THE WHIGS, risliE TORIES, AND THE PEOPLE.*
WHEN a patient enters the hospital with a complication of mortal diseases, his end is not the less certain because one cannot name the hour or point out the bed on which he will die. Such has for some time been the case of the MELnoultsE Government. Pre- cisely when or on what question it would expire, was to the last as doubtful as its dissolution has been for some time inevitable. Monday last happened to be the day, and the Jamaica Bill the oc- casion ; but the Sham " Reform Government" was not then or thus destroyed : it has died of its own follies and vices—of a course of fraud, cowardice, and incapacity, pursued through three wearisome years.
This is not the opinion of two sets of men about town, who have angrily debated during the week, whether Lord MEL- BOURNE'S Government was destroyed by ten Radical votes against the Jamaica Bill, or by Lord JOHN Russm.es Tory pamphlet. And who are these that would cast the blame on any shoulders but * This paper was in print before Sir ROBERT PEEL went out upon the question ofthe Palace Women, and the old Premier undertook to attempt the • reconstructs of Lis Government. It is retained as the deliberate expression of views which do not alter with each trifling incident. Its perfect applicabi- lity is but postponed for a little while. theheown The very men who deserve it nest, 'for-having en- couraged the in their suicidal 'course since Easter .1836. Ten votes upon a Colonial question would. not have; upset the Ga- vernment if it had not been tottering to its fall; nor would Lord jums's pamphlet have affected any Ind hiniself,if the great fraud of the MELBOURNE Government, which it officially exposes, had not been long pursued and long since found out. Allow the ut- most weight to the votes and the pamphlet, we must still go back to the ceases of a state of affairs m which a few honest votes and hgneSt pages could have so much weight. At most, the dispute is only about the last feather which broke the horse's back. The disputants say nothing of the great load which they helped to ac- cumulate, and which gave importance to the feather. They accuse and recriminate about trifles, in order to escape from the gravest self-reproach. Nor is this the only delusion into which supporters of the late Government are led by a disinclination to acknowledge even to themselves the greatness of their past errors. They affect, or en- deavour to believe, that nothing more has happened than a change of Ministry. They describe the event as if it could have been pro- duced by the insignificant causes to which they attribute it. But they will soon discover that the true causes of the fall of the MEL- BOURNE Government have produced other and litr more important effects. The game of ” keeping out the Tories " by Whig truck- ling to Toryism, and Radical support of the Whigs in that grand folly, is at length played to an end ; and not the MELBOURNE Government merely, but the Liberal party, is, one may say, extinct as a party. For the last two years, Sir ROBERT PEEL'S object has been to keep out of office until he could get in with nothing to fear from the Opposition. This object he has accomplished by Whig and Radical aid. He has plucked "the pear" at last, but not till it was ripe. Any thing like lbrmidable opposition to his govern- ment is out of the question. Many of the mere Whigs, with Lord Jour at their head, agree with the Tory leader on nearly all sub- jects; and most of those who would oppose him on party grounds only, will be displaced by Tories or Radicals at the next election. In consequence, too, of the disunion and apathy which have now got complete possession of all except the Tories, a general election will make sad havoc among the Radicals of every shade. We should not be surprised to see 450 Tories in the new House of Commons ; and even without a dissolution of Parliament, the Tory leader has nothing to fear from the quarrelling, disheartened, and objectless Members who will sit on the Speaker's left hand. It would be wrong to call them an Opposition, or even a party. There is no party now but the Tory party. And who, that reflects for a mo- ment, can imagine that this great revolution has been suddenly produced by ten votes or a candid pamphlet ? Admitting the proxi- mate cause of the resignation of the MELBOURNE Ministry to have been Lord JOHN'S pamphlet or the ten votes, still the resignation itself, and yet more the immediate cause or occasion of it, is a matter of little consequence when compared with the ruin of the 'Reform party and the triumph of the Tories throughout the country. The Tories have been " kept out" so long as to be in without an Opposition. Any such trifle as ten votes, or a Minister's pamphlet, or a caprice of the Court, might have given us a Tory Ministry ; but an unopposea Tory Ministry is the produce of for other causes. The existence of those causes, their progressive operation, and their inevitable result, were long since pointed out in this journal. To learn them now, we venture to remark, would be a better occupation than squabbling about the mere mode or form of the end which they have produced. The miserable policy, if policy it may be termed, of the Mee- 110r1INE Government since Easter 18:36, would have ended in a change of 'Ministry long ag,o, if the Tories had been less feared and hated. This their leaders know fill]. well. They are perfectly aware also, that, notwithstanding the present triumph of their party as a party, the old principles of' the party could not be asserted, or its old habits indulged in, with the least hope of im- punity. Eight years of the " cold shade of Opposition" have created the class of Prudent Tories. These, we believe, will have no hand in any thing like an attempt to govern Ireland on Orange principles. Nor will they, without whom the party could not hold together tbr a month, stand in the way of merely practical mea- sures of relbrm. It' adversity has not been lost on them, they will also take good care to prey et in their subordinates that arro- gance and insolence of office which used to distinguish the party, and was a main cause of its unpopularity. Of course we shall have another Tnmworth manifesto, or some equivalent declaration of Sir Romer Penh's purposes. Surely he will not lbrget, that in passing the Irish Emancipation Act, a necessity was created for giving to the Catholics or Irish that share in the administration of alibirs, or Government patronage, which Mr. O'Cossiern. calls "justice to Ireland." :Numerous measures of economical or social re:brill, involving no organic change, are either demanded by the public or required to improve the condition and calm the irrita- tion of the labouring classes. Will Post-office Reform be denied by the present, as it was by the late Government ? or will Lord Lomerneu bring forward, as he would surely carry, a measure for giving effect to Mr. WARBURTON'S recommendation on that sub- ject ? The Colonies and Colonization present ample room for highly popular reforms, to which no rational Tory could object. The administration of Law, and above all Equity Law—Police- Secondary Punishments—and many other subjects which have no relation to questions of the Church or the Constitution, invite Sir Itonamr Past's Cabinet to mark the incapacity of their pre- deeessors for even administrative improvements. It has long been thought by some, that much more good, of one sort • or other,. might be got from a Prudent Tory, than from the Melbourne-k, Whig Government. Whatever the new Minister may promise in this way, he will atall events have a fair trial. Factious opposition he has none to guard against. Nor indeed—unfortunately for him--- serious opposition of any kind for some time to come, do, or fail to do, what he may. And herein consists his only danger. For if, deceived by the present gloomy aspect of the Liberal cause, ho should be led to imagine that the principles and practices of old Toryism may be safely followed, he will soon reestablish the Re- form party, composed of new men : and then, as surely as this nation is the best and bravest in the world, we shall have 1930 over again, but with a different result.
And this brings us to what more especially concerns the politi- cal readers of the Spectator. Come what may to parties or sets of men, the principles of responsible government are eternal, and ever on the advance in the present state of the world. They will gain strength even from the disastrous events of the last three years. The great fraud is at an end. The Sham Reformers must disap- pear from the scene. Those who are in earnest will alone find ac- ceptance with the People. A band of these in the House of Com- mons, though a small minority, will henceforth represent and battle for the millions. The voice of the People will again be heard within the walls of the People's House. What if most of the creatures of the Reform Bill should lose their seats ? Why, only this—that a set of men without knowledge, or talent, or energy, or honesty, will be sent back to the money-grubbing pursuits forwhich alone they are fit, instead of awkwardly figuring at Court balls, creep- ing about the public offices after patronage, and voting (for they can- not speak) in support of the Government of the day. These and the Mere Whigs will be struck down by the score at a general election. And a very good riddance ofvery bad rubbish it will be. As a large Tory majority is certain, let those who have the power take care that the itetbrm minority is of the best quality. A town constituency which shall elect one Reformer of ability with one Tory, will serve . •
the good cause far more effectually than by returning two—what shall we say ?—rips or good-for-nothings, calling themselves Radi- cals, or two Sham Reformers called Whigs. Let us see what virtue there is in the Reform Bill. Hitherto it has scarcely sent to Par- . liament one man qualified to cut a great figure there. It is in the- nature of things, that the popular cause, which continually ad- vances even like the stream of a river occasionally blown into re- ceding waves, should ultimately prevail. We never despaired of it . less than at this moment, when the People are quit of Whig mis- leading, and must resort to self-reliance instead. Aide toi, et le Ciel efficient!
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