The very long session of 1843 is over, and the

question is, what effect has it had on the state and interests of the country ? Since the reconstruction of Parliament by the Reform Act, the greatest Importance has been attached to the proceedings of the Legislative body, and especially of the House of Commons: it was to the Par- liament, reinforced by a " real representation of the people," or at least of the middle class, that everybody looked for extensive so- cial ameliorations: and at first there were some returns for these hopes, in " great" measures of the Reformed Parliament. No adequate steps, however, were taken to regulate the working of the newly-constructed House of Commons : wanting which, it. was foreseen that its powers and time would be misap- plied and wasted ; and the event has realized that foreboding. Each session proved less and less productive of any thing but party displays, until the last, the least productive of all. The bad methods of conducting business unfortunately gave the freer scope to party struggles; they again augmented the confusion ; and the consequence was, that in the last session " discus- sion" was most completely divorced from " business" ; great questions of national interest being the mere pretexts for an endless waste of words, engaged in, deliberately, without even a real intention that they should lead to any thing ; while the silent industry of Parliament was devoted to adding another pile to the heap of statutes, consisting of routine measures, bills to botch up previous bills which had been so ill-constructed as to be unworkable or nugatory, and those numberless little specific enact-

ments which are multiplied because the main measures of legisla- tion are incomplete and do not define principles. Governments have not acquired any adequate power within the House to com- pensate for that of a corrupter kind which they lost through the Reform. When they lost their grasp over the House of Commons, means should have been taken to secure a better representation of the Government departments, so that what was lost in corrupt influence might have been gained in the more direct and distinct communication between the Executive and the Legislature. One means would have been, a better organization of the Government departments themselves, and probably a more thorough separation between the duties of managing the details in each office and the representation of the office in the House. As it is, the officials can properly perform neither part of their functions—they can neither legislate nor attend to their office-duties : in the House, they are so lost in the whirl of confusion, that they are not always well-informed on what goes forward in their own depart- ments; while they produce their measures in so crude and ill- digested a state, that a Government project has come to be deemed a thing rather to reject, or at least transmute, than one vigilantly and perhaps even jealously to scrutinize, but to accept rather than not.

A new element in that growing disorder, which made the session so barren, was the peculiar position into which the Minister had fallen. It is convenient for factious opponents to allege that he attained power by " deceiving" large sections of his own sup- porters with respect to his intentions towards monopolies. Our own belief is, that there was little deception in the case ; that the " Tory" party never strongly affected PEEL ; but that they had no conviction of strength in themselves or of practicability in their own views, and that of two evils—political extinction, or PEEL'S new " Conservative " system of compromise between imprac- ticable resistance and rapid movement—they accepted the lesser.

And in fact, after their eyes have been opened, if ever shut, they

still make the same choice of evils. Another favourite taunt of the Opposition is, that Sir ROBERT Past turned his predecessors out by disparaging their financial management, though he had no greater skill than they ; a third, that there has been a similar juggle in respect to Irish policy. Those, however, were not the real grounds .

of• the change of,,Ministry: they were only the issues on which' contending factions consented to make trial of their strength ; and

the real reason why one Ministry was deprived of place and another

obtained it was, that the country had lost all faith in the power of the Whig Ministers to do any of the things about which they talked

so liberally. For some years the will was taken for the deed, but

at length the popular patience was worn out. A general impres- sion prevailed that Sir ROBERT PEEL was clever in doing while

others talked : people allowed that " something must be done,"

either to further or repress the progress of change ; and it must be confessed that they did so far confide in the statesman's discretion,

bewildered also in the conflict of powerless nostrum-mongers, that

they were willing to take what he should decide upon. They gave him a Parliamentary majority, and sent him into office to do. Next

session he propounded and carried his economical measures. Their first operation was not lucky for his influence ; it alarmed some of his friends, annoyed others : the results of some were inadequate, of a few mischievous, and some have not yet exhibited their true results : thus his supporters were disheartened, his enemies

encouraged. Nobody expected—at least none had reasonable ground of expectation—that he should go on with his Free-trade changes in 1843: but were there no other classes of old evils to remedy ? Sir ROBERT PEEL did not avail himself of the oppor- tunities of continuing his active usefulness; his vocation fell into abeyance—he had left off doing ; and, although he had his voting majority, he lost his command over the House of Commons. He did not mean to propose much—what lie did propose was timidly done, and contemptuously thwarted. Yet this unsatisfactory session began with a promise—vague enough, indeed, but still a promise. The Speech from the Throne " regretted" the diminished receipts of the revenue ; and although. special reasons might suggest mere patience on that score, the regret at the depression of trade in such a document might have raised a hope that it was not an empty condolence, any more than the regret that the peace of the manufacturing districts had been disturbed. Treaties with China and with Russia were announced-- only the first, it was hoped, in a series of important and most de- sirable treaties. And the Speech directly promised " measures connected with the improvement of the law, and with various questions of domestic policy "—a comprehensive word Now,.

what were the measures produced in fulfilment of that promise,

and what was their success ? First, what were the great pro- positions of " domestic policy," made and carried? The Canada. Wheat Bill was a really good thing ; but it was only supplementary 10 the Tariff and Corn-law of the previous session. Much the same may be said of the Exportation of Machinery Bill ; and the

Customs Bill, of which it now forms a single clause, was on the whole little else than a list of addenda and corrigenda appended to the Tariff. The Church of Scotland Benefices Bill was a sub- stantive measure, of doubtful policy, not likely to gain much credit for its promoters; and it only passed in the Commons because English Members did not feel enough interest in the question to take trouble about it The proroguing Speech ostentatiously reminds us of the small and innocent Church-extension measure for the endowment of additional parishes. The Irish Poor Relief Bill, the English Registration of Voters Bill, and the Irish Municipal Corporations Bill, touch upon large interests; but these were chiefly enactments in correction of details in previous bills, for the department of legislative errata is always copious. The Irish Arms Bill was never meant as a measure of " domestic policy; but only es one of police; and accidental circumstances gave it importance. The Chelsea Out-Pensioners Bill is a harmless police-regulation,

which Mr. THOMAS DUN COSIES and Mr. HUME happened to mistake for a scheme of " policy." Thus far the measures enumerated were successful. The admission of Canadian wheat and the free exportation of machinery were measures of policy, but belonging rather to last year ; the Scotch Church Bill was important, but satisfying none; the others were scarcely measures of policy. The most important project of Ministers sustained redoubled defeat— the Educational Factory Bill. Lord ASHLEY tore the scanty veil off the national ignorance and the depravity which that ignorance fosters : Ministers proposed a scheme, so ill-considered, so ill-con- cocted, that it roused the whole brood of prejudices, enmities, and jealousies ; though far from being one of the worst, it was in some respects one of the most unpopular propositions ever made by a Government. It was terribly mutilated by its authors, to save its rejection; but the howl was only renewed, and the bill—in its purpose the most signal and creditable propounded by the Govern- ment—was withdrawn in despair. That was the really notable measure of " domestic policy. The promised English Poor-law Amendment Bill never made its appearance at all ! The pro- mised "improvements connected with the law" budded in the Ecclesiastical Courts Bill and County Courts Bill, occasionally paraded in the House of Commons almost as if to provoke abuse ; for when that had been done enough, they were thrown overboard. The effectual "improvement connected with the law "—the Libel and Defamation Bill—did not originate with Ministers, nor in the House of Commons, but with unofficial Lord CAMPBELL and the Peers: the Commons somewhat "amended" it, principally by cut- ting off two of its valuable provisions ; and if Lord LYNDHURST countenanced it in the Upper House, Ministers gave the Attorney- General their full sanction to do his worst with it in the Lower. What Ministers really did, therefore, under that head, was to spot? the only substantial "improvement connected with the law." There was a good deal of individual activity; but, on the whole, necessarily fruitless ; for if a Government were to suffer others generally to beat it in practical legislation, it would soon cease to be a Government. The Royal Speech occasioned Earl STANHOPE to ask the Lords for a Committee to inquire into the state of the " productive classes" : but Lord STAN HOPE, of course, com- mands no success in that kind of movement. Lord Howicit's mo- tion, on the same occasion, for a Committee of the Commons, raised a regret, that while people should talk about the vital neces- sity of remedies, and have some very good notions, no one should be able to do anything whatever. The causes of Irish discontent were discussed by Mr. Swan O'BRIEN, in a motion for inquiry, and in the unceasing debates on the Arms Bill; Mr. VfLLIERS, Mr. WARD, Lord MONTEAGLE, and others, have raised debates on the Corn-laws; Lord JOHN RUSSELL and Lord MONTEAGLE, Oil the Revenue : but the vast speechmaking might almost as well have been omitted—perhaps better; for perpetual use begins to harden every body to Parliamentary eloquence, so that it is quite losing its influence. Mr. CHARLES BULLER'S two speeches about coloniza- tion, generally and in Canada, have as fair a chance as any of at- taining some practical result ; but it is future. Lord BROUGHAM has carried his bill to prevent the actual employment of British capital in the Slave-trade. Except that and the Libel Bill, in- dependent legislators have no better account to show than Go- vernment. Some of the discussion was in its nature useless,— as the idle Palmerstonian attacks on the Ashburton Treaty, now forgotten as the follies of a day ; and the equally factious though not unprovoked notices of Lord ELLENBOROUGH, his errors and his merits. One of the most active Members of former sessions ab- sented himself—Mr. O'CONNELL ; carrying his activity elsewhere, to push a game of his own.

What has the aristocratic Whig Leader done for his country ? Lord JOHN RUSSELL proposed some resolutions about Education— which came to nothing ; and a little Municipal Corporation Reform Hill—which also came to nothing. It was not merely in ordinary routine lawmaking that Parlia- ment was culpably heedless of its duties; for great measures of domestic policy, relating to the peace and safety of the country, demanded the intervention of the supreme power. With some- thing like threatened rebellion in Ireland, it was to be expected that the Great Conncil of the Nation would 'make an effort to suppress the treason or remove the causes of the discontent. Parliament, by its party majority, abetted the Minister in doing nothing. It might almost, indeed, have been supposed, not from the words of legislators but from their acts, that they were unconscious of the state of things out of doors—of the disorder of Ireland, Wales, and England—of the failure of Bri- tish commerce abroad. But what has happened within their own walls proved that they were not so. The ludicrous quar- rel about the Croal contract, which was managed so un- luckily as to convert mail-coaches into a provocative of all but revolution, was succeeded by the Ministerial declarations against Repeal—by the Ministerial vindication of the foolish dismissal of Irish Magistrates—and by the Arms Bill ; the de- bates on which showed Members to be fully alive to what was passing ; and, as if to clench the proof, a hint of _" pecca- vimus was conveyed in the general recognition, by all but Ministers and the remnant of the High Church Tory party, that the Roman Catholic clergy should be provided for, and again in the Premier's promise to inquire into the Irish law of landlord and tenant.

The pacification of Ireland was not all. The questions were great urgency which were unsettled when Parliament met were many : they remain unsettled now, and this is the formidable list,—the insurrection in the North of England, and its causes, unexplored ; Irish grievances, especially that of the Church, Tenant-law, and Poor-law ; National Education ; Sugar-duties, lowered to the necessities of the English market, yet combined with auxiliary measures to save the West ladies from ruin; the Oregon disputed boundary ; Commercial treaties with France, Portugal, Brazil, and the United States. To this list may be added that of the Rebecca insurrection and its causes. Parliament has ac- knowledged these urgent questions, and made no effort to settle them.

The inefficiency of Parliament is reflected in the slights put upon it all round. Mr. COBDEN has been making a long• tour of the agricultural districts, agitating them against one of the newest laws; but the influence of Parliament does not extend so far. No confidence in Parliament checked the Scotch Secession. If mutual friendly allusions in the two Parliaments produced a better feeling between France and England, it does not appear that the Representatives of the British Nation had more influence on Spain in its hour of anarchy than if Britain had been blotted from the map. But that is the less wonderful, since the Foreign Office never communicates with Parliament till every thing is "settled."

Such is the result of having a Minister without an active policy, and a Parliament without organization or adequate methods of working. In respect to one important branch of administration, Sir ROBERT PEEL might have thought it the safest method of evading his "difficulty with Ireland, to restrict himself to the merely negative policy of doing nothing there but govern that part of the country with irreproachable impartiality. He might have thought himself excused for that course by the fact that ordinary party-connexions deprived him of an engine for a more active remedial policy in Ireland. But the necessity is now forced upon him. Ireland has become not only chronically but acutely disordered, and remedies for its condition can no longer be post- poned. The Minister seems to feel so, by his promise respecting Tenant-law ; and if he is too courageous to be readily frightened, and too cautious to be easily tempted to activity, he has shown that he knows when a thing must be done, and that, having once adopted the notion, he can press it with obstinacy and boldness. It by no means follows, therefore, that because he was inactive last session he is to be inactive next session. The closing Speech seems to hint as much, where it says that the Queen (that is, her Majesty's Cabi- net) desires " to cooperate with Parliament in effecting such amendments in the existing laws as may tend to improve the social condition and to develop the natural resources of Ireland."

The greatest difficulty may next session consist in the ineptitude and inefficiency of the House of Commons as an instrument of

legislation. But here again much of the blame rests with Ministers. Their worst condemnation is out of their own mouths : after sitting with Parliament, large and vital questions being before them, for more than half a year, every thing is thrown aside—" for want of time "! They should abandon the bad old custom of introducing almost all their measures in the Commons ; the effect of which is, that while honourable Members are engaged in their five-months bootless " discus- sions," noble Lords are nearly idle, or are imitating the chaffer- ing of the Commons, with the excuse of having nothing better to do. Still more is it incumbent on Ministers to see that all the measures which they propound are so well considered, so complete in themselves, as to defy " amendment." At Oxford University, the body to suggest and shape measures is distinct from the body which accepts or rejects ; a system tending to promote careful pre- paration. In Parliament, it is the very reverse : measures are there so " amended" as to be virtually framed in " committee of the whole." When authorship is intrusted to a multitudinous de- bating-club—for this is the true character of the House of Com- mons—in all stages of knowledge, and with the most conflicting opinions, it is not surprising that half the work of the session should be the botching of laws passed before. There ought to be a de- partment whose sole duty it should be to digest projects of legis- lation, so as to anticipate and meet every objection in every pos- sible way. Even as a debating-club, too, the House might be much improved. One bane of discussion is the endless repetition of argu- rnent : it not only wastes time, but nullifies the effect of the argu- ments themselves, by disgusting and wearying the attention. Lord JOHN RUSSELL_ gets up and makes a long speech, and Mr. VERNON SMITH, Lord PersmisTorr, or other Whigs, rise and say it all over again ; Sir ROBERT PEEL is " followed" by Mr. GOULBURN, Sir JAMES GRAHAM, and Lord STANLEY ; Mr. VILLIERS, by Mr. EWART and Sir WILLIAM CLAY; Mr. COBDEN, by Mr. BROTHER- TON, Mr. MILNER GIBSON, and Mr. GISIIORNE; Sir ROBERT INGLIS, by Mr. PLUMPTRE and Mr. COLQUHOUN : the order in which the names are placed signifying little, for you may reverse them, and then each follower will be a leader. Now, if knots of Members generally agreeing were to meet and distribute among each other separate points to work out, the relief would be immense : time would be saved beyond calculation ; arguments would be better developed; each successive speech would be a new blow, instead of a wearisome repetition ; and the cumulative effect of the arguments would be wonderfully strengthened. This much is certain, that unless Members and Ministers cooperate to improve methods of conducting business, Parliament will again labour for months to no purpose, and must be content to incur reproaches of neglecting national interests and the wants of their country, to which no one Member in his individual capacity would confess. The consolatory fact in the history of the session and its otherwise vain and profitless party contests, is the utter breaking- up of party. The Whigs exult in the mutiny among the Minis- terial ranks of the Ultra-Agriculturists, the Ultra-Tories—espe- daily in Irish policy, and the new secession of what may be called the Conservative Movement party. But precisely the same influences which have weakened the blind obedience of the once compact Tory party to their chosen leader, have diminished the antagonist force of the Opposition ; and the leader on that side of the House can as little count on the unqualified submission of the many fragments into which his party has been split—some of the fragments so recent as not yet to have acquired a name, like the Liberals who refused to cast opprobrium on the Chelsea Out-Pen- sioners Bill. If the different sections of the House were mapped out, the two great divisions of supporters and opponents, on each successive measure, would exhibit an endless counter-change of their respective constituent portions. When it comes to voting, indeed, the abandonment of old faction-habits is not so decided ; but the speeches show how ripe are the elements of party for a recombination. The emphatic and all but universal acknowledg- ment of Free-trade principles, as matters of course and "common sense," shows that faith in a past policy which heretofore distin guished one faction has expired under the accumulated pressure on British commerce. The birth of " Young England," and the kindly sympathy avowed for the working classes, attest the fermen- tation of opinion even among the Conservatives, whose principle is that of opposition to change. The general and frequent admission among the leading Liberals, even when condemning the Premier's course, of his high motives, his singleness of purpose, and great ability, tell as plainly as possible that the party alarm-cry of " Toryism " as applied to Conservatives is an expiring vulgarism. There appears to be a chance, that with the disintegration of mere factions, opportunity is opening for the reconstruction of party on the principle of combining to carry great and obvious measures of improvement.