THE WHIGS AND THE ARMY.
Ia the 'Whigs were really all that they affect to be at Court, would Lord H ILL be permitted to remain at the Horse Guards? The Com- mander of the Forces has more patronage than any other subject, not excepting the Prime Minister himself. The Duke of Cc MBES- LAND is held up as a bugbear to Reformers ; but he is powerless, innocent, harmless, when compared with the Tory Com tuander-in- Chief. Quietly, but systematically, and without real responsibi- lity, the Horse Guards influence is counteracting the efforts of Whigs and Whig-Radicals to return a majority of Liberals to the new Parliament. The Tories pretend that Lord HILL is impar- tial, and never allows his Toryism to bias the conduct of his department; and the Whigs dishonestly backed the notorious falsehood, as an excuse for submitting, unwillingly it was pre- sumed, to the terms imposed on them by WILLI am the Fourth. Against the assertion of Lord Ht Les impartiality we had the positive declarations of the Whig BERKELEVS, that no supportcrof the Ministry could get any thing at the Horse Guards, and that it was notorious that Tory applications alone were attended to. Out of Parliament, anybody who said the contrary would be hooted. Will it be pretended that the system is altered? Will the most hardy of the Downing Street journalists venture to deny, that under VICTORIA the First, as under WILLIAM the Fourth, the Army patronage is completely in the hands of the Tories? The Morning. Chronicle thinks it a mighty matter that certain Bed- chamber Lords and Ladies have been selected from the ranks of the Whig aristocracy ; but Lord HILL remains at the Horse Gusrds, with an able and active Secretary belonging to one of the most powerful and inveterate Tory families in the country. The expenditure of five millions per annum, and innumerable ap- pointments—the ability to thwart and annoy or to aid and conci- hate multitudes in all ranks of' life, from the unlisted peasant to the ducal Colonel—are left in Tory hands by the men who wish the country to understand that as they hint the Queen acts. On the day of the young VICTORIA'S accession, some Reformers, who trusted the Whigs, joyfully said, that as a matter of course Lord HILL would be dismissed : others more cautiously observed, that the extent of the Whig influence at Court would now be tested, but questioned whether the Tory Lord would be removed. Week after week passes ; Gazette after Gazette ap- pears; the elections have. commenced : it was most desirable, on the supposition that Ministers were honest in their professions, that they should strike a.heavy blow and give a great discourage- ment to the Tories at this particular time, by turning out Com- mander HILL and Secretary SOMERSET; but they are both in office still, amidst the sneers and exultation of the Opposition, and the suspicious regrets of the Liberals. We know that tl►e Tories are in the habit of quietly assuring their friends that all is not well at Court with the Whigs; for, say they, the Queen will not dismiss Lord HILL to oblige them. But perhaps the honest Whigs wish to keep him in ? ask them, Mr. HUME.
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