The first session of the Conservative Government after the Whig
decade is over ; and we look back to see what has been done—how far the promises of the opening have been fulfilled. In particulars there is much default ; on the whole, perhaps the gain exceeds the expectation. The session was opened under circumstances of pe- culiar splendour : the Queen had just come from the ceremony of bestowing a name on the heir-apparent ; one of "the Great Powers of Europe" sat by her side ; the newly-formed Conservative Go- vernment made its debilt in such ceremonies : surrounded by na- tional difficulties, that party professed to be burning with anxiety to signalize itselfin Government ; the new Opposition made a show. of being equally ardent to shame the Ministers by great enterprises. The Ministerial or Queen's Speech promised largely, but with arc imposing moderation : it heralded a revision and squaring of the national finances, alteration of the Corn-laws revision of the Im- port-duties, Law reforms and reforms of the Ecclesiastical Courts, and of the Registration of electors; and it spoke of the exemplary fortitude of the people under severe and continued distress in terms of solemn praise, as if something to relieve them must inevitably be done.
Some of these promises have been performed. Triumphing over the opposition of his own supporters, successfully resisting the efforts of opponents to drag him further and faster in his course than he could then safely or usefully go, Sir ROBERT PEEL has effected a change of the Corn-laws. The new Corn-importation Act is in principle the same as that which it has superseded,—a sliding, • scale, imposing an elastic and yielding restriction; but the practical evils of the old measure are mitigated • and the law remains in that state that, pared down to the hare principle, it remains for one further trial to ascertain whether the principle can be longer tolerated. In a companion measure, for permitting the use of foreign corn for ship-biscuit, the principle has been given up. The Import-duties have been revised, and have undergone a • .- sweepin5 alteration : intelligible principles have been applied to the Tariff—the removal of all prohibition, the imposition of low duties on raw material, and of moderate duties on other articles. - If the less important articles have for the most part had the benefit of the change, the Tariff hai.still been relieved from its grossest ab- surdities; a good first step'has been made, and the starting-point for further progress has been placed far in advance. Sir ROBERT PEEL'S condition to putting the finances in order and making re- venue equal to expenditure—the Income-tax—has been acceded to, not without violent objection, but with less substantial opposition than might have been expected. These projects of the Speech are now the law of the land.
Other early undertakings have fared less fortunately. An im- perfect account is to be shown in the performance of the Law reforms. Two limbs of the triple measure for amendments in the administration of Bankruptcy and Lunacy and the enlargement of County Courts jurisdiction, the Bankruptcy and Lunacy Bills have attained completion ; the County Courts Bill, that which had the most general interest, stands over till next session. By Ministerial favour, Lord BROUGHAM has been permitted virtually to abolish imprisonment for debt, by his cessio luntorum bill. The reform of the Ecclesiastical Courts, however, has hardly been thought of'. The alteration of the Registration-law has proceeded no further
than the composition of a bill, laid on the table during the last week of the session, to be criticised during the long recess. The Royal Commission to inquire into the collection of the Revenue has led to nothing : the abortive affair seems to be hushed up. A show of great bustle was made at the beginning in the introduction of Colo-
nial measures ; for Lord STANLEY introduced two on the second day of the session—the Australia and New Zealand Lands Bill and the Passengers Bill. The Lands Bill, establishing an uniform and a
better, though far from the best mode of sale, in the Colonies named, became law some time back : the improved Passengers Act has but recently been completed. New South Wales has had the gift of a constitution—a Legislative Chamber, consisting of one- third of Government nominees and two-thirds of elective members : Newfoundland has had a similar constitution, instead of the more democratic one which it possessed already, and which fructified in broken heads and rejected bills. Two important inquiries have been conducted by Government Select Committees, into the state
of the West India Colonies and the state of the West African settlements, partly with a view to Negro emigration. Here is in- deed some important Colonial business ; but more has been forced upon Government than performed by the spontaneous zeal of the
Colonial Minister. The rumour that there was to be a Govern- ment scheme of general British emigration, as a relief from the dis- tress of home congestion, which occurs periodically, proved to be a baseless fallacy. Such is the Government account of work done. In the manage- anent of of that work, less decision, less promptitude, and less com- plete skill has been observed, than friends of the new rulers anti- cipated: there have been some blunders in legislation ; and the fault of delay is proved not to be exclusively, though preeminently, a Whig failing. The miscellaneous questions of the day have made little progress this session. The Anti-Poor-law agitation has lost ground very considerably. Ministers have not repudiated the Poor-law be- queathed to them by their predecessors : they introduced a mea- sure for its continuance and amelioration ; and the Anti-Poor-law Members managed so adroitly as to split the bill in their contest, the continuance part being carried, and the ameliorating part being flung out till next session. The Anti-Corn-law agitation has gained and lost in about equal degrees,—gained by the pressure of " distress " and commercial difficulty; and lost by the mismanage- xnent of its agitators, who have extorted attention, at the expense of wearying politicians in and out of Parliament, and have startled the world, at the expense of some incredulity, and some sneers at extravagant verbiage. The question stands over till the effect of Sir Roam PEEL'S new Corn Act be understood. As for Chartism, the "monster petition" has been presented, debated, and forgotten. If the Chartists have made any progress, it has been out of doors, in gaining proselytes from the ranks of disappointed Corn-law Re- peelers. Certainly their memorials have not yet persuaded Queen IricroitL& to appoint a Chartist Cabinet. The new question of "Complete Suffrage," or Mr. STURGE'S middle-class Chartism, has also bad its petition, its debate, and its temporary oblivion. As for Education, to the 30,0001. yearly given by the Whig Govern- ment the Tories have added 10,000/., and talked of doing more : that is all the immediate progress, but the indications are cheering. Church-rates—Sir JOHN EASTHOPE has talked about them, and Sir ROBERT PEEL has said that he won't say what he thinks about doing something. Church-extension—Sir ROBERT INGLIS has handed over his charge to Sir ROBERT PEEL, who will think about it—anxiously, but won't give any money. People have laughed at Sir ROBERT INGLIS'S credulity ; his cunning was more amusing : he no doubt felt like a tired lover glad of any pretext for slinking out of the company of the importunate fair—without the smallest real expectation that Sir ROBERT PEEL would "marry the girl himself." The Scottish Church question has been shelved : Ministers have tried to think about that, but the agitators of the North made the question absolutely unmanageable even for their own friends ; and they are left to the courts of law. Irish Repeal has not been a Parliamentary question : it is moribund even on the Dublin Corn Exchange ; and Sir ROBERT PEEL'S dreaded "difficulty with Ire- land" expired with Mr. SHEIL's speech on Irish grievances.
The wholesale corruption of the General Election, the coarse in- triguing of election-mongers, Rind a concurrence of disclosures, have forced the subject upon the attention of Parliament. Sir ROBERT PEEL is impervious to doubt as to the successful working of his Election-tribunal; but every one else sees that the result of Election Committees has become a matter of mere party chances : Chairmen are put into the dice-box, and as it turns up Whig or Tory the players on either side win. But while going through the ceremony of taking evidence before placing the Chairman's fellow- politician in the contested seat, the Committees have thrown much light on the regular business of bribery, which has become almost a matter of insurance, like any other speculation. Mr. ROEBUCK'S vigorous and unexpected pouncing upon the newly-classified of- fences, "corrupt compromises," made a further disclosure ; and the House of Commons, unable to evade some tribute to decency, passed the portion of Lord Joan RUSSELL'S new Bribery Bill which tended to the "discovery" of bribery and corrupt compromise, and better defined what punishable bribery is. A main root of the evil, the bias of the judges on which the speculators in corruption calculate their chances, remains untouched ; and Ipswich, twice convicted, has a third permission to go on again, and be one of the first to explore the loopholes in Lord Joan's bill.
While the Commons have been busy in lawmaking and talking, -the Peers have talked little, and legislated less. Lord CLAN- MICARDE boasted that the House was not merely to "register the edicts of the House of Commons" : they have done little better: they have registered the great edicts of the session, those of the Income-tax, the Tariff, and the Corn-law. There have been minor exceptions : Lord ASHLEY'S Mines and Collieries Bill was muti- lated; and the enemies of Government taunted them because they
▪ ould not carry out in the Lords the support which Sir JAMES Giuliani promised in the Commons. The Tory Ministers, it was said, could not command, any more than the Whig Minis- ters, the concurrence of the House of Peers. No inference could be more futile : the opposition to the measure was not political, but proprietary ; it was evaded in the Commons by the rapidity with which the bill passed ; and it took its stand in the Upper house, not as being the House of Peers, but because it was there enabled to overtake the bill in a later stage. The Lords had no opinion adverse to Ministers ; for Ministers had in the case no opinion cognizable by the Lords, as the bill was not a Ministerial measure: but by the time the bill was before the Upper House, the cotileuVaerkhad mustered in force too strong to be defied. Besides, not iifevi 6f4eir Lordships deal in coal. Very considerable changes have, of course, taken place in the position of leading men in either B mise. From the leader of the Opposition, deeding in oracular ambiguities and in equivocal sup- ports of the Whig Ministers, Sir RODpItT haw has become him- self the Minister, his professions tested in measures ; as circum- spect as ever, bolder than he was ever supposed to be, more power- ful than any calculated ; while be has come forth with strong opi- nions on the current questions of the day, in politics and social morals, that mark him to have advanced fully as far as his rivals in Liberalism, with more power to give effect to his own convictions. Sir JAMES GRAHAM has maintained his reputation as a debater, and has added to his reputation as a useful Minister,—with a little shake recently on his doctrine of the judicial functions of common constables in respect of public meetings. Excellent Lord ELIOT has helped to keep Ireland without the threatened insurrection, and his administration above suspicion ; which sleeps not. Lord STAN- LEY, once energetic to pugnacity, has grown listless and indolent ; coerced to an uneasy discretion perhaps, and found to be incapable of exertion without the stimulus of mischief. No less degenerate is the condition of the new Opposition leader, Lord JOHN Rus- SELL he has been diligent only in party contests, while his suc- cessor in the leadership of the Commons was new to his seat ; yet, while hindering the Ministerial measures, he was perpetually seen voting with the Tory against his own followers ; and at last, more bridegroom than statesman, he has eloped to the Scottish hills be- fore the grouse-season, leaving his single measure of the session, the Bribery Bill, to its fate. Lord Jonit's laxity inspired another quondam Minister with hopes, and Lord PeLmEssxon has missed no opportunity of volunteering for the leadership of the Opposition. No Member has gained a greater degree of promotion in Parlia- mentary rank than Mr. ROEBUCK: his intrepidity, adroitness, and discretion in managing the Compromise operations, completely re- trieved the blunder to which the irritability of illness betrayed him in the autumnal session, when he was provoked to bandy person- alities with the Times. He has more than any other speaker kept broad principles in view, and has contributed perhaps more than any to neutralize mere factious activity. With a more engaging manner, with the happiest pleasantry of phrase, Mr. CHARLES BuLLEE has advanced in reputation as a serviceable debater, but hardly as a statesman ; for his efforts appear to have been less regulated by comprehensive views aud high principles than by the passing interests of party : he was the able official out of office, keeping his hand in and his name up against a return ; and he has so far succeeded. "The people "—that is, not the rich or the powerful—have found in Mr. THOMAS DUNCOMBE a stanch and sometimes a judicious advocate. Mr. COBDEN has in some respects justified the expectations formed of him : he has commanded attention, and by a substantial and earn- est mode of treating his subjects, which at times rose to eloquence, he has impressed reluctant listeners and overborne calumny and ugly appearances. He has not, however, shown himself possessed of more than one idea; and the strong taint of some sectarian or perhaps provincial vulgarism, which disfigures his composition, prevents his being so useful in the House as without. Mr. Bossism) FERRAN)), though not witty, is to be reckoned among the facethe of the General Election—a godsend to a tired House.
Passing again to the Lords, we find the anomalous position of the Duke of WELLINGTON, a member of the Cabinet without office, accounted for by his increasing age and still great energy—his sur- viving vigour on occasion, without a sustained activity. He has lent to Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Cabinet the vouchers of his Tory name and his personal honesty ; and both have done service. Lord LYNDHURST has mellowed and lost his sprightly acerbity. Lord RIPON and others have appeared in the disadvantageous light of mere copyists of the Premier—his messengers to the House of Lords. The Duke of RICHMOND, who talked of unmaking PEEL as he had been made, talks so no longer ; and Bomintonem has pocketed the affront of the new Corn-law. Lord MELBOURNE has made clever, careless, occasional remarks, less hostile than might have been expected, on the measures of his victors. The Anti- Poor-law Peer, Earl STANHOPE, wastes his bitterness in fruitless diatribes against PEEL. The Anti-Corn-law Lords, RADNOR and KINNAIRD, have spoken, et voila tout. Lord BROUGHAM has contri- buted divers good essays, with hits all round. Of the new Peers, Lord MONTEAGLE has rather advanced upon the reputation of SPRING Rica: he has brought all his information and ability in speech to bear, without being obliged to meddle with the practical conduct of measures. Lord CAMPBELL does not sustain the repu- tation of "Plain JOHN" the barrister : his law is always out of time or out of place,—as when he gave to the enunciation of some sound objections to Members of the Commons pleading at the bar of the Lords the air of a petty personality against Mr. RoEnocs. The session has rendered more distinct, rather than changed, the position of parties ; for the change occurred before the session began. Parties now know their places. The pure Tories—the better part of their faction transformed into "Conservative "—have gone over to the Speaker's right hand, to learn that they are actually out of date. The Whigs, incapable of bringing forth any new measures, have tried to wring some kind of sustenance out of the rejected Whig measures of the past : their leader, Lord Joan: RussELL, whose votes would almost defy classification as fcr or against the " Liberal " party, has abdicated. The Radicals, had long ceased to be classed by that name ; they have now neither sectional co- herence nor individual identity. Opposed by the feebleness of the Whigs, the feebleness of the Radicals, 9f the Agriculturists or Country Gentleman party, and of the old Tories, the Conservative or PEEL party derive strength from thesheer want of efficient ants-
onists. The alarms -of the a-riculturists, which once seriously menaced it, have subeided : br the first instalment of the Income- tax has not yet been paid. le
Altogether, the session has been characterized by progress. The disorderly state of the financlOs has been put to rights, if at the ex- pense of the Income-tax. The Corn-laws have been shaken to the foundation ; they have been put into an amended form for im- mediate practical purposes, while the breach of their integrity has prepared, not prevented, further change. Free Trade has made a stride, in its recognition as a principle to be aimed at, in the reconstruction of the Tariff. Toryism—understanding by the term the bundle of opinions professed by the ruling party before 1830— has been consigned to the lumber-room, and it is no longer a clog on the march of opinion. And if the " distress " does continue, even in that there are signs that the lowest ebb has been reached, and that the tide turns for the flood.
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