TOPICS OF THE DAY.

SPECULATIN FOR THE FALL.

?hut Whig Ministers cultivate the art of sinking in the public estimation-with a devotion that occasions just annoyance to their 'friends. It is mistaken philosophy to say that affection must be based on esteem—old association, family connexions, nay, the very _pity that springs from contempt, all beget a feeling akin to kind- Jaws. The philosopher who stuck to his friend preciselS, because Stobody else could endure him, would have made an invaluable =ember, just now, on the right hand of Mr. Speaker. Many of us bestow more trouble and anxiety in the endeavour to keep some reprobate on his legs, than we accord to the most estimable of our benefactors; partly out of the old lurking kindness ; partly, a sense that if we let go, the wretch -is doomed to that final abandonment which every -reflecting man hesitates to pronounce -on his fellow man ; partly, -the spirit of perseverance excited by the effort itself. Still it is exasperating -to find the most per- suasive exhortations fail, the most strenuous exertions unavail- ing, because the intoxicated wretch will lie down in the mud. You are disposed to let him lie—exclaiming,

"Let Grill be Grill, and have his hoggish mind"; but ever and anon pride and philanthropy pique you to one more struggle. So it is with the Whig Ministry : the patience of its

-nearest friends evidently begins -to quail ; Ellice's exhorta- tions assume the mournful solemnity of a last appeal ; Lord iBrougham tries to smile cheerily, but with a manifest effort ; and the faithful Hume whispers "the momentous question "—if the 'demented Cabinet knows whither its present courses will lead 'It is surrounded by anxious friends and kindly foes, watching 10 spare it, manceuvering to save it from any fatal blow. But :Ministers make it a point of honour to tempt their fate. The soberest narration of facts becomes the bitterest of satires.

-Look at their conduct in the plain and easy questions of bo- rough corruption that are before Parliament. It is admitted on tall.sides, that a paltry and partial corruption of certain con- stituencies .vitiates the representation and casts a stigma on the .House of Commons ; the habit of corruption is so inveterate and 40 bad, that no gentleman entering Parliament can secure him- self against contamination ; and the most distinguised 'Member of the House has given utterance to an apprehension that the discredit may act in deterring the better sort of men from coming forward as candidates. Certain boroughs are charged on a prima facie inquiry with corruption : the cases are isolated, and court

...the energetic handling of a statesman w.ho desires to purify the

_representation by example. Horsham is one of those boroughs, Aind the Prime Minister announces a formal inquiry. A private lailember introduces a bill for inquiry into several of the most

'glaring cases. Lord John Russell waives his separate .measure, 'and extends the Ministerial countenance to the larger one. The -writ for Derby, one of the peccant boroughs, is moved. Lord John now begins to question the expediency of delays—casts doubt on the progress of Sir John -Hanmer's bill—thinks the in- quiry might go on even if the writ were issued, and will vote 'for its issue. The debate places Lord John in awkward contrast 'with his great political rival, Sir Robert Peel—the more awkward,

since it ends by placing the Premier also in the minority. He ...accepts the decision, and . upholds it in .a subsequent .debate on

the Leicester writ. Later, another peccant borough asks its

Writ—the case is not -so clear, and Cheltenham is gratified. Under cover of that doubtful precedent, -Horsham also obtains its ,writ. Derby tries again—,Lord John thinks he discerns a reaction ...she renews -his former arguments and his old vote—renewing also the former contrast and the former defeat. The discredit of tergiversation is aggravated by its want of success. The leader of the House of Commons has emphatically proclaimed that if any earnest desire for purification exists, he shares it not. He had been beaten into an appearance of sterner morals, but he could not help going back to his wilder sympathies. " Naturam :expellas--"!

Again, the Foreign Secretary entered office under new gua-

rantees for his good behaviour : his-colleagues were sponsors for 'him. And, by the luckiest of chances, the state of Europe was such as to afford scope for his adventurous activity, and to -court his genius for striking out a new and imposing policy for -the new tera: he has provokingly shown, even now, that he is not devoid of the ability: iyet, in the redundancy of his rest- lessness, he must indulge n the old style of little, gossiping, Sneddling, personal scandals ; and the statesman who should be the arbiter of Europe.is discovered.in the midst of a. petty squab- ble about personalities, incurring the disgrace of a rebuff . and a _merited lecture from- the Minister of a third-rate power.

'The necessities of the Sugar Colonies, the urgent but broad-anti /simple questions of .sugar-tracle and slavery, invite an exercise of -originality, of energy, and large statesmanship : Ministers meet 'the demandlor such qualitierewith small -compromises, eighteen- ;penny and livepenny alterations of duty ; -they so manage that the -great questions of 'Colonial and Imperial policy are merged in -questions whether they have been guilty of_garbling, concocting, and doctoring official papers,—charges , partly explained away, partly oonfessed ender the, name of blunders, .and spartlymet by justification of a -verystrange kind ; and finally, the bathos is crowned by a burst of personal vituperation from the Prime Minister, with passionate-reiteration; -echoed some nights after,

by his noble colleague of the Colonial Office in .100zen elaborate terms and in cold blood.

We will not stop to renew a comparison that acquires additional force with every week of the session, between the promises with which Ministers entered office and their performances ; we say nothing now about sanatory reform—nothing about delay of the measures declared so necessary for Ireland, and the exclusive pur- suit of the contemned measures of coercion—nothing about the contrast between " progressive reform" and the little bill to re- lax the ratepaying clauses : in some respects the luckless de- meanour which Ministers have consented to assume before the country is more disastrous than even the substantial disappoint- ment on the score of unperformed promises. The Ministry in- cludes men who are reputed to possess high qualities of states- manship; and it is melancholy to see the consent,aneous subjec- tion with which the whole agree to incur the odium provoked by the trespasses of the few. It has been hinted, and it may readily be surmised, that some among them groan to witness the fatal mistakes which frustrate every endeavour at energetic adminis- tration as soon as it comes under the action of the general Govern- ment. But the discredit extends even to the whole class of states- men, out of office as well as in, who witness such a condition of public affairs and yet tacitly confess that they cannot or dare not interpose. The present position of our Government is a proclama- tion that the statesmen of England dare not interfere for the better conduct of public affairs, because they are conscious of being incompetent to construct a better Government. The display of supineness, however, is likely to have an effect the very opposite of that intended : the chief reason for the forbearance is the wish "not to weaken the Executive Government" while Europe ex- hibits so many examples of anarchy ; but the real want in the disturbed countries of Europe is the want of men possessing suffi- cient strength and grasp to maintain and wield the power of the state; and the inaction of our English statesmen, in supinely wit- nessing inefficient government, confesses a want not very dissimi- lar to that which has plunged Europe into anarchy. It is there- fore calculated to destroy rather than restore confidence.