NEWS OF THE WEEK.
their svaar- Sir RICHARD. VYVYAN, Sir ROBERT PEEL, Sir HENRY HARDINGE, Sir JAMES SCARLETT, and some others, will still grace the House, to show,. by specimen; what its ancient -composition was: but, alas ! what can leaders, however able, effect, where there is none to be led? The Tories bring their staff to the combat; and an army would hardly insure their victory. It is worth while to note the causes that have led to their admis- :sion where they have gained admission : they are the dregs of the -old corporate constituency, by which the otherwise wholesome cup -of Reform was allowed to be polluted, and the remnant of the -nomination boroughs, which the Ministers in their clemency were :pleased to spare. What are the remedies? Household suffrage, by which every man who has or claims to have a standing in the .conamunity will gain a vote; the ballot, by which every man may bestow his vote freely ; a new Schedule A, including nine-tenths of Schedule .B, and about a dozen of the tail of the unscheduled boroughs. The two first are essential, and must be had. The Reform Act, with all its defects, has worked admirably for -its makers ! Never was there a Parliament in which the Ministry were so -strong. The factions, honest and dishonest, have melted be- -fore them. They have hardly a Conservative to hold them back, :or an Ultra-Radical to push them on. They may do whatever they 'please. As they are strong, we trust they will be wise. If they mean to persevere in the right way,—of which, in some in- • stance's, their electioneering politics have given but indifferent *proof,—a career more glorious than even that which they have :hitherto run lies before them. If they stand still, or retrograde, a -reckoning so much the more severe awaits them. They who sin without excuse, must look to be punished without mercy.
