10 MARCH 1832, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

- • PEERS!

Tun question, of a creation of Peers has been keenly and ably agitated during the week; by the leading Morning and Evening.

Journals, the Times and the Globe. The former, as it has un- ceasingly, done, calls aloud for, prompt and vigorous. measures. It blames Earl GREY'S vacillation, or what it designates as such; it catitroverts his arguments, Or those which are 'understood to be his; rouses his feelings, and calls on him, if he have not sufficient firmness to steer. the .vesiel through the waves which his policy has raised, to resign...the helm to a less scrupulous and more re- solute pilot. - The attack of the Times is fierce, but the motives to it are such as Lord GREY can bardly blame, for they obviously spring. out of an ardent attachtrient to the Great Measure, which now .toeclres -on the crisis- of its fate. The wounds which the Times inflicts are sharp and deep, but they are, the wounds of a friend, and their purpose is healing. The Globe defends Lord GREY, where he needs no defence—on the score of character. No one has ever dreamed of impugning it. It would indeed be hard, if -forty years of upright conduct had not sufficed, even in a world that thinketh much evil, to place the patriot Earl's sincerity above suspicion. It is not because the Times doubts Earl GREY'S honour, but because it doubts the means he may possess hereafter, that it criticises and even blames his pre- sent conduct. We, have a right to be earnest, even officiously ear- nest, on. such e question ; .and we should very much doubt the attachment of that professed friend to the sacred cause of Reform who was not so. What is the Premier's critical position?

The Bill wililn read a second time, we are told—by whose

sufferance ? Ey the sufferance of those who accompany their pledge of fothearance with the declaration, that, once in Com- mittee, they will use every endeavour to deprive it of every thing that renders it valuable, or tends to give it acceptance with the great mass of the people. They will reject the Metropolitan dis- tricts, and they Will 'cut off .twenty members from Schedules C and I), for the 'Purpose of restoring the thirty insignificant bo- roughs of Schedule-B to their primitive honours. Nor is this all : they will limit the franchise in the large towns, where alone it' has a prospect .ef, being independently exercised; and they will extend it in small towns, Where it is necessarily subject to aristo- erotic, influence. In a word, they will not reform:1 existing abuses, but they Will change the distribution of them, with a view to their perpetuiti.,This-is, not newspaper gossip. Two bills, of which these are the heads, are in print; and this is the cheat for efficient Reform ! f The:noble- Preinier is said-toifdar the censure of posterity if he proceed to -put down the attempts' of the Ultras and Moderates by irviOlenf'• Means. Dies- Lord -GREY • feel doubtful as to the value of Reform, that he would seek to fortify his attachment telt by authority? -In that case, the right plan would have been, never toenter upon it If he was not prepared to go every length. that the la* and. the constitution allowed, in order to carry' the Bill, beiMr. for himself, aid infinitely better for the country, that

he had never introduced it. • • • . .

Our constitution has been praised, and sometimes -with truth, for its power of adaptation to varying circumstances. The pro- vision by which a collision between the two Houses of Parliament

is presented, by the interposition of the moderating power of the prerogative, is an instance in point : but to what purpose was that provision made, if it is never to be enforced? Is the propriety of preserving the balance between the two Houses a new doctrine ?

Above all, is it a new doctrine to Earl GREY ? .

But we are assured that his objection is one of time.merely- that if any injurious amendment be ,carried in committee, Lord GREY will create Peers sufficient to defeat it in bringing up the report. The noble Earl will not create a few Peers to insure the principle of the Bill and its details also from open enemies, and still more from false friends ; but he will risk the creation of a great many in order to rescue its details from mutila- tion! Now, here is precisely the point on which we are disposed to. join the Times in calling on Lord GREY to reconsider his resolution. flull he be able to .create a hundred Peers for the purpose of saying the details of the Bill ? Will those who are busy at work undermining his power, in the House and out of the House, not have an infinitely stronger argument for preventing the creation then than -they -have now? Is not Earl GREY, by way of. escaping one difficult, running with his eyes open (or shut) into a difficulty_ that is much more formidable? We believe it is perfectly certain that the Premier has at present un- lit-lifted power to create Peers: we believe it will be admitted by every one, whether Whig or Tory, that by creating Peers just now, the passing of the Bill may be placed beyond the shadow of a risk. But it is not admitted by any one, that if Peers be not now created, Earl GREY will retain the power he now possesses, or that, retaining it, he will be allowed to exercise it. Putting aside the intrignes at the Palace, the coldness of some friends and the-ill-dissembled hostility of others, is it certain :that, even within the saeredpele of the Cabinet itself, Lord GREY, if he delay the crea- tion; May net' find such an opposition as all his authority. will not be able to put down?

.

We aretold that it is easy for those who 'are not reaponsible, or awake to Ministerial tactics and party intrigue, to give ad- vice; and we are reminded that the information of the noble Earl is more particular and accurate than -ours—that he better knows the circumstances of his position, and how to defend it. True it is that Lord GREY knows the interior of his own camp,— that he is commander in chief and absolute in discretion. But is - Loyd GREY the sole judge of a crisis thus awful to. his Cabinet and the People ? Are not the Public—standing afar off from parties— acute and intensely interested spectators of "the changes of the scene now passing before them ? Have not . ministers of state often fallen from ignorance or contempt of public opinion? Sure we are, that many men of the highest judgment and foresight have .uniformly urged a creation of Peers, and that ninny now do so whose prejudices were till lately averse to such a measure.

We admit the responsibility of the Minister to be great, but what is his responsibility compared with the wellbeing of five- and-twenty millions of people ? The whole business of. the country suffers from suspense : the weak are alarmed,' the wise are amazed, no man knows whither to turn him or what to put his hand to next. This state of doubt and of difficulty can only, be ended by the settlement of the Reform Bill ; and are We, when we point to the acknowledged moans of . bringing that settlement about—legally, and surely, and .speedily—to be met by an appeal from Common Setup to Ministerial Responsibility? What if that responsibility fail us.? What then? Will , the sufferings of the Nation receive relief from the. degradation of the. Cabinet? Will their fate—or ;their punishment—compensate us for the evils we have endured or the hopes we have lost.? . . We are- told, that if we are -dissatisfied. with Earl. GREY, We may seek for e successor to him—that lie is as willing to resign • - office as the People can be to drive him out. We believe Lord • GREY holds office cheap—too cheap ; but are we to be' told .that- . we wish to drive him out, when we implore him—by his love. for his . country--by his loyalty to his King—by that. sacred regard for his own honour, which through good report and bad rmit lie has -ever displayed—to adopt the only sure means power on a foundation which neither his repemies41#40. ever be able to shake? Are we hostile to his fanat*g***e vOke him to perfect -a work that will cause our childiOn;s,*1 to rise up and bless him, and maidens to sing his Qst,-;:j410. tuil songs, for centuries to come? - • i - It has been said that there is no precedent of 'such a creation of Peers as that for which the Nation cries out—that it is a coup .41 Hat—that it may lead, to fatal consequences—that every future Minister will imitate Lord Gasv's example, and, whenever a ques- tion occurs which the Peers hesitate to entertain, compel them, by an addition to their numbers, to yield to the wish of the Commons. We have long ago noticed and refuted these flimsy objections, but they are ever and anon reproduced. We grant that the creation spf forty or sixty Peers is a strong measure ; but we contend that it is a necessary measure, and that, whether taken now or hereafter —whether at once or gradually—taken it must be, if the House .of Lords and the House of Commons are meant to coexist. Under these circumstances, to speak of it as "an evil," as some who call themselves Reformers do, is an utter abuse of language. if to render the Upper House of Parliament conformable to the times and the men with which it is destined to act, be an evil, the Reform Bill is an evil; for to what purpose do -we seek to infuse into one branch of the Legislature the spirit of Abe nineteenth century, if the other branch is to remain under the influence of the spirit of the eighteenth? The Lords are in their feelings and sentiments far removed from the Commons even as at present constituted—how then could they act together if the Commons were reformed? If Lord GREY were, by a miracle (for ,a miracle it must be), to get the Reform Bill through the Lords vithout mutilation and without a creation of Peers, he must, the instant the Bill is through, adopt that very means which he now scruples to employ, otherwise the Bill, for all useful purposes, will be a mere dead letter. If Lord GREY be really desirous not to "swamp the Lords," as it is called,—but which we would term refornzing and strengthening the Lords,—if he prefer in respect of them what Lords HARROWBY and WHARNCLIFFE prefer in respect of the Commons, a Bit-by-bit Reform, then let him create Peers before the second reading. Twenty or thirty then may do the business; for it will put down the opposition which would other- -wise be encouraged to attack the Bill, in the hope of being per- mitted to do so with impunity. If he wish to " swamp " the Lords, he has only to wait until the bringing up of the report, for in that case he must create a hundred—if he can.

One word more : the utmost objection to an instant creation is, that it is not instantly called for—even granting this, what harm will it do?