Star.
London, England, 1830-11-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS.

THE NEW MINISTRY.
Tat Traits.—The following list is correct, as far as it goes:—
Earl Grey, First Lord of the Treasury.
Mr. Brougham, Lord Chancellor.
Lord Althorp, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Lord Melbourne, Home Secretary.
Lord Palmerston, Foreign Secretary.
Lord Goderich, Colonial Secretary.
Sir/James Graham, First Lord of the Admitalty.
Marquis of Larisdown, President of the Council.
Lord Durham, Lord Privy Seal.
Marquis of Anglesey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
Mr. Stanley, Chief Secretary for Ireland.
Mr. Denman, Attorney-General.
Mr. Horne, Solicitor-General.
Lord Hill, Commander-In-Chief.
Lord Auckland, President of the Board of Trade.
Mr. C. Grant, President of the Board of Control.
Lord Holland, Duchy of Lancaster.
The Duke of Devonshire, Lord Chamberlain.
Lord Plunkett, Lord Chancellor of Ireland
Mr. Pennefather, Attorney. General of Ireland.
Mr. Edward Ellice and Mr. Spring Rice arc to be joint Secretaries of
the Treasury. The Duke of Richmond is certainly to be in the
Cabinet, but has as yet declined to accept of any place. His reluctance
to office arises from an extreme and delicate feeling of disinterestedness.
It is supposed, however, that his colleugucs will insist on his accepting
some office, deeming it wrong, on general grounds, to have more non.
official members in the Cabinet. Lord Carlisle is in this predicament.
His Lordship is a member of the Cabinet, without accepting an office.
It is expected, therefore, that his Grace will take some place,
such as that of the Paymaster-General, which is still unoccupied.—
Mr. Poulett Thomson, though he has two places, that of the Treasurer
of the Navy and Vice-President of the Board of Trade, is only to draw
the salary of one of them. The same arrangement as to salary is ob.
served in respect to Lord Auckland, who is President of the Board of
Trade and Master of the Mint; and Mr. Ponsonby, who is a Lord of
the Treasury and Irish Vice-Treasurer. Lord John Russell, we under.
stand, Is to be Paymaster of the Army. The Secretary at War, it is
understood, will be Mr. Hobert Grant; and Sir James Macintosh,
Judge Advocate. The Ministers kiss hands to-day at half-past 2
o'clock, and the Lord Chancellor takes his seat in the Lords at 5.

Centonrcr.x..—Several of the Ministers went to their offices yesterday
for the last time. The new Ministers receive the Seals of Office this
forenoon. They will appear in their places in the two Houses this day
The long tenure of popularity of Mr. Brougham in the House of Com-
mons, may have produced in him a reluctance to leave It for a station
which is coveted by every lawyer. Perhaps he is the only man who
ever hesitated one second u to the acceptance of the Chancellorship.
The highest judicial elevation, no doubt, brings with it cares and die.
comforts ; but how few there are, who, contemplating a Peer-
age, and the Immense patronage connected with the Chan-
cellorship, would for one moment fix their regards on the reverse of the
picture ? The Duke of Richmond is not to be Master-General
of the Ordnance. He is, however, to take office, and it is thought that
he will most likely be Muter of the Horse. Sir James Mackintosh is
to be Judge Advocate, and not Mr. Robert Grant. The latter gentle-
man, we believe, will be Under Secretary for the Colonies.— Other ap-
pointments are not yet definitively settled.—The list which we gave on
Saturday requires some other amendments. Lord Auckland is the
President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Charles Grant is President of the
Board of Controul, and Sir H. Parnell Is Vice Treasurer for Ire-
land.—We omitted to mention that Lord Duncannon is Secretary
at War, and Mr. Poukt Thomson Vice President of the Board
of Trade. The new men enter on office under circumstan-
ces, which, in one sense may be considered favourable, and
in another unfavourable. Their predecessors (with a single exception,
perhaps,) are little respected, sad they have nothing to fear in the way
of comparison. But then the Journal state of the country is one of pa-
culler embarrassment. The expectations of the people are high ; and
much, consequently, will be expected from a popular Administration.
Repeals of taxes and retrenchment will be expected; and, above all,
Parliamentary Reform. The Aristocracy suffer greatly in popular es-
timation, on account of their possessing what is deemed an improper

controul over the Representation. As Landwholden, no man in this
country objects to them; it is In their capacity of owners of Bo-
roughs. But the question is—will they renounce that power over the
representation which is the cause of so .nuch discontent throughout the
country 1 Alinisters have, however, agreed to make the attempt. Pru.
dence demands, on the part of those who possess great borough irfluence.
great moderation at this conjuncture; because, if they should succeed in
throwing difficulties in the way of Ministers, they would only accelerate
their own ruin. The Treasury boroughs will, of course, be against
]I misters in all their plans of economy and reform. It may be a ques-
tion whether a dissolution should not precede the discussion of the ques-
tion of reform, that it may be supported by the influence which natu-
rally belongs to the Government.

THE Ttsexs.—We do not attach high importance to the fact, that
the lists of new Ministers in circulation embrace not merely the larger
portion of the yet ascertained parliamentary talent now existing in the
country, with the two exceptions of Lord Lyndhurst and Mr. Peel, but
the whole of it. Wants which have more than once betrayed them.
selves among men of considerable ability as public speakers, may we
hope not be chargeable upon the infant Government ; we mean those of
sagacity in council, promptitude in action, and steadiness and diligence
In the conduct of daily though subordinate matters of administration.
It is, perhaps, upon the last of these points, even if apparently the
least momentous, that the most serious apprehensions might now with
some reason be entertained. The Tories have,for almost half a century,
filled all the office* under Government ; so that amongst many
monopolies front which the public interest has suffered, by no means
the least injurious has been the monopoly of official experience, tact,
and readiness, by a single party in the State, to the exclusion of a fair
share of it by any and every other nor is the operation of such a circum.
stance upon the course of public business under a Whig Administration
confined to the mere slowness or imperfection with which the machine of
State, through the rawness of its conductors moves on. Besides in.
experience in the Whig who supersedes the Tory subaltern, there may
be, from many years of close connection a ith Tory patrons, something
not far short of treachery in the Tory underling who, from generosity
or indifference, is left in place, and trusted when he ought in prudence
to be superseded. This we would recommend a newly-appointed ministry
to consider. lor working heads of departments we feel a delicacy
about prejudging any man. Lord Althorp is, we believe, a man of steady
industry, as well as sound good sense. Lord Palmerston has had long
petiole.: at the head of a difficult department, and, if we may judge
by his public speeches, is a man of liberal politics with regard to to.
reign nations. Lord Godcrich has had before now sufficient acquaint-
ar.ce with colonial affairs to save him the labour of elementary enquiry
upon the subject, and, though totslly unfit to lead and govern, it would
be unfair to withhold from him the praise of industry as well as good
temper. Of Lord Melbourne, as Home Secretary, little mote need be
said than that as Secretary for Ireland he was not looked up to for supe.
rim energy or efficiency, and yet his present office requires indefatigs.
Me industry and vigour. Mr. Charles Grant is accused of indolence, of
want of ability never. Of the remaining members we may
just observe that Lord Grey and Mr. Brougham, are both known
to the country more as opposition leaders than as prac-
tical statesmen, but that they both come into power at this moment,
pledged in the most solemn manner to their Sovereign and the country.
as advocates of the most unflinching retrenchment, and of a principle of
reform adopted without reference to its operation on political friend or
foe. The new Lord Chancellor stands more peculiarly bound before the
world, not only to Parliamentary reform, but to execute on a broad and
mighty scale, a plan of reform in the jurisprudence of the empire. of
which, when lie shall have overcome the difficulty, we shall be the first
to ascribe to him the full and abundant honour. But the first and last
subject of solicitude for the new Ministers must be, that they accede
to office by capiledution with the people—they must redress our grim-
antes, orbe for ever mined.

PosT.—The public are waiting with intense anxiety to see what
scheme of Parliamentary Reform Earl Grey's Administration have to
propose. This is the great point—in comparison with which the apti.
tudc of particular individuals for the offices to which they are severally
nominated—in comparison with which every question, however impor-
tant, of mere administrative policy, shrinks into ineignificamx. Every
man of ordinary sense and reflection is aware that the next fortnight
must determine the question whether the new Premier will consent to
stand before the country In the light of a hypocrite and a jug-
gler, or, on the other hand, • change will be attempted, by
the authority and with the support of the King's ministers, in
the structure and spirit of the British Government, amount.
ing, in effect, to revolution. The dilemma is awful for Earl Grey
and his Colleagues. The crisis is appalling to the country. Let not
the new ministry deceive itself. The removal of small anomalies, the
correction merely of insignificant defects in the constitution of the House
of Commons, will not appease the spirit which some of its leading
members--throughout their political lives--have laboured to excite,
or satisfy the expectations which the Reformers of England natural-
ly and fairly indulge on their accession to political power, in the
peculiar circumstances which have attended that occurrence.—
This is no time for throwing a tub to the whale. No
dexterity, no evasion, no subtlety can avail Earl Grey and his col-
leagues. They mutt prepare themselves to stand or fall by the attempt,
sincerely, boldly, and vigorously undertaken, to change the constitution
of the House of Commons to such an extent as will impart to that as.
sembly a character entirely new. Any thing short of this would be
justly considered by the great body of the reformers out of doors as a
contemptible prevarication, and they would not fail to exercise the pri.
vilege they had thus acquired of denouncing the sham reformers of the
administration in the words of the poet—
" Accursed Sends,
Who palter with us in a double sense,
And keep the word of promise to the ear,
But break it to the hope."