TOPICS OF THE DAY.

PARTY-SPIRIT.

it PARTY is the madness of' many for the gain of a few ;" and, like all other diseases of the class to which it belongs, it is one of which the sufferer is generally unconscious. Freedom from party was a distinguishing badge of the Benthamites when they first began to attract notice ; but the no-party spirit of a sect (and such they were) is of an anomalous kind. One man may be free from party- spirit, but when half-a-dozen combine, even for the purpose of putting down party-spirit, they all are or soon become animated by it : and when once the attachment to party rather than to principle has taken possession of a man there is no saying how far he may be carried. See how all our lienthamites and semi-Benthamites- our independent Liberals, with hardly an exception—in these latter days merged into mere party Whigs. Party, after all, where anything is to be done, is a necessary evil. No man can work alone, and no set of men can cooperate heartily without catching the esprit de corps. But there are other things than politics in the world ; and even politicians are not to be always in a state of bustling activity. There are occasions in all kinds of business where a man can do more good by abstaining from work than by working; occasions when the politician, who sees those with whom he naturally has most sympathies intent upon rushing blindly along the wrong road—exerting themselves prodigiously to weave ropes of sand, pickle moonbeams, or catch the wind—is best employed in doing nothing, unless he occa- sionally favour the busybodies in his neighbourhood with a remark on the folly of their aimless labours,—which of course procures

him their and abuse.

While meditating on these truths, we take up a letter from" A Puzzled Admirer," who in a civil way asks us a few questions ; by replying to some of which, although after a desultory fashion, we may be able to communicate snore order to the train of thought that we feel inclined to follow out.

"To what political party do you belong ?"—At present, to none. Though there are times when It is the duty of an honest man to attach himself to some party in order to work out some good end, the present time, we think, is not one of them. The epochs of Catholic Emancipation, of the Reform Bill, and of the struggle to force the backsliding Whigs to a decided Reform policy, were more or less times of that kind. There were then definite tangible objects to be attained, and parties in the field aiming or professing to aim at their attainment, and sufficiently powerful to effect their objects had they all been in earnest. Those movements have spent their force; and there is no one measure pursued by any party, possessed of political weight, with such an intensity of conviction and good- will as to render its attainment at all probable. The only two political parties in the country are equally what is called "conservative "—equally bent upon keeping matters in the main as they are. One is in the way of speaking a little more yes and the other a little more no ; but the principles of both dictate lines of conduct which, if they diverge at all from each other, do it imperceptibly. There may be some difference between them in point of business talent ; but of that afterwards. The old times of what BENTHAM called the wars of the Ins and the Outs have come back upon us • and independent criticism—the calmness of a looker- on—is more dignified and worthy employment than joining in their personal recriminations—examining their bushels of chaff to find out the few grains of wheat hid in them.

"What do you aim at in your perpetual sarcasms against the Whigs ? "—At exposing humbug ; at teachine° men not to lean for support on broken reeds, nor to shear swine for wool, nor to look for grapes off thorns or figs off thistles. The proper function of the Whig Ministry ceased when the Reform Bill was carried ; it would have been happy for their reputation as statesmen had they been turned out of place immediately after it was carried. The importance of that measure may be read in the changed language and policy of the leaders who have recently regained power : but It was no invention of the Whigs—it was a compromise, to the adoption of which long discussion had ripened the public mind; the leading features of which were simultaneously suggested from many different quarters. All of the Reform Act that properly and exclusively belonged to the Whigs was the awkward construction of its enacting clauses. But they, as the ostensible leaders of the party which carried the Act, got all the credit of it, and might have retained that credit had their career of office terminated when the bill received the Royal assent. But as soon as it was pasted, their inefficiency began to display itself. With the exception of the old Canningites, there was not one of them that had executive expe- rience: that, of course, must be more or less the case with all Minis- ters new in office, but, with the exception of Sir Jerass GRAHAM, there was not one of them that showed executive aptitude. Bred up on the Opposition benches—critics of the doings of others, not doers themselves—they felt utterly at a loss when called upon to act. The Reform Bill was sought and supported not as an end in itself, but as the means to another end—as an instrument whereby to obtain and keep in office wise and capable Ministers. The Whigs, who were neither wise nor capable, insisted upon being kept in office because they had given us " the Bill." They did not set to work to reform the financial system of the country, or to introduce a more liberal system of commercial policy, or to im- prove the laws and courts of justice in a comprehensive and sys. tematic manner. They had" carried the Reform Bill," and thought themselves entitled te play in office. Or, if a brie& Qf activity did seize them, ten to one but it was—as, for example, their Irish Coercion Bill—to trample upon their previous professions. All

this was soon discovered, and caused dissatisfaction if not distrust : the Whigs were shaken in their seat ; and it was only by the lavish promises of better conduct for the future, which Lord MELBOURNE allowed to be made for him, that they were admitted to another trial. The whole subsequent career of the Whig Ministers may be described as a series of vague Liberal speeches and no-doings.

And, not satisfied with this negative evil, they began to be posi- tively mischievous. If there was one principle of conduct professed by the Whigs on obtaining office more important or to which they stood more deeply pledged than another, it was that of maintaining peace and abstaining from meddling in the affairs of other nations : towards the close of their career, the Whigs began to act upon the direct contrary principle, to an extent, and with a labouring after melodramatic stage-effect and regardlessness of consequences, quite unprecedented. They set up a new King on the wild mountain- border of India, supported a tottering dynasty in Turkey, invited a war with France for imaginary objects in Syria, and went to war with China to maintain a smuggling-trade in opium. They attempted

to revive the old national pride in war and conquest—to strengthen

themselves in office by seeking false glory, and getting up a pugnacious excitement. They commenced, in short, a career perilous in the ex- treme to all the best interests of the nation—demoralizing public opi- nion, wasting public resources, and entangling the country in quar- rels alike aimless and endless. It thus became absolutely necessary

to get rid of the Whig Ministry ; for so long as its new course of

policy was persisted in, there was no possibility of obtaining useful reforms, or even judicious administration. It was on this account we levelled our" sarcasms 's against them, so long as they remained in office : they might have slumbered in peace since that time had they relinquished their unprincipled schemes. But some of them, and those now the most prominent, have been attempting to get up a

War-Opposition ; and a Ministry coming into office upon a promise of war and foreign intervention would be still more dangerous than one allowed to remain in although entangled in the meshes of such false policy. They are still bent upon conquest in Central Asia, upon fighting for plunder in China, upon intriguing in the Divan at Constantinople, and bearding France ; nay, we have heard some of their understrappers, in the very wantonness of faction, brag how Lord PALMERSTON would "cut up" Lord Asa- BURTON'S settlement with the United States, before they knew what it was. When they desist from such conduct, the late Ministry may slumber as undisturbed by our " sarcasms " as that of Sir ROBERT WALPOLE.

"What do you aim at in your constant but not hearty support

of the present Government? "—The present Government needs no support of ours: it is a necessity of the present time, the only pos- sible Government at the present conjuncture. There is no states- man in the field who has the power to turn out Sir ROBERT PEEL, and no statesman by whom the country would be a gainer if he had that power. Lord MELBOURNE feels this ; Lord Jona RUSSELL feels this : only Lord PALMERSTON, and the trading political agents of the late Government, dream of getting up an Opposition by spicing their professions of Liberalism a little more highly—an expenditure of words that costs them nothing. If to point out the futility and falsehood of such an undertaking is to support Sir ROBERT PEEL, we support him, and, whatever our correspondent may think, we support him cordially. Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Govern- ment, like that of Lord MELBOURNE, is essentially Conservative : but, being avowedly Conservative, which the other was not, the Conservative party think that there is no chance of Sir ROBERT being badgered by his supporters into broad and sweeping or what they call revolutionary measures ; and therefore they allow him to do many things which they would not tolerate in the others. There are a thousand useful practical reforms which the force of circumstances obliges even Conservative Governments to make. When Lord MELBOURNE'S Government professed to undertake such reforms, their habit of indulging in popular professions rendered their sincerity questionable, and their self-created weakness rendered their power more than questionable. When Sir ROBERT PEEL announces an intention of this kind, the known bias of his party renders it certain that he does so because he feels that the measure can no longer be postponed, and has ascertained that he can carry it. His peculiar mission is to do. His Tory connexions naturally exclude him from popularity with the masses ; his Liberal yieldings are distasteful to many of his own party ; he cannot rest upon any prepossessions in his favour : he must maintain his power by causing men to feel, against their will, that they are the better for him. Thus it happens that there is more chance of obtain- mg improvements from an avowedly Conservative Government than from a Conservative Government which affects the character of a Movement Government. There is also this advantage, that the Government of Sir ROBERT PEEL Will not in Foreign affairs be at the mercy of a Lord PALMERSTON. These considerations dictated from the first the propriety of giving Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Government a fair trial ; which is what we suppose " A Puzzled Admirer" means by "a constant but not hearty support." A "fair trial" means something more than standing by, anxiously waiting to catch a man in the wrong ; and up to this time, Sir ROBERT PEEL has done nothing to forfeit his claim to a fair trial. His measures are not sufficient to satisfy those who deal with politics as the practical application of a science ; nor, in the present state of this country, could any man who satisfied their wishes retain office. But they are more in accordance with the views of such reasoners than those of old Tory Ministers, and even than those of the professed Reformers who preceded him: If he has not advanced beyond the principles upon which,

since the Reform Bill, every Government in this country must act, neither has he shown any inclination to retrograde. His

movement in commercial policy is what all disciples of Free Trade principles conceive to be in the right direction. Nay, more than that—let Whig cavillers say what they will, it is the largest measure of fiscal reform ever brought forward in this country. For Pirr's great Customs-reform was chiefly administrative, reducing to order a chaos of duties and modes of levying them ; but PEEL'S Tariff has embraced large economical principles, (not yet carried out to their full extent,)—the abolition of prohibitions, the approxi- mation of the colonial to a coasting trade, the abandonment of trivial or vexatious duties, and a step towards the remission of duties on raw materials. Even his disagreeable Income-tax— forced upon him by the wars and mismanagement of his prede- cessors—evinces the prudent statesman, who, wishing to improve the economical condition of the country, yet seeing its critical position in relation to foreign powers, assures to himself before- hand the possession of adequate means to carry his intentions into effect, and has the courage to brave a passing odium. What Sir ROBERT PEEL has done, since he came into office, is fully more than we were entitled to expect at his hands: why should not the truth be told ? And why, because we have advocated measures with the Whigs, should we be expected to follow them in assailing men, for party-ends, and without regard to fairness, change of cir- cumstances, public utility, or even eventual gain to the measures themselves ?

"What would you overturn, and what uphold or create ?"—The answer must be sought in the general tenour of our remarks from week to week. We believe that there is much suffering in the world ; although so far from thinking that affairs have grown worse in our time, they appear to us to be if any thing rather mending. We think our countrymen might be rendered more comfortable in their circumstances, were industry liberated from certain trammels and shackles, and if they could be persuaded to disperse themselves more equally over the immense regions which belong to the British people. We believe that if the material condition of the people can be improved, their craving for knowledge will be rendered more sharp ; and we believe that every advance they make in know- ledge will enable them to improve their condition and render that improvement permanent. We dislike everything that strengthens the spirit of caste : we do not fear evil consequences from granting political privileges to the great body of the people, though we doubt whether doing so would alter the course of political events so much as some people suppose ; and therefore we incline to an extended franchise. Perhaps we are too unimaginative to- be dazzled by rank and station and their attendant shows ; but we cannot sympathize with the morbid dislike which some entertain tewards them : the country will have them ; we are contented, and can look on sometimes admiring and sometimes laughing at them. We frankly admire great and good qualities in men, and despise the empty affectation of them. For a desirable end we will cooperate with any man, and we will labour in vain with nobody. We will speak a word in season when we can ; call a spade a spade, or praise a good action, as the case may be ; laugh when we have a mind, and rail when the mood is on us. Under no circumstances would we condescend to be the slaves of faction : at present we see no political party we could do any good by joining ; and there is nothing for it but to make ourselves as comfortable as we can under the government God has given us for the time, and help on every good work as we see occasion. We "seek the truth, that the truth may make us free "; and we speak our mind fearlessly, not in defiance of the world's opinion, but with a thorough contempt for the gossip which so often passes current for it.

"A Puzzled Admirer" asks for our "credo "—here it is in little : if he wants a fuller explanation, be has only to sit down and read

the Spectator from No. 1 to No. 742. The views we are now

stating have not been taken up without mature reflection. They have been forced upon us by events. We pointed out what was coming, long before it came, and whilst Whig underlings and wise Reformers were promising, in folly or dishonesty, a new millennium for each new session : we showed why it must inevitably come, un- moved by the unbelief, calumnies, and sneers, which have been the lot of those who foretel what is disagreeable, ever since (and probably before) the days of Cassandra : and we are not going to change our language now, that events have realized all our forebodings. Time has shown that we were in the right, and our censors in error : this is certainly no reason why we should steer our future course according to their directions.