SHALL WE RETAIN, OR TURN OUT, THE WHIG MINISTERS?
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
Reform Club, Friday, 8th December 1837, Sri—In common with others, you must recollect Lord DURHAM'S declara. lion previous to the meeting of Parliament, "that he should be much disap- pointed, if during the ensuing session, Ministers did not bring forward measures to satisfy all classes of Reformers."
Well ! the noble Lord's disappointment must have begun eat1y; for the first fruits of ?us declaration are the counter-declaration of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, tantamount to a denial of all reform, beyond those mere crumbs which fall from a rich man's table.
This is the subject now engrossing the public mind ; and the question result- ing from it is—what is to be done in consequence by the Liberals?
The temporizing and the timid are for gulping down this declaration : some have already swallowed the big words uttered in the first beat of passion. The more manly and straightforward—the men of distant sight—are for a better course: they suggest the unseating of the Ministry.
Let us examine the effect of these opposite courses; and I will only hint at it.
In retaining the Ministry, we ate pledging ourselves to be satisfied with a minimum of refurrn—wiredrawn as it will be to suit the purpose of the Whip; and are content to obtain what we ought to have now, when, and not before, the progress of events has conducted U9 to circumstances requiring a wider and more sweeping change than at present we dream of. Then—and not till then—we shall obtain our demands.
But in throwing out the Ministry, what result are we to look for? The very worst we can expect, is—the advent of the Tories. Well ! and what then?—What evil are they to do us?—unless, indeed, they abrogate that mea- sure which their own declarations have rendered inviolate; and this they can. not do. What evil, then, I repeat, can they do us?— The Reform Act has hand-tied them. They may not advance, but they cannot recede. But the good ?—It is this. The march of opinion will be accelerated. The Whigs—that is, the sincerer section of them—seeing we are determined, and knowing they have no hope but in us, will come over to us. We shall have a strong and vigorous Opposition—more effective for good than any twaddling and powerless Ministry.
The Chronicle and Leeds Mercury may seek to cry down Sir WILLIAM MOLESWOKTH ; but there is more true wisdom and farsightedness in his words, "that the time is come when all temporizing—all delicacy towards the Whigs-- all fear of disuniting Reformers, and of embarassing Ministers by pressing for- ward Reform—must be at an end," than in all their cautious and timid lucubrations. To be rash, anomalous as it may seem, is sometimes to be prudent. One word of Mr. WAY:LET'S Amendment. It is called premature ; as if any moment can be premature which arouses us from a delusion. Rather ought we to rejoice that we are awakened so early ; that we are enah'ed to buckle on our traiour at once, instead of lapping our senses in dreams of things that are not, and which, without our own exertions, never will be.
A REFORMER OF THE SPECTATOR SCHOOL•
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