GOVERNMENT OFFICERS.
Arms holding exclusive possession of all places in the Government for so many years, the Tories can with difficulty be persuaded that, as the lawyers say, "the fee is not in them." They forget that in this country, tenants of office are tenants at the will of the people. Hence they conceive that they have cause of complaint in the appointment of any person not of their faction to a place of power and profit. It is only because they labour under this delusion, that such a whine issued from their newspaper organs on the occasion of Lord HEYTESBURY being deprived of the Indian viceroyalty. The New Times is very dolorous on this subject, and deseants on the injustice of stopping poor Lord HEYTESBURY, after be had doubtless expended the whole of his outfit in making preparations for his new office, besides directing the current of his thoughts front domestic °Miss to those of India. The Pest, too, endeavours to horrify its readers with the prospect of seeing every Tory swept out of office. One would suppose that it bad been the practice of the Tories to employ and pamper their political enemies, were it not notorious that they rigidly pursued a more rational course. Sir GEORGE SICEE'S appointment was unceremoniously revoked by the Duke although his baggage was actually shipped. Earl GRANVILLE was replaced by Lord COWLEY at Paris, though there was not the least chance of the latter Lord remaining there for three months. Lord NUGENT was recalled from the Ionian Islands. In short, the Tories had removed or were preparing to remove almost every Whig official, when their Ministry was forced to resign. Do we blame them for this ? Not in the least : it was their only course of safety. What we do object to, is the extraordinary assurance of those who fancy that they have a right to complain when the same course is adopted by the Whigs.
We only wish that Lord MELBOURNE may persevere in what seems to be his present resolve, to dismiss all hostile and treacherous subordinates. That no Government can stand which is thwarted, or not heartily served, by its own officials, is a truth which has been repeated usque ad nauseam. There was no need of reminding the Tories of this. God knows, they were sufficiently aware of it, as their words and actions proved. But the Whigs were guilty of the folly of imagining that they could afford to despise ordinary precautions—could venture to neglect their friends and supply their enemies with ammunition. They have suffered severely for this unpardonable blunder, and, it is to be hoped, have grown wiser by experience. We shall soon discover what reliance may be placed on the firmness of the new Ministry—on their desire and their power to help Their friends and discourage their enemies. In various parts of the country the official agents of the Government are moving heaven and earth to annoy the Reformers, and throw out their candidates for the House of Commons. Nowhere is this system more vigorously carried on than in the county of Inverness. The Duke of GORDON and Colonel GRANT, one the Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire, the other of Inverness-shire, with a host of paid agents of the Government and Justices of the Peace, are incessantly employed in organizing an opposition to the Government candidate. Were the WELLINGTON sytern adopted, every man of them would be dismissed within a week ; and if Lord MELBOURNE expects that at the next election the Reformers will rally round his Ministry, he must follow a similar course—he must use the power with which he is invested to protect his friends and cripple the resources of his antagonists.
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