THE GREAT OPENING.

HonAcE, in his Art of Poetry, complains of a poet, who having to sing the fortunes of Priam, opens the question with such an imposing rotundity that you think he is going to out-Homer Homer, but as soon as the preliminary flourish is over, you find he is a mere trumpery doggrelist. " What does this fellow present us with,"

asks the satirist, " corresponding to such a prodigious opening ?" "Quid dip= taut° fIrct bie pronhisor Motu?"

The opening of the Ballot question by the Whig Cabinet was quite in the " cantabo " vein ; and after the debate and division of Tuesday last, we may well complain of anti-climax. " What have they given us corresponding to such a prodigious opening ?" Lord HowICK shall answer us-

" He believed that, instead of contributing to the assistance of' the Ballot by making it an open question, they were contributing a !petite?' chanec of resist- ance to it."

We NVISII to ask Mr. MACAULAY, whether this had occurred to him as one of the uses of "open questions," when he undertook to defend them the other night in the house. Amongst the advan- tages attributed to open questions, one conunonly insisted upon used to be, that they enabled measures to be passed which had otherwise no prospect of success ; and this Mr. ..MAcAuLAy did not overlook. But it seems a new virtue has been found in them, which never before occurred to any one—it seems they enable measures to be thfrated which have otherwise a tolerable prospect. This Mr. MACAULAY forgot, or did not know. It is evident, then, that much of the opposition to the open-question policy of the Govern- ment, embodied in the speeches of Sir JAMES Gnmum and Sir ROBERT PEEL, was founded in misapprehension of its principle; and that those right honourable gentlemen threw away a great deal of what Mr. CANNING used to call " valuable indignation," which they might have reserved for another occasion, had Lord Howlem only spoken at an earlier period of the -evening. Sir JAMES, for example, would hardly have talked of the "beleaguered city," and of the sentinels "opening the gates to give supplies to the assail- ants," if he had known that this was but a stratagem to confound the enemy. The Times, too, will now, we hope, reed the harsh expressions it used a week ago when it charged the Government with deadly intent against the Constitution with reference to the

• Ballot.

But Lord HOWICE'S principle of open questions is dinvowed for

his colleagues by those who do battle for them in the press. The Morning Chronicle is particularly careful to distinguish his predica- ment from that of Lord JOHN, RUSSELL; in whom our contempo- rary evermore finds new and unsuspected virtues, and, even while chastising him for fresh offences, commends for conduct yet to come. It cannot thank Lord JOHN, indeed, for his "low, base, Tory, and new-faugled theory of public morality ;" but still there is a place for gratitude left.

"Stii3 we thank him for his concession of fair play to the opinion he has re- pudiated. It is an honourable yieldiug to the comietious of his friends. He says, win the Ballot if you can : and we take him at his word."

And if Lord JOHN is not lustrous per se, yet is he bright by con- trast— " Not on him, nor on the Cabinet, would we charge the had fitith which one of their number has claimed the demerit of, as his own portion in the con- cession. He has not consented to make the Ballot an °pin question as a mode of injuring the Ballot. He does not profess to oppose change because the pre- sent system works well.' He does not insult us by imputing the wretched gullibility implied in talking of practical legislation.'*" Well then, the time draws near when the "crotchetty being" is to be thrust forth, like another Saturn, from the heaven of a RUSSELL Cabinet, with all his evil-minded adherents ? and the happy equilibrium is about to be restored, which the Chronicle promised us not long since as amongst the speediest of inevitable things, especially in connexion with this opening of the Ballot and the debate thereon? It was then, be it remembered, that the country was to "see what it should see ;" (Tote/wily beings were to be laid bare to 'view; all that was great, good, and honourable, was at the same time to issue into light, and reproach us for suspicion ; finally, the Cabinet was to

"Throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with the other half."

This time has arrived. When are the performances to COM. mence ? When is the "spacious gap" to be " disclosed into the wasteful deep," and the Satanic crew to be seen tumbling out " to officeless perdition"- " That durst defy the (7mmicle to arms:" Now that the storm is due by the weather-table, will the thunder be found missing, and Murphy be confounded ?—We hope not ; but it seems at any rate that the Chronicle has no difficulty in finding beings more crotchetty than my Lord nowiex, with whom it is worth while to be still more shocked. On Sir JAMES GRAHAM the Chronicle opens a fire, under cover of which, to our apprehen- sion, the origina/ crotchetty being almost gets off. We have seen that in Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S "low, base, Tory morality," there was a "lower deep," occupied by the Secretary at War. So now, in the latter's " spirit of mischief" there turns out to be a hole still lower, where the Cumberland Baronet resides- " Still there is something in the candour of Lord Ilowick's avowal that takes precedence of the hardihood of Sir James Graham's denial," &T.

The people have been so often told to " open their mouths and shut their eyes, and see what the Whigs would send them," and this manoeuvre, as with the children of a lesser growth, has so re- peatedly resulted in some practical joke at their expense in lieu of the expected sugar-plum, that if the Ballot affhir leaves things precisely where it found them, we cannot imagine that the people will suffer any disappointment, unless we "insult them by imputing a wretched gullibility," as the Cloymick expresses itself with re- ference to Lord Howica's speech—in a spirit of which we will only say, that we could wish to see it carried out by our contemporary with all the consistency which is worthy of his ability and zeal. Of this the admirable article on the Ballot in yesterday's 6,nm/o/c, at once brilliant and argumentative, affbrds good promise; while evi- dencing, more unequivocally than for some days past, the continued presence of a writer whose talents are of too high an order to make their shackled or unshackled exercise a matter of indifference tc; Reformers of the same degree of sincerity.

The difficulties in which the Globe has been placed by the open question, we last week partially illustrated; but that journal had not found the bottom of its embarrassments at the time we wrote. These have this week been greatly augmented by the accidents of the debate. It is a common complaint with domestic servants, when contradictory orders are issued, that "they cannot obey two masters at a time '1—a reasonable representation, surely. Although it may be impossible to speak very feelingly with respect to any "mode of untried being," yet it would betray a want of imagina- tion in us if we did not conceive that the situation of a Treasury journal must sometimes be one of considerable delicacy and diffi- culty. It is obvious that open questions must be plaguv things for those who are accustomed to definite instructions. Servants, be they of what kind they may, in or out of livery, certainly cannot "obey two masters at a time," however full of natural obedience. Yet, let us confess, that what the Globe COULD dolt non do towards this seemingly impossible object. We showed last week what a provident eye to the occasion our contemporary had; how he had got two strings to his bow. For our detection of his second string,

the Globe has been much angered with us, though in truth he wore it so loosely about him that any one might have

observed it. But, with that postponement of personal injuries to the superior wrongs of a master, which is the perfection of a ser- vant who "knows his place," the Globe makes light of our stric- tures on himself in comparison with our remarks on the 'Whig Ministers. We said last week—" The Ballot is the game. Let the Whigs only play the people one rubber at that, and—we bet upon the black ball." The Globe for this demands instant satisfac- tion ; alleging in his cartel of defiance that it is evidently our base intention to " deter as many Whigs as possible from voting for Ballot." The challenge disconcerted us at first, nor did we know

to whom we should appeal ; but there came the debate of Tu d es ay

night, since when we find ourselves relieved in our difficulty—in fact, it is our intention to apply to Lord llowiex to stand our friend ; a favour we shall assuredly have a right to expect from his Lordship, seeing that we peril our lives for having with malice prepense endeavoured, under the guise of Liberality, to do the Ballot an injury. But the Globe's attachment to particular measures of legislation appears to belong to that pure and uncommon order of friendship which rises in proportion to adversity. Last week, when the Ballot was beautiful to behold—encircled with flatterers, and basking in the sunshine of high patronage—the Globe found as much to urge against it as for it. But this week, when its chance is ever and it is once more consigned to oblivion, (to "temporary oblivion," we hope, to use a memorable expression of the Duke of WELLING. TON,) the Globe's friendship burns generously and has become undivided ; so that it is only a pity the debate is not to come over again, that the Radicals might have the benefit of his talents. Mr. GitoyE's speech, in the Globe's estimation, is unanswerable. "It is in our opinion a rock!" Ay, good Globe, a ruck—but a rock that you have got past—not a rock ahead, as it was lied week, Cockboats can't afford to praise rocks ahead; for rocks retro. specticely they have a due admiration. The Globe finds it very absurd of us to charge him with "ingenuity" and with " maladroit- ness " too ; but he is destined to furnish continual proofs of the compatibility of the two qualities. That the article, for example, from which we have quoted is an ingenious article, we admit; yet surely some people, interested in the .smstained ingenuity of the Globe's writings, will not let the following htpsus lingua pass without reprehension. The Government, we are told, had "left those in administration, or who hold office under it, to vote on this question according to their inclinations, and not, as hitherto, with nferenee to office."

iVe must make one further extract from the Globe's article, to show that if he was last week doubtful as to the expediency of the Ballot, its rejection this week by a majority of exactly the same relative strength as the year before, (previously to the " opening,") has not only warmed his feelings of attachment to it, but even ele- vated in a high degree his expectations of its success-

" Other interests for a time prevailed; but the day is near when these s'ill lie compelled to yield lie] se the nattiest!' of public opinion, based on truth and

IMPELLED BY NECESSLTY."

Observe the singular connexion—" based on truth and impelled by necessity." Are not these phrases in fact synonymous in the minds of the Whigs? What they are forced to do—they do, and then first the truth of the matter becomes apparent to them. Ask them for alms—you are spurned, and told your claims are without foundation. Collar them—say " Your money or your life r and they reply, " .Ah, now you speak reasonably. Impelled by neces- sity to grant your claim, I suddenly perceive that it is based in truth." We hope, for the Globe's sake, that open questions will be dis- continued. We hope, for the comfort of' all who sit in the servants' hall, that gentlemen up-stairs will in future ring one hell at a time. Last week two bells were rung at (Mee ; and our contempo- rary will excuse our repeating, that he appeared to us to be answering both