The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-31 00:00:00

THE PEELITES.

IT is one of the daily trials attendant on our im-
perfect state, as well as one of the readiest proofs
of its imperfection, that we find ourselves dif-
fering often, and occasionally on most momentous
questions, from those whom we love, esteem, and
respect sincerely. Our principles may be essen-
tially the same, yet cases arise when we are
utterly unable to agree as to the conclusions to
be drawn from them, or as to the mode of their
application. We feel such cases to be painful,
but we know them to be ineVitable, and we owe
it to the very law of our nature, to our own fal-
libility as well as that of others, to see that such
occasional differences do not produce bitterness
or estrangement. Combined action will else be
impossible, even among chief friends; every man
will be his own Pope, and abide in a glorious
minority of one.
Perhaps the greatest of the many evils which
sprang from the ill-omened Coalition under Lord
ABERDEEN was its tendency to perpetuate a dis-
agreemert which the lapse of time and change
would else have gone far to efface. Sir R. PERI,
was gone, and those who had felt themselves
aggrieved by his change of opinion on the Corn-
law question, or by the manner in which he car-
ried out his altered views, had acquiesced in the
new system, and were earnestly desirous to carry
it out fairly and impartially, so as to escape the
class legislation threatened by the triumph of the
League. Lord GEORGE BENTINCK was gone,
and if some were still living whom a sense of de-
sertion had urged to personalities which Sir
ROBERT'S most attached adherents still resented,
yet such invectives had been regretted as well as
discontinued, and it is easy for the successful to
be forgiving. With a little temper and a little
patience, two or three years would have reunited
the Conservative party, and we should have been
spared the indecorum of ROEBUCK mutinying
against the Duke of NEWCASTLE, and GLADSTONE
cheek by jowl with Sir W. MOLESWORTIL But
bitter memories and vague hopes prevailed, and
a second edition of " all the talents" came out
under Lord ABERDEEN'S auspices, claiming a re-
dundancy of administrative ability, but exhibiting
from the first a lamentable want of statesman-
ship. Then came the long repentance of the
Russian war—the mines and countermines of
Lords PALMERSTON and J. RUSSELL—the pa-
triotic libels of the Times' correspondent—and

the "elimination" from a be-Whigged Ministry
of the men who to zealous unsparing work added
the fatal honesty of confessing their mistakes.
Meanwhile the " Peelites," the most unfairly
treated by their Whig allies, had perhaps gotten
rid of some of the repugnance they must have
at first felt when called on to cast in their
lot with a motley assemblage of jobbers and
agitators. It was the affair of the Arrow that
first marked the wide gulf which really existed
between them and Lord PALMERSTON ; and as
his career grew more reckless and more distaste-
ful to the nation, they stood more and more
aloof from the Dictator, till at last they were
found in strong opposition. They aided, though
perhaps not deliberately, in the ejection of the
late Ministry upon a straightforward question of
English feeling, and in the only severe party con-
flict which has taken place since Lord DERBY
took office they were found opposed to the tactics

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of Cambridge-house, with the one memorable
exception of the eminent red-tapist who gave his
name, Icarus-like, to the gulf of an impassable
resolution. Still, though not opponents, they
can scarcely be called supporters of the present
Administration. Even when rendering it effective
aid, they have hitherto appeared studiously to
avoid approval of its general policy, and to re-
strict themselves to an expression of opinion on
the measure immediately before the House. The
country learnt with much regret, after a K eek of
anxious expectation, that Mr. GLADsToNE had
declined (though in no abrupt or unfriendly
manner) to join Lord DERBY'S Cabinet. We do
not presume to question his motives, which pro-
bably had reference to the position of some of the
friends with whom he was accustomed to act. He
acted, no doubt, conscientiously, perhaps wisely.
But some months have elapsed since his non-
acceptance of Lord DERBY'S offer, and have
tended to set in a clearer light the task which
the present Cabinet have before them, and the
claim which, in the discharge of that task, they
have upon all Conservatives. We say, advisedly,
that it is not for the good of the country, or for
the credit of Mr. GLADSTONE and his friends,
that a party named after Sir ROBERT PEEL should
longer maintain an armed neutrality between a
Conservative Government and a Radical Oppo-
sition. Without going, with SOLON, the entire
length of attaching civil degradation to political
neutrality, we must avow our belief that an Eng-
lish statesman can only be justified in standing
neutral by exceptional circumstances and during
a short time. It is our earnest hope that the
present recess will put an end to the political
isolation of the party familiarly known as the
Peelites. Were they men of a character likely to
be much swayed by personal interests, we would
warn them that it is not for their advantage that
the nation and the House should grow accus-
tomed to seeing them taking no direct share in
the conflict of parties. But we would rather
appeal to them, and to Mr. GLADSTONE especially,
on the higher ground that the best interests of
the country demand of them the adoption of a
decided course. We will not adopt the hack-
neyed cry that our national institutions were never
in such imminent danger, but we may truly
assert that they are likely to be attacked more
openly than usual. The Whigs will of course
adopt their customary opposition tactics, and
tamper with revolutionary schemes which when
in office they contrived to suppress or to defeat
oy Conservative aid. The Radicals, who have
gained strength by the decadence of Whiggery,
will press their favourite nostrums of Secret
Voting, and the Voluntary Principle, and do
their best to degrade the constituencies and to
rob the Church. These are questions on which
Mr. GLADSTONE and Lord DERBY are thoroughly
at one, and the friends of order through the
country will draw confidence from seeing them
act not together only, but in concert. On the
question of Parliamentary Reform, again, it is of
the utmost importance that the Bill which Mr.
DISRAELI wiil have to bring forward—and which
will doubtless aim at giving the counties a fairer
share of the representation—should not be per-
verted in committee from a measure of justice
and of amendment to an increase of democratic
influence. We trust that Mr. GLADSTONE and
his friends will not be deluded by the interested
fallacies of the " Liberal " press into standing
. aloof from a struggle in which they may render
invaluable assistance to the Conservative cause.
They are at present strong in reputation, though
weak in numbers ; but should their continued
neutrality lead to Lord DERBY'S defeat (we trust
we have heard the last of capitulation) on any
vital question, they will have lost the weight
derived from high character, the anchorage of
recognized principle, and will be drifted about
undistinguished among the motley and fluctuating
mass of Liberals.

"THE MOST SPLENDID EXAMPLE OF
TIIE GREATEST MODERN POWER."
THERE is at present, we understand, in the me-
tropolis, a chessplayer of such distinguished
merit that he is reported to have played seven
games at once without even a sight of the board,
and only to have lost two. The Times, in an
ad misericordiem article published in the begin-

ning of this week, reports of itself an equally