NEWS OF THE WEEK..
THE Queen's Speecb, at the opening of her first Parliament, was as innocent of specific meaning as any speech ever delivered by the most hackneyed of her Majesty's predecessors at their Minis- ters' bidding. Our youthful Sovereign's address to the Great Council of the Nation was drawn up after the most approved models; and accordingly it was a cento of disjointed paragraphs, conveying no precise information on any subject of interest. Foreign powers are friendly ; Canada must not be trilled with; the Civil-list must be settled; Ireland still needs provision for her poor, "better regulation" for the municipal government of her cities and towns, with " revision and amendment" of " the laws which govern the collection of tithe-composition ;" and England de- mands an improved administration of justice. Now the reader knows as much as he needs care to know about the business of the Speech and the Addresses voted to the Queen by Lords and Common:,—for, in the established newspaper phrase, the Address in each House " was, as usual, an echo of the Speech." Let us, however, in passing, render due homage to one morsel of sound ductrine which the royal document contained-
" The external peace and domestic tranquillity, which at present happily pre- vail, are very favourable for the consideration of such measures of reformation and amendment as may be necessary or expedient."
Whether the most advantageous direction is given to the deli- berations el Parliament, may be questioned ; but it is moot true that a period of " external peace and domestic tranquillity" is that which affords the best opportunity for discussing and maturing " measures of reformation and amendment."
Fur what passed in the House of Lords, brief notice will suffice. The Duke of SUSSEX moved the Address ; an unprecedented, but in this instance not unbecoming duty for a Prince of the Blood. His Royal Highness rambled a little, " touching" upon many sub- jects, and nut "adorning" them all; but he lacked not matter; and there was something kindly and affectionate in his tone, espe- cially in his allusions to the memory of the " good" Duke of KENT, and to his own presence at the birth of his niece, as giving her an especial claim on his ltn al services. The conspicuous court- ship of the Duke of %VELLI reGeoN might have been suggested by Lord MELBOURNE. The Duke of SUSSEX condescended to do a bit of Ministerial jockeyship, when he reminded the old soldier that ho was pledged positively to the Nor-law, and conditionally to a settlement of the Irish questions. The Duke of WELLING- TON professed himself quite ready to act up to his promise,—eu doubt, according to his own interpretation thereof. It remains to be seen how far he will permit. Ministers to go; for it rests with him to say what measures shall be carried and what rejected: and this very agreeable fact the Ministers take care his Grace shall not forget. Lord PORTMAN. who seconded the Address in the Lords, said nothing remarkable: his speech was as wearisome as suck tiirmal displays generally are. All was unanimity in the Lords, and the Address passed nemine contradicente. In the Commons, matters wire a different aspect. After a com- monplace harangue from Lord LEVESON, the mover, and an in- audible attempt at a speech from Mr. GIBSON CRAIG, the seconder of the Address, Mr. WAKLEY redeemed his promise to his consti- tuents, by bringing forward three resolutions, in fayour of an extended suffrage, the secret vote, and repeal of the Septennial Act. Mr. %VARIAN was successful in many of his hits at the Ministry and their Speech ; and if he had paused when the object of his amendment was accomplished and its entry on the journals secured, he might have gained great laud from his Liberal friends: hut, in (Whiney of the adviee and entreaty of his supporters, Mr. Hume, Mr. Gime, and Mr. WARD, it' not of his seconder Sir AL Leta l 1IOLESWORT1I, he persisted in dividing the House ou the first rsulution—that fur ex'ended suffrage ; and was de- feated by one of the levee.! majerities ever mustered-509 14
the great body of the Radicals uniting with the mere s% legs tied Lines, to resent the afloat offered to their self-importance by Mr, WAKLEY in presuming to bring forward and obstinately adhere to that which they deemed itl-timed and inexpedient.
Our criticism on the amendment would be, that it was not ill- timed, but somewhat inexpertly framed. It should have been made to grow out of' the tonics of the Royal Speech, and been general, not technical. It should have been based on the old and admitted Parliamentary claim of redress of grievances—the first of duties in an assembly whose highest function is to represent the People, and far from ungraceful or inappropriate at the comtneneement both of' a Parliament and a reign. It might have stated, that her Majesty's faithful Commons desired to direct their early and earnest attention to the remedy of imperfections in the Reform Acts, the evils of which have been growing for sonic time, and have been especially felt in the recent general election—con- stituting, in fact, the heaviest existing grievance of the nation : and it might have promised that the House would endeavour to frame and pass measures to secure to the electors the full and free exercise of the franchise without let or hindrance, thereby ful- filling the .presumed intent of the Legislature that the represen- tation of the People should be real and efficient, and the electors, in the discharge of the duty imposed upon them by the law, pro- tected from annoyance. To such a declaration we are not aware that any objection of time could have been decently stated ; and those who should have voted againet it on any pretence whatsoever, we must have set down as Anti-Reformers, on whatever benches they sat.
Besides the defective construction of his amendment, it has been alleged against Mr. WAKLEY, that his motives, both in pushing forward and in persevering, were of a personal kind—the stimulus of rivalry with Mr. HARVEY, and the dread of jibes and taunt:. It is difficult, and seldom satisfactory, to judge men's motives: the safer rule is to try their works. And Members of Parliament will on the whole discharge their duty best by voting for a proposition, or against it, with a view to principle only. There is always a direct good in the affirming, under whatever circumstances, of a principle you wish to see established; and generally it involves secondary advantages also. Mr. WAKLEY'S motion produced speeches from Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH, Mr. HUME, and Mr. GROTE, which drew from Lord JOHN RUSSELL an avowal of the Conservative policy of the Government, and his own determination to resist, now and hereafter, all attempts to protect the constituencies by the secret vote, to extend the suffrage, and to shorten Parliaments. This was valuable information on the first night of the session. The passages, in which it was com- municated most distinctly, follow : the unabbreviated report is given in another page—both are from the friendly Morning Chronicle.
" The question of the Ballot, the extension of the Suffrage, and Triennial Parliaments, arc, and I can consider them as nothing else, but a reral of the Reform Act, and placing the representation on a totaliy different foting. Am I then prepared to do this? I say, certainly not. • • • I do s ac, that having now only five years ago reformed the representation, having placed it on a new basis, it would be a most unwise and urc.ound experiment now to begin the process again, to form a new suffrage, a change in the manner of voting, awl to look for other and new securities for the representation of the people. I say, at least for myself, that I can take no share in such an experiment. • • I think that the entering into this question of the construction of the repre- sentation so soon again, would destroy the stability of our institutions. It is quite impossible for me, having been one who brought forward the measure of Reform—who felt bound by the declarations then made—to take any part in these large measures of reconstruction, or to consent to the repeal of the Reform Act, without being guilty of what I think would be a breach of faith towards those with whom I was then acting. If the People of England are not of that mind, they may reject me. They can prevent me from taking part either in the Legislature or in the Councils of the Sovereign : they cut place others there who may have wider and more extended, enlarged, and eulibtened views; but they must not expect me to entertain those views."
This is sufficiently explicit. Nobody now can accuse Lord JOHN RUSSELL of double dealing: all must give him credit for a bold and distinct avowal of Conservative doctrines. his de- claration made a powerful impression on the House. It was vociferously cheered by the Tories, and highly applauded by Sir ROBERT PEEL, who followed Lord JOHN in the debate. By the majority of the Liberals it was received in mournful silence. They agreed with Mr. Wr Alto, who told Lord JOHN that he had " signed his death-warrant and chalked out the grave of his colleagues." The bringing up of the report on the Address, on Tuesday, gave Mr. LEADER and Mr. CHARLES BULLER the oppor: unity of informing Lord Jolter Resseet, of the probable consequences of his speech on the fate of his Ministry, and the light in which it was viewed by Radicals. Lord JomIN flinched not. Ile said that his declaration ott the night below had been made after tlatLele- liberation. lie gave some additional reasons for thg_opielitsaitebeTs\ held, and renewed his vows to abide by them. lleiu�,lred''wR _f belief that it was to the unpopularity of the Gavernnylueenc• • es—' Z'oe thet tale bnvc,'SS of the Toils tit 1 ite elecliee was ee• tigr • -"J Iii :sae, he stated that it was a leading ptineiele 44. Act, to give the prerondeiance in the Legislature to the landed interest, as the best mode of securing the stability of the national institutions ; and from that principle, so embodied in the Reform Act, Lord JOHN will not swerve. Taking this second speech as a %vhole, it is impossi'sle not to' regard it as " confirma- tion strong" of the first, with offensive additions: but one part of it has been held by some to " open a back-door " by which he might escape to vote for the Ballot alone, if disconnected from the questions of the suffrage and the duration of Parliaments. They who think that Lord JOHN had this shuffle in view, pay a poor compliment to his honesty ; but we see nothing in his speech to authorize the belief that he will not oppose the Ballot, whether by itself or in conjunction with other measures. Well—the Radicals now know what to think of the Ministry ; and few will be so childish as to regret that the knowledge has been acquired bef ,re half the session had been wasted in deceptive expectations, and fussy motions, productive of nothing but irrita- tion in Parliament and deeper disgust in the country. It is now deliberately avowed that the MELBJURNE Government is Con- servative—the opponent of innovation, the champion of the elec- toral system under which 320 Tories have been returned to the House. of Commons, and of the principle that the landed interest ought to be predominant in the Legislature. To enable the Government to maintain its Anti-Popular principles, a virtual alliance is formed with the Tories : we have now arrived, under the guidance of the MELBOURNE Ministers, at that state of things foretold some months back in this journal, and described as "Government by her Majesty's Conservative Opposition." In the House of Peers, the Duke is Dictator; in the House of Com- mons, as Mr. GROTE said on Monday, Sir ROBERT PEEL can put a veto on all Ministerial propositions. And the Whigs are yet in office; but ready to go out as soon as it suits the Tory plan to come in. Apparently it does not accord with the policy of the Tories to take office just yet. They have, however, laid aside the LYND, HURST policy, which has fulfilled its part in the general plan of Tory restorati3n, to pursue the "Fabian," as better suited to ac- complish the rest.
The readers of the Spectator are aware that the state into which parties have fallen is no surprise to us. We have been preparing fur it since Easter 1836 ; and if we look back with re- gret to the position which the Whig-Radical party might have occupied, there is now little or nothing of anger mingled with the feeling of sorrow. It is our consolation to remember that we laboured, though unsuccessfully, to make the MELBOURNE Ministry fulfil its mission of Reform; and it is encouraging to know that much benefit may be gained by a diligent and earnest use of the advantages which the turn of affairs has thrown in the way of the Independent Reformers.
There will be no more delusion about the intentions of the " Reform Ministers." The " patting-on-the-back" system is utterly broken up. The pretence that what is right to be done, and what the People expect their Representatives to do, should be shirked from the fear of damaging the said Ministers, is no longer tenable. Measures and men must stand upon their own merits. Nu more cajolery of Radicals at the Foreign Office. No more scampering through Estimates, and winking at jobs and pensions. The time has come for sternly exacting the duties of government at the hands of a petted and pampered Administra- tion. If Practical Measures can be carried, well : if not, let the eager advocates of Organic Reform bear in mind that every rejec- tion of a practical improvement will render more glaring the neces- sity of institutional change. The Radicals, without any other foundation for the notion than their own desires or foolish credulity, have chosen to believe, that by neglecting practical measures and shutting their eyes to administrative faults and blunders, they were going the way to wheedle the Government into the conces- sion of organic improvements : Lord Jogai RUSSELL demolished that creation of the fantasy on Monday night. What a world of cant and h) pecrisy on the part of truckling Members, (of whom not a few most base specimens could be pointed out in the present Parliament,) reacting on well-disposed but excessively silly con- stituencies, tell by that master-stroke ! Lord JOHN has at last, unwittingly, done a vast service to public morals. With regard to Organic Reforms, it is not to be expected that they w'11 be lost sight of. On the contrary, the Ballot has made such progress that the most strenuous support of an awakened people e ill be given to Mr. GROTE : there will at any rate be the largest minority ever known in its favour when it is next brought forward, even in the present session. Mr.HARVEY, too, at ill of course persevere with his bill for the reform of the Reform Act. If he pro- duce a simp!c, comprehensive, well-digested measure, worthy of support, lie may rely on having the intelligent masses with hint : his bill will be the future rall)ing-point. In Parliament no plan of Organic Reform has the slightest chance of success : its advo- cates must address the People, and heat the combined Aristocracy by a vigorous pressure from without. On this plan of action, it may come to pass that a second Reform Act will be carried sooner, and to better purpose, than if the Radicals had continued shackled by the i.ew dissolved connexion with the Whigs.
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