TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE QUEEN.
IRE Morn‘g Post of Tuesday express its regret to find "the most unmanly and unjust attacks now almost daily made upon an Illustrious Female, on the alleged ground, that, obeyin,0.: the im- pule.of correct feeling, she gives good and wholesome 7erlcice to 'her Kingly Spouse. The Post proceeds—" For our own part, We have only to hope and trust that this charge is well founded ; for high as she already stands in the public estimation for her ex- emplary virtues and excellent understanding, the conduct here imputed to her zcould endear her still farther to the hearts and feelings of every true lover of his country, and firm suprorterqf its venerable and enviable institutions."
We are not aware of the unmanly and unjust attacks to which . the Post alludes; nor are we sure of the meaning which in the dictionary of the Tories is affixed to these epithets. We have our- selves very briefly ,adverted to a fact trumpeted forth with great appearance of exultation by the Tories themselves,—that the Queen as opposed to the Reform Bill. In adverting to that fact, we think we were strictly within the line of fair and constitutional argument. We Tully admit, that to drag the Queen before the public in a political discussion in which she took no part—to use her name, without her consent, as a watchword either for the Opposition or the Ministry—would be extremely improper. As long as the Queen confines herself within the limits of her sta- tion, so long ought her privacy to be held sacred. But the case is different, if, passing these limits, she allows herself to be held up as the patroness of a political party. Then the conduct of the Queen becomes a fair and legitimate subject of criticism. The ease of the Wife of a King must not be confounded with that of a Queen Regnant. A Queen Regnant possesses in law und of right all the political attributes of a King, and among these, the attribute which is essential to the existence of royalty in this country—she can do no wrong. Her acts are the ads of her ap- pointed advisers, and they are responsible if they counsel her amiss. The Wife of the King possesses no such immunity from censure, nor is there any subject in the state who is legally called on to answer for her. The Post describes those who are disposed to • find fault with any attempt of the Queen to influence the conduct the King, as forgetting that the Government of England was never more prosperous than under female sovereigns, and as in- fluenced by a desire to exclude the Princess VICTORIA. from the . throne. It is the Post which, in its zeal for the Queen's supposed Toryism, forgets distinctions which are familiar to every schoolboy an politics. We are as little entitled, in speaking of the wife of a king of • England, to confound her position with that of the wife of a sub- ject. We are told of the Queen's obeying the impulse of correct feeling in giving good and wholesome advice to her kingly spouse, and that her conduct in that respect must endear her to every true supporter of the institutions of the country. We by no means allege, that, becoming a Queen, her Majesty must have ceased to be a woman, or that, on the death of GEORGE the Fourth, King WILLIAM ceased to be a man; neither would we insinuate, that, in matters of domestic concernment, the King may not wisely listen to the advice of his spouse, as other men who have good wives find it their interest and their pleasure to listen. But the Tories mean no such private communications as may pass, and do pass, between all married people. The correct feeling to which they allude, is political feeling; the good and wholesome advice, is political advice. Now, we say at once, with all imaginable respect, and not disputing her Majesty's right to feel any way she pleases, that she has no right to tender any such advice to the King. It is not of the smallest moment whether the Queen have counselled the King to make Peers, or not to make them—to pass the Reform Bill, or not to pass it : her interference in such matters, in any shape whatever, is equally illegal ; and those who describe them- selves as the exclusive supporters of our venerable and envied insti- tutions, have read the constitution of England to very little purpose, if they do not see that such irresponsible advice, if tolerated, would sap the very foundations of all that is venerable and enviable in them.
In speaking freely in defence of a great constitutional principle, we would guard ourselves from the imputation of indulging in any improper personality towards the highest subject of the realm; for whom none can be more ready than we are to express at all times our utmost respect. But it is not so much of Queen ADELAIDE that we speak, as of that creature of Tory imagination, which has been set up with a view to control, and if possible to thwart, the wishes of the King, the Ministers, and the People ; and which has been invested, for that purpose, with attributes that it has no sort of claim to, and of which it cannot be too soon stripped, whether we look to its own welfare and safety or the wel- Sam and safety of the empire at large.
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