18 OCTOBER 1851, Page 1

The position and prospects of our own Ministers are nusailis.-

factory. Luckily, our institutions are so consolidated, and habits- of order so confirmed in the people, that a weak government, or even an interregnum, brings less danger with it than in Fiance. The incompetence of the Chancellor of the Etchequer was pro. claimed almost ostentatiously in the last session of Parliament. Our. settlements in South Africa are discontented, and suffering from & seemingly interminable war with boiler savages ; the state of Australia is scarcely less threatening ; and the Colonial Minister. acts as if he were only bent upon provoking further exasperation. The Premier has, byannouncing anew Reform Bill,Onfessed thit the existing representative system is incompatible with the continuance of a liberal policy, or at least with the continuance in Office 'of the party which professes devotion to it. What with internal defects, and what with external weakness, the Cabinet is notoriously inadequate7 to the discharge of its functions. No attempt is made, hoiVeVer, to remove discordant elements, or to incorporate new. elements of strength.. A- couple of subordinate Ministers are to be- taken in- to- the Cabinet on the simple .plea of seniority, as officers of the line are adVanced in the Indian army. Tfps may be meant as a permanent addition to the numbers of the Cabinet, or it may be meant as a preparation for the retirement of niembers too old or too indifferent for hard work ; either way, it is very like an at- tempt to strengthen- a building by new. arrangements of materials too weak in themselves to stand the bUffeting of storms from with- out. But the loyalty of the peoig to their constitution, and the contentment diffused by thit prevailing prosperity, render such egregious trifling comparatively harmless.