TOPICS OF THE DAY,
LORD MELBOURNE AND LORD BROUGHAM.
Tsui sayings of such insignificant politicians as Sir GEORGE GREY and Mr. CHARLES WOOD can be of no importance, except as these subordinate Whig officials may be supposed to utter the sentiments of a portion of the Cabinet. In this light, and during the present Ministerial crisis, the Whig Secretary of the Admi ralty and Under Secretary for the Colonies, addressing their con stituents, become political personages. As they are not the sort of men to form political opinions for themselves,—and as, if they held any such opinions, they would not, in their subordinate situ ation, venture to express them publicly without leave from the coterie on which they depend,—we may presume that they re present their near relatives, Lord Howicx and old Lord GREY, and such other mere Whigs, in or out of the Cabinet, as consider that the Reform Bill has produced all its proper consequences.
At Halifax, the other day, Mr. CHARLES WOOD declared that, in his opinion, the Reform Bill had been wonderfully fruitful, and that more Reform was not to be expected from it. The whole prospect of Reform which Sir GEORGE GREY could hold out to his constituents at Devonport, was "the great measure,"—" the great measure" being a recognition of the barren principle of appropriating a possible surplus of Irish tithes. According to these concurring relatives of Lord Howicx, there has been quite enough of organic change, and almost enough of every other reform. Have we not, asks Mr. Woon, reformed the charters of the Bank and the East India Company ? and what more would you have? In time, says Sir GEORGE GREY, with patience and perseverance, we shall carry" the great measure;" and what more would you have? So speaks the Whig-Toryism of Lord MELBOURNE'S Government. Considering that the Premier is probably yet undecided whether, under the circumstances of the new Tory tactics, his Cabinet shall be Whig-Tory or Whig-Radical, this his subalterns' declaration of contempt for those who are still Re. formers, is singularly injudicious. The Reformers, however, have a kindly feeling towards Lord MELBOURNE, and will, as long as possible, attribute the Whig-Tory speeches of this couple of Secretaries, rather to a want of subordination and discipline in the Government, than to instructions from its chief.
Lord MELBOURNE'S own sentiments must be known before long. Lord BROUGHAM reappears on the political stage. The coming dinner at Edinburgh we consider as a great event, like the dinner given to Lord DURHAM at Glasgow in 1834. These dinners in apparent honour of men of note, are not merely complimentary to the persons invited ; they are occasions made for giving expression to a popular feeling which has become too strong to remain latent. With excellent means of knowing the truth, we are greatly mistaken as to the state of popular feeling in Scotland, if the dinner to Lord BROUGHAM, let the noble guest individually take what course he may, do not either give the coup de grace to Lord MELBOURNE'S battered Administration, or restore it, by means of an infusion of what Mr. BULWER calls "living principle," to vigorous existence. As the Glasgow dinner of October 1834, pointing to Ballot, Extended Suffrage, and Triennial Parliaments as open questions, indicated a way by which Lord MELBOURNE might have prevented his own dismissal in November, so this Edinburgh manifesto of the Refbrmers (Peerage Reform, as the Tories will have it, being added to the other open questions) may show Lord MELBOURNE bow to revive the Whig-Radical union and keep the Tories out of power. On the other hand, the Edinburgh dinner may somewhat accelerate Lord MELBOURNE'S final fall ; and will most certainly have that tendency, if the moderate demand of the Reformers for Whig neutrality as to articles of the Radical faith, should be answered after the style of' Mr. CHARLES WOOD or Sir GEORGE GREY. In which direction this gathering of the Reformers shall operate— whether towards sustaining or overturning Lord MELBOURNE'S Government—must altogether depend upon Lord MELBOURNE himself. And here, if it be possible to penetrate the screen of Whig-Toryism, (otherwise, blind, conceited imbecility,) by which he is circunivested, we would whisper a friendly void in his ear.
Let him observe the quite recent anxiety of the Tories to prevent the restoration of a 'Whig-Radical union on any other basis than Sir GEORGE GREY'S "great measure?' Since the Spectator in particular has proposed a new Whig-Radical union on the footing of open questions, the Times in particular has earnestly declared that there is and can be no other bond of Whig-Radical union, than those Irish questions on which the Whigs and Radicals are already fully agreed. The prospect of an English and Scotch, as well as an Irish foundation for the Whig-Radical union, is most fearful to the Tories. In their alarm on this subject, they even affect a warm regard for Lord MELBOURNE; urging him for his own sake, as he is a favourite of theirs, whom at bottom they have always liked, to treat with scorn a proposal which suggests the means of obtaining for his Government the zealous support of the Scotch and English masses. This, let Lord MELBOURNE observe, is the advice of his implacable foes. Those who prompted Sir GEORGE GREY and Mr. CHARLES WOOD may be fit to take such advice ; but Lord MELBOURNE is not a
fool. If he give fair play to his own clear and manly judgment, be will see that the Tories are terrified at the thought of his adopting a plan of Whig-Radical action which would utterly defeat their new policy. These months of October and November are pregnant with good or evil for Tories as well as Whigs ; and at this moment, the only fear of the Tories is, lest Lord MELBOURNE should take.warning by the events of October and November 1839. fr sou,
May we now, treating bygones as bygones, say a friendly word to Lord BROUGHAM? The present occasion for his return to public life is not of his own making. A full and accurate acquaintance with the views of the Edinburgh Reformers enables us to assure him, that the object of this dinner is, not to glorify Lord BROUGHAM, but to promote the public cause of Reform.. Still, if at the projected meeting Lord BROUGHAM should be able to put self aside—to think of nothing but the true aim and scope of the day's proceedings—he will have the fairest opportunity of wiping off that stain which we, with perfect honesty and without a particle of malice, helped to affix upon him. All the more perhaps for what has passed, we should sincerely rejoice at his success. We therefore pray of him to weigh well the state of political Weirs which alone brings him from retirement, and, above all, to be on his guard against the suggestions of insidious enemies who take the garb of friends. He will observe that some of the Whig journals, and especially one which applauded and encouraged his mental aberration in 1834, now throw in his teeth those unfortunate freaks of his intoxicated vanity ; and that these very journals invite him to make another display of Whig-Toryism run mad ! It is they who compel this allusion to circumstances which we really wish to forget. But, as it is an ill wind that blows no good, Lord BROUGHAM may at length perceive the hollowness of newspaper flattery. As he was never flattered by us, so, as a public man, working for the public good, he shall never want the best assist
ance which now, with increased and increasing power, we may have at our disposal. At this Edinburgh dinner there is good
work to be done for the cause of Reform, but nothing for Lord BROUGHAM unless he forget himself in the public cause. Nous verrons !
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