110W A COUNTRY MAY BE GOVERNED.
IT is the easiest thing in the world to govern a nation. Many, many years ago, a Swedish Chancellor sent his son out on his travels " to see with how little wisdom the world was governed:" and a Pope is reported at even an earlier period to have sent out his nephew on a similar commission of inquiry. Honest Sancho, during his brief reign in Barataria, displayed more of "official aptitude" than the majority of rulers. Men have made passable statesmen who never could learn to dance. A master of that art expressed his wonder that the King could see any thing in Sir ROBERT WaLroLe : " I had hitn under my hands for six months, and never could make any thing of him." It is easier to govern a state than to blow the flute; and that, Hamlet tells us, is " as easy us lying."
History, some wise man or another tells us, is philosophy teaching by example. The contemporary history of our own country beautifully illustrates the position with which we have set out. The administrative branch of government in Great Britain conoats of two departments—the ornamental, and the useful—or what
are understood to be such. Turning first, as in duty bound, to the more honourable—to the more than Corinthian capital of our eon.. stitutional column—to the gilded ornament on the top of all the Crown : what are its daily avocations? One day we read that Prince ALBERT has " inspected" some regiment or another at Wormwood Scrubs ; and the next, that her Majesty has " spected" her collection of' canine favourites at Windsor. Soon after we learn, that his Royal Highness was so struck with the band of a hussar regiment that received him on his arrival, as to resolve immediately on having that regiment to which it belonged for his own especial regiment : that it has been impossible to introduce " the Prince's own" to its Royal sponsor until he has got it properly dressed ; but that this difficulty is now on the eve of being stir. mounted—scarlet being the inexpressible colour of this gallant corps. And the next intelligence that arrests our attention is that her Majesty, after a diplomatic correspondence with the Horse Guards worthy of the important subject, has allowed her poor Knights of Windsor to show the white feather.*
While the ornamental branch is thus employed, the useful dis
plays about as much activity as its colleague shows taste. The great end of an administrative government is to act like the dog in the manger—do nothing itself, and allow no other person to do any thing. In this the Msramoumsn Cabinet excels. It makes-believo to introduce bills, and then relinquishes them with an insouciance that is irresistibly charming. It arrests the liberation of cornmerce ; it interdicts the amendment of the penal code ; it grows indignant at the mere mention of further improving our representative system. It is devoted to inquiry and opposed to action : it sends out commissions by the dozen, but disapproves of acting upon their reports. It is all for " open questmus,"—balancing the opinions of one section of the Cabinet by those of another so nicely as to preserve equilibrium and repose. In this whirligig of a world such an undertaking is difficult; men kick in their sleep, and if the bed is ricketty, upset it. Lord GLENELO was too somniferous to lie still. Our Cabinet is the impersonation of a Turk smoking opium : it sits still indulging in the most daring flights of fitncy. The Globe has of late allowed some of these gorgeous imaginings to ooze out through the instrumentality of a " correspondent," whose outpourings mingle with the editorial articles in an equality of type. This sage's view of the politics of " the far East" is, that " Affghanistan is conquered ; " that a heavy blow is about to " fall on the head of the Tartar power " in China, and " Russia will get a new sort of neighbour at a very undesirable proximity to her ;" that "if R ussia by the conquest of Kiliva has advanced nearer to us, we by our subjugation of Cabul have advanced along step nearer towards her ;" and that " if juxtaposition should lead to a rupture, we have Sepoys, who tight as well as Europeans, and who are officered by men of tried courage and ability." The affairs of " the near East" are settled quite as easily. In the morning organ of Government, "a correspondent " suggested that Mount Lebanon might be erected into an independent Christian state; but that notion was sneered down in the editorial column. The correspondent of the Globe propounds his plan with the assent which silence gives. It is this—Mcncm ET Au is to be protected by the Sultan : a price is to be paid by the Sultan fbr the independence of Syria : " the restoration of the Jews to Syria and Palestine is an event which, if there be any truth in the positive predictions of Scripture, must one day happen ; and if there be any thing in the signs of the times, and the persuasion which strongly prevails among both Jews and Christians, is not flw distant :" the price is to be "raised from the resources of Syria, aided by a stun certain to be contributed by the .7:,?cs :" "the Jews would be viekeg restored :" " the Jews wmild undoulde.dly e4211:VWie bib) from all parts of the world ; taking with theta the elements of civilization and the seeds of European institutions, to acquire in their own laud equal rights of citizenship and eligibility ; and under the protection and auspices of the great European Powers, the form of government and independence °MIR SYRO-JUD.-EAN STATE might be framed and guaranteed :" "time social position of' the Syrians appears to offer some difficulties," but " strong as supoWitions arc in that country, they are not insurmountable; money will dissipate them, and therethre the Jews will be powerful." It would be "gilding refined gold" to add one word of illustration to these permitted revelations of the reveries of Alnaschars of Downing Street.
Seriously, it appears to us that these diurnal records of the
doings of Royalty and no-doings of its Ministers, together with the talking in the sleep of the Government accredited organs of the press, strongly corroborate our opinion that it is an easy task to govern a country. Viewed in this light, they must go flu to alleviate the uneasiness of those who contemplate with alarm time progress of Chartism ; for we will venture to say that nothing more wildly visionary has been uttered by any Chartist than the " threign policy " of the Globe's pet " correspondent." A more dreamlike disregard of time, space, human character, moral and physical means, cannot be imagined, than the proposal for Great Britain to take military occupation of China, Hindustan, and Cabul, as a preliminary to engaging in war with Russia; and then to combine out of Rag Fair and the Stock Exchange a dynasty for Syria, at the same time dismpatiag superstitions with money. • We presume her Majesty's rich Knights of Oxford inay display it without any previous leave. And now that our attention is again drawn to this no! Order, let us do justice and attribute the institution to the real author.. time u not, as we rashly assumed, to Lord Jo N VSSE rd., but to the Marquis of Non.MANDY, that the country owes this addition to its chivalry. The noble Marquis knights Mayors as readily as he pardons felons ; thus showing to inflict as to remit puniihment,—a set-off, it may be, to tbe imputation of being too merciful to delinquents. himself as vyillmg
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