TOPICS OF THE DAY.

THE POSITION OF THE MINISTRY.

WE quoted • in the Spectator of last week a paragraph from the Times, relative to the election of Sir JOHN HonHousE for West- minster. While Sir Joins, somewhat indiscreetly, endeavoured to make it appear, that the Westminster electors intended to mark their approval of the conduct of Ministers, by their renewed choice of himself for their representative, the Leading Journal took a very different view of the case : it was Sir JOHN, the Times said, who lent strength to the Ministers—it was a proof of uncommon merit that his connexion with them had not lost him his seat. This cer- tainly was not paying a very high compliment to its quondam Ministerial friends ; but the Times having discovered, we presume, that it was sailing on the right tack, fired a regular broadside into the Treasury on Thursday last. After stating that the main body of the Reformed House of Commons was, when first sworn in, deci,dedly Ministerial,—and that the motive which induced the electors to return men of that political stamp, was confidence in the declarations of Ministers that the Reform Bill was only a means for the attainment of every other useful reform,—the Times proceeds as follows.

"Now, it seems not altogether irrational to conjecture, that what the King's Ministers gained by fidelity to their engagements, they might, by continuing the same proud course of honour and virtue, have preserved to this hour undi- minished. Yet what appears to be the fact? In Parliament, as the session advanced, their majorities have been dwindling from week to week ; and out of Parliament their declared supporters have been roughly handled wherever they showed themselves as candidates against Radicals or 'Tories. In the City of London which at the General Election bad returned Alderman Waithman, an

avowed of Ministers, a new election was held for a citizen to supply the place of that honest and consistent Whig; but instead of Alderman Venables, who, besides being a pledged Liberal, and a friend of the Grey Administration, Lad recent and considerable claims upon the favour of the London constituency, Mr. Lyall, a known Tory, was returned. In Marylebone Mr. Murray, a pro- fessed friend of his Majesty's Ministers, was set aside with little apparent trou- ble; and Sir Samuel Whalley, whose Liberal politics were understood to be of a far broader and more thoroughgoing character than those which had lately begun to be ascribed to the Cabinet, was elected by a large majority. Mr. Hope, the rankest of the Tory race, was far ahead of the Ministerial candidate. The Grey principles were, it seems, more odious even than those of the Conservative Club. At Sunderland, the friend of Ministers was signally defeated. At Gloucester itself, where the Whig Berkeleys are so strong a gentleman of that family, who had just taken office, and had thus identified his cause with that of Ministers, has been beaten by a Tory, who himself but a few short weeks before had been a rejected suitor."

It is evident from these defeats, says the Times, that the "mind of the country is undergoing an Anti-Ministerial change :" and since that is the case, the Times thinks it prudent to undergo an Anti-Ministerial change also. To do the Leading Journal justice, it has not minced the matter: it slashes away at the poor Whigs with full as much fury as ever it poured upon the Destructives.

," The public have often been appealed to on behalf of Ministers, by reason of the difficulties under which Lord Althorp and his colleagues have been placed by the keenness and pertinacity of the opposition in the House of Commons u pon the Irish Coercion Bill. But were not such difficulties in a great degree of -their own creation?"

We of the Spectator have always held—and what is more, have repeatedly expressed our opinion—that their difficulties, from the very beginning of the Session, were of their own creation. But what course would the Ministry have adopted, had they acted with common forethought and discretion? Let us again hear what the Times has to say upon this point.

"Was there ever a more unfortunate and injudicious contrast than that which Ministers forced upon every man's attention, between their eagerness to pass such a bill into law, and their seeming repugnance to realize, or even to develop satisfactorily, any plan of thorough conciliatory Reform for England or Ireland, in affairs of Church, or Finance, or Adminstrarive policy?

" Had Mr. Stanley or Lord Althorp come forward in the first instance, and simultaneously with the proposal of the Coercive Bill opened out a scheme at once enlarged and definite, for the readjustment of Ecclesiastical interests of? all communions—for the amendment of the Poor- laws, which they ought themselves to have examined and considered—for the establishment of Irish Poor-laws--- for the relief of Factory children from torture and disease—for the moral and re- ligious Education of the poor of both countries—for the removal and commu- tation of odious and inequitable Taxes, long cried out against by the whole kingdom—it would not have been at all required of Ministers that they should proceed at once to discuss and enact such measures until after the Coercion Bill Lad passed; but the mere announcement of such views would have neutralized three-fourths of the opposition to the repressive bill; so that the time thus gained would have enabled Ministers to get on far more rapidly with the other business of the session than they have done."

The readers of the Spectator, we believe, will not be struck with the novelty of these suggestions, whatever they may think of their value. We have in fact repeatedly urged the Ministry, before the tide had decidedly turned against them, to adopt that line Of con- duct which the Times, now that it is too late to do them any ser- vice, assures them would have enabled them to retain their power and popularity. Now we call upon our readers to judge, who have aeted the most patriotic part in this conjuncture—we, who anxiously and honestly gave them timely notice of the dangers which beset their path, or those thoroughgoing partisans, who having helped them along to the brink of the precipice, stand ready to fling them over it into the abyss below ? The Morning Chronicle also bears witness to the unpopularity of Earl GREY and his colleagues. "The course," it says, "that Ministers have hitherto pursued, has been unpopular, as has been but too evidently demonstrated." The Chronicle then proceeds feebly to plead in their defence, that they were afraid of the Con- servatives, and introduced their Suppression Bill to conciliate these implacable foes. • This is precisery the delinquency.which we lay to their charge : they have been bent upon pleasing and bribing over the Conservatives, at the risk of disappointing and alienating the Reformers—the Nation. But the Chronicle would fain make the Reformers as much in dread of the Tories as the Ministers are admitted to be.

" It is quite true that, at present, we are all at the mercy of the Crown and the Conservatives. Were the King to withdraw his confidence from the Whigs, and a dissolution to take place at the present moment, the next Parliament would be Conservative."

Indeed ! Are we all at the mercy of the Conservatives ? What then is the Reform Act good for ? If the Whig party were to come into contact with the. Conservative phalanx now, we admit that it might be shattered to pieces : the -great body, however, of the Reformers of England are made of firmer stuff—the Con- servatives would gain a few votes, at the expense of the Whigs, by a new election, but the Independents and Radicals would gain many more.

It will be said, that Earl GREY and his. colleagues must surely have discovered the error of their ways—they must see as clearly as the Times that "the ground is slipping: from under their feet; and a change for the better will ensue when .Parliament reassem- bles. How far this is likely to be the Case, the following signifi- cant paragraphs, which we copy from the Morning Herald; will enable the reader to judge.

" The race of political guessers and quidnuncs have their attention kept wholly directed to the supposed goings-on during• the' Easter week, at Lord Sefton's villa, Stoke Farm, near Windsor ; at which place the Lord Chancellor and the Home Secretary are passing the vacation ; while, by what is deemed a singular coincidence, Sir Robert Peel has fixed upon Salt Hill, in the same neighbourhood, as the place of his holyday sojourn. This, added to the indis- position (either real or official) of Lord Althorp, affords a wider field for con- jecture than any which the loungers about St. James's-Street, and at the Clubs, have had to work upon for a considerable time." * * " The King when at Windsor, during his morning rides, pays a frequent visit to the cottage of Lord Sifton, at Stoke Farm, only a few miles from the palace. Her Majesty, who is an enthusiastic florist, has often been delighted with the conservatory at Stoke Farm ; which is upon a large scale, and is decorated with the most choice native and exotic plants." * * S * " Nothwithstanding the floral beauties of Stoke Farm, its present visitants, it is said, do not find themselves entirely on a bed of roses."

The Ministers, then, are persuaded, that to regain their lost footing in the country, a union with the trading politicians of the Conservative party is all that is necessary !

When our correspondent and adviser, JOHN SMITH of Oxford Street, a few weeks since informed us that we were "on the wrong tack,"—that the popularity of the' Whig Ministers, "the Reform- ing Ministers," was firmly rooted,—we told, him to wait for six months, and then feel how the public pulse would beat upon that subject. Well, six weeks, instead of months, have not elapsed, and the sworn advocates of Ministers, the Times and the Globe among the rest, are obliged to allow that their party is falling to pieces. If we once stood almost alone among the Liberals in opposition to their policy, we are any thing but singular in our opi- nion now.