The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-22 00:00:00

Racing Fixtures for 1858,

MARCH.
Northampton 23 Politeland 29
Coventry 95 Thirdi Spring :3O
Croxton Park 26

Richmond Spring
Newmarket Craven
Durham
Catterick Bridge
Aberwavenny
The Hoo .....
York. Spring 13

M.
Chester
Tavistock
Bath ll

JU.
Ascot 1
Hampton
Newton 9
Beverley Summer 16
Bibury Club l6
Stookbridge l7

Hereford JU 1
Iptvich 1
l',.otetract
0 iihana
wtnark et Jnly 6
Worcester Su ,:tner

York 18
Radcliffe 23
Egham 24
Hereford 26
Stockton 26
Lich&l(l 3O
Great Yarmouth 3l

MBER.

Monmouth 23
Manchester Autumn 24
Newmarket F 0 28
29
Northallerton 3O

IBER.
Royal Caledonian Hunt
and Kelso 19
Newmarket H 25

TILE 2,1 IN 1 :ST is Y.

(From the Times.)
The country has certainly not got at this mo-
ment what is commonly called a strong Govern-
ment. Lord Derby could be put iu a minority at
any time, or rather he in constantly in a minority,
and goes on from night to night by the forbearance
or support of his political adversaries. The mate-
rials for a strong Government, however, in the old
sense of that phrase, do not exist in the prestiut
House of Commons, and would probably, indeed,
not be found in any Parliament of the present
day. A strong Government meant a Government
which could reckon with positive certainty upon
carrying its measures in spite of any ordinary.
opposition or unpopularity. The measures them-
selves were conceived in the Cabinet, prolucel
authoritatively to the house, supported possi-
bly by able speakers, but ultimately passed be,
cause they came from the Ministry rather than
because they approved themselves to opinion.
When the Government went a little too far, or
committed any serious blunder, or ',ail lasted long
enough to endow its opponents with the charms of
promi.e and novelty, it was put in a minonty by
some critical vote, went cut, and resigned offi.e
to successors qualified for precisely the same
career. Th;s is Vie ti eery, the idea, the picture
of Parliamentary Government according to the
views of our ancestors. There ought to be two
parties, and two only. Mr. Disraeli himself
has somehow demons•rated the impossibility of
fminthird. When one of these parties
sinksr ing a
the scale, from error, imbecility, or super-
o
ann nation, the other, by the necessary conditions
of the political bal,nce, should be found ipso
facto in the ascendant. The weakn ss of the
Whigs constitutes the strength of the Tories,
and conversely. Any Government " coming in"
ought to be strong, for the strength of a party is
relative, and it is because of its comparative weak-
ness that the other party has "gone out."
But all this is now changed. The theory, which,
like other theories, never exactly corresponded e ith
practice, has at length been upset altogether. There
are more than two parties in Parliament—more
than three. No Minister, either on one side of the
house or the other, can command so compact or obe-
dient a majority as to be exempt from risk of defeat.
If ever there could be a strong Government it might
have been looked for a year ago, when a Parliament
was retut ned giving a large majority to a particular
Minister on what might be termed a specially per-
sonal policy. Not only, however, was this Minister
defeated within afew months of his apparent triumph,
but it has been commonly remarked that the house
returned under these circumstances comprised an
unusual number of members claiming more or
less independence of all Ministers whatever. A
strong Government, therefore, seems impossible,
and, as things seldom become obsolete without first
becoming unnece=sary, we may presume that the
old attributes of Ministerial strength can now be
dispensed with. In point of fact, the result has
arisen not from one cause, but from a combination
of many. It is not merely that the Reform Bill
—itself now likely to be repeated—transfigured the
House of Commons, and substituted i' dep ndent
representatives for servile nominees ; it is not that
statesmen have degenerated in that intellectual
power which gives personal ascendancy, for
we do not believe one bit in the legendary supo-
liority of the 18th century ; but society itself,
in its constitution and its functions, has alto-
gether changed. There is no longer that bread
distinction between professed politicans and ordi-
nary people which would qualify the former for
the absolute guidance of the latter. Great sub-
jects are discussed everywhere, and not first of all
in a Cabinet. A Minister, instead of being ahead
of public opinion, is more likely to be in arrear of
it, nor does the fact imply any political deficiency.
It is natural that when a nation is well-informed,
wide awake, and active it should seize upon public
questions sooner, discuss them more freely, and re-
solve them mora summarily than can be done by
those who are charged with the responsibility of re-
dueng ideas to practice. No Minister now-a-days
could take the country by surprise with a batch '.f
nnexpccted and maguific' nt measures. These lofty
functions of statesmanship are gone. All that
Lord Derby or any other Premier could possibly
do this session is well known, and, indeed, it is
impossible that he should do all that would be
&sired. The " capital" of all political parties has
been discounted for the next three years at the
least. An enumeration of the Bills already be-
spoken would show good work fora Government
up to the end of 1860, and its duty, indeed, would
more probably consist in weighing, estimating, and
scrutinizing measures than in projecting them, and
in promoting true reforms, whencesoever originat-
ing, rather than in seeking for an originality no
longer to be found.
These remarks, if they do not help us to the
discovery of a strong Government, may show us
the opy.re, a weak one.
Such weakness
as Lord Derby's fs-worIA •
.47eltuz.rem rar-
liamentary administration, but
afford to be less critical than statesmen in such as: matter. It is all very well for politicians of the
old school to require "men, not measures," and it
is better no doubt to receive reforms at the
hands of sincere Reformers than from men whose
natural or hereditary tendencies might lead them
in an opposite direction as soon as the pressure or
vigilance under which ihey were acting was with-
drawn. Excepting, however, for this suspicion the
views of the public must necessarily be directed to
measures rather than men. It cannot be a matter
of national concern that the sweets of office should
be the privilege of this political party rather than
that ; infect, if Parliament government means party
government there must needs be more than one
party, and each party must have its turn. If the in-
terests of the public were invariably made paramount
under the Whigs, and invariably neglected under
the Tories, we might repine at the interregnum
under which we languished, but no antagonism of
this sort is necessary or probable. There may now
be more than two sets of men, but there is hardly
more than one set of measures. Lord Derby has
already promised an India Bill, and one of the
greatest and grandest corporations in the world
will be extinguished by a party wjiose theoretical
mission is the protection of all vested and corporate
interests against the expansion of population and
intelligence. He has not even repudiated a Reform
Bill, and after two such examples the public may
be at ease about Tory inflexibility.
We are not sure, indeed, that the public may
not in some respects gain by circumstances which
throw a Ministry upon popular approval, in de-
fault of Parliamentary support. A Premier who
cannot count upon a majority must count upon
something else, and the substitute can hardly be
found elsewhere than in the recognition of the
nation at large. Why shouldn't Lord Derby make
a bid for this kind of following ? A House of Com-
mons' so independent as the present, would be
likely enough to go a good deal with the public
indeed, in proportion as it is less sworn to
this or that leader it must sympathize mere
immediately with the views entertained out of
doors. There is room for considerable improve-
ment in the way of patronage, and patron-
age is a point at which people look very
attentively. There is a subject of great urgency
in the sanitary condition of the army, and bar-
racks, we imagine, can be drained and ventilated
as well under one Administration as another. When
Lord Derby reviews, as he occasionally does, the
performance of his brief rule in 1852, we do
not observe that he claims credit for having ex-
emplified the traditional tenets of his party, or
that he points to the inquiries he extinguished the
" institutions" he saved, or th'e " vested interests"
he protected from scrutiny. If we remember
rightly, I e alludes rather with complacency to the
reforms he and his colleagues accomplished, and to
the further progress they had designed. Nor does
this tell much against their consistency, for, in
reality, they had, as they have now, no choice.
Under existing circumstances no Ministry could be
reactionary, whatever might be their political title
or pedigree. If, however, Lord Derby and his
colleagues intend to take the line we have indicated,
and to prove themselves more "liberal" than the
" Liberals," they must recollect that there are
many natural suspicions to be overcome, and that
they must earn a title to Parliamentary forbear-
ance and popular favour by the promptitude and
completeness of their work. As it is, they are in
a confessed minority both in Parliament and in the
country.

1 MURDER IN SOMERSETERIBE.—An old man named
Thos. Pritchard, in his 71st year, a shoemaker, residing
at Middlegoy, near Bridgewater, has been murdered by
his wife, who is supposed to labour under mental aber
ration. The deceased had been married many years, and
his wife had borne him several children, one of whom,
a daughter, resided with them. On Wednesday, the 10th
inst., the daughter left her father, who was very infirm
1 and used two sticks as crutches, sitting in the chimney
corner. Subsequently Mrs. Pritchard went several,an,
times to the house of a neighbour named Att7lol
wasa
on the last occasion she requested a
lwiranShellooked
present to go with her to her own
dd dwelling. gblood. The
wild, and her hands were covered
but one of Atwell's
woman being alarmed refasedhteor
and on crossing the threshold.
bl vnd dreadfully
home,
1-1 back ineensi e,
lying on 'his found
He lingered till Saturday night,
I beaten about the face.
daughters, accompanied by
to state that his wife had sud-
denlyd recovered sufficiently
gborotthhesr,old went
ri atno
vt
d poured boiling water over him.
down, and Aftervrar s
an
attacked him with the crutch-sticks, knocked him
Tehs.
eswoman has been since confined to h'r bed by ill-
n