REFortmEas and Tories are actively engaged in marshalling their re-

spective forces preparatory to the grand conflict in the House of Com- mons. The collision must take place on the very first day of the meeting of Parliament. The Commons must choose their Speaker, before undertaking any other business. No Tory or Liberal reluctance can postpone the contest for an hour.

There will be the very fullest attendance of Tory Members that the practised canvassers and whippers-in of the party can by any exertions procure. If the Reformers defeat them—which is quite certain to be the case, if they show zeal and promptitude equal to that of their anta- gonists—the victory will be incalculably important. They will gain accessions of strength from numerous quarters. The spirits of the party will be raised. Confidence inevitably results from success, as despondency from defeat. The Duke has more favourable chances on the Speakership than any other question : to him, therefore, the elec- tion of Mr. ABERCROMBY must he a fatal blow.

The Country is fully aware of the importance of the results of the first struggle in Parliament. The Constituencies are on the alert to urge their Representatives to be in their places on the 19th of Fe- bruary. O'CONNELL has sounded the call to arms in Ireland. In Scotland, it is as much as a Liberal Member's seat is worth, to shrink from voting on this intensely interesting question. The traitors, the backsliders, if any, will be chiefly found among the English Mem- bers. But they will do well to recollect, that a Tory victory will not insure the stability of a Tory Ministry ; that the Reformers are already making active preparations fur another election; that their votes on the Speakership will be placarded all through the country; and that, in every Liberal constituency, the first question asked a candi- date will be, " Did you vote for or against the Ultra Tory, MANNERS SUTTON ?" From this ordeal no Member can escape.

Besides the contest for the Speakership, another subject has occupied much attention this week, and that is the dissensions in the Cabinet. Men who join heart and hand in pillaging the public, not unfrequently quarrel about the division of thenwr and there is good reason to believe that there has been a sp the Cabinet respecting the dis- posal of patronage. This was confidently stated in various quarters at the beginning of the week, and denied in so unsatisfactory and myste- rious a manner by the Ministerial journals, that although the differences may have been hushed up for the present, it is more than probable that they existed, and will again occur. Indeed, the public was warned by the Standard not only to disbelieve the unpleasant rumours already in circulation, but those that might be,—as though there were materials brewing for future reports. Sir GEORGE MURRAY, it is supposed, is out of temper with his colleagues, or they with him. He has certainly been scurvily treated by Sir ROBERT PEEL, who has forced him to make the Duke of RUTLAND'S Colonel TRENCH his Secretary; whereas Sir GEORGE wished to give, and had probably promised the appointment, to Colonel WEDDERBURNE—a brother Scot, we presume. But poor Sir GEORGE must submit to be kicked by his colleagues. He is a damaged man, and brings discredit even on the Duke's Cabinet of Ultra-Tories and Red Tapists.

The appointment of the Marquis of LONDONDERRY as Ambassador to Russia, turns out to be a reality. When first the fact was stated in the Courier, the Times called it a "sorry hoax," but the Marquis himself declared at a Tory dinner in Durham a few days ago, that the office was pressed upon him by the Duke of WELLINGTON, soon after the arrival of a King's messenger from Sir ROBERT PEEL with the news of the formation of the Ministry and a request for his support.

It would have been impossible for the Duke to give the lie to the Reforming professions:of his Administration more effectually than he has done by appointing the disgraced former Ambassador to Vienna, the vain, passionate, ignorant, Ultra-Tory, "too bad" LONDONDERRY, to a post where discretion, sagacity, and extensive political knowledge, to say nothing of Liberal principles, are preeminently required. Nothing but the secret consciousness that he must rely upon the High Church and Sing party alone for earnest and regular support, could

Political Summaries 121 Record of Votes in the House of have induced the Duke of WELLINGTON IO commit this egregious in- The Court 122 Commons ' 131discretion. It is a fault of greater magnitude than the selection of The Country 123 Ilrilx:ry and Intimidation of Elec.•KNATCHBULL and SzonmoNT for places in the Ministry ; for they Ireland 124 ' tors : Case for a National Inquest 132 must at least act under the eye of their master, while the Ambassador , Posrscarrr TO THE WEEK'S NEWS • 126 Lord Ileytesbury 134 at St. Petersburg, in his plenitude of presumptuous ignorance, may , Money Market 127 SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY— do irreparable mischief some weeks before the first account of his'pro- • Vocal Concerts 128 tional Prosperity. and the Pros. ceedings can reach the Foreign Office. Even the Times- cannot ' TOPICS OF THE DATI— peels of the Administration — stomach his appointment ; albeit far from nice in what it swallows,

the Notes 135 and blessed with amazingly strong digestive powers. Hear the

Why was a New Parliament Sum. Fine Arts ' 139 "Lord Londonderry is, it appears, appointed in reality Ambassador to the Reasons for Electing Mr. Aber- The Gazettes 140 Emperor Nicholas. When the rumour of this unfortunate nomination first

reached us, we spoke of it, and in sober earnest, as a hoax,—in other words, as

a step so ill-judged and reprehensible on the part of the King's Ministers, that NE W S OF T JIB W E E K. it could not be seriously meditated by any man to whom the history and politi- cal character of the noble Marquis was familiar. We stand by our first decla- ration. It is an appointment which the whole Country will condemn. No- thing can reconcile the People of England to the employment of a functionary whose unfitness to represent the dignity and the civilization of England has been already demonstrated. If, moreover, the choice of a Plenipotentiary were to be determined by the congeniality of his political principles to those of the Court where he is to reside, instead of to those of the Government which sends him, the favour designed for the ex-Ambassador to Vienna might be more easily understood. As the case is, we cannot and will not defend or palliate this unbecoming mission."

Not a word has escaped Ministers or their organs on the subject of Irish Church Reform—the really pressing subject of legislation. Bur the names of twelve Commissioners charged with the concoction of a plan for reforming the English Church,appeared in Tuesday's Gazette. They are these—the Archbishops of CANTERRURY and YORK, the Bishops of LONDON, LINCOLN, and GLOUCESTER, Lord LYNDHURST, Sir ROBERT PEEL, Lord HARRROWBY, Mr. GOULBURN, Mr. CHARLES WYNN, Mr. HENRY HOBHOUSE, and Sir HERBERT JENNER. These Right Reverend and Right Honourable persons are appointed, in the words of the Commission, . . .

"for considering the state of the several dioceses in England and Wales, with reference to the amount of their revenues; to the more equal distribution of episcopal duties, and to the prevention of the necessity of attaching, by coin- mendam, to bishoprics, benefices with cure of souls ; also for considering the state of the several cathedral and collegiate churches within the same, with a view to the suggestion of such measures as may render them most conducive to the efficiency of the Established Church ; and for devising the best mode of providing for the cure of souls, with special reference to the residence of the clergy on their respective benefices."

If the Commissioners are faithful and thoroughgoing in the per- formance of the duties assigned to them, and if Ministers are really earnest in their intentions to do all that they hold forth in this docu- ment to the public as about to be effected, then the Tory party may again have cause to rue the day when they trusted WELLINGTON and PEEL. What ! abolish pluralities and non-residence ! do away with commendams ! uproot cathedral sinecures, and equalize the re venues of bishoprics !—why, the iDuke might as well reform the Municipal Corporations at once. It would be difficult to say which measure would stab the deepest into the vitals of Toryism. The Standard strives to pacify the Clergy and the Aristocracy, by assuring them that there is no intention to meddle with vested in- terests,—that is to say, the present perpetrators of evil in various ways in the Church, may continue their bad practices with impunity for the rest of their days ; but that their successors must conform to other and better rules. This may comfort the Surroxs, ivIooaxs, SPARKESES, Lug- MORES, RIDERS, and HODGSONS, to a certain extent ; but what is to become of the future scions of noble houses ? The Army and Navy offer fewer resources to the Aristocracy every year; the Civil Government fewer; so that Ecclesiastical sinecures are more necessary than ever to them. They look forward to providing for their progeny for ages to come, out of the spoils of the Church. Rich prizes in the Establishment are the lures for Parliamentary support ; but now each piece of preferment as it falls in must be converted into provision for a working clergyman, a resident, and no pluralist. Welsh parsons, too, must be required to understand the Welsh language, and live among the hills.

Now all this would create suchhavoc in Tory resources and expecta- tions, that we do not anticipate any thing of the kind any thing like an honest, searching—reform of the Church—from the present Ministers. The aim of the Tories is to throw dust into the good public's eye : they wish, if possible, to direct attention from Irish Church Reform, and pick up a little temporary popularity for themselves. But the trick it seen through.

With the like hope of hoodwinking the country, the Tories have put forth a report that Lord LYNDHURST is engaged in preparing a Local Courts Bill. The lawyers have as little to fear from any measure of the Lord Chancellor as the sinecure Clergy from the Church Reform of Dr. HOWLEY or MT. GOULBURN. Lord LYNDHURST Will not create enemies at the bar by making justice cheap. He will not hurt the self- importance of the country gentlemen by interfering with the exercise of their petty magisterial authority.