ACTUAL POSITION OF THE MINISTRY.

TILE 3forning Chronicle on Wednesday quoted with much lauda- tion a number of extracts from an article in the Scotsman, enti- tled the " Moral Position of the Ministry." It is a laboured de- fence of Earl GREY and his colleagues, and an attempt to prove that they have done all that circumstances would permit, to carry onward the work of Reform. Throughout the article, how- ever, it seems to be implied that they have not done much; for the tone is altogether apologetical ; and we arc given to understand that the Premier found and finds nearly as much difficulty in managing the Whig as the Tory ci-devant Boroughtuongers.

"Many negotiations (observes our Northern contemporary), of which the public knows nothing, must have been necessary to pave the way for the suc- cess of the Reform 13111. The Tories saw in the destruction of the boroughs the downfal of the system on which they had fattened. But the great Whig families also held burghs; and without their aid it was hopeless to attempt Re- form. Can we doubt that much persuasion must have been required before the tatter could be induced to make a voluntary sacrifice of what was held as pro- perty, had been purchased in many cases as such at an enormous cost, and con- ferred a privilege so flattering to ambition?"

And again— "No formal pledges were probably come under, but, as men of probity, Minis- ters must be anxious that the fruits of Hee Repent Bill should not Julie the promises of moderation they had held nut ; that it should not become the parent of measures, which, if announced at the outset, would have made those its ene- mies who were induced, by the advice and persuasion of Ministers, to become its friends, and to sacrifice power, property, family influence, and perhaps long- cherished opinions, to carry it through."

This is intended for a defence of the Ministerial reluctance to give the nation the fruits of Reform ; and the writer apparently is not aware that he is exhibiting Earl GREY in the most unfavourable colours. LordGREY held out, it seems, "promises of moderation ;" he told the Whig Lords, that Reform should not become the parent of certain "measures," &c. In other words, Earl GREY said to his brethren—" Of what advantage are your boroughs, seeing that the Tories, by means of theirs, still keep you in opposition ? let us annihilate them all; and then, a plentiful shower of preferment will fall upon our whole tribe : I'll take cue that no subsequent measures shall pass to the detriment of our brder." To the deluded public, on the other band, it was given out, that Reform was to be the means of good government—of enabling the Whigs to carry those further measures which for nearly half a century they had advocated in Opposition. And it should be remembered, that the measures which the Nation demands and which we advocate, are the same as those which for half a century the Whigs declared to be of essential importance to the good government of the country, though they now denounce them as Ultra-Radical. But the Mi- nisters have belied their former professions to the country, and have kept the " promises of moderation they held out " to the aris- tocratic portion of their party. And this is the "moral position of the Ministry !" The Morning Chronicle, in commenting upon the remarks of the Scotsman, observes, that it is "an essential condition of all reforms that we should obtain them by constitutional means," and that " we are now sure of obtaining in time all conceivable amelio- rations." The Chronicle has taken its tone, for the time, from the Sootsmot is article. Bui if the statement of the promises of mo- deration is correct—and it is extremely probable—we shall not obtain these ameliorations from Earl GREY'S Ministry, for it is pledged to resist them. The policy, therefore, of those who are honestly desirous of making Reform the instrument of good go- vernment, must be, on this hypothesis, to remove Earl GREY and his colleagues, and provide room for men who are under no mode- ratepromises to the now comparatively powerless members of the Whig Aristocracy. This is the only inference to be drawn from the observations of the Chronicle and the Scotsman ; which were, not- withstanding, actually made with the view to conciliate the People of England towards the Ministry, and to induce them to continue their support to the men who have attempted to put them of witlt the shadow for the substance of Reform!

If the opinions of the Whig Lords are truly set forth in this " admirable article," as the Chronicle terms it, there can be no use its that creation of fresh Peers which the uninitiated have imagined was all that Earl GREY required to carry his reforming measures in the Upper House.

" But such a fernier resort (says the Scotsman) certainly was not in the contemplation of Ministers when they framed the Reform Bill. They calcu- lated, no doubt, upon the change induced by the natural 'course of mortality, and on the effect of occasional new accessions, which will all be on the side of Re- form. Any thing beyond this, we presume, was not ' in the bond :' it formed nopart of the understanding come to with the King, or with the Whig Peers and borough-holders ; and without a very strong and urgent case of necessity, Ministers would not be warranted in having recourse to it."

We must believe, judging from all that has passed during the last session of Parliament and the present, that the "dernier re- sort " never was in the contemplation of Ministers. Indeed it would have been at variance with their "promises of moderation." The present state of the House of' Peers must be precisely that which Ministers most desire. The Tories have the odium of throw ing out even the unsatisfactory measures with which the Minis- ters cheat the Lower House, but which they never mean to be- come the law of the land; fbr, if passed, they would be held to contravene their " promises of moderation."

This is a curious exposure, by a well-meaning, perhaps, but singularly indiscreet friend of the Whigs. Only one inference can be deduced from the " admirable article;" and it is, that the Whig Ministers were pledged from the first to their party to de- lude the People with false hopes, and to do as little as possible in the way of Reform—to render the Charter of 1832, in short, as far as possible, an abortive measure.

Such being the morals of the Whig Ministry, no one can be surprised at the actual condition at which they have arrived. This

was correctly enough described in their own paper, the Times, on

Tuesday last. It is there distinctly stated, that on the most inter,!st- ing question which at present agitates the public mind, the Mi- nistry is divided ; that as regards the future appropriation of Church property, " great differences of opinion base existed in the Cabinet ;" that

"Lord John Russell had nearly forced his colleagues to accept his resignation, rather than expose himself to the disrepute of covering by his name a bill vi which lie felt the utter inadequacy to its professed object—viz. that of satisfy- ing the Dissenters by a redress of their grievances ; and that with regard to the last measure—we mean the settlement of Irish Churchproperty—the disagree- ments in the Cabinet were openly declared by Lords Althorp anal John 'Hassell; it being generally understood, that the two latter noblemen, with, we believe, by much the most numerous portion of the Cabinet, are in favour of more liberal ; and efficient Church reforms, as well as of a more ample satisfaction to the just and reasonable claims of the Dissenters, than Mr. Stanley and one or two other : members of that body."

The Times then goes on to mention the state of public business at the present advanced period of the session- " What is the state of our promised and projected legislation in its most es- sential branches? The House-tax Bill, only at the second reading ; the Local Courts Bill, and the Abolition of Imprisonment for Debt Bill, so solemnly pledged to, but neither of them yet brought in ; the Church-rate Bill, brought nu, but in a state of suspended animation; the Church Reform Bill, yet unborn; the Irish Tithe Bill, that Messiah of peace and goodwill to men, now but at the second reading ; one Dissenters Bill, such a monster that it was forced to be strangled in the birth, and no other yet prepared for Parliament, while the vast body of Dissenters are hourly increasing in united force, and rising into demands before unheard of, for no other reason but the seeming unwillingness or real in- capacity of Ministers to satisfy their original, temperate, and just expectations, and to redress grievances which it was even more disgraceful to the country than painful to their victims to lucre at any time imposed."

The readers of the Spectator will not be struck with the novelty of these remarks of the Times. Nearly two months ago,* we called attention to the backward state of public business, and re- marked that Ministers cared for little but the voting of the Sup- plies. Our practice is to mention these things in due season ; the Times waits till the accumulation of misdeeds is almost too heavy for a Ministry to stagger under, and then hurls them all in a heap at its devoted head.

Since the fulmination in the Times was published, Lord At- THORP has declared that he despairs of seeing either the Local Courts Bill or the bill to abolish Inaprisonment for Debt carried this session. Now Ministers have more than once solemnly pro- mised that both these measures should be brought forward ; but neither are to be—at least by them. As to the Local Courts Bill, it would be a breach of their promise of moderation to attempt se- riously to carry it ; for it is a measure of substantial reform. But the fact is, that the popularity of the Whigs has so grievously de- clined—so destitute are they of' national support—that they are absolutely without the power to carry any measure which it may suit the Duke of WELLINGTON to oppose. This was not the case two years ago, when the Tory majority in the House of , Peers was paralyzed by the expression of the national will. It is 1

• Spectator, No. 300; March 29, 1934.

laotentable to think that the Reform Ministry should have fallen so low. Two short years since, they were the most powerful Mi- nistry that ever ruled the nation ; and now, their promises of mo- deration to the Whig Aristocracy, are bet ught forward by way cf apology for their dereliction of principle and inability to carry use- ful measures. We are aware of the difficult position in which men who have every inclination to act independently in Parliament are placed. We know and participate in their repugnance to do any thing which may lead to a restoration of the Tories to olice. But a determined exhibition of popular principles—an intimation which the Ministers could not mistake, of their resolution to act up to their engagements with 'their constituents—would be felt not as an encouragement, but as a damper to Conservative expectations. At present, by supporting, the Ministers in their negligent, sluff- . fling, ineffective policy, the majority of the House of Commons is really playing the game of the Tories. It is encouraging the Cabinet in a course of conduct which is rendering it essentially incapable of good, and enabling Sir ROBERT PEEL and his set to point out "how like Whig Ministers to Tory.!"—with this ad- (outage on the side of the latter, that they are better men of business, and have never deceived the people with false profes- siuns of liberality.