iNDICATIONS OF MINISTERIAL HOPES AND POLICY, FROM THE MINISTERIAL PAPERS.
I. WHIG REJOICING AT RADICAL LOSSES.
"It is notorious that onegreat difficulty of Ministers during the last Parlia- ment, was occasioned by the extreme measures and opinions of the Movement. But the Tories have on this election directed their efforts chiefly against the advocates of extreme opinions, as if their great object was to show that extreme opinions had become less popular. A number of decided Radicals have in cousequence been thrown out ; and, of those who have been returned, many excellent own have been returned by small majorities. The effect of all this may be foreseen without difficulty. Ministers will be left much more at liberty to pursue their own course ; and it will seldom happen here- after that the Tories in the House of Commons will be able to boast that Ministers were indebted to them for a victory over the Radicals. The Tories, therefore, have spent their treasures and used their power to prevent Ministers from having on increase of ten or twenty in their majority, which increase would have been chiefly composed of the men whom they have always held op to the country as a bugbear, and as Me chief reason for dreading Ministers. Like many other cunning persons, the Tories have outwitted themselves."— [Front Me Morning Chrontcle.] 2. THE PEAR NOT RIPE.
"There may be some who deem that there should have been nothing left interposed between any momentary purpose of the People and its instantaneous fulfilment. These may undoubtedly find fault with a Ministry who have dis- tinctly opposed themselves to the destruction of the House of Lords, and who will not yet consent to the adoption of other Radical changes. Whether, if such adjuncts to the Reform Bill had been proposed, they would have been car- ried, is another question, upon which we will not enter. Those who advocate their immediate introduction probably imagine that they would. But all who do not entertain such opinions, must feel that it is useless to expect any ;ulnae- diate abandonment of prejtalices long and perhaps honestly entertained on the part of Members of the Upper Chamber, and that tinte must be allowed for a change of policy so complete as that which the Lords are called upon to adopt on many points."—[From the Globe.] 3. THE SOOTHING SYSTEM.
"The worst that can be said of the Whigs is this—that they may have per- haps been guilty of a generous impoliey, and have preferred, in the course they have been pursuing, the interests of the public to the interest of their party. They were described, week by week, as living only on the poison of agitation. Yet what have they done? They have smoothed the raven down of darkness till it smiles. The violence which threatened to disorganize society has been eharmed by them into repose. * • * If moderation is more just and reasonable at any one time than another—if violence is ever preeminently un- pardonable, (and especially in persons who call themselves friends of tolerance and freedom,) it is on an occasion when political parties are so nearly balanced as at Me present moment."—[ Quoted by the Globe from the Edinburgh Reciewc]
4. ANTICIPATIONS OF RATTING.
"An addition of' ten or twenty members to the Reform party would have been desirable; but Ministers will haven majority quite sufficient to enable them to conduct the Government. C S * A number of well.meaning alarmists, on account of the supposed dangers of the Movement, seeing the moderation and tranquil course of the Government. will gradually abandon their fears, and give their support to Ministers."—[From the Morning Chro- nicle.] "If they have hindered Ministers from making any large addition to their former forces, what advantage have they thereby gained to their cause or their party? They do not pretend they have ceased to be a minority; and they will soon find themselves, by secessions from the ranks which they now claim as their own, a less formidable minority than they now appear to be. • •• The Government will make converts by the mere operation of that attraction which belongs to a Government holding a firm position, and pursuing a plain and practical course."—[From the Globe.]
5. HOPE OF REFORM DEFERRED.
"Neither party will have a commanding majority in the House of Commons; and we may at once come to the conclusion that no party measures of any great importance will be carried in the next session. • •* • Some of our contemporaries begin to talk of an extension of the Suffrage and of the Vote by Ballot as the only cures for the increase of Toryism ; but to succeed in either of these projects, they will probably have to wait for another general election. It is clear, that without some decisive and unlooked-for change in the opinions of the Members of the House of Commons, and in the opinion of the bulk of the electors, no such measures would pass that, much less WU the other House. Both these projects may, perhaps, be worth working at by the Liberal press,. but till a change has been wrought in the opinions of the public, it would be a waste of the time of the House of Commons to propose tbeln. We may extend the same observation to a number of other measures Which we see alluded to by our contemporaries to amend the Reform Act. However well. founded in principle such recommendations may be, as they arc avowedly made to limit the corrupt means of influencing the elections. now at the command of the Tories, who have almost an equality in the House of Commons, and a majority in the House of Lord*, such measures of course cannot succeed, awl must be laid by in the pigeon- holes or portfolios of the projectors till the public understanding has been ripened on these questions. Not only, therefore, must the Radicals bid adieu at once to every hope of immediately effictiug any organic change, but even to the chalice of success in establishing a legislative means in a differently-con- structed House of Commons by which such changes might be effected. We are afraid even that the Liberals most not expect to carry any measure of useful Improvement to which the High Church and Tory party may be opposed; and that, little as was effected last year, less will be accomplished in the year to come. In the balance of parties, both in the Legislature and the country at large, which will secure each against the other making any sudden legislative inroads on its opinions or its power, the best thing probably for all to do is to eajoy the good we have, without chasing very assiduously after game that is not worth the catching. We have made within a few years great changes in our institutions, and the people may naturally desire to gather whatever fruit those changes may have brought to maturity."—[From Me Courier.]
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