New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-05-21
ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM IN BRITAIN.

UnWonted materials for the Historian are Just
now accommodating in Great Britain. The House
of Commons is keeping Carnival and is gay, full
Of miIth and frclic beyond precedent The
traveller visiting London hardly knows the Lon
doncr again so serious has he become, but the
septuagenaran Premier is playing the part of
Clown on the Treasury Bench aud is said o be
ready to sing the comic ditty of " Hot COdlings"
on the first request. John Bull is talking Of
other things now than the eternal topics of the
weather and his wiie's health. Throughout all
Britain delberation on the state Of the Nation
is being held-except in one place, and that place
is Parliament. A Navy Officer proposes to con-
slider the system of promotion in the Navy an
Indian ex-Judge proposes TO amalgamate the
British and Indian armies; but the House OF
Commons does not want to be bored, so there
is a "count out" that evening which indicates
that less than forty members were in attend
ance.
But is Lord PalmerstOn never seriousl he
has been very serious on two occasions, ana on
two only; they were when he defended the
AristOcracy against vulgar defamation" and
pronounced Lord IIardinge, the Comnander-ln-
I
Commons never attentive, never zealousi Yes,
when it is crushing Layard beneath an ava
lanche of insults, yells, groans and Kisses. II
is said that the oaken roof of It. Stephens rang
with the cheers that few nights ago bounded
on the Tory Colonels against that devoted Re-
former. On that occasion alone the House was
not empty, and then ii perpetrated one of those
hill Of u u pdU-
cation of the British Gentry well fits them
10 indulge in. Although hilarity is contagious
the instincts of our moral nature revolt at this
spectaele, and We gladly drop the curtain upon
the unseemly prsnks of the House OF Commons
and turn 10 the movements of the People.
When Lord Palmerston became Premier the
popular cry was for Army Reformi it is now
changed into the deeper one of Administrative
reform in all the Departments of state
These simple words mean no less than a revolt
ZION. The middle class were admitted within
the electoral pale Of the Constitution st the
period Of the Reform bill, and the present de-
rssnd for Executive Reform seeks 70 admit them
within irs administrative pale. This movement
i, in the right direction and in harmony with the
laws 81 -'Atfl H'fsi~ib''hN " 'A''' WY
entering upon the stage OF public life does not
N once attain the full measure of sef-govern-
ment In obtsns first of all the liberty of
eleeting tia magistrates from the class above il,
and from that marches on to the acquisition of
executive control and Official rank for itself.
There is further no doubt that the same moment
which witnesses the admission Of the middle
class TO high public Office will also admit the
working class TO the elective franchise.
But while We acknowledge the philosophic
precision and completeness of the demand the
means for carrying it out appear to Us as
yet not in being. The public mind of England
is still unprepared for the changes that such
sweeping reform will necessitate. tits nothing to
refer to the agitation for Catholic Emancipation,
for the repeal of the Corn Laws and for the Re-
form of Parlisment. In the two 6rst instances the