TOPICS OF THE DAY.

THE HASTINGS CORRESPONDENCE.

UNDER its proper head of " Court" intelligence we insert a cor- respondence which has taken place between the mother of' Lady FLORA HASTINGS and Lord MErstouaNn, with reference to the scandalous business which has lately engrossed so much of the public attention. This correspondence will be found to repay the most careful perusal. It is characteristic and significant. Though far from clearing up—still further from terminating—the matter in dispute, it materially advances the inquiry, while placing the whole subject in a point of view inure than ever calculated to pique the curiosity, to must the sympathy, and to arouse the suspicion of the public. It is impossible to read it without perceiving that cinch more remains behind 7u/read—because unwritten, but which, being both written and read, may lead to ulterior consequences— now sought to be averted by all the arts of shuffling, lying, and blustering. In vain!—nothing so scandalous ever went so far, without going further ; and we shall be greatly mistaken indeed if this affair rest here. The Favourite now stands at the bar of public opinion charged with a complicated delinquency : other words are used and other names put forward, but this is the virtual result of all that has transpired. Any one who expends his indig- nation on Court Physicians and Bedchamber Women only shows that he is no match for the Major-domo of the Palace, whose dupe he is. Let not the public be duped by the Major. lie loves to laugh at them in his sleeve while he puts them on a wrong scent. He has played off the trick many a time before. Will it always succeed ? We think not. The Physician's is a minor offence ; and, as surely as the minor is included in the major, lw is not the person to whose behaviour the public ought to limit their inquiries, nor his the only dismissal from the Palace to be demanded as the price of conviction. It won't do to execute the law on the Charley Buteses of the Court while the Fagin remains undisturbed. The tables are now turned. Those who first, by imputations thrown out in a spirit of wanton brutality, imposed upon a virtuous lady the necessity of vindicating her character, never before aspersed, must now defend their own—a somewhat harder task ! As long as this business is attempted to be hushed up, so long will the worst suspicions be entertained in regard to it and the worst con- struction be put upon the actions of those whose credit it involves ; and if the noble Lord whom it especially implicates possesses half the ?IOW and cunning commonly attributed to him—but of which the display seems chiefly confined to the back-stair, or if he knows any thing of the nature of that public opinion—which it used to be

thought necessary for a Prime Minister to study—he must know that an ample explanation is now the only course which can give satisfac- tion, or vindicate—if blameless in this affitir—his own character and conduct. But of so much intelligence there is no prospect. For any deference to public opinion—for any abatement of the upstart in- solence and " pride of office"—of the overweening confidence in the omnipotence of Court fitvour, and ostentatious indifference to all other support, which have marked the behaviour' of Lord MEL- Botergn since the commencement of the present reign,—if a hope

was entertained beffire,-that hope is at once extinguished by the correspondence now made public. The noble Lorthas given us a

thousand clear proofs within the last eighteen months, that he

neither knows public opinion nor cares tbr it. Ile may " know Anne's mind," perhaps, " as well as another does"—of that we

say nothing ; but of the mind of the country, or of the feelings,

wishes, or interests of any other party in the state but one, he manifestly makes no account. We are indeed obliged to believe to a certain extent (and this is the most grievous part of the whole

business) that a correspondence exists between the behaviour of the

servant and the disposition of the tni:,.tr.ss. It is a mode of inference which often inflicts injustice on the latter part-; but how can it be

altogether avoided ?—except indeed by the obvious alternative ofdis- missing the obnoxious menial. If you saw a powdered puppy slam- ming the door of a great house in the fix° of a respectable elderly wo- man, it would no doubt be very uncharitable to take such insolence as a type of the manners of the lady of the house ; yet it cannot be de- nied, that on the minds even of the most charitable such a scene

would inevitably leave unfavourable impressions ; it would not be believed that such a footman could be retained in service by his mistress withoutm souse covert participation in the spirit of his pro- ceedings. Ilow important, then—how due to justice and truth— to remove such monstrous and injurious impressions—in the only manner in which they can be removed—by the removal of the au- thor of them, the insolent and audacious tbotman himself!

Can her 'Majesty be sensible in what light the conduct of her ser- vant is likely to place her own intentions ? can she be satisfied to be regarded through such a medium? Is she conscious of the na- ture of the libel of which Lady FLORA 11AsTiNcs has been made the victim ? is she aware that where guilt is gratuitously imputed, the proof' of innocence affords no reparation ; that the insult, added to injury, which has been offered to Lady FLORA, is, with all its circumstances, irreparable ; that to omit any article of satisfaction under these circumstances is to heap wrong on wrong ? Is her Majesty aware that, amongst these circumstances, there are sonic which raise impressions so deeply injurious to the credit of certain of her own dependents—impressions of motives more base, daring,

and criminal, than even that of ruining indispensable character of an inno- cent woman—that investigation is as ndispensable to the vin- dication of the conduct of those parties, if free from the guilt now laid to their account, as it is to the satin ffiction of the public in any case ? Is she aware that, in spite of these things, explanation—even explanation—has been denied, and that applications, temperate and strong in justice, made by those in the position of the injured party, have been rudely and superciliously rejected by those on the offending side ? and that this has been dune in her Majesty's name ? It is probable that her Majesty is acquainted with the facts, but not with the spirit of the facts.

The reader will observe, that the correspondence now published introduces a new feature in the relations between the noble lackey and the royal mistress. As long as we contemplated those rela- tions only in the effects which they were supposed to produce, it was difficult to determine the strictness of the sympathy which en- tered into them ; and from this very uncertainty some comfort was derived, for it left us full liberty to reason agreeably to our wishes, and to decide that it was impossible that conduct so gross, so inde- cent, so unmanly, could receive the approbation of a mind so gentle and so innocent : we rested assured, in the absence of proof to the contrary, that an influence prevailed, or a combination of influences, so potent in mischief as to stifle even the voice ofroyalty—" a power behind the throne, greater than the throne"—that the proceedings of the menial did not express the mind or manners of the mistress, and that time, which explains all things, would explain this. But now, a little black and white may make a great alteration in the aspect of affairs, and not for the better,—unless a due sense of the dangers arising from this cause shall be impressed upon that mind whose peace and happiness they threaten to destroy, and a resolution be taken in consequence to be delivered from them while deliverance is yet possible. We would respectfully entreat. her Majesty to mark the difference to which we have alluded. In the correspondence between the Dowager Marchioness of HaVroos and the nobleman who has been supposed (perhaps falsely) to rank as a Favourite with her Majesty, his Lordship himself professes to speak her Ma-

jesty's feelings and sentiments ; and the public will now be under the necessity of identifying these with any expressions used by the noble Lord in the present or in any future correspondence of his

Lordship's on the same subject. This, we repeat, should beget a grave caution in the mind of her Majesty, and a timely revision of the whole of this affair, to say nothing of the present constitu-

tion of the Royal Household. If things go on much longer as they have done, the Court calendar will be a feature to be suppressed

in a family newspaper ; and, after announcing the ffict of a levee having taken place, we shall have to add, in the words of a Police report—" but the particulars arc not fit for publication."