4 JULY 1846, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK..

SIR ROBERT PEEL made his triumphal exit from office on Mon- day night, in a speech worthy of the occasion. Considered technically, as a matter of mere oratory, his speaking has often shown traces of more pains, of more artful structure, and more workmanlike elaboration ; but such small points were beside the occasion. Many large questions of the past, solved and unsolved— of the future—crowded upon his utterance, and ill brooked the narrow limits prescribed to his discourse. And he evidently ap- proached his task with small preparation of a special kind—with none, perhaps, but so much as was implied in the deeds of the past and in a determined purpose. His judgment was shown in the admirable temper which animated the whole, and in the manner in which he took up his ground for the future.

He does not go into opposition. So we understood him to im- ply four or five months ago, and his farewell speech confirms that Impression. There has been a good deal of wrangling as to the interpretation to be put upon that portion of the speech which relates to affairs of party,—some nicely balancing words, and insisting that they pledge the speaker to nothing; others insist-. ing that they must be considered in reference to their general tenour. The latter is, no doubt, the just view. The speech was one of generalities and not of specialties. And to expect that the exient Minister would volunteer a schedule of particular details to which he should be pledged, (a supposition involved in the complaint that he does not stand pledged on particular points,) is puerile. His intent was as clear as possible. As we understand him, he is henceforward to consider questions that come before him in reference to their circumstances, their merits, and their practical effects. It is to be observed that such a course would set aside the details of some past measures to which the late Cabinet may have been committed ; making him free to take them up de novo with the full lights of the time and on their own proper grounds. Resting upon what he said, we should not be surprised if Sir Robert Peel were even to abstain from crossing over to the Opposition benches, and were to take his seat on the Ministerial side as an independent sup- porter of the Queen's Government. It must be allowed that such a departure from routine would be as startling as any of the more substantial innovations which he has made in the conduct of party ; though it would quite accord with the spirit of his change from the service of party to that of his country. One of the questions on which his probable course has given rise to great speculation is the Sugar-duties. Sir Robert, pre- suming Lord John Russell to be the new Minister, promises his support in carrying forward the same commercial principles as those which have recently guided the Government : but in doing so, he makes reservations against the " derangement" of " great interests," with more of the same kind. The suspicious construe that reservation to mean, that Sir Robert Peel will abide by the differential Sugar-duties on the Anti-slavery pretext. We believe in no such interpretation. Sir Robert, no doubt, feels that there are moral considerations mixed up with the financial one of the Sugar-duties ; not only the Black interests, which once monopoli- zed the philanthropy of this country, but the Colonial interests— the interests of that property which was so lavishly wasted by our wild legislation. His Cabinet endeavoured to satisfy justice, or rather- to satisfy appearances, by adopting Captain Denman's new plan of African blockade, and by a hesitating sanction to Cooly and Negro immigration into the West Indies. The immigra- tion is growing, in spite of official obstacles, kept up to the very latest date of Mr. Gladstone's incumbency of the Colonial Office, —obstacles not, indeed, originating with him, but not swept away by him. Captain Denman's plan is under trial. The Sugar-duties cannot be justly or ably handled apart from the whole West Indian question ; but any Minister .who chose to deal with all, comprehensively, vigorously, and promptly, might give the British people cheap sugar and put the West Indies on the road to prosperity by the same act. We do not understand Sir' Robert Peel's reservation to convey the shadow of a hint that he would refuse to consider, fairly, and without bias, any measure better than his own, or rather, than Mr. Gladstone's and Mr. Goulburn's, for settling the Sugar-duties.

Ireland is another prominent point in the leave-taking speech, and one which has of course invited cavil. Sir Robert has broad- ly declared for perfect equality in the spirit of legislation between England and Ireland. This is hailed .by some who look more to party than to national interests, as a new " inconsistency "—a virtual abnegation of the statesman's recent policy. It is quite the reverse ; being a further carrying out of that policy which dictated the Maynooth grant, the recognition of Episcopal titles, and several other measures tending to equality. Formally, in- deed, Sir Robert was defeated on a Coercion Bill : but it was the identical measure that the Whigs in-office-had kept up for years ; it was supported by the members of the last Whig Cabinet in the House of Lords; and by' Lord John Russell himself and the Whig Commoners in, the earlier stages,—until; as Mr. Smith O'Brien 'informed his Irish audience at Conciliation Hall this week, it afforded opportunity for a vote to turn the Ministry out. In fact, opinion on the subject of Ireland has matured with a suddenness unparalleled ; but it was too late for' ir Robert Peel to throw away the bill which his own colleagues had introduced. It is negatived by the House : he now knows better what ground

i may be taken up in Irish pacification ; and there is no "inconsis- tency" in his declaring a better ground than that of coercion.

But that which has perhaps caused the greatest shock to sen- sitive souls is Sir Robert's tribute to the great Anti-Corn-law agitator. The merit of repealing the Corn-laws, he said, was due neither to himself not to Lord John Russell, but solely to " Richard Cobden." Some people are puzzled as to the motive of the avowal, and of course are ready enough to find a bad one. The motive appears to us not recondite. Sir Robert Peel's strength, throughout his late career, to its triumphant close, has lain in his abiding by the plain truth ; and his purpose was to give that plain truth a crowning avowal. There was, however, some little exaggeration of phrase;' which Richard Cobden does not need. His merit lay in giving animation to an abstract question 'of right—in organizing a public opinion which had been created. But even that organized public opinion, lacking the elements of popular revolution, which it did, might have floundered on for years in ineffectual importunity had not Sir Robert Peel endowed it with the full power of the Executive. Richard Cobden would have carried the measure sooner or later ; that it is carried in 1846 is due to Robert Peel. And in awarding the " suutn cuique," there are others who ought not to be forgotten —Charles Villiers, whose motion was once a yearly scoff for shortsighted folks trusting in the majorities of the time being; Wolryche Whitmore, the predecessor of Charles :Villiers in "times of still remoter hope; and Colonel Thompson, who first popularized the science of the question, and supplied the instinctive common sense of the public with logical arguments and epigrammatic illustrations. The Corn-law Catechism was the ancestor 'of the Anti-Corn-law League. How necessary was the modern engine of agitation, is proved by the fact, that the author of the Catechisin is not in Parliament to complete'his work ; so little of real" public spirit" is there in the constituencies! Sir Robert Peel fitly closed his speech with a message of peace —the Oregon question is settled. " Lucky.Minister ! ' Ay, lucky are they who take pains to he so. In this instance the luck seems to have arisen from that judgment which shaped just such a mea- sure as could be offered and adopted without derogation from the honour of either side.

Having laid down his power at the feet of the majority, Sir Robert Peel left the House, leaning on the arm of Sir George Clerk ; and, having been recognized outside by a watching mul- titude—not a mob—lie was escorted home to his private house in triumph. There was a contrast to the Minister's triumphal re- turn : his two antagonists—not the most illustrious but the most notorious—came away at the same time : their heads bent down, they seemed to shun recognition • and they were seen to pass away amid the scowls of those Who did know them—lucky to escape in silence.

When all is done, you ask, what is the one great cause for this general and intense apprehension of Sir Robert Peel's merits It is not merely that he carried the two bills—other men share

that honour. There seems to be even a paradoxical reference to past times when he abided by what were not merits. That is the key to the question : the singulaemerit of the statesman, in the popular eyes, is his unprecedented sacrifice to attain a good for his country : he sacrificed place, power, a show of that outward " consistency " which is prized so highly ; he had the moral courage to brave all obloquy, and sacrifice to his new convictions a frank avowal of his own past errors in judgment ; in a word, he sacrificed the individual to the nation. All is paid, with interest.