TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE CONSTITUTION IN ABEYANCE : THE FIRST BRITISH DICTATOR.
THE actual state of the Government is most extraordinary. The worst of the STUARTS, backed by a purchased Parliament, would not have ventured on so great a departure from all precedent, and what is of far more consequence, all the principles on which a Responsible Government rests, as that which has been sanctioned by WILLIAM the Reformer, under the Charter of 1832. The whole power of the Government centres in an unscrupulous soldier, who. while lie controls every department, is only legal!), respon- sible for the conduct of one. The Duke of WELLINGTON is Secretary of State for the Home Department ; but, though he is omnipotent at the Foreign and Colonial offices, at the Horse Guards, the Adtvirally, and the Board of Control, he is not the regularly-appointed or the responsible Minister of any of these branches of the Government. So enormous a concentrat ion of power was never permitted in any British subject before. Cardinal WOL1 SM.' came the nearest to it; and, if we mistake not, his assumption of such ioordinate authority was made the subject of serious accu- sation against him. There may have been a virtual Dictatorship in England in former times. But certainly it never was so insolently avowed as in our own. A Ministry, supported by an immense majority of the House of Commons, is dismissed without a day's notice, during the recess ; when the consii■utional and convenient expres- sion of public opinion is of course out of the question. Instead of the usual arrangement, that the Ministers !Or the time being should continue to hold their offices until their successors are ap- pointed, the late Ministers of WILLIAM the Fourth are driven forth of their bureaus before a successor to any one of them can be found : for even the Duke of WELLINGTON'S appointment to be Home Secretary is declared to be only provisional. There was no reason, that can be creditably avowed, for this unprecedented proceeding. And, to make the violation of all usage and of common prudence still more glaring, the Nation is assured that this state of things shall endure, till it shall suit the convenience of Sir ROBERT PEEL—a person who was pushed from his stool by the Country, and has never since been able to muster a party of a hundred members in the House of Commons—to return from a picture-hunting expedit'on in Italy ! We are told, authorita- tively, that no Government can be formed until Sir ROBERT PEEL returns. In the meanwhile, we are to be under the Dictatorship of a Field-Marshal. And it is also to be remembered, that this irresponsible Minister is one whose political career proves him to be utterly destiLuie of political principle—whose military career, from his early adventures in India* to the shooting of NEV, afthrds ample evidence of his stern and remorseless temperament. This is the man to whom the King of England has delivered up him- self and his subjects! We do not doubt the goodness of the King's intentions. His Majesty is not aware that lie has insulted the Country, and afForded afprecedent which may be followed at inami nent hazard to its peace. But the King has been ill-advised. It is fortunate that he is so generally beloved. An unpopular Sove- reign would have put his crown to risk, who had acted as WIL- LIAM the Fourth has acted in this matter. But though the Sove- reign is safe—safe by the law and constitution of the land, safe as "reigning in the hearts of his subjects "4—the House of Com- mons has the power, nevertheless, to call the bad advisers of the Crown to account.
At the present time, then, the People of England are utterly uninformed as to the persons who are to be responsible for ruling over them. Of course they are unable to tell on what principles the Government is to be carried on. Some may imagine that a desperate attempt will be made to establish military sway. It is the opinion of some that a struggle, and a violent one too, will be necessary to dethrone the military Dictator. - Wehave no appro- hension of any thing of the kind: we believe that the Duke will be removed from his dangerous eminence by the bloodless energy of Opinion and Law : we believe that he will either retreat from his position, unable to complete a Ministry; or that lie and they will be scattered, in a few months, by the breath of the House of Commons. But were the contest to take place, which we deem impossible, surely it could but terminate in the overthrow, not of the Oligarchy alone, but of the Throne and the Church too.
In the existing uncertainty as to what is intended by the sole Minister of this great empire, it becomes his Majesty's subjects of all classes to be exceedingly jealous and watchful, determined and calm. Slaves or idiots may talk of " confidence." Confidence in the Duke! Confidence in Sir ROBERT PEEL! Why, even their own party, whom in 1829 they cheated and sacrificed, must regard them with deep suspicion. No—there cannot be an hour's confi- dence in these selfish soldiers and back-stairs earwiggers of the King.
• See Sir THOMAS RiTINRO'S Correspondence ; formerly quoted by the Stawkird. t Lord BROU011,11111'S Scotch and Salisbury Speeches.
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