The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-12 00:00:00

LORD GREY= ON REFORM.

(Prom, the Time;.)
Lord Grey's volume is a work not Ort.rarliamene
tart' government, but on Ministerial patronage, e
and its title ought to be. "A Defence of Nepotism ;
the result of more than 30 years' experience." Per-
haps we ought not to be altogether surprised to find
the son of the Minister who carried the Reform
Billexpr
of
essingunworthy fear of the democratic
movement these times, and a desire to4erpetitate
all the worst abuses of oligarchical gorernment..ll
his father effected a great reform in our Parliamen-
tary representation, it was less from popular sym-
pathy than from the necessities of political tactics.
Earl Grey had a self-absorbed nature, and was
essentially an aristocrat; it is curious to watch in
his history how exclusive he was in his tastes and '
how strong in self-assertion, so that purely on the
ground of postponing Catholic Emancipation, the
ground on which, in conjunction with Lord Gran-
ville, he stranded the Cabinet of All the Talents,
the ground therefore to which his pride was pecu-
liarly sensitive, he continually refused to joint that
Liverpool Administration with which. at "heart he\
had far more sympathy tbSn with the opposition of
Radical Reformers ; so that again, in 1827, he was '
the only member of his party who obstinately re-
fused
to o alesce with Canning, holding- himself .
al of in solitary dignity •so that—to give one more
example—when he passed the Reform Bill, and was '
reproached by Lord Sidmouth for introducing into
the State the virus of democracy and the Oements
of rt volution, his reply was not a defence of
popular government, but an emphatic statement
that in a few years this Reform Bill would be re-
garded as one of the most aristocratic measures
which bad ever been enacted. It was, indeed, by ..
tLe strangest caprice of fortune that he, who was
in feeling the most pure aristocrat of his order,
should have been the author of a measure so
democratic ; and there is much truth in what the "
Tories are fond of deelarine, as if they were let-
ting out for the benefit of the profane multitude
a great secret which none but those who are
b3hind the scenes of Ministerial display can know,
that the e s .nce of the Reform Bill—that which
recommended it to the Whigs acd secured for it a
triumph, was not the extension of the franchise and
the purity of election, but simply the transfer of
power by &shuffling of the Echedoles from the hands
of one set of neb!emen to those of another. As if -
to give the fullest sanction to that view of the case,
Earl Grey, the son, now comes forward, and having
singularly reproduced his father's history in giving.
full play to his individuality by habitually separat-
ing himself from his party, at length ventures to
furbish up the Tory arguments against the Reform
Bill, to repudiate tbatmeasure in so far as it tended

to populaa:ize the Government, and to approve it
only so far as it recognized the principle that the
aristocracy are our sole legislators. The Earl Grey
nature is such a self-satisfied one that, even if the •
arguments were stronger than they are, it wculd
not be difficult to perceive that in his heart of hearts
the strongest argument of all for an aristocracy is,
;hat he himself belongs to it. There are men ab-
solutely incapable of taking the measure of them-
selves ; who believe whatever belongs to themselves
to be superlative of its kind ; who, if they were
lamplighters, would carry their ladders from post
to post as if they were the horses of the san, and
were doing for the night what that luminary does
for the day ; who, if they were the bootmakers of
a Mime Minister, would not only rejoice in any of
his victories, but would actually regard the victory
as their own, the Premier having merely coati-
Luted to it. If Lord Grey were born in a rank of
life in which the right of franchise was denied him,
he would bo a fierce Chartist ; if he belonged to the
middle classes ho would be a thorough-going Li-
beral, not fond of revolution, yet adaiiring oligarchy
still less ; but being a Peer of England, the Peerage
is everything, he has no sympathy beyond the
charmed circle of his Order, and especially he fears
that power which would limit its pretensions and
curtail its privileges. He has an unconquerable
terror of democracy ; he trembles at the tyranny of
the House of Commons, a tyranny which he thinks
is increasing so fast that it must soon become dis-
astrous as well as intolerable.
The keynote of Lord Grey's book is a demand for
strong government, such government as is impos-
sible in the United States, but is in full vigour at
St. Petersburg and Paris. What is the peculiar
meaning to be attached to the noble author's de-
mand we shall immediately examine. In the means
time we must observe that seldom is more political
ignorance displayed than in the common talk as to
the necessity for strong government. A Ministry
on sufferance is, indeed, a political scandal as well
as a public calamity, and, when we speak of the
fallacies which are current as to the importance of
so-called strength in government, we must not be
suppossd to rush into the other extreme of main-
taining that the interests of the nation can be pro-
tected by a Ministry so unsupported as to have no
strength at all. But all experience, and especially
that of the last half century, teaches us that what
are called strong Governments mean bad Govern-
ments ; that strong government is not for a free
people ; that where laws are vile and habits corrupt
and subj. ets ignorant there the high hand and the -
strong arm may be needed ; but that where abuses
thfeevre,
arewh otenrethtoelieerahtaebdi,tawebteerere laeinwtsellairgeemetearceidfufl dreaen,
the Government which is wanted is one that—
whether we call it strong or weak—will abstain
from meddling as much as possible. There is a
remarkable statement on this head in one of the
works of the elder Mirabeau —"Le difficile eat de
ne promulguer que des lois necessaires, do rester
jamais fiolele 4 ce principe vraiment constitutionnel
de la societe, de se mettre en garde contra la fureur
do gouverner, la plus funeste maladie des Gouver-
n omens modernes '—a quotation which William von
Humboldt has adopted as the motto to his little
work on the Sphere and Duties of Government.
If we take a large survey of the various measures
that have been passed, it will be found that nearly
all the more important ones, nearly all that we
can look back upon with unmingled satisfac-
tion, have been not positive but negative
in their character. They have not been the
enactment of new laws so much as the
abolition of old. We have exploded innumer-
able oaths and tests and shibboleths ; we have
broken down barriers without mercy. In criminal
law we have been diminishing punishments; in
civil law we have been simplifying procedure. We
have increased our revenue by reducing taxes ; we
have multiplied our wealth by throwing all protec-
tion of our industry to the winds ; we have emanci-
pated our slaves, and we have not only sought to
insure in our domestic affairs the last amount of ,
interference with the perfect liberty of the subject,
but also in foreign affairs we have in the fullest
sense recognized the principle of non-intervention.
embodiedlourdiilualissioonusr.
maenaynt
anything,
relationt
they
to the Government riteficeenset leagreislpatoilointicaanldmadanaxiimttes din
al
lour
that
legislation a wise
IfW What
they m
d o theyeao
that a Government ought to watch everything, but
if possible to touch nothing ; that what it ought
chiefly to touch are the old laws which ought to be
removed ; that restrictions are bad for the most
abstinence ought to be the first
part and regulations useless ; and that the best
governed nation is that which is left most to itself.
What is this but saying that a free people has dis-
covered that "strong Governments," so far from
being
? ec n
Weess necessary,
wanta to have plague and a scourge to a
have our public departments
nation
well administered, but as for legislation and govern-
ment, we want to be left to ourselves. The "strong
Government," which Lord Grey insists upon, there-
fore, we would rather not have, and, differing from
him with regard to the fundamental axiom of his
volume, the whole superstructuts which he has
raised upon it naturally dissolves itself into thin air.
One can scarcely believe that Lord Grey is serious
in talking as he does of "strong Governments." •
It is an idea that is almost exploded in England-
We leave it to continental despots and
theorists. The former find it convenienttter for
delight
to of their own aithority ; the I
resulta of to imagine impossible utopias,
the
sort of Dutch
end-
less • pruning and cultivati?nti—os,
and even when
gardm;ng introduced in.to
views: they play into the
quite Republican in theoh
te by accustoming their
hands of the tyrants 9 cos tin sq.a!
and management as
ilia perfection of
admirers to regard meddling

A GEM or A LADY.—A young gentleman who has jun
marred a little beauty, says :—" She would have been
taller, but she is made of such precious materials that
Nature couldn't afford it."