We yesterday adverted to the difficulties with which Lord Melbourne
had to contend in the formation of his incipient Ministry. The full extent and nature of those difficulties may possibly never be made known to the public. But we speak advisedly when we say that they were of so formidable a nature that none but a man of Lord Mel- bourne's energy and decision of mind could have surmounted them. The noble viscount, however, has proved himself to be alive not only to what, under the circumstances, was due to himself personally, but to what the great crisis at which the country has arrived demanded from him. If it was convenient for illustrious personages, who shall be nameless, and Court intriguers, to forget the unceremonious, nay, dis- graceful manner, in which he, without any reason assigned, or a mo- ment's warning given, was dismissed the service of his Sovereign and the country, in November last, the noble lord's own memory was, hap- pily, more retentive ; and it was scarcely to be expected that he had any notion of tamely submitting to a repetition of such insulting treatment. It would, doubtless, have very well suited the parties of both genders who poison the Royal ear, to have taken back Lord 'Melbourne into the service of the King, until such time as they had concerted their inea sures for his second and final expulsion from the regal Councils ; but, unfortunately for them, that arrangement was not equally suitable for the noble lord himself. Hence, before taking one single step towards the formation of an Administration, he bad to exact pledges more im- mediately affecting his own personal character, from a party who not being much in the habit of making such pledges, obstinately resisted, until resistance would no longer avail him, agreeing to them. Then, that point being gained, there were other pledges to be exacted regard- ing measures. Lord Alelbourne Was not blind to the fact, that one great cause of the inveterate hatred which the Court party bore towards his Government, and which led to the intrigues to which it fell a victim, was the liberality of his intended measures ; and as he had determined to take office only on the condition of seeing a moral certainty of being able to carry them—aye, and yet more extensive measures of reform— through both Houses of Parliament, he insisted on it as an indispen- sable preliminary, before filling up a single vacant situation, that he should have an explicit assurance from an illustrious Personage, that those measures should be assented to, when by the constitution of the country that assent should become necessary to their passing into a law But certain measures can only be carried by certain men. Measures of extensive reform were not to be carried by colleagues in office who were only milk-and-water Reformers. Hence Lord Melbourne expressly stipulated its an indispensable condition to his resumption of the cares and toils of office, that he should have for his colleagues men of corresponding principles and intentions with his own—men, too, who to an equal liberality and integrity of opinion should unite such talents in debate as could defend his Government and its measures from the attacks of his Tory antagonists. Here again, from personal antipathies and other causes, the noble lord had to encounter the most obstinate resistance. And, last of all, Lord Melbourne recollected that he would, sooner or later, have such a body of persons as the House of Peers to deal with. The treatment which Earl Grey and his Govern- ment received at their hands was of a nature not to be soon forgotten. It :vas, therefore, necessary on the part of Lord Melbourne that some- thing should be done to counteract—it would have been supreme folly to have supposed it could be disarmed—the bitter hostility of the here- ditary branch of the Legislature. Need we add, that the course which lie proposed, should the necessity arise, and which he knew to be the only effectual course,was one at which the mind of a certain personage revolted. Such, then, were the leading obstacles which interposed to prevent the formation of a Melbourne Administration. And is it matter of sur- prise that such formidable impediments should have obstructed, for a few days, the construction of that Administration ? Is it not the sub- ject of marvel, rather, that they should have been overcome—for they are now overcome—so soon, if at all ? Nothing but a moral courage which no difficulty could appal, could have met the emergency of Lord Melbourne's situation for the last eight days.—Morainy Adverliser.
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