TOPICS OF THE DAY.
TEE NEW HOUSE—NOT YET FUitNLSHED.
IT might seem that the only stable thing amongst us just at pre- sent is the spirit of innovation. On the opening of the new Par- liament, it is not only new men that we have to deal with, having taken leave of old ones, but far more it is new ideas, old notions being left behind. The pity of it is, the new ideas are not yet come very distinctly to hand. Our new House is not yet furnished. What we are going to do in this coming session of legislative business not one of us can confidently pronounce; but there is a sort of general havoc amongst the old lumber,—as if the spirit of revolution, which Mr. Macaulay charges against the masses of the people in various countries, had seized not upon Mr. Macaulay's own friends alone, but also upon those further Conservatives who accuse Lord John of his " Democratic " destructiveness.
The session opens with a Speech from the Throne, the composi- tion of Conservative Ministers, which astonishingly displays the desire to "unsettle" everything,—commerce, law, finance, divers " social " relations, and other things ; and the unsettlement is the only idea that is vouchsafed to us, for the constructive part is not as yet made known. This is the Conservative Ministry which was to stand on the old ways, but is trotting along on the new ways as gayly, as the most Democratic Lord John.
The Church is meeting to watch over its own interests, and does nothing towards that end, except to aggravate the confusion which prevails amongst legislative men. What shall be done nobody can suggest. That we have given up the expectation of keeping the Church exactly as it has been, untouched, is the sole thing certain ; and the Royal Commission of inquiry into " Capitular institutions" may afford the speedy opportunity for raising the interminable issue.
" The Prince President," whom the Royal Speech recognizes, is a personage that we have already done with. The peace that the Royal Speech boasts survives in a form of words ; while the general tone of our own press, reacting on the idea of putting the national flag out of sight, has become warlike and full of claims to pre- pare for eventualities; the Times leading the way, with its usual sense of popular impressions. We have done with unquestioned peace, and the venerable Lansdowne cries " To arms! "
The Whig party is a name which we carry into the session ; but the most distinct definition of policy put forth by its leader is, that the times require English statesmen to adopt the " De- mocracy" and its development.. From " Finality,' a tradition which we are glad to forget, Lord John has passed through Perth, into the Parliament and the new tera.
In that pew sera and that new Parliament he meets " the Spirit of an Epoch," now Chancellor of the Exchequer ; who, in the sera just closed, was the Champion of Protection, but who henceforth de- mands to fight the legislative battle under the banner of " unre- stricted competition." Protection accepts Free-trade, in order to use it in retaliation : it is the Free-traders who are now challenged to stand on the defensive ; for " Protection of British Industry " is to set British industry against British industry.
The Ministerial campaign itself opens with an Asian mystifica- tion. Inexorably withheld for ten hours beyond the usual period, 'the Royal Speech receives no usual or uniform adumbration in the morning journals. The well-informed Times is at odds with the Ministerial Herald. Contests said to, be going on within the Cabinet would.leem to be represented by conflicts without ; and while the Herald gives the most moderated and tame version of
the Royal Speech, ascribed to the reactionary part of the Cabinet, the Times, venturing to anticipate a much more striking programme, hints that the genius of the Cabinet, the Spirit of an Epoch, is at issue with his colleagues of grosser mould; and suggests to Mr. Disraeli that he should break up the Conservative party, and sacri- fice thS Cabinet, which cannot lose him without destruction, while he will only lose an encumbrance. In the eyes of the most po- pular journal, the Cabinet for the time being is no more than a thing to be broken up. To break up Cabinets, to abandon party standards, to throw overboard old principles, to float along with the "Democracy," and to look out for squalls—these are the provisional ideas of the opening session.
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