NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MINISTERS have postponed the second reading of the Reform Bill —in other words, withdrawn it for the session. We were too sanguine, it appears, in supposing, because a measure had been produced which was at once skilfully planned, conscientious in its aim, and moderate in its temper,—or, as Lord Aberdeen de- scribed it last night, "a just, a liberal, an honest, and a safe mea- sure,"—that it would necessarily be carried. There are those in both Houses of Parliament who prefer not to do good until they are compelled, and who would rather, therefore, wait a tu- multuous compulsion by the people, than prevent that compul- sion by spontaneously doing what is actually neff.1_1f4-.- --Far-not to be concealed, it is nuillesiraiie to conceal, that the leading
statesmen of the Ministry abandon their intention with reluctance. Iltir yield to a political necessity.
Tito extent and.force of that necessity will with difficulty be ap- preciated 1y the public, sinoe prominent sections of the "Liberal" party had declared their intention of supporting the measure. The pretext upon which its progress was to be arrested by certain other sections of so-called "Liberals," who would little like to avow their real motives, was the war ; which, they said, rendered the season inopportune. The hollowness of this ,pretext has been proved, before it is brought to an issue. That Parliament could be hindered in transacting the necessary business connected with the war, we know to be untrue ; because almost all the estimates re- quired by .Ministere have already been passed ; and while every dispositiOn has been shown to farther business of that kind, the questioning and talking that have been raised on the conduct of the War have not been such as to increase the desire for more
afraiiii0i0
)Jut any pretext will serve those who have a predetermined de- sire for mischief; and some of the motives for hindering the bill are easily Understood. Any reader who will glance down the schedules of boroughs which we published on the 18th of last month, will be able to extract a proximate list of Liberal Members who would naturally be tempted to defeat a measure destined by its nature to defeat them. That is one section of malcontents ; and the senior Member for Coventry, a part of whose constituents would have been affected by the freemen clause, had the honesty to avow an opposition which he has had the influence to strengthen by recruiting. Nor were recruits wanted. Besides those Mem- bers of the general Liberal party who disliked the prospect of abo- lition for their own seats, there were others, a more numerous class, who disliked the prospect of a dissolution, with its trouble, its expense, and its hazards. In the estimation of this class, a vaeastire proposed for the interests of the country was a vexatious and inconvenient aggression upon Liberal rights of quiet occu- Pastey tar the calculated term. To this section belong some who are connected with the Government, and some, we regret to be- lieve, who are actually members of the Government. It is well understood, that the holders of certain minor but not unimportant offices would have appeared voting against Their own superior col- league amongst the supporters of Sir Charles Dering's announced amendment for postponement. All these Liberals are, ex officio, "Reformers"; but they hate a reform that affects themselves ; and the war pretext was a windfall. Another section, partly honest, partly professional, consists of that local election-commit- tee class of politicians who decide all questions by electoral arith-. oletio on the slate ; who estimate measures by the prospect of re- ,t,erning.partionlar men ; and who were outraged at the idea of letting in a Conservative," for Manchester, perchance, or for Wol- One more section has to be mentioned—the Peace party, which is filled with disaffection to a Ministry that, after striving to the uttermost in the cause of peace, has at last accepted the neces- sities of war ; and one eminently pugnacious leader of that party has been understood to vow that he would destroy the present Ministry,—a destructive propensity not lessened by the aforesaid prospect that Manchester might send one Conservative Member to Parliament under the new election-law.
These forces could not have been combined against Government on any direct negative of Reform; amendments even could hardly have been of a hostile character, since the better portion of the Liberal party had already determined that they should not be mischievously framed to imperil the bill as a whole. But the war pretext can serve a man of "peace," as well as any other when an object is desired which cannot be approached by direct means ; and under shelter of war, a "reformer" can reprieve a corrupt borough without openly turning renegade.
But how, it may be asked, as Ministers were so strong in their own conviction, so firm in their own purpose, and so well received by the real public, could they not put down the treachery in their own ranks, and ride over the interested opposition amongst the so-called independents ? The reasons are tangible and practical enough. If they had forced on the measure, and had braved this crooked opposition, they would have been obliged " to appeal to the country "; and then they would have had sent up against them—with the Reform Bill unenacted—Members pledged to oppose them from the boroughs set down for disfranchisement, and from the boroughs guided by the local election-committee class and now filled with a virtuous dislike to the idea of en- franchising a minority. Add to which, both in Parliament and , out of doors, there remained, looming in the background, that residuary Tory party which has no substantive power of its own but which can throw a compact mass of Members into the
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Ministers might still have remained firm : confluent in taw
tice and moderation of their measure, and in the appreciation of the English people, they might have resigned. Such a contin- gency was not imeontemplated ; and the Liberal supporters of Sir Edward Dering might have gone home with the satisfaction of having broken up the best Ministry, the only possible Ministry of the day, in order to go back to the Derby-Disraeli party, and to substitute perchance W. B. and Sir John Pakington for Mr. Sid- ney Herbert and the Duke of Newcastle in the administration of the war. That would have been a grand result to the minim:tyre of the patriots ! The true patriotism and moral courage of Minis- ters have saved the country, however, from that infliction. It is not without a view to the disastrous public inconvenience which would arise from a Ministerial resignation that the foremost of the Ministers have yielded to the importunities of sincere friends who felt alarmed at the threatened juncture.
If the Liberal part of the Commons had been strongly united in support of Ministers and Reform, the Lords might have yielded to the moral compulsion ; but with any breach in the unanimity, the Lords would have been free to make mince-meat of the measure, because they know that it is not of a kind to be supported by a great popular clamour. Unimpressed by the logical merits of the scheme, they would have ,stood in no fear of "Swing" or of the Birmingham Bull-ring, and would have mutilated at pleasure. The moral of the tale is, that in conducting the statesmanship of the country, which has become so essentially progressive that Tories themselves are now compelled to chatter "progress," the
true Conservative Reformers are not to be supported in taking reason for their guide, but must leave the Obstructives, Liberal as well as Tory, to be cried down by clamour and everridden by tumult.
