TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE PROSPECTS OF THE SESSION. LORD PALMERSTON has resolved once more to play a de- fensive game. The Queen's Speech read by Commission on Thursday proposes no programme, offers few points of attack, contains but casual references to British domestic affairs. Its first announcement, the coming marriage of the Prince of Wales, is certain not to be the subject of a division, or, if the proposals for settlements are framed with a reasonable atten- tion to the improved position of the Duchy of Cornwall, even of sharp debate. The marriage is honestly popular, not because the Princess is Danish, or because the alliance brings anything of strength to Great Britain, but because the people approve the photographs of their future Queen, and the formal debate will evaporate in a chorus of congratulation. For the rest, the Premier's strength is in the management of foreign affairs, and to foreign affairs the Speech is almost ex- clusively devoted. Her Majesty is at peace with the world (Brazil being a little outside it), and is profoundly grieved that the American war should continue, though, we are happy to perceive, still resolved against intervention to end it. Her most prominent thought, however, is on the whole a pleasant one. She feels that the Greeks in electing Prince Alfred have paid to herself, her House, and the British Constitution, a very substantial compliment, and though for diplo- matic and other reasons the Greeks cannot have Prince Alfred, they shall, if they will but elect a King on the principles which dictated that choice, and re- main at peace with their neighbours, have the Ionian Islands instead. The French treaty of commerce has been successful; there are documents to be presented about Den- mark, and Italy, and Japan (not China) ; and "various mea- sures of public usefulness will be submitted " to the decision of Parliament. Her Majesty has been distressed by the dis- tress of the people of Lancashire, and gratified by the gene- rosity which has come forward to their relief, and her Chan- cellor of the Exchequer is able to promise such reductions as are consistent with " proper efficiency." But for the first time since the Reform Bill the Government offers no measure of internal improvement, pledges itself to nothing, gives no hint that it is possible for England to advance in any single direction. This passiveness may be exceedingly wise, but it is also exceedingly dull, and its wisdom is not apparent upon the face of affairs. Dull Governments always die. The House of Commons is not a body which can be safely left without work, and idleness will only increase its appetite for the criticism which promises strong excitement. Lord Palmerston hopes for a quiet Session, and he has two circumstances in his favour. The Royal marriage will for six weeks indispose the class from whom our legislators are drawn to commence a strife which, however it ends, must in its progress interfere with what should be a festive season. The promised reductions will, for three weeks more, indispose the nation to interfere with the Minister who may diminish the income-tax. But those barriers once removed, Lord Palmerston, unless we mis- read the signs of the times, will be subjected to a storm of attack which it will tax every faculty he possesses to resist. The very calm of the public mind, the absence of any engrossing subject of interest, will only increase the excite- ment of the coming party strife. The Tories are strong enough if they please to take the helm, and signs are abroad in all directions that the armistice is at an end. Unless they are prepared to allow that they do not care for office, and so place themselves in the exhausting position of a besieging army which does not care to attack, they must this Session make a bold push for power. Their only diffi- culty will be to select the fitting point of assault, for they must find one which will fulfil many and diverse conditions. They must oust the Administration upon some point which involves a vote of confidence, yet will not pledge them to impossible action, or run the risk of ex- citing the quiescent (because half-sated) Liberal predilections of the nation. The working of the Revised Code, by far their best chance in the country districts, scarcely fulfils the first condition. Lord Palmerston would consent, and in the pre- sent position of Europe would wisely consent, to any conceiva- ble change in the department of education rather than quit the reins. The cession of the Ionian Islands does not fulfil the second, for Governments cannot reverse accomplished facts, or break engagements, however annoying, to which British faith is pledged. And the American struggle—whatever Mr. Hope may imagine—does not fulfil the third. The governing class in the last resort cannot quarrel with the ten-pounders, and if the Tories ventured formally to vote recognition, the anti-slavery feeling, half-latent, but quite irresistible, would in a week destroy their chance of power. They are, more- over, precluded from fighting upon the budget. They could, we sincerely believe, drive the Ministry from power by insisting upon the devotion of every shilling of surplus to the relief of the propertied, professional, and trading classes, but they themselves proposed to diminish the duty on tea. They cannot, therefore, complain if Mr. Gladstone devotes half his savings to carry out their own will, and Mr. Hubbard's idea, almost the best card in their hands, is thus trumped before it is played. They can scarcely outbid the reductions, for Napoleon still reigns in France, and even Mr. Disraeli must be by this time aware that subse-vience to Napoleon is not a price the country party will pay for thrift. Upon the policy pursued in China it is clear they are very unwilling to fight, even if they had forgotten the dissolution of 1857 ; and the Government, if very hardly pressed, could, we suspect, plead reasons for assisting Prince Kung which are not yet before the public, but which no party would dis- regard. The Danish business may be dangerous; but the history of the affair is as yet but little known, and no Tory leader will be eager for power acquired by a bitter quarrel with the whole of our German allies. On the cession of the Ionian Islands they could not obtain a vote, for on this point every Whig is in unison with every Radical, and with that large section of Tories which has the heart to exult in an act of national self-denial. It is possible to smile at the cool sangfroid which dictated Earl Russell's offer of an asylum to the Pope, and the Ultramontanes will, doubtless, endeavour to elicit some sort of censure. But serious reprobation of any measure tending in any degree to move the Pope from Rome would split up the party which offered it, and the Irish votes would be dearly bought at the price of the deadly hostility of English country clergy. The volunteers are the Tories' pets; no marriage bill can be twisted into a Cabinet measure; everybody wants law amendments; and it is not for Conservatives to argue that Ireland needs reform. There is no foothold visible yet, but, nevertheless, we believe the Session cannot pass without an earnest struggle for power. In this country it is the ebb and flow of opinion, far more than any accidental discussion, which makes and unmakes Cabinets, and for five years the tide has flowed in the Con- servative direction. They have gained in all English elec- tions; they will gain at the next dissolution in Ireland. The entire neglect of home questions, which is Lord Palmerston's permanent weakness, has blunted the edge of Liberal sympathies, and now that Italy seems to be safe, foreign affairs excite no very passionate feeling. Either Administration will resist ex- travagance as much as it can, either will keep up the defences, either will rest content to do as little as possible in America or the East. On the whole, the public mind is inert, and is therefore naturally still swinging round to the party whose professed theory is not to disturb that inertia. There is a feeling even among Whigs that a couple of years of Lord Derby would brace up Liberal nerves, restore a re- laxed organization, and enable them to re-enter on power with some prospect of a majority able to assume an initiative. Add to these causes the immense mass of personal claims and prejudices, and " views," which every Government is sure to offend, the personal unpopularity of one or two members of the Administration, and the rising hope, and, therefore, rising energy, of the assailing side, and we have reasons in plenty why, in spite of the Premier's strategy, the Session should not be "quiet." There is no war-cry sounding as yet; but when nations are resolved upon battle, anything will serve for a pretext, and reason only returns when they begin to count the cost. To ourselves, with the Pope at Rome, and Napoleon still an enigma, with the South craving for recognition, and the North half mad with hostility, with the priests all ram- pant in Ireland, and fifty ecclesiastical questions worrying the national brain and conscience, the accession of Lord Derby to power seems fraught with real danger. But there is nothing gained by concealment, or by preaching, like the prophet rebuked of old, " Peace ! peace !" when the only signs abroad all indicate active war.
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