favour. But as yet they have
dealt almost exclusively in negatives. Lord DERBY'S
son declares that his father will not attempt to
resuscitate protection; and Lord DEBBY'S CIIAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER goes farther, and with a
beautiful shortness of memory (rather convenient
for men of his stamp), protests that neither Lord
DERBY nor he had ever promised to restore pro-
tection. "No one supposes,' Mr. DISRAELI said in
the County Hall, at the nomination for Bucks, " that
tho present administration have any intention, or
ever had any intention, to bring back the laws that
were iepealed in 1816." But Mr. DISRAELI was not
contented with disclaiming protection; he took the
first step towards disclaiming his own great panacea,
revision of taxation. " But, gentlemen,' he said, 6, I
don't pretend to think that any adjustment of taxa-
tion would give the redress that is necessary to the
cultivators of the soil; nor do I think that, in enter-
ing upon the question of a revision of taxation, we
are to consider the interests of any class alone, how-
ever respectable." Mr. DISRAELI having prevailed
upon his bucolical supporters to desist from their
attempts to grasp protection, in order to lay hold
upon revision of taxation, which he offered them in
stead, now coolly tells them that as the substitute is
not worthy of their acceptance, he will not give
them that either.

Nor do the negative professions of the Derbyites
stop hoe. They call upon the electors to support
them because they will not submit to democracy.
What this democracy is which they promise not to
obtrude upon the nation does not clearly appear. It
is something, they say, that the Liberals clamour for,
and that Lord Jowl RUSSELL is ready to grant. Now
there never was a time at which ultra-democratic in-

novat ions were less called for by any section of the pub-
lic, or were less in favour than at present; and scarcely
any statesman can be named less likely to abet them
at any time than Lord Jou Russet'. The demo-
cratic innovations which Lord DERBT is to resist
are mere shadows, conjured up to fright the timid.
Lord DERBY and his colleagues say to the public—
" There is the demon Democracy—come here to us,
and we will not let him touch you."
Something more substantive than this will be
needed to win for the DERBY ministry the support
of a majority of the House of Commons ; or to
afford the " loose fish" returned to that house a plau-
sible pretext to excuse to their constituents any
desertion of their colours. Nor will Ministers have
a budget or measures of reform ready made to their
hands next session. They will have to manufacture
their own; and for the support of thes6 their own
measures they will have to rely upon their own
followers, as no section of the Opposition will have
any parental tendre for them. It is no light task
that now lies before Ministers, to mould the new
and unformed House of Commons to suit their pur-
Noe. But that is the business they have now in
hand, and, therefore, let the Liberal electors watch
narrowly both Ministers and their own representa-
tives—the gay seducers, and those on whom the
seductive arts of office are to be tried.

AN UNWELCOME Mfr.—During the thunder-
storm in the south of England, on Friday last the lightning
entered the Electric Telegraph office at Southampton on
the wires, and played round the instruments in such an
alarming manner that the telegraph clerks rushed from the
office in a fright. The local journals could receive no tele-
' graphic intelligence that night previous to their publication
on the following morning, In consequence of the thunder-
storm