TOPICS OF THE DAY.
PREPARATION FOR EASTER.
AT length, the most thoroughgoing and sanguine of the sup- porters of Ministers—those even whose opinions usually agree entirely with their wishes—begin to acknowledge the danger which cooler heads have for a long while perceived. The stabi- lity of the present Government is now a subject of universal question. Let us state once more, precisely how the case stands. Ministers, it must be assumed, have at last adopted a plan of ac- tion. Despairing, as others have done long ago, of conciliating the Tory Lords by any means, they have resolved, as soon as LYND- HURST shall have played out his this year's prank, to dissolve Par- liament, if the Court will let them—and if not, to resign. It may be considered as settled, therefore, that this Ministry cannot remain without a general election. In fact, should the Court forbid the pre- sent Government to submit their policy to the country, Lord MEL- BOURNE will be as much dismissed as in November 1834. Of the inclination of the Court to repeat that coup dela, there can be no sort of doubt ; and the only question is, whether they will ven- ture upon such another affront to the House of Commons and the nation. But this question turns upon another,—namely, the de- gree of Ministerial popularity, and the degree of enthusiasm and ac- tivity amongst the Reformers, at the time when Lord MELBOURNE shall propose a dissolution to the King. In a word, as we ob- served last week, whether there will be a Tory Government or a general election, about Easter, depeeds upon whether or not the Reformers shall meanwhile have made ready for a general election.
At present, it must be confessed, there are no very encouraging symptoms either of Ministerial popularity, or of that enthusiasm and activity amongst Reformers generally, which would have a wholesome influence at Court. The Reformers have recently lost election after election; and the chief election talk just now is of resignations by Reformers on account of the intolerable expense of contests. That disunion, too, amongst Reformers, which com- menced last year with the quiet submission of Ministers to the LYNDHURST plan of resolute Obstruction, though not very ob- vious in the House of Commons, has yet been growing, along with the progress of Tory enthusiasm and activity, amongst the consti- tuencies of England and Scotland ; and is now arrived at such a pitch, that a general election at this moment would not improba- bly give a Tory majority in the House of Commons. We say, at this moment ; for if the Ministerial Bill as to Church-rates should prove, as has been promised, " entirely satisfactory," then will a change, most favourable to Ministers, be suddenly produced in all those constituencies of England and Scotland which comprise a large proportion of Dissenters. Ministers, in short, will furnish the Dissenters with a motive for the most active exertions against the Tories at a general election. It may be reasonably expected fur- ther, seeing that Ministers do not intend to submit quietly to the Lords this year, that their Lordships' perseverance in the LYND- HURST policy of last year will excite amongst Reformers gene- rally a feeling of indignation against the Tories, and of sympathy 'with Ministers, which would prove highly serviceable to Reform candidates. Upon the whole, therefore, we may presume that, by Easter, the state of the public mind will be much more fa- vourable than at present to the triumph of Reform at a general election.
But if this were all, we should not look forward to a general election without considerable apprehension; nor, consequently, would there be any sufficient provision against a Tory coup detat at Easter. It is not necessary, however, that this should be all. On the contrary, there are many other ways in which, between this and Easter, the Reform constituencies of Britain may be ex- cited, like those of Ireland, to vigorous exertion against the Tories. All these modes of proceeding are comprised, to speak generally, in the means by which a large majority of the electing body may be made to feel that it is worth their while to concur in a vigorous effort against the Tories. The country is really tired, as Mr. ROEBUCK says, of being " kept in a state bordering on revolution," and will not much longer submit to it for the sake of any Ministry. The recent progress of Toryism in the constituencies may, in no small degree, be attributed to a notion amongst Reformers, that, according to the policy of the present Government, they may be required to make fresh exertions and sacrifices—to strive as if fur a matter of life and death—for
each one of the many practical improvements which it was ex- pected that Reform of Parliament would accomplish without delay or agitation. Finality of some sort—a resting-place—breathing-time for the pursuit of their own affairs, and the orderly quiet removal of practical evils,—this is what a majority of the electing body in Scotland and England ardently and most wisely desire. It be- comes vain, therefore, to require any great exertion from them, of
which the result is not likely to be a state of things in which great exertion would no longer be necessary. For the sake of a
resting-place, they would move rapidly—in order to be spared hereafter, they would strive at present—with a view to peace, they would now agitate even violently ; but, unless for this final object, they will never again, we are fully persuaded, be roused to strenuous andreally productive exertion. The Tories amongst the constituency were recently in the same state of mind. When the Conformity of
their leaders made it appear that their efforts would result in no more than a partial or temporary stoppage of Reform, they were apathetic and inert : since the Lords have mustered courage to declare that Reform shall if possible be stopped or driven back, the Tones, all over the country. have acted like one man whose whole soul was in his work. Their leaders, pointing to the next general election, call upon them for a final effort. Here is a most instructive lesson for the Reformers. May not these also obtain the assurance, that one more bout of successful agitation would be the last for Many a long day?
The question recalls a moment when the great bulk of the con- stituencies, and of the non-electors also, would have proceeded to- gether to the same point of organic change, and have been quite willing to stop there, as the resting-place at which all the desired practical improvements might have been quietly accomplished. Need it be said that we allude to the reception of Lord DURHAM'S declaration at Glasgow. in October 1834 ? What if Lord MEL- BOURNE'S adoption of the DURHAM policy then had caused some few dozen of Mere Whigs to rat to the Tories along with STAN- LEY and GRAHAM? What even if the MELBOURNE Whigs had been out for a time? Out for a time on time DURHAM policy, would they not probably have been in again.before new, and with the means of, not overcoming, but preventing Obstruction by the Tory Lords ? The DURHAM policy, frankly adopted at the time of its announcement, would lave made the path of practical im- provement smooth before this time ; as many a MELBOURNE Whig now acknowledges in private. Here was—here, let us indulge the belief, still is—a point of union, a resting-place, a sufficient object, for " all classes of Reformers .°. Is there any other place at which Reformers can hope to stop, united—any other finality—any other result to be held up as the reward of a great
common (41;M—env other way of putting an end to fearful un- certainty, to half-and-half and therefore fruitless agitation, or to the risk of Tory dominion, with its natural consequence sooner or
later—violent proceedings, which could not but go very for beyond the DURHAM policy of Household Suffrage, Vote by Ballot, and Triennial Parliaments? This question, calmly considered, must be answered in the negative-. But we shall return to it next week.
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