TOPICS OF THE DAY.
HOW LONG WILL MINISTERS RUB ON?
IN January last, the writer of a sort of official pamphlet,* after .giving a list of Ministerial measures for the session, prophesied or promised as follows- " These will pass rapidly through the Commons, for they will probably re- wage in all essentials the bills of last year ; and it is of importance that they should reach the Lords before Easter. Full time will thus be allowed for their Lerdships' most mature deliberation; aml the fate of the bills will be decided when the House of Commons is in full vigour of attendance, and before the annual money-bills have passed ; a time when addresses and remonstrances are of the greatest weight." Such was the language then generally held by official people and the partisans of the Government. The Lords were to be vi- gorously "bombarded with good measures," and the "pear would be ripe by Easter." What a difference between the promise and the performance ! This promise, however, served its temporary purpose, by in- ducing many very sincere Reformers to enter upon the session with "confidence in Ministers." Their present disappointment is as great, as was their anger then with the few who ventured to say that the only object of Ministers was to rub on any how, and to predict the result which has come to pass. May we not claim, then, for the future, a little more "confidence" in the Spectator ? At all events, it will be acknowledged that in urging Ministers to begin the session with "a plan of action calculated to unite and stimulate all classes of Reformers," we were not moved by affec- tion for the Tories.
The impeded and hopeless condition of the public business in Parliament, is not more obvious than the low and sinking state of political feeling out of doors. Westminster and Bridgewater (though the latter, properly speaking, was a mere affair of the purse, not of politics) have satisfied everybody that, amongst Re- formers generally, indifference and apathy have taken the place of active enthusiasm. If the Reform majority in the Commons were not dwindling into a minority,—even though it were in the humour for "addresses and remonstrances,"—the masses, every- where but in Ireland, would be passive spectators of the energy which it should display ; and it would therefore be readily defeated by the Peers and the Crown. But the Reform majority in the Commons fairly represents the state of feeling amongst Reformers elsewhere: both have sunk, since the beginning of the session, in numbers, hope, and power of action; and are still sinking. All this, too, we long ago pointed out to the Whigs, as an inevitable result of their having no policy but that of endeavouring to rub on any how.
This seems to be their only policy still; and the time for any other may perhaps be considered as past. The end of this policy being certain,—to wit, the return of the Tories to power,—the only question of much present interest is how long the rubbing-on System may answer its sole purpose. When, in short, will "the pear be ripe" for the Tories ? Let us ask Lord LYNDHURST. He it was who set on foot that Tory policy of resolute obstruction, whi•sh not only united and sti- mulated his party, but also made it necessary for the Whigs, as was said at the time, "either to go on or to go off." He is said to have boasted in private that he had placed them in this dilemma. He challenged the Commons' majority to a serious battle with the Lords. His boldness revived the hopes of the Tories, and excited them to vigorous exertion. But the Whigs did not "go on ;"
they declined the challenge; they submitted to the insult ; they did nothing to counteract the new Tory enthusiasm ; and the con- sequence is, that their once zealous supporters are dispirited and careless. It was Lord LYNDHURST, We are firmly persuaded, who
provided for the election of a thoroughgoing Tory as Member for
Westminster. The LYNDHURST policy, being of a bold and de- cided character, does not admit of any faltering : it would be
changed by ever so little hesitation or other evidence of fear.
Does Lord LYNDHURST adhere to his own plan of making the Tory Lords set the Whig majority in the Commons at defiance? Will the Tory Lords carry his plan into effect ? Whoso can an- swer these questions, may tell how long Ministers will probably rub on.
• What Next ? or The Peers 'and the Third Time of Asking." Published by
RIDOWA Y.
Previous page
