The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-01-01 00:00:00

THE "GRASP OP INTELLECT" •MINISTRY.

(From the Newcastle Joursial:):
Much has been said and written about the impossibility of
the Earl of Durham forming an administration that could be
found to act with him. This question has been set at rest.
A draft of the proposed " Durham Ministry" has been made,
and it is clearly composed of all the moral, intellectual, and
political strength of the empire. His lordship, with that rare
fabulty of perception for which he is so remarkably distin-
guiished, has surrounded himself with " all the talents;" and
strong in virtue, respectability, and patriotism, the "grasp-
of-intellect" ministry will hes invincible against personal in-
trigue and party strife, and will advance the great work of
reform with railroad strides. The various offices are assigned
with such nice discriminatiort of character—with such special
reference to the personal qualifications of the parties for the
eminent discharge of the duties of their respective offices as
must inspire universal confidence in this amalgamation of
all that is "great and good" in the direction of the destinies
of this great empire. Already is Lord Melbourne shaking
in his shoes—Lord Palmerston fainting with a bottle of Eau
de Cologne- at his nostrils—Lord Glenelg sunk into a trance
with the last Canadian dispatches in his baud—Lord John
Russell pouting and sulking over his "torch-light" procla-
mation—and little Spring Rice signing his last quarter's
receipt of salary with the hysteric grimace of a discarded
femme de chambre. Lord Brougham is sousing himself with
opium and brandy, to obliterate all recollection of the past,
and to blunt all sensitiveness for the future. The Duke of
Wellington is secluded at Strathfieldsaye as one born out of
due time. Sir James Giaham, with patrician sitdplicity, is
tending his Stocks and herds amidst the romantic wilds of
Cumberland. Lord Stanley is seeking solace in historic
recollections of the house of Knowsley, and in recording the
patriotism of his illustrious progenitors in the times of the
Tudors' and of their eminent bravery at the memorable bat-
tles of Bosworth and llodden Field. Sir Robert Peel has
retired to Drayton Manor, rich in honour, virtue, and official
integrity—happy in the enjoyment of every domestic bless-
ing, and training up his children in sound learning and in
the knowledge and fear of God. At Windsor the cares of
sovereignty are beginning to be experienced, and the melan-
choly truth felt, that happiness may be enjoyed in a cottage,
but never in a palace when righteousness, truth, and
_justice
are wrested from the swiy of the sceptre.
"The grasp of intellect" Ministry are rioting in the pros-
pect of boundless and irresponsible power. The day star of
liberty has risen with personal freedom on its expansive rays,
to establish an Utopia in the moral, social, and physical wil-
derness which comprises the sovereignty of the British
Crown. The prerogatives of the Monarch—the Act of Set-
dement, and even the renowned Mama Chaste and the
sacred Habeas Corpus Acts are to be " reformed" and "liber-
alized" to the standard of these enlightened times. The
principle of legislation will be founded on the sacred dogmas
of the erudite Paine—oa the benevolent metaphysics of the
philanthropic Malthus—on the social and co-operating dis-
coveries of the enlightened Owen, on the philosophy of the
fair and immortal Martineau, and on the profound and en-
larged schemes of commercial enterprise promulgated by the
practical and experienc ed Bowring.
As the time is at hat,d when the "grasp of intellect". M-
inistry are to come into power—Tuesday, the 12th February,
1839, just one week aft sr the meeting of Parliament, is the
day fixed for receiving the seals of office, we are happy in
being enabled to furnish an authentic list of this distinguished
Administration. There are only, we understand, two copies
of it in known existence, one of which is in safe custody in
Cleveland Row, and tb other in possession of Her Majesty,
and which we learn is often the subject of tier most graVe
consideration. Havine a friend "at Court" we haie been
favoured with a "verbatim" copy, taken on an occasion
when it. was accideutal.y left exposed in the Royal closet.
For the information. of our readers we have thought fit to
publish it—but we coniess we do so with fear and trembling,
lest in prematurely letting "the fox out of the bag," as the
venerable cud respected Ralph Lainiston would say, we
should expose our " Codrtly friend to Ministerial vengeance,"
but this on considerati,u we shall risk, for if the party con
cerned only keeps a close mouth, we shall destroy all written
trace of the communication, that his indiscretion may escape
with impunity.