NEWTS OF THE WEEK.

THE KING HAS DESERTED TILE REFORM BILL.

The labour and anxiety and sacrifices of .eighteen months have purchased for us -nothing but disappointment. Our enemies. sit iir the gate. The star of Apsley House is once more lord of the ascendant. The Ultra-Tories once more step into office; their hatred of the Nation inflamed by the scorn of which they have fok. the last eigirteen months been the objectS, and their power of

indulging it (as they Will imagine) by the easy victory over popular right which they have contrived -to •achieve. The end is not yet, nor do. we pretend to say what it will be.

To trace the 'causes which have in one short week converted the joy of the universal People of England into mourning, is a task which future historians will peiforin with more certainty than present chroniclers- can. There is ranch now doubtful that time will confirm, and much hidden that time will reveal.

From the first moment that the RefOrm Bill was announced— from the ever-menre sable kalends of March 1831—it-was foreseen by all men who calmly considered the matter, that without a po- polar infusion-into the House of Peers, RefOrtnwoold neverbe legally carried. At what precise period his Majesty's. Minister first became sensible of the truth, of a doctrine which all pien, not their enemies, who knew aught of politics, strove to press. upon them, we cannot tell: it is admitted that they did see it be- fore the second Bill was introduced to the Lords, and that Earl GREY was not the last who was convinced. The measure of a cre- afion of Peers, it is said, was .submitted :to the King and ap- proved by him, with no other reservation than the very reasonable , mie, that the necessity for the creation should be clearly made out, and that the creation should not exceed the necessity. It has been remarked ever since the Reforming Ministers came into power, that the King's private friends, the companions of his table, were selected rather from the Anti-Reform than the Reform side of politics; and many feasible excuses, in the framing of which our own ingenuity has been often ,tasked, were devised to account for this seeming anomaly. , GEORGE the Third never was guilty of such a breach of political decorum neither was GEORGE the Fourth i but-then WILLIAM the-Fourth was a sailor, and who could expect the niceties of etiquette froth him ? The necessary consequence of this easy familiarity with the enemies of his Cabi- net was, that the enemies of the Cabinet generally knew its secrets better-than its friends did. -.No sooner did the concession of the King !.c) the representation of Earl GREY reach the ears of Lord Gasessi political opponents,_ than a_plan was laid for _defeating it.. Lord WHARNCLIFFE waited on his Majesty, and recalling for his friend Earl-1-14np,owny and for the members of the clique Void Nsartoway is the mouthpiece, the strong terms in which 411.Gitalee inea,snre had been denounced by the Earl only a

[Layasr .4nrriox.]

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month before, in his well-known letter, he offered to support Lord GREY on the question of the second reading., provided only no ad- dition to the Peerage should take place. This communication of Lord WHARNCL1FFE and his party was made. known to Earl GREY, and no creation was of course asked. Lord GREY seems to have been doubly deceived by Lord WnAaNCLIFFE'S manoeuvres, —first, in giving that person credit for a sincere desire of concilia- tion in his communication to the King ; • and second, in not giving him credit for the sentintents of aversion to the Bill which he so strongly expressed when the second reading was lately under debate. It is understood that the first intimation of the intrigue against the Bill, planned for the meeting of the Committee, was conveyed to Earl GREY on Monday morning. It did not, however, require many hints to convince Lord GREY, that an amendment moved by Lord LYNDHURST, and supported by every Anti-Re- former of the Upper House, as well as by the whole of the waver- ing." party that on the second reading had pretended to be friendly to its passing in substance, could have but one object—to destroy the Bill, and to destroy the Ministry, by compelling their resigna- tion if' they resisted the amendment, and by ruining their character if they concurred in it. That the combination of forces among the Opposition was no casual one, is proved by the fact, that intelli- gence of the anticipated defeat of Ministers had been conveyed to Edinburgh even before it was whispered in London, and by the promptitude of the Horse Guards in ordering all officers absent on furlough to join their regiments, in the expectation, no doubt, that the risings consequent on the division would render their services indispensable. As soon us the division of Monday evening was declared, the result • Was transmitted to the King, who was at Windsor. On Tuesday, a Cabinet. Council was held; when it was unanimously agreed, that unless the Ministry were allowed by his Majesty to create as many Peers as would give them a majority in the Upper House, they must resign.. Earl GREY and Lord. BROUGHAM, the two 'highest func- tionaries of the.Cabinet, laid before his Majesty, the same day, the result of the Cabinet's deliberations. . The nature of the interview between the .King and the two Ministers is not very likely to be known to the public. The Chronicle says, the King shed tears ; lamenting that he was compelled to sacrifice his Ministers to his wife, his sisters, and his. children. Be this as it may, the letter in which tfie King stated his intention to accept of the resignation of the .Cabinet, rather than their advice, was brought to town, by a special messenger, on Wednesday morning. On the same : day, the King. having come to London in order to hold a Levee, the whole of the Cabinet attended, and their • resignations were .formally received. The resignation of the Lord Chamberlain and the other officers of the Household, it is unsiersfood; has been ten- dered, and accepted in the usual way. TheWhigihlive pride • Stiflicient to disdain leaving mre-avesdropper behind them. There will be no pitiful appeals to the Press, such as was made by Lord Hews:, from any dismissed lordling of their party: On Wednesday, in the House of Commons, Lord EBRI NGTON- who moved the resolution in support of Ministers in October last, on the occasion of the first rejection of the Bill by the Lords—gave notice of a motion for an address in support of the principles of the Bill, and axowing.unabated confidence in Lord GREY'S Cabinet. ItWas.discussed on Thursday night, at great length, and carried, after a division, by:288 to 208,—or, including the pairs and tellers, by 298 to.218 being very nearly the same proportion as on the third.reeding of thjBill, when, including pairs and tellers, the numbers were 36.8 and 252.

The King left town on Wednesday, immediately after the Levee, and has pot.yet returned: This has led, it is probable,. to some delay in the formation of a new Cabinet ; . but the general impres- sion is, though not yet announced; that every thing- is in-regular train, and that the Duke of WELLINGTON is at this moment once more Prime Minister of England. The agents in the arrangement of the new Cabinet are said to have been LordLYNDHURST and the Earl of Musts-ma; the latter of whom, it is probable, . will receive the Governor-Generalship of India for his services on the occasion. Lord 'MUNSTER. voted with Ministers on Monday evening; his brotheri-in-law, the Earl of.Earton and Viscount FALKLAND, did not deem it necessary to keep up the farce quite so long. -This is a' hasty, and necessarily imperfect sketch of t „ tint events of the.week.' it is good, now that our ma. possession of the Pacts as far as they are known, to cerisidar,idIt us 'for a few minutes the present position of the variousliktieOnsls,

the political melodrama. ' . • • .

• How STANDS THE KING?

There can be no doubt that •whatever the King's real sentinienti.:',i en the subject of Reform may be—whether we are to segard IS some hasty obServers have done, as all along secretly oppoSedtsio, it, tind '64 suffering a Reform Minister as his father in 1806144"v Pro-Catholic Minister, until be could conveniently get rid of him —or whether we view him as diverted from his bet'er resolves by the entreaties and misrepresentations of his female and male rela- tions and friends, whatever theory we may frame of his motives,. the conduct of WILLIAM the Fourth has been very far from con- sistent. He admitted Earl GREY to his confidence in the fullest knowledge of the noble Earl's sentiments on the subject of Re- form, and on the express condition that that Reform should be a principal end and aim of his Ministry. He recommended the measure of Reform that Ministers were about to introduce, to the special consideration of the two Houses of Parliament. When the House of Commons virtually rejected the Bill, on the motion of General GASCOYNE, and the House of Lords, under the leader- ship of Lord WHARNCLIFFE, threatened a censure of Ministers, no- thing could exceed the alacrity with which the King proceeded to break up the conspiracy of the Boroughmongers and their tools. In his speech on that occasion, the King recommended the ques- tion of Reform to the People, as he had formerly recommended it to Parliament. We need not say how the People received the recommendation. When the new Parliament assembled, the King again addressed the members of both Houses, on the great sub- ject which had led to the dissolution, and in more forcible terms than before. To the second Bill he gave his approbation, as he had done to the first. When it once more reached the House of Lords, he commanded that arrangement with Lord W AR NC L I FFE by which the second reading was carried without an increase of Peers. When, by the vote of Monday night, it was made appa- rent, not only that Ministers lacked a sufficient force to insure the integrity of the Bill, or to protect its essential features, but that even on what a part of their opponents were pleased to describe as a mere insignificant point of form, they were unable to command a majority, the King, instead of supporting the men and tbemeasure to which his support had been so long and so repeatedly pledged, abandoned both to destruction.

How STAND THE LATE MINISTERS?

Next week, we may perhaps give a brief character of the late Administration, and endeavour to balance fairly their merits and their defects ; it is in reference to Reform, and to their resignation of office, that we now desire to view them. The necessity of creating Peers in order to carry through the Reform Bill, has been recommended to Lord GREY by every meeting that has taken place for the last six months; and it has been pressed upon him by the public journals, in every form that language supplies, almost every day during that period, and by many of them, ourselves among •the number, for a _much longer time. He has been told, until tongues and pens were weary, that what must be done ulti- mately, would best be done soon—that a small creation at the first would in all probability avert the necessity of a large creation at last—that if he delayed the creation until beaten in Committee, he would in all probability find that the time for it was for ever gone by. All this had been told to Earl GREY; he took the very path from which ten thousand voices had warned him; he now sees as well as we do the consequence. W bile we state these facts, we are far from imputing to Earl GREY the slightest improper motive. We believe that he has fidlen a sacrifice to his own upright- ness of heart; which forbade him to attribute to others that base- ness of which he himself was incapable. How he was led on from step to step, to trust implicitly, first in the support of the King, and, through the King's recommendation, in Lord WHARNCLIFE and his party, we have already stated. Had he been as practised in Courts as the smooth cheats that met him there, he would have avoided the trap into which he has stumbled : had he been content to listen to the People's advice, he would have equally avoided it. His best act in office was the resigning of it. No sooner were his eyes at length forcibly opened to the truth against which he had so long and obstinately kept them closed, than he took at once, with decision, the resolution which alone, under the circumstances of the case, a high-minded man could take; and, as he could no longer hold office with honour, he resolved to abandon it with dignity. He is followed to his retirement with the sincere good wishes of every honest man in England.

How STAND THE ,PEOPLE?

Very much in the same position as the poor man in the Arabian -tale, who, when about to draw for the relief of his necessities upon the store of magic treasure which he had hoarded with so great care because of the newness and brilliancy of the coin, found it of a sudden converted into so many pieces of worthless slate. The conduct of King WILLIAM was so wholly different from that of his brother, that poor John. Bull was absolutely intoxicated with it. The coin of promises,'Which the Monarch so freely dispensed, had all the attraction of novelty as well as beauty—the stamp was fresh, the gold apparently fine. It was garnered up for some solemn occasion, to be drawn forth only when a great and pressing necessity called : the necessity came—honest, plodding John had recourse to has strong box, sure of finding there the wherewithal to satisfy his exigent landlords, when, lo! instead of the weighty metal and the sterling die, he found nothing but worthless rubbish. The execrations with which the butcher in the tale loaded the "cunning old man" who had so grievously im- posed on him, are tame to the epithets which John in his anger has vented on this .discovery of the trick of which he has been the ready victim. In a woad, the People, froth one end•of the island • tethe other,-as far as the news have hitherto travelled, seem to be influenced by but two feelings—affection for Earl GREY, detesta- tion for those that have betrayed him. If it was imagined that the resignation of Ministers would bring their popularity into hazard, no notion was. ever more idle. At this moment they have more well-wishers than they have had at any time since they came into office. There is, indeed, a _third feeling, not in respect of men, but of things—the feeling of determination to have the Bill, rightly if possible, but at all events to have the Bill—which, steadily acted on for six months, will carry it without the loss of a single clause in spite of Duke or Devil.

How STAND THE COMMONS?

With no abatement of their pristine resolution, nor departure from their often-recorded pledges. The vote of Monday night was foreseen and calculated on by the Anti-Reformers, and they were naturally prepared for its consequences. Besides, four fifths of them are creeping things „generated from the corruption of Schedule A and Schedule B, dnd dare not stir from their posts when their lord is at his. It is not wonderful, therefore, that the Anti-Reformers on Thursday night mustered strong. The Re- formers, on the contrary, who suspected no evil more than their leader, and who are moreover four fifths of them independent gentlemen, were in many instances absent from town. Yet though the relative numbers of the two parties were slightly dif- ferent from what they were in October, the difference was very small. The numbers on both occasions, including tellers and pairs, stood thus—

FOR.

May 10 A2;.0.1t8o Less rnsr.. October 10 331 293

Difference 33 Mere... 18 It is, moreover, to be recollected, that the question of Thursday was by no means so " viter—to use the Hibernicism of the- Standard—as that of October: the latter was one of men and measures, which will always excite more interest than a question of measures solely. The same journal, on the subject of the divi- sion on Thursday night, asks how Lord ALTHORP and the rest of the Ministers could vote in the majority. This is silly: why should the late Ministers be precluded from voting, any more than the future Ministers? Would the Standard have us believe that all the votes against Lord EBRINGTON'S motion were disinterested? And then, it seems, we are to "subduer the 120 Treasury votes- " the well-known calculation"—and the 40 votes of Irish Papist Delegates. The real nature of the majority and the number to be " subducted" will best appear from the following statement— There voted with Lord EBRINGTON-

County Men:bers—English 55 Scotch and Irish 8 1 Large and Open Boroughs Small and Close Boroughs . . 12 44 - Total Majority 298

It is due to the House to record the few—there are very few— who slunk from their duty on Thursday night—who neither stood for the People by voting in the majority, nor dared to appear against them by voting for the minority : we eive of course those only who voted with Lord EBRINGTON in October. They arc—

Agnew, Sir A. Bart. Copeland, Alderman T.

Adeane, H. J. Mills, J.

Bayntun, S. A. Willoughby, Sir IL Bentincli, Lord G.

WHERE STAND THE LORDS?

The Lords occupy a position worthy of their " incurable" fame: they are exactly where they were before. How this question may be answered ten years hence, it is not for us to say : possibly the reply may be, in the language of Echo—Where?