TOPICS OF THE DAY.
PEEL'S FUTURE.
AGAIN the Government and the Corn-law question are thrown on Sir Robert Peel's hands, and he begins a new career—opens another volume of his history. What is his position to cope with these returning difficulties? It is materially different from what it was.
In some respects it has changed for the worse. He has lost the prestige which he enjoyed in the supposition that he ruled over an undivided Cabinet. The present supposition perhaps goes to the other extreme, and presumes his Cabinet to be torn by conflicting counsels, only reconciled by some vague apprehen- sion. He has lost the prestige of unquestioned success, and is obnoxious to the fatal influence which enthralled Lord Mel- bourne's Cabinet on its return after Sir Robert Peel's brief Minis- try, that of consenting to match with diminished strength abated pretensions.
On the other hand, he may be supposed, in the interval of these strange and unexplained manceuvres, to have shaken off some internal obstruction—perhaps more than there is any outward sign for. If we assume that Lord Stanley has retreated on no Free-trade but on Colonial grounds, it cannot be denied that Mr. Gladstone is an accession of strength to the "progress" and theorizing section of the Cabinet,—that section, we mean, com- prising the men who, being statesmen as well as officials, take into regard not merely the set routine and practice of govern- ment as they find it, but also those critical theories of what government ought to be which serve as guides to improvement and to a progress in the spirit of the times. Moreover, on the assumption that Peel has reaccepted office for some purpose worth his return, it is to be supposed that he has obliged the old col- leagues who newly enter his new Cabinet to shake off their impeding doubts and hesitations. A hopeful incident in the re- cent version of the tale is, that the Duke of Wellington has not really opposed Sir Robert Peel, but has gallantly prepared to stand by his enlightened colleague. If these assumptions and surmises are correct, although the Premier's influence may be a little diminished for the time, his real internal conscious strength may be increased. The fact on this point, whatever way it may lie, is important ; for on Sir Robert's calculation of his powers will probably depend the boldness and worth of his measure.
What, then, will be his course, and above all, what his measure for the settlement of the Corn-laws ? The question is involved in greater obscurity than ever; for the reports are now so multiplied and contradictory as effectually to neutralize each other ; and as all colours produce blank whiteness, so all reports amount to nought. Rumour, however, suggests three alternative courses, which, on the face of them, are all possible enough, though of very opposite merits.
The Whigs having incurred for Corn-law Repeal a show of de- feat—of slight or hostility even from a section of the "Liberals," Sir Robert Peel may choose to take that for a sign that the event is impracticable, and may recede from the position which he was understood to occupy when his late Cabinet broke up. He may think it safer and more cunning to offer a "compromise "—the retention of some duty on corn. We do not think this so probable a surmise as it might be if we excluded from the view Sir Robert Peel's personal character and the past circumstances. It is to be observed of his public career, that, although he has suffered the measures of his colleagues to sustain destructive rubs, he has never abated the terms of any cardinal measure proposed by himself. He has indeed altered the terms, when unsuccessful; but it has been in the opposite direction, and he has enlarged them. Traces of this tendency may be found in his financial and Irish policy, and in those measures of internal or colonial policy in which he has actively interfered. The course, then, would be probable enough in another statesman; but it would be inconsistent with the marked features of one of the most peculiar characters that ever fell under the observation of the political critic. The trans- parent fallacy of the course need not be pointed out, except as an additional argument against the probability of its adoption by so acute a man.
A more plausible scheme, but one scarcely to be less deprecated, is suggested as lying at the Premier's option : he might make his proposition to Parliament without much effort to enforce its pre- sent adoption ; on its rejection, "appeal to the country" ; and on an adverse decision, resign either the measure or his office. Sir Robert Peel's right to adopt such a course cannot be denied; but would it promise to be in any respect beneficial ? It would in- flame the country with a contest entered upon under the very worst terms for a struggle. The Corn-laws have been argued tisque ad nauseam, until the only active arguers have ceased to urge their side of the dispute : just at that remarkable juncture, the other side, roused from the apathy of indolent not to say in- solent security, are just bvinning to urge their arguments ; but they come to the task with little training, with minds more bewildered by mere unsettlement than stimulated to inquiry, and with an enfeebling sense that they cannot really master the theory of the question, but must abide the issue on a trial of dead. strength. These persons would be content with a settlement on almost any terms, if final; but if asked what they would have, they would say, continued protection ; and thus they would keep alive that agitation which will not cease until their more active opponents are satisfied. We speak now neither in approval nor blame, but simply deal with what we believe to be the facts. Let the reader glance at the language used at the Agricultural and Free-trade meetings of the week, and draw his inferences, not from the conscious avowals of the agriculturists, but also from their not less significant unconscious avowals. An appeal to the country, therefore, would merely provoke a fight at the hustings and poll : it would elicit no real decision. The time for a general election could not possibly be more inopportune, while railway speculation is rampant, and the election-agents are still more keen as railway-bill-agents: if a million sterling, or whatever sum, was spent at the last election to render it a scene of unparalleled profligacy and corruption, assuredly that would be but a faint prototype of the lavish debauchery that would disgrace a general election now.
"The people," as cognizable by Parliament, we say, are un- determined on this question of Corn-law Repeal; but it is not difficult to discern what might be made the decision of the people some time hence, nor what it will be made if statesmen insist upon waiting for it. "The people" are learning self-reliance ; they are discovering that they can break up parties and coerce great states- men ; but the machinery is a clumsy one to move, and the clear- seeing statesman of our age must learn to anticipate those plainly indicated determinations of the people, without always putting the country to the trouble of a formal pronouncement. In the present instance, there can be no doubt that a statesman es- tablishing free trade in corn would meet the virtual demand of the intelligent and active portion among "the people " ; or that the decision, though not formally made in a shape cognizable by Parliament, could be elicited with the due amount of cost and exertion. For it is no small labour and expense to take the real suffrages of some twenty millions or more. It is the consciousness of that latent power and will that has driven statesmen to the present advanced stage in free trade ; but it is better that states- men do not wait to be driven.
These are no idle or " abstract" considerations for a statesman in Sir Robert Peel's position. If he were to retire from public life, or rather, if he had done so lately before entering upon this new career, he would have retreated with a high fame. The petty incriminations that now resound in his ear will be for- gotten with the voices that utter them. History does not judge by technical niceties, or by the transient standards of party, but by the general scope of measures, their nature and substance; and in that fashion will Sir Robert Peel be judged. He has pro- pounded measures for the benefit of the country, calculated to stimulate not only its industry but the progress of that opinion which is the life-breath of industry and of society; and he has succeeded in carrying those measures. Such are the broad facts which will describe his career ; and they must insure him that favourable representation in the page of history which is sup- posed to be his chief ambition. He can have no interest in furnishing the reverse to the picture. The remainder of his political life can bear no duration proportionate to that which has passed, though it might be long enough to present a grievous bathos in contrast with the gradual but lofty rise which has characterized his long career,—like those mighty eminences of the globe that slope gradually upward from the East, and present
to the setting sun an abrupt decline. With such a man at such
a time, the small party successes of the passing year can be of no moment : the mere carrying of a single bill, the result of a division or a poll, the cheers of an expiring Parliament, can weigh little with his mind if it be awake to his own destiny. Such success would be real ruin. Success of the highest kind he can command: for even his withdrawal will always be a signal act : it is his high fortune, that to assert the "eternal principles of justice" identifies his name with their immortality ; and his pre.. diction of an approaching truth, though unfulfilled by himself and uttered by his parting voice, will bear down the strength and numbers even of a Parliamentary majority. In dealing with this urgent and vital measure of the Corn-law, therefore, his object must be to make it truly great and good—as harmless to any as may be—as beneficial to all—a real settlement, but at all events a scheme just and wise in those broad features which are alone regarded by the unimpassioned and remoter view of posterity.
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