TOPICS OF THE DAY.
HOW TO STRENGTHEN A GOVERNMENT.
WHEN the MaxmouaNE Ministry returned to office on the strength of Court favour and a majority of' two in the House of Commons, the very hangers-on of the Treasury could not but see the ab- surdity of their attempting to carry on the Government on their former system and with their former materials. We were ac- cordingly assured by every one of the usual go-betweens of the Liberal party, that Lord MEenocawn was fully aware of the de- ficiencies of his Administration—determined to turn over a new leaf, andpursue a definite and vigorous Liberal policy—and still more determined on associating with himself in the Government some men whom the mass of Refbriners regard as sympathizing with their objects and competent to carry their views into effect. We were
assured by the Government press, by the Liberal-talking under- hugs in office, and by those independent Liberals whom Lord MELBOURNE always uses as the most efficient procurers of his Ministry, that the Whigs were weary of the utter infamy of holding office on Tory sufferance ; that they would no longer foment the divisions of the Liberal party for the purpose of mo-
nopolizing office ; and that when the close of the session should afford them a little breathing-time, they would so strengthen their Go- vernment with persons as to afford sonie assurance of the carrying out of better principles. We ourselves much doubted these fine pro- mises; and for such doubt we were reproached an a held guilty of an ungenerous incredulity as unsound as that of St. Thomas. The rumours circulated during the intervening period strengthened our conviction, that though there might be a change, it would be such a change as would give no strength to the Ministry or the Liberal party. At length these rumours assumed a definite shape in the columns of the Morning Chronicle, which on Monday last sur- prised the great uninitiated public of this country with the intelli- gence contained in the following lines— Time following changes are confidently spoken of as likely to take place at the close of the session. Mr. Poulett Thomson, the President of the Board of Trade, to be appointed Governor-General of Canada. Mr. Spring Rice to be called to the house of Peers ; and to be succeeded, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, by Mr. Francis Baring. Air. Charles Wood to quit the Secretary- ship of the Admiralty, for a higher appointment ; and to be succeeded by Mr. E. 3. Stanley, Secretary of the Treasury."
This was contradicted by the Ministerial evening papers ; but in
so loose and general a manner as rather to confirm than weaken belief in the Chronicle's statement. Indeed, any person at all ac- quainted with the talk of the Clubs or the two Houses, knows very well that these rumours have for some weeks been circulating among the best-informed : and though, of course, the rumours were at first suggestions, we have very little doubt that the Government had re- solved to make some shuffle of the cards ; nor do we feel a great doubt that it will yet be made.
And this is what it all comes to! This is strengthening the Government ! Why, these are not changes it men, but changes among the men in office—mere private arrangements of comfort and convenience among the cliques. No strength is added, no fresh talent or popularity is infused into the Administration : and you might suppose that Lord MELBOURNE had, after seriously thinking over edt the ID atcrials of the Liberal party, made up his mind that an abler set of men could not by any possibility be found in the country, and that the cause of any little difficulties now existing is to be looked tbr in the mimoplication, not the thficiency of their talents. Thus, he has probably dieovered that the great fancy of Rica is wasted on the dull details of finance and the no longer gullible minds of the mercantile Inaly, and that his proper mis- sion is to out-talk Buouonv NI in the Lords. The original genius, the varied infbrmation, and the powerful eloquence of' Fanivcis BARING, point him out as the Atlas to sustain the trials of a defi- cient revenue and increased taxation. This offends the aspiring TuomsoN, who, fraught with the Whig notions of official promotion, thinks the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer the step to which Leis entitled as the nieed of his services at the Board of Trade. If that just promotion be refused him, he will quit the Government altogether : an arrangement which INIal.1“ )17 RN E (sagacious chief!) sees will be very good both for the Government and Tuomsos. For he has long 'lamented the narrow field on which the Thom- sonian mind displays its vast resources. Ile sees that in the Vigorous intellect, the intimate acquaintance with men, the persua- sive conversation, the commanding deportment, and the manners which so happily blend dignity and flisemation, are to be found the means of at once curing and conciliating rethetory provinces and aggressive sympathies. "Pow." therefore goes to Canada : and though his commission as Governor-General is not yet made out, it is whispered that the only difficulty lies in his elevation to the Peerage, and the selection of' a title sufficiently euplionous to fit the patronymic Tom-soN. Whether his succession is to be the lot of Mr. WOOD, who is simply marked out by the Chronicle for " something better," or whether ,Jr, LAnorenatiE is to fill the Presi- dency of the Board of Trade, has not transpired. Poor Mr. E. J. STANLEY is the only one who has a right to complain of the ar- rangement. He gets no promise of promotion, vague or distinct ; but is positively lowered to an office of no better pay and less im- portance than that which he now fills. And this we think very probable, because Mr. STANLEY, knowing nothing of the Admi- ralty, and understanding the management of the House of Com- mons better than almost any man in it, is upon every Whig notion of "official aptitude" a very fit man for the first, and the unfittest man in the world for the latter post. And we also attach the more credit to this statement, because it is reported that, on the same principle, Mr. LE MARCHANT is to succeed Mr. STANLEY.
We will not retail the other rumours of changes which are circulating, because all indicate a similar shuffle of the same dirty cards; and all mark the general belief, that whatever changes may be made, will be made with a view of satisfying, not the public, but the officials. It is a mere civil brevet,—RICE superannuated, or Glenelged, as the modern phraseology goes; THOMSON promoted off in the Colonies; BARING got two steps, and Wool) one ; and STANLEY exchanged to get rather easier duty. The only way in which the matter interests the public, is by its showing time Whig principles of appointment. Hitherto, a Government has looked to the whole body of its supporters as affording the materials of re- cruiting its strength; and when the unequivocal expression of public opinion has convinced a Prime Minister that his Cabinet did not command the confidence of his party because it did not repre- sent the various shades of opinion among his supporters—that it did not command the confidence of the country because its legis- lative measures and administrative policy were framed and conducted with insufficient energy, ability, and information— and that the result was, that such Government, from the ope- ration of such causes, was, like the present, utterly incompetent to rule the country in a crisis so serious as the present—he used to seek for the coiiperation, not of promoted underlings, but of those public men who had already acquired a position in po- lities, and could bring to a Government the aid of some mass of public opinion or Parliamentary support. But this Lord MEL- nov aNE is not allowed or not willing to do. The principle of his Government is, that the first who come into it are the first to be served by it ; and that when a high office is to be filled up, every underling will be aggrieved if it be filled up by any one heretofore independent of office. In fact, the principle of promotion is car- ried on from the Customs and Excise into Downing Street. And we should not object to the application of this principle in the pre- sent case, if some of time gentlemen who are now so strenuous for it had commenced their career as tidewaiters.
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