THE ;NEWS OF LORD DURHAM'S RESIGNATION.

[The following selections from Liberal Country newspapers, in widely separated districts, may be read as indications of the real state of opinion among the Liberals where the respective papers are pub- lished. The Metropolis we put, as it puts itself, out of the question ; and in several of the larger provincial towns the influence of the Minis- terial cliques and coteries is strongly felt ; but, as far as we know, the *ournals whence our extracts are taken are riot obnoxious to that species Of control.] [From the Glasgow Argus.] He is coming I " who is coming?" Durham's angry Lord is coming.

We are much mistaken if the ringing in the ears of Lord Melbourne do not, as the ding.dong of the bells did with Whittington, shape itself into some such articulate lay as the above. Despite the alarming aspect of the future, we can- not but laugh at the idea how sheepish the Melbournites will look, sitting be- tween Durham and Brougham, with Lyndhurst in the front. No man can feel fur them. They sent Lord Durham to Canada to restore order where their in- capacity had produced anarchy ; and, when he was attacked in absence, they did not even demand a suspension of judgment until he could be heard in his own defence—they eagerly joined in throwing dirt at him, in the hopes of keep- ing the mud off themselves. Lord Melbourne's hypocritical horror at the thought of Mr. Turton's appointment, and the allowing the Indemnity Bill to pass the Commons, were the ne plus ultra of shabby imbecility. Matters, however, are too serious to allow of more than a moment's laughter, and even that damped with anxiety. Lord Durham will come home. When he announces a resolution, he abides by it—even when in the wrong. He, publicly branded, with the permission of her Majesty's Ministers, will not be soothed by the silly device of a private " autograph letter from the Queen." His Lordship is accessible to Royal flattery, but autograph is not a love-sick boy, to be soothed by an autograph for his scrap-book. His Lordship has other quarrels with Ministers than have yet transpired. Look at the conclusion of the article on his proposed Canadian constitution, from the Morning Chronicle : But as we hare already observed, those who are at the head of affairs in Canada may find matter to occupy them ere long, of sufficient moment to prevent them astounding the world by such magnificent conceptions as those to which we have alluded." Lord Durham has been thwarted in private by the jobbers attached to Ministers, as well as placed in a ridiculous position in public. The same slave who declared war against him, is, in abject terror, fawning on him now. But it will not do. Lord Durham will come home; or if heremains it will be to make himself snore able to strike on his return. The battle in Parliament will, there is great reason to fear, be a mere contest of personal hatreds. Lord Durham will seek to avenge his slight, Lord Brougham will pour out his cherished resentments ; the Ministers will spit back alter- nately at each ; the Tories will, with wicked glee, mingle in the fray, for the purpose of more embroiling it. In all this the People have no interest ; and if they are wise, will not allow themselves to be divided by their sympathies for the various combatants. Let them stand by .principle—stand out for their rights—the liberation of industry and commercial enterprise from political and financial shackles ; the popularizing of, at least, one branch of the Legislature; the restriction or abolition of ecclesiastical oppressiou; a better-organized ad- ministration in every department.

[From the Leeds Mercury]

Lord Brougham and the Tories have destroyed the best, not to say the only hope of reestablishing the British dominion in Canada, with the general acqui- escence of the inhabitants. But the real sources of the failure of Lord Dur- ham's mission lie deeper, namely, in the insuperable difficulties of governing Colonies with such a divided population, and insuch a neighbourhood, at the distance of three thousand miles from our shores. From the anomalous state of Canada arose the illegality and anomaly of Lord Durham's well-meant and merciful Ordinances, of which the Tories laid hold for their own purposes.

[Front the Wiltshire Independent.) Placed in an arduous situation—one which required not only the exercise of his beat and calmest judgment, but likewise the unflinching support and ma.

varying countenance of her Majesty's Ministers— placed in that situation ton' in apposition to his own private feelings and inclinations, by tl:e earnest solici- tation of that same Ministry. backed ( if report is to be believed) by the per- sonal request of his Sovereign—what must his feelings have been, when he found that those who had forced so responsible a situation upon him had after the feeblest possible show of resistance, actually joined his enemies in passing that bill, which, although in name one of Indemnity, was in reality an act of cruel and (at their hands) of unmerited censure? What, with his feelings so outraged, his authority so circumscribed and weakened, his acts so set at naught, could he, or any other well-intentioned man do, but resign? And much as we deplore the circumstances that have driven him to such a course, we cannot blame him ; nor can we, after such an abandonment by those who were bound to support him, say that he has sacrificed duty to feeling, should he adhere to his determination. • * • * Even granting their (Ministers') inability to have successfully defended Lord Durham, it would have been to their credit to have done their best for him—to have stood, or fallen with him —rather than, by deserting his Lordship in the hour of trial, to have laid them- selves open to the charge of having saved themselves by sacrificing their friend.

[From the Kent Herald.] Ministers have no power at all in the House of Lords, a slender majority in the House of Commons, and the country partly hostile and partly indifferent. Hence their course, in all other things as in the case of Lord Durham and his Indemnity Bill, has been vacillating, weak, and uncertain—merely directed to stave off for the moment a pressing inconvenience. Why this is so, we have often shown, and how it might have been different. But the counsel of earnest Reformers has been despised, and protection sought in vainly, insanely, attempting to conciliate the Tories. On this " protection " and the chapter of accidents they have relied—forgetting that the chapter of accidents will occasionally bring evil, though " lucky Lord Melbourne' has hitherto so mar- vellously avoided it. Now the mischief has happened from by no means, in our opinion, the most censurable of their acts of commission or omission.

They had survived professions of economy, and then into a Civil List pro- fuse beyond all precedent ; they had outlived coining nto power as friends of Reform, and then vehemently opposing it as soon as they were unfettered by a hostile court ; they had borne to found their tenure of office on the "great and indispensable principle" of the Appropriation clause, and then to abandon it and shift their ground. All this had been, so far, safely hazarded ; when, on declining to support their emissary in measures of declared illegality, the evil overtakes them.

[From the Belfast Northern Whig.] To shed tears, and clench hands, and " look quite savage," when they talked of Lord Brougham, was very excellent performance for men Ethe Nova Scotia

and New Brunswick Deputies, as immortalized by the Morning Chronicle last week] born in such cold latitudes. But, why did they not recollect, that, if

Lord Brougham was the first to point out the illegality of Lord Durham's ordi- nances, and to submit a measure to meet the case, the Ministry arid the House

of Commons adopted that measure ? Not only the weeping Deputies forget that, but most of the Ministerial journalists at home seem to forget it also. They pronounce Lord Brougham's bill to have been infamous : do they not see, that, by so pronouncing, they subject the Cabinet and the Commons to the charge of having done an infamous act? But, in fact, the party most offending were

those who, in March 1837, violated the Constitution of Canada, by forcibly laying their bands upon the People's money, in opposition to a vote of the People's Representatives, acting under the constitution solemnly guaranteed to them by the Imperial Parliament. This was the source of the subsequent evils. One false movement has led to a train of evils and inconveniences, of which this last is but one.

[From the Somerset County Gazette.)

In common with all who reverence the principles, and who belong to the party, of which Lord Durham is the avowed leader, we do rejoice that his con- nexion with the Melbourne Ministry has ended : we are glad that he has come out from among them, and will stand on his own strength. At this time his presence at home will be invaluable. The people want a leader. The middle classes are sick, heartily sick, of the stand-still policy of the present Govern- ment, and sad experience has taught them that the Tories are worse still, for they would go backwards. Men are looking about them for a chief whose principles have been proved, whose honesty has been tried, whose discre- tion is known, whose courage has never been doubted, whose mind has sufficient capacity to understand the times, and act in accordance with them, and who is ready to advance steadily and progressively towards defined objects of political improvement. Such a man is Lord Durham. He is no mere declaimer, he seeks no rash objects. His avowed principles—avowed from early life, and steadily maintained amid all changes—are, Household Suffrage, Vote by Ballot, and Triennial Parliaments. These are principles of all sincere Reformers ; and the country will rally round such a man as we have described, a man admitted to be the fittest for the post of Prime Minister, and one whom it is well known the Queen would be willing to make such, should the country wish it.

[From the Hull Advertiser.] There is also a bright side of the picture—that which is turned towards England. It is not probable that Lord Durham will again be caught in the toils. Ministers will not find him so ready as heretofore to throw the shield of his Liberal reputation before them. Events must have convinced him that he was betrayed by those whom he trusted, and misinformed as to the true policy of the Liberal party, when he addressed the Reformers in the summer of 1837 on behalf of the Queen's Government above and before all things. Lord Dur- ham must once more put forward the " Durham policy" of 1834. There are multitudes eager to follow his standard. He cannot be an insignificant person in England. He will not be permitted to shirk the performance of duties which his position imposes upon him, even although he should be inclined to retire for a while from public life. Ile never was so prominently before the country as he must be en his return from Canada. Should Lord Durham, manfully and wisely, again proclaim Vote by Ballot, Household Suffrage, and Triennial Parliaments, as his political watchword, we can safely promise him a mighty following. Many Reformers have become the advocates of impracticable schemes simply because they had no trustworthy leader and teacher of sounder doctrines. The natural impulse was to embrace " extreme opinions," contrary to those in vogue among their open opponents and falsely professing friends. When they saw the tendency of Whigs and Whig-Radicals to Conservatism, they, in the spirit of contradiction, went off in the opposite direction, and set up the banner of Universal Suffrage, or exclusively democratic ascendancy. Of these a very large proportion may be recalled. And even the more ardent and honest of the Universal Suf- frage men will not refuse their aid in obtaining what will be a real and sub. stantial " instalment" (not like Mr. O'Connell's Tory Tithe Bill) towards the whole debt which they demand. The first and most certain effect of Lord Durham's appearance as the Reform leader, would be the separation of a very large portion of the numbers which make the Universalist agitation formi- dable. The inevitable consequence of such a breaking-up of the extreme Ra- dical forces, would be the postponement of Universal Suffrage for an indefinite time, and perhaps until it might be granted without causing alarm to the middle classes, who are now leagued to resist the non-electors.