piiliOn4 of MC Vredd.
A HARD HIT AT AN OLD FRIEND.
Ttne.s—rAn article in the Caledonian Mercury, attributed to Lord 'Brougham by a correpondent of the Times charges the Leading Journal with being " extremely arrogant—it wants to be no less than Prime Minister of Britain." The Tinier this morning retorts, in an netiele containing the fol- lowing passages.] If we have wanted to be Prime Minist at least we have
not been guilty of any fraudulent or base manceuvres in the lied of that In il - hint but elusive prize. We have not intrigued for it, nor lied for it, nor fawned, nor slandered, nor betrayed, nor undermined, nor sacrificed any man—neither the colleague who trusted, nor him who, knowing us, thoroughly- despised us. If we have " sought to direct the Royal councils" in the formation of a Cabinet, we have not played contemptible and mountebank tricks to persuade people that we did direct those councils, and that we were actually (when we were not) authorized to share with Lord Melbourne in the trust of submitting the choice of a Cabinet to his Majesty. We did not pretend to he honoured with the King's commands, nor with the Royal confidence, while we knew that the King would sooner behold a mad dog enter his Council Chamber than see us approach within five miles of Windsor. We never gave out to servants and hangers-on that we were going to Windsor, when we ordered a post-chaise to take us no further than Putney Bridge. If we were conscious of being called by the whole world the cracked and crazy weathercock of the House of Lords, we should not dare to whisper about " weathercock evolutions, or eccentric career," or " capricious and erratic exhibitions," or " reckless and inconsiderate pilots." But enough. The Times for fifteen years praised, supported, or, if you will, patronized his Lordship. So long as we supposed Lord Brougham to be actuated by honor- able and elevated motives—guided by fixed and enlightened principles—aspiring to power through none but direct and manly means—disposed to use at vir- tuously, and capable of using it wisely—we did by every possible exertion, through evil report and good, zealously, boldly, indefatigably—nay, if we had said affectionately, it would he no more than the fact—strive to maintain and extend the influence of Lord Brougham throughout all classes of society : We supported the man whom we believed to be true, upright—whatever We might sometimes have thought of his discretion. But what would good men think of us if, discovering the same person to be no better than a miserable trickster, whom none could rely upon without paying dear for their simplicity, we changed our course, and sought, by exposing his (to speak mildly) errors, to save others from being misled, as we had been, and the country from any further risk of suffering confidence misplaced .? There is how- ever, no occasion to proceed further with these topics. The cause of our changed language must be looked for in Lord Brougham's own unworthiness, not in ours —in Lord Brougham's inconsistency, not in ours. He turned out a different person from that which we had imagined him ; and our duty forbade us to Indulge a personal predilection in defiance of the clearest sense of right. We withdrew our friendship on finding it bestowed unworthily. But that of Lord Brougham is, we suspect, less liable to be diverted on such considerations from tome of its present objects.
FURTHER ORGANIC REFORMS.
Gtons—Earl Grey stated on this memorable occasion [the meeting at New- castle], that in obtaining a full and free representation, the country and the Peeple have obtained that which secures the means of all rational and salutary reforms. To this we can only give a hesitating assent. Rational and salutary reforms cannot be obtained by constitutional means without the concurrence of the House of Lords ; and there exists a collision between the House of Lords and the Representatives of the People upon almost all the great questions of rational and salutary reform. To the relief of the l'rotestant Dissenters. to the reformation of the Church, to the abolition of Tithes upon equitable principles, and to the preservation of the purity of election, the House of Lords at present 'ale Opposed; and should their Lordships continue obstinately to avast the nation's will, rational and salutary reforms cannot be obtained without the pro- tracted agitation end the further orgaeic changes deprecated by Earl Garr. We wish, but we almost fear to hope, that the Lords may cease to obstruct the course of social improvement. We should be reluctant to regard the rpper branch of the Legislature as an hospital of incurables ; but ins.anity is a disease which is on the increase in Enf,s:and, and " this must give us pause."
THE LATE REVOLUTIONS IN FRANCE AND ENCH,AND.
QUARTEKLY liEVIEw—We are not amongst those who believe that the Parisian Revolution of July had originally any very considerable effect in pro- ducing the Reform frenzy in this country. We are well aware that Mr. Brougham, and it few other candidates at the general election of lS'3. did endea- vour to improve Mat occasion to the disorganization and dissolution of our ancient system of government ; but their effi:rts at that moment produced, we think, little or no pi actical result. We do not believe that one single election waa decided by the influence of the recent occurrences in Paris. Nor was it until the change of Alinistry—when Mr. Brougham had become Lord High Chancellor, and Lord Althor, ••, the leading organ of the Crown inn the House of Commons, hail pronounced ois mellow:doe welcome to the tricoloured flag— that the principles of the Parisian revolt began to make any sensible effect amongst us. How far, if they had not been thus adouted, preached, and pro- moted by the King's Government, they might have advanced, it would now la idle to speculate ; for his Majesty's Ministers have contrived a mode of 'revolu- tionizing more formidable and more effective than any thing that the French example could have suggested. From the hour that the King of England so far departed from the ancient policy of the Crown, and so entirely mistook the duties for which the kingly function was originally created and had always been exercised, as to authorize his Ministers to increase, by the Reform Bill, the already too great power of the popular branch of the constitution, from that hour we left the events of July fir behind, and have taken the advanced guard in the march of European revolution. The violence of the proceedings in France tended rather to deter than to encourage other countries ; but we, in our own more quiet way, have given an example which, by its appa- rent moderation and legality, is likely to have a more extensive in- fluence. A popular revolution is unmanageable enough ; but we are much mistaken if we, and all Europe with us, do not find that a royal revolution is infinitely more difficult to guide or to restrain. But though we have outrun France in the principle, we are, fortunately, still behind her in the practice ; and it is possible that we may yet derive some wisdom from her experience. For this reason, we continue to bring tinder the consideration of our readers the several works which throw light on the conspiracy by which the July Revolu- tion was produced, and which exhibit its baneful effects on the political condi- tion of the people of France. To conclude—we confess, with equal sincerity and sorrow, that we do not see our way through the difficulties that press— almost in our opinion equally—upon the Governments of France and England. All is doubt, disorder, and dismay. We are in a moral earthquake, and what portions of the social edifice may survive the shock, or what shelter the un- happy survivors may find among the ruins, no mortal eye can foresee. But our danger, though somewhat more remote, is probably greater than that of France. She has passed through the stage of massacre and spoliation which must occur once in every radical revolution. With her one natural event, by legalizing the title of Louis Philip, might extinguish the revolutionary principle, and enable a man of vigour and good sense to amalgamate. and consolidate the new interests and the old rights into one stable system of constitutional monarchy. Nay, moral circumstances might produce the same result ; for if the cause of Henry V. be—by that insane party. to which we have alluded—connected with the Movement, the true Royalists may be driven by the common danger to a since and cordial soalition with Louis Philip. In either of these cases; there is at least a chance for France ; but for ourselves we have hardly any hope until we shall have passed through an ordeal similar to that which France has under- gone. The democratical, or, to speak more truly, the anarchical principles of our Reform, must. we suspect, work themselves out. A frequent change and succession of Administrations, each weaker and worse than that it has displaced, will inevitably lead to the contempt, and from the contempt to the dissolution of Government. Heavy was the declension of Lord Grey from his accession to his resignation ; heavier still the fall from Lord Grey to Lord 111elbourne ; lower yet will be the degradation that must succeed the early retirement of Lord Mel- bourne ; and—following our downward flight—we shall proceed, we fear, to find in each successive depth a lower still.
CONSOLATION FOR TIIE CLERGY OF THE IRISH CHURCH.
STAND/tun—The King's Ministers have declared that the penalty of the rejection of Mr. O'Connell's Tithe Bill must be paid by the Clergy of Ireland in the total privation of their means of subsistence. We think that the House of
Lords has acted with equal prudence and spirit in putting this menace to the proof. When principles are attacked before the public tribunal, it is always
better for justice, and which is indeed the same thing, for truth, that the contro- versy should be put in issue at once, and upon the whole question, rather than by instalinents and piecemeal. If the claims of the Christian Church are to be measured by the present number of its communicants, without regard to their position, without regard to the truth of its doctrine*, and their importance to the temporal and eternal interests of mankind ; if this is to be measure of the claims of the Christian Church, even to the enjoyment of its own property, it is better for truth, better fur justice, better for the interests of all parties, that the question should be presents plainly to the judgmeut of the empire. Should
the majority determine ins the affirmative of the proposition, there will then be established a principle upon which the Legislature and the Executive may go to work with a bold hand rind upon intelligible grounds. Should the majority determine the other way, we shall have done with the system of petty larceny encroachments upon Church property-10 per cent, this year, 15 per cent. the next, 40 per cent. the year following, and so on ; a system which, besides its injustice, has all the ill consequences of pampering sedition by protracted encou- ragement, and of demoralizing the public mind by exhibiting a course very like naked spoliation. Now the vote of the House of Lords, though merely nega- tive, forces the Ministers, if they dare to fulfil their threat, to a fair trial of the principle of the Church Establishment at the bar of public opinion. We may regret the present inconvenience to the Irish Clergy; and our regret is certainly aggravated by the promptitude with which these pious, and we will pay, heroic servants of God, postpone their personal intere-ts to the cause of that Church in which they are ordained. But we should be unworthy members of the Church of England—ill-instructed in the Gois 1 winch she liberall■r dispenses—ill-read in the history of her sacrifices and sufferings, and of the blessings which she has purchased for the nation by them, if we could allow a care for the temporal interests of any man, or set of men, to weigh against the duty of defending, open and undefiled, the fountains of eternal truth. We de say, therefore, that we rejoice, and will rejoice, if the vote of the Houma of Lords have really brought the question to this point, that it is to be decided at once and in open day, whether a Protestant Church shall be preserved to at least two millions of his Majesty's subjects in one great section of the empire. We think we know bow the people of England will deride upon this lesint. At all events, we are confident in iris promise, whose the cause is, and who has said of that true Church, which we believe ours to be, that " the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."
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