THE DAMPED RADICAL,

THE Examiner, as we have shown already, resembles that cu- rious mixture of fish, flesh, and fowl, which naturalists bare termed the Ornithorincus Paradoxus. New Holland is full of wonders, and may yet produce an animal, not as above combining three forms at once, nor changing its colour while preserving one form like the chameleon, but taking distinctly different shapes from time to time according to circumstances. We shall then have a perfect emblem of the present Examiner. Meanwhile, hie recent political course may be likened to one of those fitful diseases which exhibit hot and cold paroxysms. Or rather, as pulses vary, and as his, when he is well, naturally beats high sot -Radical Reform, his present distemper consists of fits of the wildest Whiggery. He had a shivering fit last Sunday.

The occasion was Sir JOHN CAMPBELL'S speech at Edinburgh, and especially those parts of it which relate to articles of the Radical faith.

On Peerage Reform, which our brother is used to call " the question of questions," Plain Jorm said-

" I do not anticipate that the time will come when measures approved by the King and his Ministers, by large majorities of the Representatives of the People, and in whose favour the public voice is loudly and unequivocally de- clared, will be rejected by one branch of the Legislature. I do not anticipate such a crisis. My own opinion is, that the Lords, being prudent and intelli- gent men, as the majority of them must be allowed to be, will consider that pub- lic opinion is an important element and ingredient in weighing the expediency of public measures' and will bend, as the Duke of Wellington did on a former occasion, as other leaders have done on former occasions, and as Lord Lynd- hurst himself has done, to the public voice; and that the crisis may thus be

averted." •

The utmost, then, which the Whig Attorney-General expects o desires as a solution of the question of questions is, that the " prui dent and intelligent majority " of the Tory Lords will become Con- formers. Certainly they will, as before, in return for the pay and patronage of office ! Such reforms as Sir JOHN CAMPBELL here alludes to—such reforms as " the prudent and intelligent majo- rity " of the Lords would grant to "expediency"—the Redicals may obtain to-morrow, by letting the Tories displace the Whigs. The Tories are obstinate anti-Reformers in opposition, but in office, " prudent and intelligent " Conformers. So far we agree with "Plain JOHN CAMBPELL." But what says our most Radical brother ? He says, (those who have seen it will believe it,) "Some few weeks ago we expressed our opinion that many of the Whigs in office would be converted to Peerage Reform, (" the question of questions,") by a little more practical experience of the impossibility of reconciling the existing privileges of the Lords with the interests of the People ; and Sir John Cambell's, speech strengthens this expectation." We presume that the strengthening part of the Attorney- General's speech is the meaningless trash which follows-

" But my opinion is, that the People will never submit to tyranny, never submit to misrule; and that, as the Peerage was made for the benefit of the People, it belongs to the Peers to recollect, that it is for the good of the People that they have been intrusted with the privileges which they now enjoy."

"The People will never submit to tyranny, never submit to misrule!" How very fine, how profound, how like the style of

the Examiner in his better days, when it was his forte to expose humbug in the shape of bombastic generalities ! Then look at the sure effect, and the obvious cause. The Peers will" recol- lect that it is for the good of the People they have been intrusted," &c. Why will they recollect this ?—because" the Peerage was made for the benefit of the People." LYNDHURST, and his des- perate Tory band of Pitt-and-Castlereagh-created Lords, who, not to mention their insulting defiance of the Representatives of the People, have put a stop to legislation, were "made for the benefit of the People;" and therefore they will recollect, &c. Plain JOHN was never less plain. But, quoth the Examiner- " As to the Peerage question, he says as much as can be expected from any official man; and though we differ from him in some of his expectations and renames, in purpose we recognize in him a stanch Reformer."

Here comes the expression of a stanch Reformer's purpose-

" If, however, such a melancholy crisis should arrive, but which, I repeat, I do not anticipate,:I do not doubt, under the auspices ofour patriotic Sovereign, who has already done so much for the rights and liberties of the People, a proper remedy will be found."

Sir JOHN CAMPBELL denies, then, that the conduct of the Peers has hitherto been such as to call for a Reform of the House of Lords. Nor does he anticipate any thing so " melan- choly " as an absolute necessity for Peerage Reform. But if, as lie does not anticipate, the absolute necessity should arise, why then, to be sure, it may be proper to comply with that necessity. What a stanch Reformer ! His speech, says the Examiner, "would have been good in any season, but is doubly acceptable and valuable after the damper of Mr. RICE at Limerick: his re- view of what was done and undone in the session, is very able, and the right spirit pervades his speech." Now for a little more of the right spirit of a stanch Reformer's speech- " I am at all times most ready to answer any question that may be put to me; but I appear here at present not to give any opinion upon abstract matters."

However, be does answer the question, "abstract" as is the matter to which it refers-

" I have not yet voted for the Ballot, nor am I prepared to vote for it. [Not very abstract this, but rather practical, we should think.] When I see that some of my constituents have been coerced—[practical againj—I am inclined to vote for the Ballot; but on cool and calm reflection lam against the principle of secret votin g ; and I think that we should first see how public virtue and patriotism can succeed under the present mode of open voting. If we find that intimidation is still practised, I will then be brought to be a reluctant supporter of the Ballot."

Sir JOHN CAMPBELL'S constituents happen to be remarkably free from those influences against which there can be no protec- tion but secret voting. For other people's constituents, so called,— for the "tenants without a will,', who were forced by their land- lords to reject Lord JOHN Russet'. and elect Mr. PARKER,—for the same class in Cornwall, whose want of the Ballot deprives them of an able and beloved Representative,—for the great class of coerced voters not being his own constituents, Sir JOHN CAMPBELL has not a grain of sympathy. In the face of his own constituents, he could not but say that he felt for the few of them who have been compelled to vote against their conscience. But, "on cool and calm reflection," be is "against the principle of secret voting." There's "the right spirit" of "a stanch Re-

former." As, because the People will "never submit to tyranny, never submit to misrule," we may go without Peerage Reform, so, because of the "public virtue and patriotism" of the thousands whose elective conscience is under durance, we may dispense with Ballot, to the very principle of which this stanch Reformer is opposed on cool and calm reflection. At present there is no ne- cessity, no call for the Ballot : if such a necessity should ever arise,—failing, that is, "public virtue and patriotism,"—why then, as in the other case, since necessity is necessity, the Attorney- General "will be brought to be" a supporter, though reluctant, of what cannot be avoided. "The right spirit pervades his speech."

There is yet another question on which the 'Whig Attorney- General differs altogether with the Examiner of old, nevertheless evincing, according to the Examiner of Sunday last, the right spirit of a stanch Reformer- " My opinion is, that no l'arliament should last seven years ; but It/link the question is, to a great extent, speculative. Fur my own part, gentlemen, I have been in Parliament six years, and I have been six times elected ; and as far as I am personally concerned, the Parliaments in which I have sat may fairly he called annual Parliaments ; and I will venture to predict that the present Parliament will not last seven years. As I have said, however, gen- tlemen, the question is a speculative one; and I think it is unnecessary for us to occupy our time discussing it, when so nanny matters of a practical kind demand our attention and support."

Plain JOHN is by far too canny a Scot to say any thing just now which would preclude him from being Attorney-General to an open-question Cabinet. But beyond this tribute to the prudence and caution for which be says that LYNDHURST gives him credit, no stanch Reformer will see any of the right spirit in the last extract from his speech at Edinburgh. What has the mere acci- dent of his own frequent elections to do with the principles of le- gislation on which the Examiner has so often and so ably Con- tended for Short Parliaments ? Frequent general elections, if arising from uncertain causes, if not occurring at fixed and known periods, would scarcely increase the accountability of the Member to his constituents. For the sake of constant responsi- bility, it is essential that the duration of Parliaments should be short and certain. But we are only repeating the Examiner of old. Even the present Examiner, when out of the cold fit of Whiggery, would be the first to denounce such stuff as Sir JOHN CAMPBELL'S opinion and prophecy about seven years' Parliaments. Who is of opinion that Parliaments, which never do last seven years, ought to last seven years ? Where is the noodle to prophesy that this ParlLaient will differ from others by lasting seven years ? Sir Jo_its, as he tells us, will always yield to necessity : so, being compelled to say something about the duration of Par- liaments, (for observe that, if let alone, he would not have men- tioned the subject,) and having in view the possibility of an open- question Cabinet, he uttered this unmeaning balderdash. Was it this, or for his safe slap at the advocates of Short Parliaments, that the Examiner talks of " the right spirit" of his speech ? There is no reason why one who declares that the duration of Parliaments is "a speculative question" should not belong to an open-question Ministry ; but such a declaration expresses indivi- dual hostility to Short Parliaments, since it denies the existence of any practical evil arising from the Septennial Act. It is a subject which may be discussed in the closet of the Examiner or the Quarterly Review, but not one fit to be dealt with by Parlia- ment. To use a favourite expression of the Examiner, when he deprecates pressure upon Ministers for some plan of Whig-Radi- cal action, " the pear is not ripe ;" you may look at it, but must not touch it. And if any one should be so silly as to make this a practical question, bringing it before the House, and explaining how uncertainty as to elections prevents responsibility, nay, citing cases in which Members have changed sides since the last elec- tion, and hold their seats in defiance of their angry constituents, why tell him, that, as far as you are personally concerned, Parlia- ments have been annual : do all this, and the Examiner, which is a powerful Radical organ, will assure you that you show the right spirit of a stanch Reformer. The speech of the Attorney-General would have been "good in any season," but is just now "doubly acceptable and valuable!" Let unbelievers (and they will be many) see for themselves that we have quoted fairly. Perhaps it was Mr. RICE'S speech at Limerick, but something at any rate has proved a " damper " indeed to our once Radical eintem- porary-.