TOPICS OF THE DAY' --,
HOW THE RUSSELL MINISTRY, IS PRESE,R*ED. Iti has been :hitherto :Crannied, inifStiVirieituitiaes bf ihe state of party polities, ths`t the motives .olneh'i idicOrgNi' parties in care- folly preservingthe'iniserable statuT q4;iiiO'cilf?kether of a pa- bid/id nature: we haise. taken'lif 'granted that the Ministerial party, and the various sections of mere' fault-finding Opposition, beliese the present state Of parties to be the best that actual cir- cematances permit i that in the Sincere opinion of all the parties, any' change which is now possible would be an alteration for the worse as respects' the public interests. But on examining this creed a little more closely, we may perhaps discover that it is at least accompanied by motives of conduct not altogether patriotic : we may perceive-that the leaders of parties are, even though un- conscrously, under the influence, to some extent, of a selfishness the very reverse of public-spirited inducement. The faith in question is based on certain suppositions : that the present Ministry is not merely the best possible, but the only possible one ; that if the Russell party retired from office, no other party, could take its place.; that if Lord John resigned, nobody could 'Succeed him ; and that the least, evil consequence of voting him off the Treasury-bench would be a week's hubbub,' at the end of which he must resume ,his official seat—the worst, wigl consequence being a state a anarchy occasioned by the re- fusal of his party, as well as of all the others, to form a Govern- ment. And in 1846 these suppositions were unquestionably true. They were true 'then, because at that time, neither the House of Coidnions nor the country Would • have Supported any Govern- ment but the one which was then formed. Universal opinion, and the leaders of parties in obedience to it, were then so disposed, though from a variety of considerations and motives, that any other than the Russell Ministry was then really impossible. At that time accordingly, all parties concurred in supporting the Russell Ministry ; which therefore obtained the fullest of fair trials until the end of 1847. Throughout 1848, although, when Parliament met, general opinion had 'condemned the Russell Ministry as incapable of satisfying, the legislative wants of these islands and the empire, yet' the outbreak of revolution on the Continent, and its effects in this country, made the Russell Minis- try as strong as if it had enjoyed the admiration and confidence of the nation : reasonable apprehensions induced all reasonable men to deprecate whatever could in the least weaken the hands of the Executive as the preserver of order : the Russell Ministry might have done ill to almost any extent, without suffering im- mediately from its incapacity to do good : the resolve of the na- tion was, that without regard either to the past or the future— with regard solely to the present—there should be no change just then. Down to the close, therefore, of last year—in 1846 and 1847 on the fair-trial principle, in 1848 on the principle of "strength- ening the hands of Government" independently of all other considerations—the Russell Ministry was really a necessity. But the case is now -greatly altered. Never before perhaps was the United Kingdom more completely exempt from immediate risk or chance of revolutionary troubles. The nation, conscious that revolutionary troubles have been prevented by its own love of peace and order, and that our present tranquillity rests on the sure present basis of national opinion, has undisturbed opportunity of looking to thespast and the future. It looks back, and per- ceives that the fairest possible trial of the Russell Ministry has proved their incompetency : it looks forward, and sees that the incompetency of.the Government, .by withholding from the United Kingdom and the empire a satisfaction of their manifold legisla- tive wants, is laying the foundation of dangers in the prospect-, which are not the less fearful because they are as yet but vaguely seen. The Russell Ministry is no longer deemed conservative : its incompetency for accomplishing present and future national objects of great moment is generally admitted : its retirement, if there were a chance of its being succeeded by a competent Minis- try, would be viewed with general favour; whilst the difficulty of forming a competent Ministry is seen to be increasing in one re- spect., by the inaction and going to rust of the most statesmanlike men of all parties. The Russell Ministry is not sustained now by public opinion. By what, then, is it sustained ? It is just kept in existence indeed, but abused, tormented, and thwarted by an Opposition of skirmishers, whom the leaders of parties out of office can no longer restrain from evincing contempt and
towards the Government; and its mere existence is alone pre- served by the leaders of these parties, who are still unwilling to render the Treasury-benches vacant. It is in the motives of these leaders for still preserving the Russell Ministry after the country has become sick of it, and would gladly see its place taken'by a better, that we discover the main cause of the present wretched state oithings.
Lord Stanley preserved the Ministry the other day, by abstain- ing to carry by a vote his amendment on the Address, which he had supported by a speech- vituperative of the Ministry and calcu- lated to damage them in public estimation. Lord Stanley might, if he bad pleased, have been "sent for" at the commencement of the session. But Lord Stanley is far from wishing to take the place of Lord John Russell. He dislikes such labour and trouble, still more such responsibility, as, in any but the present state of things belong to the office of Prime Minister. He enjoys speak- ing,' because he excels in it, and above all attacking, because it is his forte. Considering the peculiarities of his tastes and talents, hitS present, ositipn must be very agreeable to him, and could no tie improved by any change. '.4 brilliant.ePeechtniaker, without. a rival in the arts of Psrliamentary, debate and 'criticism, a lover of ease and,gayet3r, and og,society,itylaich he ornaments and ex- hilarates, yet w itb. just enqugh ambition to:enjoy prominence and consequence unaccompanied by the toil anti anxieties of power, Lord Stanley is just now , "in clover." Make ItAchange of any sort, and hay or mere straw miglit be his portion. The indivi- dual Lord Stanley is deeply concerned in preserving the Russell Ministry ; but his interest in its protracted and _Miserable exist-. ence is not of the patriotic, kind : his motives as a conservative of the status quo are some way from being quite unselfish. They may at least be termed individual motives. But Lord' Stanley has followers or adherents who haves no per- sonal interest in maintaining the present discreditable state of things. What induces men pf such marked ability, as Mr. Dis- raeli and Mr. Stafford—others might be named in the Protectionist ranks who are very capable of shining and doing good in a different state of things—to help in preserving the present Minis- try, by keeping clear of a vote in the House of Commons that would compel them to retire? Their inducement is no secret. They do not wish to keep the Whigs in, but to keep the Peelitea out. Revenge and spite are still the principle of their. party. Their motive is not selfish or individual, like that which has been attributed to their leader,, but it is preeminently factious and therefore unpatriotic. It seems right to add, -however, that the motive of spite against the Peelites, which induced the Protec- tionists to establish the Russell Ministry, is-naturally wearing out by the action of time. But the Ministry themselves stick to office with admirable per- tinacity. If Lord Stanley for his own sake, and his .adherents from motives of wounded pride and a not unnatural revenge, take care to keep Lord John Russell on the Treasury-bench, he him- self takes great care to remain upon it. The sense of feebleness, the consciousness of inaction, the necessity. of being without a de- finite and comprehensive policy on any stibject for any part of the empire,—all this is borne rather than risk such defeat in the House of Commons as would compel resignation, ,What can be the motive here ? It is not, let us believe,-that love of place which the vulgar attribute to all public men, and often very erroneously. Probably it is rather the conviction which the ." governing fami- lies" of the old Whig party still hold, that the possession of power by themselves is only consistent with the order of nature, and that there is no state of things so bad for the country as that in which they are out of office. This motive is not wholly unpatriotic.; but it is a delusion which Lord Stanley or Sir Robert Peel could prove to be so by holding up his finger. And now we come, lastly, to the comfortable arbiter of the fate of parties. As Lord Stanley and his adherents formed, so Sir Robert Peel alone preserves the Russell Ministry whenever some great danger threatens them notwithstanding Lord Stanley's dread of office and Protectionist spite against.the. Peeliies- Sir Robert Peel belongs to no party, not even to that which bears his name'. He stands alone. He neither consults. nor is con- sulted. He has a course of his own: as he said in the debate on Mr. Baillie's motion about Ceylon, he " likes,neither the, mo- tion nor the amendment," but something different from either; which, however, will not suit him unless it have. the quality of tending to preserve the Russell Ministry. The. feeble, ineom petent, contemned Russell Ministry, is Sir Robert-Peel's comfort and glory. Sir Robert Peel has done with office. Being out of office—being resolved never again to incur the toil and responsi- bilities of office, such as office brings to a statesman of Sir Robert Peel's character and yet relishing public life as no man ever did more keenly, whilst he is far. from being dead to the charms of distinction and power—he enjoys, by always preserving and some- times lecturing the Russell Ministry, the proudest position in the country. It is also the most comfortable position for him.: for he exercises power without labour or care; his influence is un- bounded, his responsibility nil: he is the first man in 'the British empire, and one of the happiest picture-fanciers and parish- improvers in the world. All this he is because the Russell Minis- try is kept on its Treasury-bench. Is his every motive for keep- ing it there altogether patriotic ?
The adherents or so-called followers of Sir Robert Peel— namely, Mr. Cardwell, Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Sidney Herbert, and Sir James Graham—where be they? Nowhere. It were idle to inquire into the motives of men who, however capable of states- manship some time ago, seem paralysed now by the personal po- licy of their former leader, and whom the public is therefore for- getting. From this list we omit the name of Lord Lincoln, but only because in the Irish debate of the 6th instant he took a line at once independent and businesslike.
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