TOPICS OF THE DAY.
A STALE TRICK, NEWLY-REVIVED BY THE TORIES.
TstouGH far from inclined to cultivate the wide field of specula- tion that is presented by the approaching commencement of a new reign, or to occupy our readers with such mere guess-work as any inquiry concerning the probable consequences of the change which now seems inevitable, yet we cannot allow to pass, without remark, certain indications of a Tory design in relation to this subject. Ingratitude to parents is the commonest vice of heirs, as it is generally their misfortune to be instigated in that direction. The Princess VICTORIA will not escape the instigations at any rate ; as may be seen by the following extract from an elaborate article in the Times of Thursday- " A person of her illustrious rank and trying functions ought to be prepared in early life to think for herself—to form, under difficult circumstances, prompt and independent resolution—to employ her own discernment upon the dia- meters of all around her—to take nothing upon trust ; she ought to be influenced by her elders through reason rather than coercion—to be taught how to detect the deceitful, to keep the presumptuous aloof, to hold intriguers in abhorrence. She ought to be treated, even while it child, with an eye to her early maturity. Above all this, she ought not, after her approach to womanhood, to be made the subject of jealous or vexatious restraint, or be continued in a state of narrow pupilage after she had reached that position wherein she might be called upon for the exercise of a responsible will, of a disciplined judgment, and an enlarged intelligence."
" Think for herself," " independent resolutions," " her own discernment," "jealous or vexatious restraint," " narrow pupil- age: " such are the terms with which in private life the insidious and self-interested endeavour to practise upon heirs. But the future occupant of a throne, as being better worth practising upon, is more exposed to such attacks. The object of such at- tacks is to curry favour for profit; and the means employed ne- cessarily involve the suggestion of hostility between parent and child : for, as all depends upon stimulating self-love and exciting self-will, so it follows that the young person to be made a tool of must be stirred to differ with the parent. Generally, the matter of the dispute is not of much consequence ; a dispute is the grand point. But in this cese it is otherwise. If the Tories could persuade the Princess VICTORIA to disagree with her excellent mother, they would at the same time persuade her to agree with themselves. They would, as it were, kill two birds with one stone; depriving the youthful Queen not only of her best, because her most disinterested and affectionate adviser—hut also of the attach- ment of the people, which has been generously awarded to her upon trust, and which makes her independent of' the Tories. While they tell her to assert her independence, their only object is to render her dependent on themselves. When they ask her to "think for herself," they mean that they should think for her. Though very young, she may be capable of really thinking for herself. In that case, she will not be cheated by a trick which is as stale as successions.
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