THE PRESS.
STATE OF THE MINISTRY.
Monxixo HERALD—The present uncertain state of the Ministry cannot but be considered a very serious evil to the country, and calculated to increase that procrastinating habit which has been already so much the bane of public business of late years. Ministers, it is understood, should be preparing, in the recess, the measures necessary to be brought forward in their respective departments, when Parliament meets; but if the Minister of the recess is not likely to be the Minister of the Ses- sion, what encouragement is there, or we might almost say, what use is there,in his preparing plans, the execution of which, if likely to be persisted in, will devolve upon another ? We would instance the case of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with whom the most material part of the business of the House of Commons rests. If there is any one point upon which men of all parties and opinions are agreed, it is of Mr. Goulburn's total unfitness for that office. If, then, Mr. Goulburn's removal be, as it is universally admitted to be, inevitable, why has it not taken place ? Why is not his sucoessor appointed, and allowed time to prepare himself for the details of his arduous duties ? The same may be said of others, though not, perhaps, with equal force and urgency ; and it will be truly mortifying if, when Parliament meets "for the despatch of business," no business can be despatched till this or that noble lord or honourable gentleman has had time to be re-elected perhaps ; or to pre- pare himself for the duties of his novel situation. If it were a question whether the present set of men can carry on the affairs of the country, the public would readily await the result of the experiment : but os it is agreed on all hands that a change, to a certain extent at least, must take place, surely the sooner it is made the better. It is surely time that the new recruits to the Cabinet should be put into training that they may know how to handle their arms before the day of battle.
RESULT OF THE ELECTIONS.
GL OBE—In the late elections it is undoubtedly true that independent men were generally successful in opposition to servile adherents of all Administrations, whom the Duke of Wellington, being in possession, is entitled to call his friends. It is true, also, that the friends of the Mi- nistry, to whose merits ( when they have any) ample justice is generally done, were in some cases, from causes connected with the late Catholic question, unjustly treated ;—for example, Mr. Dawson, who has become peculiarly odious to the party which he once supported in Ireland, by his manly and decided conduct. But, in all popular places in England, the result of the electiens is only connected with the Catholic question in this respect—that the settlement of that subject of dispute has removed a cause of cross divisions and mystifications out of the way, and afforded toom for the exercise of the probity and independence of many of the electors, who were formerly deluded, but not corrupted. Does this result then, show a marked enmity among the people to the Duke of Wellington's Administration ? We think not. As far as we have observed the indications of the popular feeling in elections, there has seldom been a time when so little reference has been made to the Minis- ters personally as in the late elections in England. The independent electors were generally disposed to choose independent representatives— to elect men who, either from choice or accident, were not bound up with the Government for the time being, and who were, therefore, able to pledge themselves unequivocally to perform their duty to the people without re- ference to the effects of that performance on the Minister. Severe eco- nomy and temperate reform were generally the pass-words to popular favour when the question was between untried men ; and when between men of whom the public had already experience, the people delighted to honour men who had shown themselves active, vigilant, and useful ;- the drones were driven out of the hive. Certain are we, that with many who contributed to this result its effect on the personnel of the Administra- tion was the last thing thought of; and we believe also, that in England those of the Ministers who are present to the minds of the people are popular, while many of them are too insignificant to he ever thought of. 'We see no signs of unpopularity in the reception of the Duke of Wel- lington, the head of the Administration, wherever he shows himself, but rather a prevailing persuasion, which we hope he may justify, that while he is personally firm in the execution of public duties, and somewhat peremptory towards individuals, he is prompt to consult the interests and wishes of the people, and to obey cheerfully and even zealously the public opinion, when it is decidedly expressed in favour of measures which he does not conceive to be injurious : that while he is firm (which it may be true, was of greater consequence in the last than in the present reign), he is exempt from that false pride which is peculiarly dangerous in a popular government, of attempting to give effect to his preconceived opinions. in spite of the warning of circumstances and the feelings of the nation, whose collective force must always be stronger than that of any individual, however great or obstinate.
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
Monsrixo CHRONICLE—He will not brook any contradiction. This is the rock on which he splits. Notwithstanding the formidable array of names said to be hostile to Administration, notwithstanding the some- what ostentatious enumeration of great Aristocratic families which with- held their confidence from him—were he able to form a correct estimate of himself, and to understand the true nature of his situation, he might stand his ground. He forgets that Parliament is a popular assembly, to manage which requires experience of business, character, talents, and the power of debating. Men who possess this experience, character, and talents, are not likely to be insensible of their advantages ; and therefore the Duke, in demanding from a Cabinet an implicit deference to his own views, does not seem to have a suspicion that implicit deference can only be obtained from such men by satisfying them that he is entitled to it. The late Mr. Huskisson, for instance, could not easily have been brought to suppose that all his expe- rience in the affairs of this empire had not given him more poli- tical knowledge than his Grace possessed ; and if his Grace had been wise, instead of quarrelling with that statesman for his want of docility, he would have himself been guided by his counsels., The Duke must renounce the expectation of implicit obedience from a _Caheist, or he must renounce the expectation of remaining Minister ; for it is-taloa impossible that in a country like this, he should find combined the self-denial which this deference implies, and the power of influencing the deliberations of Parliament. His Grace may have good intentions; but to give effect to his intentions he must be able to minTe the machinery of our Constitution, such as it is. Let him distrust those who would persuade him of his omniscience, and cease to believe that there is a Ministerial any more than a Royal road to all science. His political reputation rests chiefly on his concessions to the Dissenters and to the Catholics. The qualities displayed in carrying the Catholic ques- tion were akin to those which enable a man to gain victories in the field —a correct estimate of the respective forces, and coolness and firmness in the hour of trial. But the complicated affairs of a great nation can- not be all presented before the mind with the simplicity of the argu- ments for and against Catholic Emancipation. Time and application can alone give proficiency in the conducting of them. Of this truth his Grace would seem, however, not to be aware. He must, however, 're- concile himself to the bitter truth that he is not an Admirable Crichton, and that mere plain sense will not allow a man to decide ex cathedra on the most complicated political questions. We repeat, that we attach little consequence to the strength of opposition with which he is threat- ened, if he only displays common prudence in providing himself with the means of properly meeting it. A NI blister, with the necessary- talents and experience at his command, may, with the means at the commend of the Crown, fairly set the great families at defiance.
SEPARATION OF THE NETHERLANDS.
WEST art:4'81'En R nor rov—The ease of Belgian grievances is as clear as the sun hi an unclouded day ; zind the sympathies of the English people will be on the side of the oppressed. We cannot distinctly see a straightforward course for freedom and good government in the present involved state of the Belgian question. Every act of the King of the Netherlands fills us with disquiet and distrust. He never did justice to the Belgian people when they were at his feet, in prostrate submission ; he never held the scale of equal law between his Northern and his Southern subjects, when Belgium bran& to him her cheerful and will- ing homage; and is it likely now, exasperated as he is against what, in his message to the States-General, he has been advised to call " rebel- lion "—now surrounded by Dutch councils, which foster and fan every Batavian prejudice, both political and religious, against the malcontents of the South—is it likely now that he should play the part of a patriot king? The States-General, in which the Belgians are so unfairly repre- sented, assembled in the Dutch capital, surrounded by Dutch troops, and immediately under the eye of the King and of the Court, will do no justice to the aggrieved parties. Thus mach we may safely foretel. The probability is, that the wound will be plastered over ; but it call only be healed hy the separation of Belgium from Holland, a separation, at all events, on all matters of administration and finance. This sepa- ration may for the moment be opposed, it may be delayed, but it is in- evitable ; and if it come not in the quietude of calm discussion, it will come in the thunder-storm of another revolution. Holland would do well to take to herself the grace and the glory of recognizing, of meet- ing the Belgian will. If she do not, she is only industriously sowing • what will bring her a harvest of sorrows. If now, " while it is called to-day," the claims, the most reasonable claims of the men of Belgiuni are recognized, the world will be well satisfied to see the Belgian and. Batavian sceptres wielded by the House of Orange; but if wrongs are to be unredressed, if the fetters of slavery are to be rivetted upon the necks of millions, whether by the force of arms or the fraud of kings, our hopes and our efforts for Belgium will take another direction ; and those flagitious contracts—of whielt the union of Belgium with Holland was one—those flagitious contracts, which transferred nations from monarch to monarch, with less ceremony than if they hed been stocks or stones, must undergo a more searching, a more vigorous interrogatory.
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