The Standard has expressed itself glad, and we are sincerely
sorry, to announce the retirement of Lord DURHAM from the Ministry. The joy of the Standard and our regret proceed from our both viewing this resignation in exactly the same light. We believe that we have to thank Lord DURHAM for the best parts of the Reform Act. We looked upon him as by far the most likely man among his colleagues to render that act effectual for the working of those practical improvements in government and the state of society, which all honest and rational Reformers had in view when they struggled so hard and long to obtain it. Unusual pains have been taken to make the public believe, that domestic circumstances alone—family griefs and personal ill health—have influenced Lord DURHAM to retire from a share in the government of the country. With the noble sufferers under afflictions too sacred for public intrusion, none can more truly sympathize than we do; yet, if we mistake not, the family be- reavements alluded to were either not of recent occurrence, or not unexpected; and as far as personal health is concerned, Lord DURHAM is probably not more indisposed at present than he was some time ago. His state of health, therefore, and domestic afflictions, could scarcely have furnished the real motive for his quitting the Cabinet.
But, be this as it may, Lord DURHAM'S retirement must and will be looked upon as a bad symptom for Earl GREY'S Administra- tion. If it had stood alone, it would not have been so much thought of: but it is impossible not to view it in connexion with the gen of the Government since the opening of the sess' 11. 00 • • been an evident tendency towards a union wit Conservative party—the shrewd men of trade—who on their parts have manifested their old enemies half-way. A show of rather angry opposition is sometinws kept up, to be sure,—as if for the purpose of blinding the OW° the approximation of parties which is really in progress all theli "e. Now Lord DURHAM must be a strangely altered man, if he'. countenance any such underhand proceedings, or act in confidence with those who carry them on. The Ministerial organs may asseverate the fact as earnestly as they like, or as their employers dictate, but it will be hard to per- suade any man of common observation that there are not ample reasons why Lord DURHAM should give in his resignation, inde- pendently of his ill health; which, after all, would hardly prevent his attention to the duties of the Privy Seal. His secession may, at all events, be taken as a warning how we place too much confi- dence in the Ministry. It is to be feared that some of those who remain have considerably less honesty, or at any rate less firmness, than their colleague who has quitted it. He was not only straight- forward and manly, but able and well-informed : he understood the position of England, in this year of grace 1833, better than any other man in the Cabinet.
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