16 JANUARY 1841, Page 12

WHIG PRINCIPLES.

°Transit than once we have had occasion to observe, that Whig principles, always sufficiently vague, had become, since the pre- sent Alinisters got into office, altogether inexplicable. The only means of finding out what they are, is to record from time to time Whig declarations of principle ; with a view, by putting that and that together, to arrive at an approximate conjecture at what they may be. This week we commence the task with some pithy sen- timents collected from the report of a dinner given to the Lord Advocate at Leith.: The Chairman, in his prefatory speech to the toast of the evening, frankly declared—" It was a most important thing to have a friend at court, (Laughter) ; and so long as they required to be indebted to Government, he hoped they would always have as their repre- sentative a gentleman connected with Government. (Laughter and .applause.)" As it is stated that this speech was received with ." nine times nine and tremendous cheering," we suppose the prin- ciple of action stated in this quotation must occupy a prominent place in the political creed of modern Whigs.

TheLord-Advocate ("faithful ANDREW" himself) expressed what perhaps may more properly be called a Whig rule of action than a Whig principle. Adverting to the recent municipal election in Edinburgh, he said—" There is one declaration made by him who succeeded in that contest, of which I entirely disapprove. It was, that a Dissenter should not occupy the civic chair at this particular -time ; that there were times when Dissenters could not hold that office." Well, the election turned upon that question : the Lord Advocate lays no improper principle to the charge of the candidate who stood up for the rights of the Dissenters : how did his Lord- ship act ? " Now, when it is over, allow me to say that I think there have been faults on both sides. The contest was begun and carried on in circumstances of great personal excitement and acrimony, which are never well inlisted in any cause." In short, "applica- tion was made to me by gentlemen of station and influence on both sides, but I declined to take any share in the matter, or to sanction or approve the efforts of either party." In other words—one party was clearly in the wrong, but both were angry, and therefore I sided with neither. The declaration is characteristic of the gentleman who allowed himself to be made Lord-Advocate and sent to Parliament to get " Our Bill," as Lord CIINNINOHAME fondly called it, passed into a law. But it is also eminently Whiggish. The Tories are wrong, but both the Tories and the People are animated by "great personal excitement and acrimony," therefore we ." decline to sanction or approve of the efforts of either party," has been the language of the Whigs until the People have got sick of them. It scarcely belongs to our present subject, and yet it was so -cleverly managed that we cannot forbear to notice Mr. Fox Maniat's happy hit as the practical joker of the evening. He told the com- pany, with a grave face—" The Whig Ministry had come into office on three principles ; those of advancing Reform, of maintain- ing Peace, and of practising Economy. These ends they had steadily followed out, and they had succeeded." And the company " enthu- siastically applauded" the assertion, so true and so well-timed!