OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

GOVERNMENT PATRONAGE.

Mortsresra CHRONICLE—We are most unwilling, at so critical a pe- riod, to embarrass the Government by any recommendations or reflec- tions which could remotely involve its popularity, or indirectly endanger the success of the great vital question of Reform in the 1-louse of Lords. But so many public and private remonstrances on the disposition of its patronage have reached us from all parts of the kingdom, and the dis- gusting facts connected with the Dublin Election are so recent and no- torious, that we reluctantly enter our protest, and apprize Lord Grey of the state of public feeling on this subject, so intimately and necessa- rily connected with the stability of his Cabinet. The Tory party in possession of political power, which, with one short interval, they unin- terruptedly monopolized for the last fifty years, mainly organized and perfected an intolerable rule, by promoting all their ultra partisans throughout the kingdom to offices of influence, profit, honour, and po- litical power. Prostration and subserviency, bigotry and party violence, met their sure reward in the humble and in the higher ranks of society. From the Lord Lieutenant to the parish sexton, who lowered his lord- ship's coffin into the family vault, every municipal and civil office was filled with "thick and thin men." The Lieutenancy and Magistracy of all the counties in England, Wales, and Scotland, were crammed ex- clusively with Tories. Toryism was the only passport to honours or emoluments. The Church, the Army, the Navy, the close Corporations, -the Law, India, the Colonies, the Civil and Diplomatic services of the State, were crowded with political creatures of the Ministers of the day. Every man of liberal and independent principles was proscribed, and the door of advancement and preferment closed against him. The Law was the only exception, when the bait of judicial appointments periodically trapped a few rats to silence an occasional public man who tormented the Minister, in or out of Parliament, or, may be, because a Premier -could discover no brains among the sincere political bigots of the legal profession. Doubtless this exclusive system in the disposal of patronage chiefly perpetuated the baneful and ruinous faction of Toryism, and, strengthening- the extraordinary usurpations of the Boroughmongers, formed an almost insurmountable barrier round the citadel of corruption. Wo betide that unhappy public backslider who, incautiously or in a frantic moment of conscientious feeling, perpetrated one act of an Anti-Ministe- rial nature. A lord lieutenant, a general officer, a gauger, were sum- marily sent to the right-about with as much sang froid as the Duke of Wellington ordered the execution of a deserter. The inundation • of public opinion, and the extraordinary political circumstances in Europe which called Lord Grey to the councils of the nation, at length burst through the outworks of the Tories. The present Ministers, ni conse- quence of the system, are surrounded with spies, informers, and false friends. The courtesy of Ministerial power has generally continued in office all subordinate incumbents of the several official departments of the State. The early difficulties of the present Administration, its mixed charac- ter, and partial dependence on a portion of a divided Aristocracy, have in dined Lord Grey to adopt this courtesy to an extreme extent, instead of limiting it with reference to his own peculiar and critical situation. He now holds the reins of Government, represented by his bitter politi- cal opponents as Ambassadors and Chargds d'Affaires abroad—Tory dip- lomatists of Great Britain, deeply involved in all the schemes of the Holy Alliance ! Lord Lieutenants, magistrates, clergy, lawyers, the whole host of subordinate official men, in every department and through- out the country, are arrayed in bitter and undisguised hostility against him ! To tamper with such a_position, is ',tenant with inevitable de- struction to the Ministry. "Conciliation," "politic" coquetry with antagonists, are silly and despicable expedients, which always have, and ever will, prostrate those who resort to pettifogging tactics. We fear that the old and staunch political friends of Lord Grey and his chosen hand of followers throughout the kingdom, have too much reason to complain, as they loudly do, that the patronage and countenance of the Adminis- tration are bestowed in the cultivation and propitiation of enemies, in- stead of the advancement of friends and principles. The Gazettes for months past have teemed with municipal and other appointments be- stowed by the Lord Lieutenants on Tory gentry and their adherents, if possible in greater abundance than during the most fruitful period of their power ; and a more than usual activity has prevailed in filling up the Magistracy, and in forming select bands of Yeomanry corps;-officered by persons disaffected to the popular cause. In the mean time Lords Lieutenant and men in every office have not hesitated to place their names at the heath of county declarations against the Reform Bill ; and in the recent elections, with the clergy at their head, almost to a man opposed the popular candidates ! The continuance of such men in of- fices of important political power and influence, their notorious con- tinued exclusion of their liberal neighbours from participation in local offices, is unnatural and anomalous, and displays a suicidal infatuation. Is it possible so to tickle the Peers into toleration of the Reform Bill ? Can any men of sense or observation believe that a single individual will abate one jot of opposition to the hated measure? Will Lord Shaftes- bury, for instance, in his lucrative and influential office, oppose Minis- ters more vehemently or injuriously if displaced, than he now does openly and viciously ? Will The Duke of Buckingham, the Marquis of Hert- ford, Lord Verulam, the Dukes of Beaufort and Rutland, Newcastle and Northumberland, Lord Powis, or Lord Clive, or the Scotch Lords, less oppose or injure Ministers, because allowed to remain dominant in their several counties, dispensing all the attendant patronage incident to their offices as Lord Lieutenants ? That the public may know what is really going on in thecountry, and the just causes of loud and indignant com- plaint to which we have above alluded, we subjoin the following list of the present Lord Lieutenants in England and Wales-

Rutland—Marquis of Exeter. Shropshire—Earl of Powis. Somerset—Marquis of Bath. Southampton—Duke of Wellington. Stafford—Earl Talbot.

Suffolk—Duke of Grafton. Surry—Lord Arden.

Sussex—Earl of Egremont. 'rower Hamlets—Duke of Wellington. Warwick—Earl Brooke and Warwick. Westmorland—Earl of Lonsdale. Wilts—Marquis of Lansdown. Worcester—Lord Foley.

YORKSHIRE.

East Riding—Earl of Carlisle. West Riding—Earl of Harewood. North Riding—Duke of Leeds.

WALES.

Anglesey—Marquis of Anglesey. Brecon—Duke of Beaufort. Cardiganshire—W. E. Powell, Esq. Carmarthenshire—Lord Dyne vor. Carnarvonshire—Lord W. De Eresby. Denbigh—Sir W. W. Wynn, Bart. Flint—Earl Grosvenor. Glamorgan—Marquis of Bute. Merionethshire—Sir W. W. Wynn, Bt. Montgomeryshire—Lord Clive. Pembroke—Sir J. Owen, Bart.

Radnor—Lord Rodney. .

Two-thirds of these noblemen are avowed enemies of all Reform ! We see a father and son, Lord Powis and Lord Clive, the rulers of nearly a hundred miles of England and Wales. Lord Warwick, the head of his county (which returned its six members to Parliament all pledged advocates for the Dill), signs a declaration against it, and con- tinues the omnipotent disposer of all the county patronage contingent on the Lieutenancy ! Earl Talbot, in the same station and opposition in Staffordshire, we have before had occasion to allude to. The Duke of Northumberland is dominant in the county of the Premier, and the most active, though silent opponent of the Ministry ! Lord Lonsdale, like a German Prince, reigns powerful in Westmorland, where Lord Brougham, the fountain of the Magistracy, is powerless and defied The Duke of Rutland, defeated in Leicestershire, with the sanction of Ministers punishes his political opponents. Loid Westmorland rules the county of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Marquis of Exeter in Rutland. In Scotland the picture is much the same, Toryism ramp- ant and paramount in an eminent degree. The following are the Lord Lieutenants across the Tweed-

Aberdeen—Duke of Gordon. Inverness—Hon. Francis Wm. Grant.

Argyle—Duke of Argyle. Kincardine—Visct. Arbuthnot.

Ayr—Earl of Glasgow. Kirkcudbright—Visct. Garlies.

Banff—Earl of Fife. Lanark—Duke of Hamilton.

Berwick—Earl of Home. Linlithgow—Earl of Hopetoun, Orkney, Bute—Marquis of Bute. and Zetland.

Caithness—Earl of Caithness. Peebles—Earl of Wemyss.

Clackmannan—Earl of Mansfield. Perth—Duke of Athol!.

Kinross—Right Hon. W. Adam. Renfrew—Archibald Campbell,Esq. Dumfries—Marquis of Queensberry. Ross—Sir J. W. M'Kenzie, Bart,

Dumbarton—Duke of Montrose. Cromarty—R. B.2E. Macleod. Esq.

Edinburgh—Duke of Buccleugh. Roxburgh—Marquis of Lothian. Elgin—Earl of Moray. Selkirk—Lord Montagu.

Nairn—Wm. Brodie, Esq. Stirling—Duke of Montrose. Fife—Earl of Rosslyn. Sutherland—Marquis of Stafford: Forfar—Earl of Airlie. Wigton—VIM. Garlies.

Iladdingtoa—Marquis of Tweeddale.

Bedford—Lord Grantham. Berks— Earl of Abingdon. Bricks—Duke of Buckingham. Cambridg,e—Earl of Hardwicke.

Cheshire—Earl of Stamford and War- . nngton.

Cornwall—Earl of Mount Edgecumbe.

Lord Warden—Marquis of Hertford. Cumberland—Earl of Lansdale. Derby—Duke of Devonshire. Devon—Earl Fortescue.

Dorset—Earl Digby.

Durham—Marquis of Cleveland.

Cost. Rot.—Bishop of Durham. Essex—Viscount Maynard. Gloucester—Duke of Beaufort. Hereford—Earl Somers.

Hertford—Earl of Verulam. Huntingdon—Duke of Manchester. Kent—Marquis Camden. Lancashire—Earl of Derby. Leicester—Duke of Rutland. Lincoln—Earl Brownlow. Middlesex—Duke of Portland. Monmouth—Duke of Beaufort. Norfolk—Hon. J. Watiehouse. Northampton—Earl of Westmorland. Northumberland—D.of Northumberland. NottingitamDuke of Newcastle. Oxford—Earl of Macclesfield.

In Ireland, the Government, by the introduction of a municipal sys- tem of most doubtful policy, but of undoubted imperfection, has the op- portunity of appointing to the intended Lieutenancy noblemen and gen- tlemen of enlightened patriotism, and where non-residence, we trust, will be an insuperable objection. But Ministers must ‘, take the bull by the horns," to use a vulgar, but a homely phrase. A crisis is approach- ing in their fate and in the destinies of the nation. " He that is not for me is against me." The legitimate power of the Premier must be boldly and magnanimously used. Public opinion has called Lord Grey to his present responsible and merited power, from respect for a long life of political wisdom and integrity ; let him deal out the same measure of grateful justice to those who, fighting by his side, have promoted his re- ward, and let not the black stain rest on his Premiership, that he who was not indifferent to provision for his own family, was yet insensible to the claims of the friends of liberty, who placed him in power. We could say much more on this subject, and state many astounding facts which have been communicated to us; but we shall by this time be fully under- stood ; and we repeat that justice, policy, self-preservation, the vital interests of the country, demand from the Ministry more confidence and trust in their real friends, with less fear and deference for their enemies and double-faced partisans. Why should Ministers fear the Peers? They may and must dilute the opposition of the Lords with a yet more copious addition to their numbers. Lord Grey has to manage them after the Reform Bill is carried ! Let him publicly avow that all those not with him must retire from office; we know of old what a small proportion would avail themselves of the privilege of retirement. But it is intolerable to witness the undisguised opposition of the Tory posses- sors of the magistracy and lieutenancy of the country, who are not only un- dermining the Government of the King, but reconstructing their old and base domination. The effect of this absurd toleration and truckling to political enemies, may not occur to men of noble families, Cabinet Mi- nisters living in the squares of the metropolis ; but it is nevertheless a subject of loud reproach throughout the country, and comes home to men's daily feelings and interests.