EASTER POLITICS.

RETROSPECT OF THE SESSION, PART FIRST.

THE arrival of Easter suspends the operations of Parliament. A most valuable portion of the first session of the, first Reformed House of Commons is consumed. It is natural that we should turn round and inquire how far the expectations of men hew been answered in the manner in which its labours have been bestowed.

No assembly in the world ever opened its doors with greater ap- plause: its first proceedings were regarded with breathless atten- tion : all paused to listen to the national Voice, for the first time re- sounding, without impediment or struggle, within the walls of a British Senate-house. It may be that some of the hopeS entertained of the immediate result's 'of. Reform were unreasonable; but it never occurred to any one, however little sanguine, that none of them would be realized. Ameliorations too numerous, and of too many descriptions, were looked for; • but the most desponding never dreamed that the first and only measures of the People's Housei.during a grand division of their year, would effeet nothing for the advantage of this country, and for the sister-kingdom solely a deed of certain severity and of at least equivocal good. .

i Yet such; too surely, is our 'position at Easter. The measures that would have been of real use to the country have been utterly sunk ; and if they are now broUght forward at all—which is prob- lematical—they must be huddled up in haste,' imperfectly conk- dered, and indecently despatched.. It is difficult to conceive a make enviable position thin that of the. British Ministry at the close of thelirst.Reforneed Elections. The; spirit of improvement animated the whole country: the -Mi- nisters were adored, not merely as the men who had carried the People's Great Measure, but as the men best of • all qualified to work by its means the good of the nation. At length, Patriots and Statesmen and Ministers were combined in the same persons: at length, the tree men who had been labouring all their lives to esta- blish principles, were happily raised to a pitch of power by which they could put them in practiceby which they could rule the na- tion on the maxims they had so long, so laboriously, so eloquently maintained, in spite of corruption, in the face of power, in defiance of intrigue.

At the opening of the Parliament, the King and the Represen- tatives of the People stood on new ground. The Reform Bill had passed : the King himself had greatly contributed to its success : be had seized an early opportunity of taking the sense of his People on it : it was most decidedly given : and there they stood face to face, a Reformer King and a Reforming Parliament. Now was the time for Reforming Acts: We might have almost anticipated the language that such Ministers would have put into the mouth of such a King, on his addressing for the first time such an assembly. Should he not have congratulated them and himself on his good fortune in beim, the instrument in the hands of Providence of re- storing or extending to his People those franchises of which they bad been deprived by the natural corruption of time, or the ordi- nary processes by which a rising state necessarily outgrows its early institutions ?

Might he not have anticipated, with great satisfaction, that now, when all interests were not merely understood, but were ininar- tinily represented, henceforward would commence the reign of order, harmony, and united exertions?

Could lie not have assured the two Houses, that his sole object being the happiness of his People, it would be hard if much were not done for them, when all the Orders of the State were assembled breathing but one wish,—the redress of grievances, and the equal distribution of the blessings of a free government?

If it should be found, he might have said, that the burdens of taxation were unequally borne, it then would become his duty to see such injustice remedied: "for am I not," he would have exclaimed, " the King of the whole People?" If, moreover, these burdens could be proved too great for the free motion of the industry and spirit of the nation under them, it would not have been unbecoming a Monarch so situated to declare, that as far as was consistent with the national honour and the maintenance of public credit, relief should be sought, and if possible found and administered. .

This relief would have implied strict economy, retrenchment from all unnecessary expenditure, the reduction of such establish- ments as were not of national service regarded in a large view, and in short; a frUgal and faithful stewardship of the public revenue.

With regard to the many internal measures that awaited the dis- posal of the Legislature, the King might have appealed to the wis- dom of Parliament; taking for granted that the hearts of all were warm in the cause of the general wellbeing, and promising for his own part, to sanction all such measures as Went to the uprooting of the causes of distress, and to the remedying of such evils as might aggravate the condition of the hard-working and meagre- living labourer.

Had the King alluded to Ireland, it certainly should not have been in the language of menace. The helping hand lie would have rejoiced to extend to his native country, he should have held still more graciously to our long misgoverned and ill-used neigh- bour. While he reprehended the spirit of turbulence that has too long raged in that land, he should have assured himself that men were only wicked when they were' ill-taught and ill-fed ; and he should have rejoiced in being now aided by men who understood the causes not only of English but of IriSh distress. It would not have been too strictly logical for a Royal Speech to have concluded, that in setting about the extirpation .of evil causes, there was good hope of a timely cessation of pernicious consequences It has been usual in such documents to indicate the state of our Foreign relations. Why ? WILLIAM the Fourth might have spoken for all the Kings that will ever reign in England, in say- ing, that with regard to other countries, our maxim is universal justice : if our subjects are aggrieved, we will see that they are righted ;. in all our dealings, we wish for simply a fair exchange; and towards every land willing to engage in mutual relations, we arc ready to do right, and expect nothing but right.. So happily situated is this country, that while it is rich in native' sources of wealth, it can avail itself of all the advantages of other lands. Such, moreover, is its spirit, its power, and its skill, that it dreads no .competition either in the market or the field. What have we 6o care for Foreign diplomacy, and why should it ever occupy the first place in our King's" Speeeh? The Representatives of the People would have had no hesitation in expressing their fell concurrence in these sentiments. But, instead of the old usage of thrusting forward a pair of young and inexperienced persons in order to declare the policy of the Ad- Ministration ready to act upon these sentiments, -who so worthy as the:responsible authors of Ahem, themselves, to ceme.forWard with an:exposition of their principles of action,their system of procedure, iu short the spirit of their Cabinet? The Speech is but an index : the Minister himself should have turned over-the pages of the na- tional ledger,. and exhibited to the people the nature of the account -,it was propesed•tuopen. - - ' -

Had such teproceeding no other virtue -it would .at least prove that there did exist a system—that the Ministry did not trust to

extempore inspiration, or, in homely phrase, that it did not subsist " from hand to mouth." On such statements, not from the lips of tutored young men, being published in both Houses, we might then have talked of confidence to the Administration;withoitt either bigotry or an abuse of terms.

The sentiments we have put into the mouth of the highest Per- sonage of the realm,. lead' directly to the matter that might haVe been expected in the Ministerial statements.

Instead of touching upon such comparatively minor points as the East India question or the Bank Chatter—important, bur still insulated subjects; which must and will be settled in the closet, when their time comes, by a few students, who must give all their -mind to the consideration of their details-L-the Minister should have come forward' with a full display of his views respecting the great measures on which he conceived the national prosperity in • future to revolve. We have not been misgoverned so long with- out the necessity of a. grand change of measures. If all things are to pursue their 'old-routine, why the paramount necessity of a fundamental change in the instrument of government? The grand subject of Ecclesiastical Reform was indeed propounded in the Speech, but the Royal voice has hardly been echoed by the Ministers; Nothing has been done, and very little has even been said. Yet it is a matter that goes to the root of much evil.

The prosperity, nay the safety of this country, depends upon the wants of the great masses of the People being understood,—upon their industry being unshackled; their labour being duly appre- ciated; and, in case of its superfluity, that it should be wisely di- rected into other channels. This large statement implies the con- sideration of Poor-laws, of a system of Colonization, and also of the present unwise and burdensome restrictions upon Trade. The grand subject of Taxation embraces not only the exigencies of the broad pyramidal basis of' the population, but also the less nu- merous but equally to be considered ranks of the middle elms. Such were naturally the interests that ought to have taken posses- sion of the mind of a Reforming Minister. They who looked to Reform as a practical, epoch, thought of these things. Unhappily, all these grand questions were put out of sight . by the Govern- ment. The King's Speech, as it was delivered and illustrated, breathed but one distinct note, and that was Irish subjugation. The interpretation of the Cabinet's wishes was intrusted to inex- perienced men : personal feelings (we especially speak of the House of Commons) were unnecessarily provoked ; and in the beat of the corabbt, so loud was the noise and so opaqite,the smoke, that the combatants, in struggling for their respective notions of right on a small ground, utterly forgot the wide world that awaited their decision on far more essential and important points. The error of the Parliament must, however, be attributed to its right source : the King's Ministers had the initiation of measures; and -they chose to put forward, as their main hope, a harsh proceeding, -which they were well aware would be received by the Commons with deep regret, and which could not possibly obtain the assent of the Legislature without a long and painful contest. In thus unnaturally thrusting• forward the consideration of Irish mar- tial law, they must-have known that they were extinguishing, for .a certain long and valuable portion of time, those discussions which were alone, or at least first of all, expected from a Reformed Par- liament.

They who bailed with delight_ the appearance of a.Whig Admi- nistration, not dispensing the patronage of the Crown, but looking -only to the happiness of the People, have now some right to ask -of these men the cause of all their disappointment. They are en- titled to say—" Our views of tho policy of a Liberal Administra- tion were not limited to the. putting down of Whiteboyism in Ire- land. We were expecting measures for the relief of Distress—for the Education, moral and intellectual, of the People—for a reform -of the Poor-charity—for the regulation of Church claims—for Municipal Institutions adapted to the wants of the age—for a re- consideration of those Burdens that have been imposed upon the People by Unreformed Parliaments moved by other considera- tions than the national welfare.- It is with no factious feeling, but, on the contrary, an unfeigned regret, that we are compelled to state that the Ministry could give no satisfactory answer 'to one thus .complaining of the falsification of all his public hopes. And yet this is the Ministry that we set out by saying once enjoyed the proudest position statesmen ever occupiedsince the time that nations began to be ruled by other authOrity than one man's will.

In all that has ever fallen from the various members of the Ad- ministration since the opening of Parliament, it has been too manifest, that while they had no system of general well-doing, they had all, and with apparent unanimity, imbibed a maxim by which they regulated the whole of their public conduct: To -drag forth to light this unworthy resolution, and to expose the motives which led to its formation, costs us a sensation of un- mixed pain. The'truth. is this. The Ministry accomplished Re- form : they were astonished at the Work of their hands : their own -creature rose up in all its freshness and vigour, and they shrunk under its first glance. The 'hands that moulded -were afraid to guide. They apprehended danger, where, men of more courage, -of greater rang., of talent, and more enlarged minds, would' have seen nothing, but the strong and steady breeze newly sprOng up to

bear them into port. .

It was then 'resolved,_that *form should be as :if it were ;flot. Filled with chimeras of popular violence, and a covtardly terror of' being carried off their legs, the Ministry said, let us avoid the tide altogether : they retreated into a whirling and eddying corner, " where. with all the appearance of hurry and bristle's they might I pretend to be in motion without moving a jot. Out of this settled plan (alas! that the only thing Settled in such a Ministry should be a great negation!) arose all the suspi-

cious and contradictory statements respecting "final rns*silreS" and other ulterior changes. The Ministry dreaded lest they should be carried before the wind of a popular enthusiasni: and instead of, like brave and able men, availing themselves of the gale to ar- rive at the desired haven, they, to their eternal discredit, put back to the coast from which they had sailed.

The natural language of a Reformer King we have already in- dicated : how did the real King's Speech open ? "The period being now arrived at which the business of Parliament is usually're- sumed,"&e. Who would have supposed that a revolution had in- tervened since last his Majesty stood on the same spot?

It would have been well if the Ministry had shown the same resolution and firmness in other matters, that they have displayed in carrying into execution this policy of negation. So thoroughly has an extinguisher been put upon the results of Reform, that, looking upon their public acts and their public speeches, it is al- most impossible to detect the difference that would naturally exist between a Whig and a Tory Administration—much less the wide distinction that ought to have marked the progress of a truly Na- tional Government. •

For this unhappy retreat, the Ministers had one poor excuse : they had been frightened from their propriety ! Such terror was certainly unbecoming enough, but the bugbear from which they start should also not escape uncensured. There was a class of men, intoxicated with the unexpected boon of' Reform, by which they had been raised into some fleeting importance, who, forgetting the uses of the instrument of good now placed in their hands, vapoured incessantly about further organic changes. They seemed to forget the end in the.means : it was not the measures to be carried, but a still greater perfection in the machine that was to carry them. They spoke of nothing but the Ballot, Universal Suffrage, Slc. ; • and some went not to the foundations of the house of Commons, `but of society itself. Able rulers 'would have taken all the demon- strations of the Political Unions and the demagogue orators at their true value: but our Ministers looked on till they fancied they Were lost. They conceived the idea that they must throw them:- - selves into the arms ofeither the Conservatives or the DestructiveS. The last, it was supposed,• would whirl them to destruction; the first only act as a drag upon the wheels of Reform, and reduce its rate of going to such a pace that the most timid driver might regulate-its course. Hence the scarcely visible difference between a Tory and a Whig Administration. Hence it is that the People, and those who advocate their cause, are so far and almost uncon- sciously deviating from the course of the men with whom they started to run the same race of national improvement. The . question's of the Ballot and short Parliaments had their importance, but the Ministry was not called upon either to adopt or to reject them : they were changes which the Executive -might- hare left -with perfect confidence to the wisdom of the Representative body. In baffling for a time the tactics of "the -Mouvement party,' of which they considered these points the leading features, they have, it is true, exposed the. feebleness of some noisy and uninfluential spouters—but at what a great and fatal expense!

The fatal impolicy of the Ministerial course may be discerned in this, if in nothing else. Had the system of governing which we have taken the pains to indicate as the natural result of Re- form, been pursued, the settlement of Ireland would have taken its just place with all the other great interests of the country. 'Seeing that the Government had a searching plan of relief, demanding only time for its operation,—and understanding, as all statesmeu must, the paramount necessity of public order and the full security of life and property,—any additional authority the Executive might have justly required, would have been granted almost as a matter of course: it would not have borne a night's 'discussion. But the Ministry had no whole; and thus a- part, and a very bad part too of their procedure, grew into a monstrous -excrescence, which—and we fear not altogether without a cal- ciiiated ugliness—at length overshadowed the entire business of the:country. • The limits to which we are necessarily confined, have forced us upon amore general view than may be satisfactory to all persons interested in this most important discussion. Enough, however, has been said to show, that up to the moment of the opening of the present session of Parliament,a far different and a far more beneficial line of policy might have been expected from the pre- Sent Ministry. They have not pursued the direct course to which their previous lives and their public acts all agreed to point. The first outward sign of diVergence (not to dwell on the shuffling about Mi. MANNERS SUTTON), was the SPeech, to which more than one reference has been made. There they stopped short; and thence they commenced that sidling, movement, which, amongst other far more important consequences, has had -the 'effect, much to our mortification, of leaving 'us to proceed on the -bigh-road of Reform without the powerful convoy of the Govern- ment. -'- It will be conceded by the regular readers of the Spectator, that in effecting the'great measure of Reform, no niggardly cooperation was lent on our part. We spared neither time, labour, nor pe- cuniary outlay we gathered all our strength, we spent all our vigour : it was with us the hope of the morning and the care of the evening. The toil was utterly disinterested: the Whig Mi- nisters were, individutlly, nothing to us, more than the Tories were —we never sought their favour, or wore the livery of their party : we knew and supported them (as, indeed, we had supported the Duke of WELLINGTON so long as his course appeared to lie in the path of public improvement) only as the means of effecting immense good to the country : the crisis was most critical, and we simply made it a matter of conscience to contribute our mite to a great and glorious cause. The means appeared to be accomplished; and we were again preparing to work out the ends of the measure, when we found the very men who ought to have led the van, absolutely choking up the way. The dissatisfaction--to call a strong feeling by a mild name—that we have from time to time taken care to ex- press, has been found fault with by some: " Why do you not con- fide in the Ministers 7—why do you censure the measures of Lord GREY and Lord ALTRORP?" is the burden of their song. Now we have shown what the Ministers mighty have effected: it is well known what they have done : the difference is mighty : why should we " confide " in men who, we here proclaim before the world, have deceived our just expectations? The parties who have troubled themselves to explain their dis- satisfaction with our onward course, must not suppose that we do not understand the whole bearings of the Ministerial policy as well as they; nay, from what we have seen of the Cabinet as it stands before the world, we deem it no great boast to say we have better learned the lesson of the Nation's wants than the Ministers have. Neither let such persons flatter themselves that we are un- acquainted with the influence and the motives under which they act. Some, who give themselves credit for being shocked with our want of "confidence in Ministers," are mere meddlers, mere busy- bodies, the Colonel JONESES of society, who, deriving a temporary importance from the fact of those men they support beine-c in power, cannot bear the idea of losing their reflected light. Others, again, such as old Whigs, who have lived all their lives looking to the accession of their party as the political millennium, cannot bear to be disturbed in their contented chant of Nunc dimittis. Many there are whom the placing of a Whig Administration has helped into the receipt of custom and the disposal of patronage : these are probably men who have been all their lives fighting a losing local battle; and when we find fault with their patrons,— regarding, as we lo, the country, and despising both party and place as such,—they turn round upon us with astonishment: "Are we not in power?- they exclaim : " surely this is the thing for which we have been fighting a common fight." There is a worthier class whom we may have alarmed—a class that conscientiously worked with us the work of Reform, but who, when that business was done, deemed they might rest. Such persons are deeply pained to hear that perhaps their triumph was in vain—that their labour may have proved fruitless: they listen to us wishing that we may be mistaken, and get the more angry the more they incline to think that we are right in proclaiming that our joint hopes have proved naught. With this class we can sym- pathize—nay, we almost feel that we belong to it. We had not looked for repose, certainly, but we were prepared to aid steadily in the labour of legislative improvement : and here we find our- selves at the close of a season of vain and mischievous agitation.

We have, with all the explicitness we could command, set forth why it is that we find ourselves disclaiming the men under whom we have fought : let it not, however, be imagined that the end we aim at is the substitution of others in their place. With a deep sense of national humiliation we declare that we know not where to look for men who could replace them with advantage. No set of statesmen could do worse ; but who might we hope would do better, than the choice men of the great party which has so long in ap- pearance been fighting the country's battles ? The Tories, were they now admitted to their familiar posts, would not be permitted to proceed in their ancient course. We should not then hear of "confidence in the Ministry ;" but, on the other hand, we should know that the People must be placed in a position of perpetual struggle : nothing would be given, and all would be taken. The Radical party has hitherto shown itself scarcely strong in talent, and very feeble in experience. The reign of the Factions—of misgovernment—has been too long to admit of a ready-made race of Reform Ministers. The best men are in power: alas ! they have utterly deceived us, and yet, so situated are we, with our eyes open to the best measures, but our hands so poorly strengthened with men, that we dread lest these Ministers—these backsliders —timid, irresolute, and inefficient as they have shown themselves —should be on the very verge of their fate. Their position turns the head to look upon. They have forsaken the People, their great source of security : those that were glad to take them for guides, find they do not know the road, and have no route marked upon the map: their stanchest adherents are most of all disgusted: they have, by a fatal want of foresight, and in utter incapacity, dragged them through the mire of so many disgraceful majorities, that the first signal of retreat would be one of total desertion. If we still cling to the hope, that the country, though harassed and disappointed, will yet right itself without convulsion, such hope does not spring from confidence in the statesmen by pro- fession of any party; but from a reliance upon the untiring pa- Aienee, the sound morality, excellent feelings, and increasing in- telligence of the great body of the English People.