15 SEPTEMBER 1838, Page 1

To a numerous meeting of Sheffield Liberals, Mr. WARD has

been descanting on the performances of the last session, the conduct of Ministers, and the future prospects of Reformers. Mr. WARD displayed characteristic frankness, and the popular tact for which he is also distinguished, in addressing his consti- tuents. With an evident inclination to use Ministers tenderly, he could not abstain from describing them as a set of faithless, shuffling, cowardly charlatans, ready to submit to any degree of political infamy for the sake of place. We do not mean that the courteous Member for Sheffield applied these epithets—the ipsissi- ma rerba; but his searching record of their acts exhibited them in this despicable light. On one point of their conduct, indeed, Mr. WARD did not mince his language: their abandonment of the "Appropriation" he stigmatized as the " grossest poli- tical tergiversation." Very clearly did Mr. WARD instruct his bearers on the relative position of Lord Joule RUSSELL and the largest section of his Liberal supporters. He proved that Lord JOHN, like the Tories and Lord STANLEY, had taken his stand on the finality of the Reform Bill, and in opposi- tion, more especially, to the Ballot. He stated, that when the majnrity of the Whigs joined the Radicals in voting for the Ballot, Lord JOHN RUSSELL sent in his resignation—" for twelve hours he was out." To be sure, he was soon persuaded to resume his place, and stomach the affront : but it is to be noted that he trent out of office against the Ballot. Inability to carry the Appropriation, deeply pledged as he is to carry it, affects him not; but refusal to support him in opposition to the Ballot, he consi- deyed as a far more serious matter. He is in office, not on the Principle of Appropriation, or of Corporation Reform, but as an Opponent of the Ballot. Ilow Mr. WARD could possibly "hope" that next session" Lord JOHN RUSSELL may "find it neces- sary to retract his speeches and acts of hostility, is very strange ; for all the subsequent course of the angry lord has been in the same Conservative direction. But to encourage such a "hope," is wor. se. than an error of judgment in Mr. WARD. So far as this opinion is believed, he is holding out a hope which can never be fulfilled—fostering a delusion that must end in disappointment. We feel the difficulties in which the more honest leaders of the Moderate Radicals have become involved—unwilling to support the Ministers—scarcely able to lay a plan with an imnioliata purpose for themselves. But difficulties are never le,sened by attempting to escape from them. The right course is to tell the truth—that the Liberal cause will not have fair elev, or any gain accrue to it, until the present anomalous relations of the Liberal party to the Ministry shall have been brought to an end.

Mr. WARD, indeed, seems to think that an independent party may be brought together in Parliament next session—inen who woulti not join in a Tory vote of want of confidence for the purpose of turn- ing out the Ministers, but who would pursue their own course, regardless of the wishes or the fate of the Government. Such a body, acting consistently and resolutely on the rule of " rsea- sures and principles, without regard to men," might, though not numerous, render some service to the country : be degrees they would acquire influence sufficient to keep any Government in check, and occasionally force it to pass good measures. It may certainly be doubted whether the materials for such a com- bination exist in the present House of Commons ; where so large a proportion of the professing Liberals are really little better than self-seeking jobbers, or timid toadies of the Whig grandees, who sway the clubs and purchase votes with invitation-cards. Still, however few in number such a body might be at first, they would form the nucleus of a future Opposition, against the time when the present miserable condition of parties had terminated, whether the Tories continued the MELBOURNE Parliament for a time, or immediately had recourse to n dissolution. It is to be observed that Mr. WARD'S flagellation of Ministers was exceedingly well received by the Liberal constituency of Sheffield—by the same men who at the last election returned the Moderate Mr. PARKER, a Lord of the Treasury. Yet nothing has appeared in our pages, even when the cause fte just indigna- tion was strongest, of more depreciatory accusation than the sanguine and courteous Mr. WARD preferred against his Whig friends. The only dissatisfaction he encountevel arts from a body of Universal Suffrage men, who theogio. '',r , ,-tti short of the mark. Nobody ventured to say a ivi::, or apology for Lord MELBOURNE or Lori JOHN RUSSELL. ,