The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-04-04 00:00:00

ANOTHER MINISTERIAL SPLIT.

THE Ministers are not so secure in their posses-
sion of office, that they can afford to lose even their
weakest member without damage to their position,
and yet they have proved so reckless of conse-
quences as to drive from them the only honest man
who had consented to form one of the mongrel
coalition. One of the measures with which the
legislative business of the session commenced was
an alteration of the Poor-law, so as to effect a gra-
dual equalisation of the poor-rates, and abolish that
expensive system of litigation incurred in the
removal of paupers. To accomplish this object,
Mr. BAINES, the President of the Poor-law Board,
prepared an elaborate scheme, which, though pos-
sessing some defects, was at least entitled to
consideration. It seems, however, that Lord PAL-
MERSTON, as Home Secretary, without even the
common decency of consulting Mr. BRINES, in
whose department the measure originated, suc-
cumbed to the badgering of his Irish allies, the
Romish Brigade, and promised that the operation
of the Bill, as far as concerns the non-removal of
paupers, should be extended to Ireland. The effect
of this alteration would be to inflict upon England
the burden of maintaining all the paupers of Ire-
land, as it would be cheaper to remove them to the
English Unions than maintain them in their own
country. This evident injustice to England natu-
rally excited a strong feeling of opposition, and the
consequence was that on Tuesday last, when the
adjourned debate on the Bill was resumed, the
Ministers were outvoted by a considerable majority,
and the Bill was virtually lost. Mr. BAINES, very
properly, was indignant at the labour which he had
devoted to a really beneficial improvement being
thus literally thrown away, and at once resigned
his office. It matters little how plausible was the
explanation with which Lord PALMERSTON glossed
over his share in the unhandsome transaction : the
public must feel that the President of the
Poor-law Board has been very scurvily treated,
notwithstanding he was the only member of the
Ministry who had a character for honour and con-
sistency, though it was lamentable to see him in
such bad company. The loss, however, was too
great for a tottering Ministry to bear ; and the
PREMIER again stepped in to perform the same kind
office which he did when Lord JOHN RUSSELL
offended his Irish colleagues by his paroxysm of
Protestantism. Mr. BAINES had too much regard
for the interests of his party to persevere in his
determination, and has consented to postpone his
resignation until a more convenient period, when,
perhaps, his example will be more generally followed.
It was boasted that the combination included
" all the talents," but all their schemes have proved
wretched failures. The PREMIER coquetted with
Russia till he was more than suspected of compli-
city ; Mr. GLADSTONE'S financial scheme has been
a signal defeat ; Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S Reform
Bill is shelved ; the Poor-law Bill is gone ; and
the only measure by which the Ministers have to
prove their administrative skill is their Bill for
thi-owing open the coasting trade to foreign vessels,
which, it appears, no one thought it worth while
to oppose.