TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE PRINCE IN THE EAST.
EUROPE may be eonvulsed every now and then, commerce may have its occasional concussions, but Lord Mayor's show comes round as punctually as the seasons. A Prince is born on that august day ; the Prince, it is hoped, will grow to be a man, pee_ bably a King : but " Saladin must die," the potentate mill pass away ; while the institution, the pageant, which has endured so long, will still pursue its immortal course, "in omne volubilis tevum. It is a consolatory and satisfactory sign of the stability of our institutions—a sign of hope peculiarly needed at the present day. Our ordinary politieal relianoes have tailed us signally. Political parties have broken up so thoroughly that there is not a wreck left. Traditions' prestiges, authorities—all have yielded to the over- whelming tide of time ; all have been swallowed up by indifferent- ism. Public men we have none to trust—at least none in particu- lar. The newest idea is that the " special constable " is the true guardian of the- British constitution; but we all know that "the 10th of April" was a sort of farce, and we wince under these boasts about the redoubted special constable, which recall certain ideas that associate his chivalry with that of iohn Gilpin and Major Sturgeon. No—there is no real ruler amongst us, save the Mo- mentum : our system is so vast, so complicated, so huge in scale, so multitudinous in details, that it must go on. A revolution could not stop it Robbers and passengers are equally overwhelmed by an avalanche. Momentum is not the most discriminating of governors, but at any rate he is powerful. Thus we are able to do virtually without a Ministry, or with a Ministry that is but tenter and ',Neer to that great self-acting ma- chine. Ministers retain no authority : why should they ? it needs no statesman to make the world come round on its axis. You need nothing more than a few beadles to keep the little boys from get- ting in the way of the world and being run over and crushed; and our Cabinet beadles do very well. Even when they quarrel among themselves, as beadle and pew-opener and sexton will, the world still wags on, and Wednesday succeeds Tuesday with more than official regularity.
Parliament, too, has exploded. We all had our doubts about it. Reform was said to have made it as good as new, or better,—as a bone is all the stronger where it has been broken. But, by ill luck, we have discovered that the most reformed half of Parlia- ment, the borough half, is in great part elected by the Coppock and Edwards tribe and how can a nation put its trust in Coppock and Edwards ? We used to "thank God there is a House of Lords " ; but the House of Lords is evidently bent on being for- gotten, and last year it made great progress in that direction.
There is indeed something awful, drifting one.s.we are towards a. tremendous future—at least, so they say—in being left thus for- lorn. We have had storms before, but then eve couldalways have " a pilot to weather the storm." Perhaps it will all come right. If Europe should be convulsed, we can at least try the special con- stable. But the most alarming part of the prospect is, that Minis- ters, they say, are brewing a special storm of their own—are getting up a new " Reform Bill agitation I" The Reform Bill was carried by Birmingham,—whom Ministers of that diiy all but in- vited to London ; and a curious series.' of 'signs, may be noted in reference to the coming storm. A distinguished insurgent arrives in London ; an official physician waits upon hint to recruit his health ; he goes to Birmingham, and the pageant which attends him there is graced by an old commemorable flag—the banner of the old Birmingham Political Union, victor in the Reform. cam- paign ! It is with these portents that we approach the Reform campaign, for which Lord JUhn has selected the tremendous year 1852. And who is to be the pilot to 'weather that storm ? Lord John ? Are we to put Boreas at the helm ? Are we to pat our trust in St. Alban's as the saviour of the constitution, or hail Cop- pock as the Licinius Stolo of the day ? Are the Lords to save us?
No—if we were to trust to either of these we must court. de- struction : but we are not without resource. It is but lately that our attention has been drawn to the true vital power residing in the country, and the Lord Mayor's show happily reminds us of it. It is to our Corporations that we must look for safety when the hour of trouble comes. If we have not Ministers, we have Mayors; if the National Councils are distracted, we have Town Councils; and if the Lords are abdicating, we have Aldermen.. In that mag- nificent display on Monday, we see the true forces on -which Eng-
land can rely—the institution least altered by the rash hand of innovation, least impaired by reform. At such a. time, it does in- deed make the Englishman's breast swell with a just pride to see the chivalry of the City, attended by the splendours of its ancient dignity and its untainted heraldry parading amidst the admiring glances and affectionate greetings Of high and low. If the incen- diary hand of a Russell should set the state in flames, we see in Hunter Mayor the proud. descendant in that long line of annual Doges to whom the state has so often owed its safety' if, as we are threatened, the Cossack should presume to water his horses at theg land Thames, we see at Blackfriara Bridge the Thermopylce Of En.
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