THE QUEEN OF THE WHIGS.
FALSTAFF " misused the King's press damnably," but not a whit worse than the Whigs are now misusing the Queen's name. 11 we are to believe the Downing Street journalists, before her Majesty has been well seated on the throne, she has begun to influence the elections of the People's Representatives. Accord• ing to one of these libellers of the Queen, Sir Jowl' ELLEY has been turned out of 'Windsor by an almost direct exertion of the Royal authority- " We have to announce that Sir John Elley retires, already defeated, from contesting Windsor. This is an immense advantage for the Reformers, beau* it is a decided proof that the patronage of the Court is no longer doubtful. anti that it cannot be alleged that it will be directed against them. Sir Jolla Elley is, in other points, a very respectable man, but he is unfortunately wag in his politics. He has allied himself with the Tories, and opposed those reforms which have saved the country; and Sir John is now ejected free Windsor. During the last week, he paid a visit to the borough ; and there he was distinctly informed, that the persons on whose votes he relied would decline to support him. All the tradesmen who serve the Castle, being good Reformers, told him they meant to. vote for his opponent. On getting this :Valuation, Sir John knew that his cause was hopeless, and he at once made up his mind to retire; telling his former constituents that he would spend no money among them. This is our first, and it is a most important victory."
Excellent Reformers, indeed, are these Windsor shopkeepers " who servo the Castle!" A very creditable victory for a" Re- form" Ministry to commence with! Now, though it is fair that the rotten borough of Windsor should go with the Ministry of the day, the less said of a triumph gained by such means, the more decorous, we should think. But, like Organic Reform, purity of'
election has become unfashionable ; trafficking in boroughs is once more the order of the day ; and " the Court is with us" is now the rally-cry of the Whigs, heartily tired of " vigilant po- pular control." Well, vogue la galiwe ! By and by we shall see the port to which our rulers are steering : we think we see it dimly now. Our exulting contemporary enlarges on the consequences of Sir JOHN ELLEY'S retreat from Windsor. Truly he is resolved to make the most of it- " The Queen and the Court are now withal, the People; and our Sovereign is no longer to be regarded under the Tory aspect as the chief of a narrow sect, or the head of one selfish party. She shows herself to be the Queen of a great and united people, protecting the Established religion, but securing the free and untaxed exercise of every other—guarding the Protestants, but not allow.
lug the Catholics to be insulted—honouring the Churchmen, but not scorning aiol trampling on the Dissenters—proud of her English and Scotch subjects, but not hating and oppressing the Irish defenders of her Throne—faithful in that form of Christianity in which site has been brought up, but not unchari.. tably denying to those who have not the advantage to be born members of the Church of England, all religion, honour, and honesty."
Very good : but suppose Sir Joust ELLEY had not been met in his canvass by courtly influence,—suppose the " tradesmen who serve the Castle" had been allowed to vote as freely as if the suffrage were secret,—would the Queen have been obnoxious to the charge of trampling on Dissenters, oppressing the Irish, and leaguing herself with a faction ? Was the late King WILLIAM, whom these very Whigs have just been lauding as the paragon of princes, the opposite of what Queen VICTORIA has, we are told, now proved herself to be ?
We must come to the rescue of the Queen from the attacks of her libellers,—for such, in good truth we hold those to be who
impute so directly to her Majesty that interference with the Windsor election which has ejected Sir JOHN ELLEY. Is it
decent that the young Queen should be made responsible for the eager subserviency of' the despicable Windsor voters ? Were it true (but it is incredible) that the Queen has been implicated in this electioneering job, surely her real friends would keep her
illegal interference sub rosl, instead of proclaiming it to the world with exultation. But the fact is, that the Whigs are too full of joy and triumph at the novelty of their success at Court, to think of any thing else. Practices are most praiseworthy in their behalf which were scandalous when Tories benefited by them. When acting in concert with the Tories, the Sovereign is the tool of a faction : ally him or her with the Whigs, and lo ! the Court is with " a great and united people!" Recollect, that of the two Lotions, the Tory is five or six times as numerous as that of the mere Whigs ; and then estimate the modesty of those gentlemen who describe conversion from Toryism to Whiggery as equivalent to the abandonment of a party for the People ! The Lord help her Majesty, if she had only Whigs to lean upon. Far be it from us to wish any change at Court. We are glad that the Queen supports Lord MELBOURNE ; and only wish that his followers would practise a little delicacy and decency in the use of her Majesty's name, instead of connecting it ostentatiously with a discreditable election proceeding. We rejoice that the Premier has now the power to carry his entire measures—that lie is strip- ped of every pretence for cutting them down to Tory dimensions. We hope that, for some time at least, lie may bask in Court favour ; and that the Dutchess of NORTHUMBERLAND, with in- sin. uating Toryism, prompted by her shrewd and plausible brother, will have leave to absent herself from the Buckingham swamp, and cease to alarm the souls of Whig statesmen with her elegant apparition in the woods of Windsor. We wish, in short, that the sincerity of Ministers should be fully and fairly put to the proof; and that it should be manifested how much of the late obstruction to the improvement of our institutions has been really owing to the Tories. The Whigs say that they have the ball at their feet ; we wait to see in what direction, and how far they will kick it.
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