NEWS OF THE WEEK.
AN electioneering stir is perceritible throughout the country. No- body ventures either to affirm or deny that the Goveinmeitt elm be carried on by any party with the present Parliament through an- other iession. • in the ekistiing:state-or affairs., Domestic, -Colonial, and Foreign, Vacillation on the part.orthe Ksecutire, the 'inevitable result of weakness in the Legislature, is felt to be an 'evil greater, perhaps, than any other which could befall the empire. . The times require a vigorous Government; and, independently of all other circumstances—setting aside thd.adisqualifleations of•theindividuals composing the Administration—it is manifest, that a party- corn- including, miserOle majorities, varying from 2 to .10 in an assembly of 658;eannot exhibit vigour, or Instil _confidence into the minds of any chiss. Of neCesitY they arefeeble. and indecisiYe. A sudden close of their Career is deemed Probable, abroad and al-home. The universal conviction is opposed to their continuance in power ; and as their successors would be unable to rely • upon the existing House of Commons, and certain of gaining strength by a general, election, constituencies are obliged to prepare tbr ih dissolution, candidates are on the look-out for seats, and something approach- ing to political animation may at length be discerned, after a long interval of • sluggish reluctance ..tis'reneiv the struggles of party
warflire. •
It • may beit is " on the cards "—that Ministers, desperate gamesters ! will themselves dissolve- the Parliament, and "go to the country" yet once, more, on-the .strength of the•Queen's name. They cling to the Court. When votes are asked; 'tis for the Quedh;' -and the supporter of a Tory candidate is denounced as the personal foe of his Sovereign. To speak With disrespect or contumely of laird MTIBOURNE or Lord IhAnuoitT, or others iyho frequent Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle,is,preclahned a "treason?! Tories are undistinguishable from traitors ; and should Radicals at the elections join the Tories when raised permission to "go
halves!' with Whigs, no doubt they also will be accused of trea- sonable participation. -
These canting imputations of "disloyalty " to opponents, and the newfangled Whiggery of exclusive attachment to the Monarch's person, too much resemble the bad practices of Tories in the Jacobin times.' If PITT and his successors could have 'exhibited measures a Reform as claims on popular support, they would not have appealed to evil passions and ignorant prejudices, or stimu- lated a .senseless profession of lip loyalty. Whigs resort to the same meansopposed as they are to elder doctrines and life-long habits—simplybecause none other remain to them. This serves as well as any thing to test- the position of the "Reform" party. There is no such party : it is destroyed—put out of existence— annihilated by Court favour.
