MATERIALS FOR A RADICAL MINISTRY.
Is a previous column there is a communication on the practica- bility of constructing a Radical Cabinet. Some of our readers 'will smile, and some will shake their heads: yet, prejudice apart, with one or two exceptions, the present holders of office bight be exchanged for those whose names are in the list, with
benefit to the country. The best Radical names are not, in several instances, selected by our correspondent. There is no sufficient reason why men known in Parliament should alone be put forward as candidates for office. Give us the range of the country, and we would undertake to supply for every department in the state a better Radical Minister than the Whig who now occupies it. And this is not saying a great deal for the Radicals. From the Prime Minister to the Under Secretary, all is mediocrity, or worse. There is not a man in office of whom the Queen rat ht not truly sing— I trust I have in this fair realm
Five hundred good as he."
As regards principle, and comprehensive statesmanship, the better order of Radicals beat the best of the Whig placemen out and out.
It is a mistake to suppose that the talkers in Parliament do the business of the country. They are merely men of show. On clerks and Under-Secretaries the GLENELGS and Jettar Resseses depend for getting through the duties of their respective offices. The Government bills are not drawn up by the Ministers who propose them. Lord JOHN RUSSELL would make a precious jumble of an act of Parliament ! Even the Law Officers of the Crown shirk the duty of framing measures within their peculiar province. Thus, the Wills Bill was drawn up, as Sir JOHN CAMPBELL told the House the other day, by Mr. Mutest.; and it is notorious that Mr. DRINRWATER, Or Mr. HARRISON, Or Mr. SENIOR is employed to give legislatorial shape and method to the crude notions of our ostensible rulers. There is one portion of their duties, however, which Ministers never delegate to others— the bestowal of patronage they always retain for themselves.
Perhaps the time is not fur distant when the real men of busi- ness will supplant the men of show. In the mean while, we agree that it would be good policy fur the Radicals to aim at bringing together a body of candidates for office in whom the country could place confidence.
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