Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-06-22 00:00:00

THE REFORM MINISTRY.

IF there is one thing which, more than another, is
reconciling the popular mind of England for the
moment to the curious compact for office that the
Whigs have succeeded in forming, it is the idea
of its being that of a Reform Ministry. Reform,
like charity, covereth a multitude of sins ; and, on
this occasion, it has, with many people, done far

—it has turned their winter of discontent into
a glorious summer of satisfaction and hope. There
is a cham in the name of Reform, which can
evidently operate powerfully with its enchantment.
Reform was the great cry at the hustings in the
late Elections. It was the triumph of the cause of
Reform, in the old• Parliament, that sent them
there. They triumphed over a Ministry which,

more,-

they contended, had trifled with Reform,—at whose
hands, they insisted, the 'sacred cause had received
a great indignity. And in the same spirit in which
they voted so successfully in the late House of
Commons, were they enabled to carry themselves
so valiantly through the conflict of the General
Election. In the name of Reform they came forth,
an indomitable phalanx, to meet the Ministry which
they declared had done so much despite to it in the
former Parliament r and at once they proceeded to
inflict' summary vengeance upon its reputed adver-
saries. To have dared to trifle with Reform ! No
Ministry 'could certainly have been guilty of a
higher crime, or a greater misdemeanor. No
Ministry, in fact, it was immediately determined,
should be tolerated in the country, or allowed any
4uarter Jr' the--(louse of commons, that did not
realize the 'best and truest ideal of a Reform

Ministry.

And, acting upon this determination,
having sent the DERBY-DISRAELI incapables about
their business, they have now themselves, and out of
themselves, constructed a Ministry—so the country
is given to understand—that shall be a model
of a Reform Miniseiv for all time to come.

Such is, at any rate, the theory of the new
;Ministerial arrangements. The magic of Reform
has brought them all about. But for that irresis-
tible influence, all the schemes of the Whigs and
Peelites combined would have been abortive.
And now it has to be shown, in practice,
what is its quality. Reform, we all know, is a
fine thing to talk about. But talking won't do
now. We must have the doing,—the.mere saying
has all been used up, and must be done with for
They who have mainly carried the day,—
they, without whose co-operation the opportunity
for the formation of the new Ministry might never
have been presented, demand this time a real,
substantial, and extensive, Reform ; and they have
brought about the present state of things for the
express purpose of obtaining it.
And yet are there murmurs and misgivings, in
that very quarter, that, after all, there is but faint
hope of it from those whom they have enabled and
empowered to take possession of the Government, on
that very condition. " The good men in this new
Cabinet," one of their own organs has already
proclaimed, " are a small minority, and we cannot
see, in the list of names before us, any security for
wise legislation, or real Reform, or long life in the

kdministration, which is now entering upon its
unpromising. existence." Such is the greeting which'
is given to them in the Liberal camp itself. And
P Simply because the antecedents of so many
them are so unpromising as Reformers. There is
not " any security for real Reform." This is the