NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Ministerial prospects have brightened up a little (luring the week. Mr. ABERCROMBY has consented to join the Cabinet, as Master of the Mint; and Mr. SPRING RICE, after an arduous con- flict, has regained his seat for Cambridge.
Of Mr. ABERCROMBY, up to the present time, but one opinion seems to prevail, out of the Conservative ranks. He possesses an unblemished reputation for political integrity ; and his recent votes and professions have been so decidedly Liberal, that it is difficult to believe he would have joined the present Cabinet, unless on the distinct understanding that their miserable trimming poliny should be abandoned, and practical measures of reformation and improve- ment become the order of the day. Mr.ABERCROMIlY is not only liberal and honest, but has the character of being also sagacious and resolute. Such a man ought to exercise considerable influ- ence on the indecisive and timid spirits who, with scarcely an ex- ception, compose the GREY Administration. But he is only one among a number; and it would be over-sanguine to expect that his single voice should be sufficient to liberalize the whole Cabi- net. The experiment Mr. ABERCROMBY is about to make is hazardous to his fame. The Ministry gains at least a temporary popularity by his accession; but unless they are prepared really to act in conformity with "the spirit of the age," their new ally will not long preserve his character among them untarnished. We shall continue, as heretofore, to judge of Mr. ABERCROMBY by his public conduct; but he must recollect that his reputation is now in some measure at the mercy of men who have been little careful of their own ; and that he will be held answerable not only for his individual acts, but for the collective deeds of' the Cabinet—of that Cabinet whose measures he has heretofore found it necessary so often to oppose, and so recently to protest against. Till lately, it has been usual with the Conservative journals to speak favourably of Mr. SPRING RICE, and to laud his presumed or imputed attachment to the Church. If Mr. RICE ever imagined that the hostility of the High Church party to the Reformers was mitigated in his especial favour, the circum- stances attending his new election must have undeceived him. The Opposition of the Church and the University has been bitter and active almost beyond precedent; and the Colonial Secretary must take his seat in the House and at the Council-board with the full conviction, that the system of conciliation adopted by the Whigs towards their Anti-Reform antagonists, has miserably failed of its intended result. Viewed in this light, the Cambridge election may be deemed of use. It affords still another specimen of the return which Ministers may expect from the Tories, for all the favours which they have heaped upon them since they came into office. The crouching, interested kindness of the Whigs, is repaid by fierce opposition and bitter scorn.
