A FINE TRAGIC SITUATION FOR SIR E. L. BULB ER.
THERE was something sublime in the Spartan brevity of the Minis- terial announcements on Thursday evening. Lord JOHN RussELL simply told on what day he would bring forward his motion regard- ing the Corn-laws; Mr. BARING, nothing more than that he intended to move for a renewal of the annual Sugar-duties. Not one unnecessary word fell from the mouth of either : the " qu'il snow-ut" of CORNEILLE'S father of the Horatii was not more full of savage brevity than their notices. The devoted band on the Treasury- bench showed by their stern silence that they divined the resolve of their chiefs. The moment reminded one of that when the three hundred learned the resolution of LEOIVIDAS to fall at Thermopylae. The Whig phalanx eyed the impending election, not without the inevitable misgivings of frail humanity, but with an intuitive perception that there was no alternative, and a magnanimous uncomplaining submission to Fate. Nor were the occupants of the Opposition-benches unmoved. Though confident in their majority, they viewed not unappalled the " still as the breeze but dreadful as the storm" mustering of the devoted band, _standing grim as old Minotti before the altar- stone in the Siege of Corinth. The prospect of a disso- lution causes a purse-quake in the pockets of both parties. The Whigs ask only, like Cissea, to fall with decorum : the Tories anticipate losses in scaling the breach, which may be ill repaid by • Not 6s. 8d., as um stated in our last number, through au oversight.
a precarious and harassing tenure of the fortress. It is a thing to make " the boldest hold his breath for a time."
The effect of the laconic expression of the desperate resolution of the Whigs did not surcease with the words that produced it. On both sides there is anxious mustering for the fray. Members of Parliament and political agents flit about their clubs, noiseless and haggard as ghosts. PEEL and MELBOURNE confront each other on the confines of Buckingham Palace, as the Rebel Archangel and Michael stood opposed to each other in front of their hosts. The subject would require the mighty verse of a MILTON -2'0r a Bur, wsit—to do it justice.
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