TOPICS OF THE DAY.
RESULTS OF THE MINISTERIAL CRISIS. IT is not the opinion of competent judges that the Great Britain steamed out of Dundrum Bay in better condition than she went in; nor that upon the whole captains are justified by experience in running their ships aground in order to render them seaworthy. In nine cases out of ten, such an experiment would end luckily, if captain aforesaid could knock up a jury-mast, and crawl into the nearest port, there to wait the pleasure of surveyor and carpenter, and the sentence of a court-martial. Lord John Russell, with that super-Nelsonic boldness which Sydney Smith predicated of him, has waited neither for carpenters, surveyors, nor court-martial, but, having run his ship aground, has quietly shoved her off again, and steered along his course rejoicing, as if nothing had happened, and the passengers had not been made aware of a leak in her timbers and a lamentable deficiency of steam power. In spite of the cap- tain's imperturbable coolness, we will venture to assert that the passengers are aware of the leak, and of the necessity for new en- gines; and that if they consent to go the voyage, it is with the full determination to depose the commander and reinforce the crew at the end of it. To drop metaphor, Lord John has succeeded in securing his post for the session, at the expense of destroying what is his own party par excellence ; and, inconvenient as it is to have the business of the Legislature interrupted at the beginning of a session, this fact, along with other facts that last week's crisis has established, may be received as ample compensation for a considerable amount of annoyance and per- plexity. It is really something for those who have long felt that the combination of gentlemen styling themselves "the leaders of the Whig party" has obstructed the practical progress of the country, that these gentlemen have passed sentence of deposition on themselves. It is not left for us to characterize those who flee when no man pursueth. A party may recover a defeat—may even recover in consequence of a defeat ; the mere act of vigorous re- sistance will brace up relaxed energies, concentrate scattered and disorganized forces, and win back forfeited sympathies : but a panic terror resulting from no cause but consciousness of incapacity-- from a sense that adherents were falling away, and had good reason for so doing—an abandonment of the reins of government from sheer inability to hold them—for this there is no remedy ; the only sen- timents it inspires are indifference and contempt. A candle that is blown out may be lighted again ; but what is to be done with one that has incontinently gone out ? Salt is good, but if the salt have lost its savour wherewithal shall it be resalted? So, whatever be the ultimate result of the crisis, of which Lord John himself can scarcely suppose that we have seen more than the penultima, at any rate the Whig party, with its old-world constitutional theories, its traditional personal preferences, its claptrap heritage and invocation of illustrious names, and its practical obstruction of large, bold, farsighted legislation, adapted to present wants and commensurate with present possibilities, may be said to have passed as an effective agent from the political scene. Henceforward, with its stateliness and its maxims, it may play chorus, and just for the present keep the audience amused while the real actors are donning the cothurn and the mask. It is, however, to be remembered, that the incom- petence of a party by no means involves the incompetence of all the individuals who compose it : otherwise, it would be anything but satisfactory to be forced to recognize such incompetence. Our quarrel is with the Whig leaders, that having gained power by past services, they have shown an undue leaning towards the fur- therance of party in preference to national interests ; that they have displayed a jealousy of talent rather than an eagerness to welcome it to the service of the country, wherever its cooperation was to be obtained only on condition of a step forward in legisla- tion or a reform in administration; that in more than one appoint- ment of great importance they have yielded to the lowest form of party-spirit, and have in consequence been compelled to throw the iegis of Ministerial protection over reckless folly amounting to criminality ; and that, while themselves unable or unwilling to frame practical measures to anticipate and guide the wishes of the people, they have stood in the way and paralyzed the efforts of men who could and would have seen the necessities of the times, and had boldness and wisdom to translate them into acts of Par- liament. All this we attribute chiefly to the endurance of a party organization which originated in the circumstances of the past ; and we rejoice at a state of things under which all that is vigorous and vital in the party which has just undergone virtual disso- lution may disengage itself from what is effete and outworn, whether of men or of system, and may in new combinations enter upon a new career of activity and a grander epoch of politi- cal progress. This crisis of affairs has undoubtedly hastened the time, which cannot be far distant, when what is now actual agree- ment in principle and opinion shall ripen and be consolidated into official connexion and united action—when the statesmen who are least personally responsible for the errors and least personally identified with the misdeeds of the exhumed Cabinet shall combine with the statesmen who shared the counsels and the sacrifices of him who was "The pillar of the nation's hope, The centre of the land's desire" ; and present to the country, for the first time in our remembrance, a compact phalanx embracing all that there is among us of tried administrative ability in conjunction with legislative wisdom and personal distinction. In our opinion, the nation would have been compensated for the excitement and inconvenience of the last fort- night, had the only result been the certainty of the speedy union of all sections of the party of Progress, to carry the state safely over the changes which are in action or rising hopefully in the near prospect. It is a farther gain of no slight importance, that the Protectionist party has been tested and found wanting. Agricultural consti- tuencies are not over sharpwitted, nor are country-gentlemen keenly sensible of the ridiculous, but neither can fail to perceive and feel the ludicrous discomfiture of last week, heightened as it was by the naive candour of Lord Stanley's Parliamentary nar- rative, and his undisguised contempt for the administrative talents of the section which calls him leader. He recalls Rupert at Bristol more than the Rupert of the field ; though the country is undoubtedly indebted to the discretion which was not heretofore deemed Ms better part of valour.
So much may safely be stated as the result of the crisis as it affects combinations of persons. In spite of the temporary re- suscitation of the Incapables, we may reckon that two great par- ties are by their own confession incompetent to carry on the go- vernment of the country. This simplifies the problem of the future marvellously, so far as the men are concerned. But we should be disposed to place more stress upon the specific declarations that have been elicited from leading men. Lord John has finally renounced Finality. Sir James Graham has pronounced that the time has come for an extension (and this involves a re- adjustment) of the Suffrage. The Income-tax, though it may linger on through this Parliament for purposes of revenue, has in its present iniquitous unfairness received the coup-de-grace. Lord Stanley has declared that he will abandon the principle of Pro- tection if a Protectionist majority be not returned at the next election ; thus throwing his cause into the Registration Courts, and fairly submitting in prospective to the verdict of the people— releasing himself from the impracticable position of attempting to reverse an accomplished national decision. If all this is not progress, we know not what is. Much is clear and defined which before was vague and conjectural; words have been spoken which cannot be recalled ; programmes have been issued which cannot be receded from ; and the least progressive of those programmes is the most cheering pledge of progress. Not the least important result of this free outspeaking is, that all Englishmen who are not mad must perceive, what this journal has constantly asserted, that all immediate legislation upon "the Papal Aggression" must be either ineffective or inconsistent with our established usage of tolerance—must be either ridiculous or unjust, and in either case impolitic. Lord Stanley's proposal of inquiry into the probable and possible results of the aggression, seems adapted to assuage the national anger, and secure us against the irreparable mischief of hasty, passionate, ill-considered legislation.
But our sum of results would be very incomplete were we to leave unnoticed what appears to us the most significant fact disclosed by the late events. Twenty years have passed since the Reform Bill was supposed to have thrown the prepon- derance of political power into the hands of the middle classes ; the Government has just gone begging, yet no attempt has been made by the party calling itself preeminently Popular to seize the vacant reins, not even to put forward the faintest claim to share in the deserted functions and dig- nities of administration. Undue modesty is certainly not the cause of this singular phwnomenon; nor has the aristo- cratic exclusiveness of the Whig oligarchy very much to do with it ; quite as little the often-alleged want of official expe- rience. The truth must be told: our Popular politicians are agita- tors rather than statesmen—ably and effectively following up one idea or plan of immediate practical interest, but not men of impe- rial minds—possessing neither the art nor the science of govern- ment. Indeed, they are often less than this—unpractical as well as narrow, theorists yet not philosophers, shallow yet not men of the world. The fault lies partly in themselves, partly in the con- stituencies; and each reacts on the other and propagates and in- creases the evil. In order to become popular, candidates will seize on some proposition which the multitude can comprehend and use as a party watchword, dazzling and definite but based on no com- prehensive view, on no large knowledge of facts ; to this they will irrevocably pledge themselves as though it were a principle—urge it as though the safety of the empire depended on its immediate adoption—denounce all those who would limit or retard it, as fac- tious and oppressors—organize a party to give it importance and keep it before the public—make all facts, men, and times, bow to it. Then, when a crisis like the present leaves office open to him who can practically fill it—when the disorganization of parties gives golden opportunities to the real benefactor of his country—such men find, however great their talents, however unquestioned their services, that this popular cry cannot be carried with them into office, and that they dare not go into office without it. Thus they are caught in their own devices, and fall into the it they have tugged for others. Then again the great constituencies are spoiled by this process ; are used to be petted, to have their wishes made the standard of political possi- bility, and are taught to look upon every one who opposes them as corrupt and interested. The result is, that such a man as Mr. Cob- den can take no part in the Administration, whose almost sole claim to popular sympathy is their adoption of the principle which is identified with his name ; while such a man as Sir William Molesworth, distinguished for intellect and cultivation as well as honesty, is hooted, interrupted, and insulted by his Soxithwark con-.
stituents, for as manly, sensible, and temperate a speech as ever was made to a body of 2nglishmen. Till the people can bear to hear truth—and till their leaders will tell them the truth whether they bear it or not—neither the one nor the other must wonder or com- plain that experienced statesmen would rather compliment them than admit them to share and increase their official responsibilities. To check the national expenditure of shillings and pence, instead of directing the useful employment of national millions, is not an an- poetical retribution for fostering exaggerated notions and clinging to :rhowy but impracticable crotchets. We wish the lesson may have its due effect. Our country's reputation as well as our public service would be doubly gainers, were talent, energy, and influ- ence, now partially wasted or misused, directed to ends infinitely more noble, because possible, and capable of immediate or speedy attainment.
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