TOPICS OF THE DAY.
HOW THE WORLD GETS ON.
LAST week brought forward some remarkable witnesses to the fact, that in the political world of England the present course of events is towards good.
The Edinburgh Review says of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Corn and Provision laws—" We must admit, and we do it freely, that the Corn-bill of the last session, though not in itself good, was an im-
provement upon the previous law." The reviewer then proceeds to demonstrate, that matters cannot and will not be allowed to rest
here—" The sliding scale and its advocates will be condemned, as
well by common sense as by popular indignation ; and Sir Robert Peel is much too skilful a tactician to maintain a contest in a position which he finds to be indefensible. Indeed it is obvious,
that in the principles he laid down, and the admissions he made, he has prepared the way, with great adroitness but with much caution, for the final abandonment of all protection whatever. His two ' rests ' at a duty of fis. and 17s. are his preparations for a fixed duty : a fixed duty on his part will lead him farther still." And of
the reduction of the duties on foreign cattle and provisions he says—" The latter measure was one, we admit, considerably in ad- vance of the propositions of the Whig Ministry ; and the step was taken in the right direction."
The praise bestowed upon the Commercial Tariff is even more decided—" We proceed to the next of Sir Robert Peel's great mea- sures, his commercial tariff: and here our approval may be more
freely expressed ; for the principles laid down by him, and by iris distinguished coadjutor Mr. Gladstone, were, with few exceptions, all we could wish, and all that the Masters of Economical Science
could have desired from public men. It was admitted unequivo- cally, that the aim of the Legislature should be, to procure the most abundant and cheapest supplies, and to encourage the freest and most unfettered commercial intercourse between nation and nation. * * * From those principles Sir Robert Peel will find there is no retreat. When the time comes (and it approaches speedily) when Parliament will be required to reconsider the Bra- zilian commercial treaty, and the duties on foreign sugar, we enter- tain no doubt that he will be reminded of these declarations. In- deed, our hope and expectation is, that these declarations will be embodied in the new arrangements which must then be adopted, in spite of the opposition of our Colonial interests, or the mis- apprehensions of a mistaken philanthropy—uninstructed by expe- rience, and relying upon remedies already shown to be inadequate either for the amelioration of the condition of the foreign slave or for the suppression of the slave-trade."
The financial operations of the session are spoken of in less favourable terms ; but it is admitted that Sir ROBERT PEEL " made his celebrated financial propositions in a speech of great ability and moderation, going far to satisfy the expectations of those who de- manded from the Minister the enunciation of sound general prin- ciples, and extremely plausible and skilful in the manner in which his arguments were marshalled." With regard to National Education in England, Government, it seems, has not only adopted "in its most minute details" the system which had so usefully been carried on by their predecessors, but have proposed to carry it still further. The control of a Lay Board "is most wisely and most unhesitatingly adopted" ; the rea- sonable and just principle of perfect equality among all classes, whether Churchmen or Dissenters, in the distribution of aid, and the public encouragement granted for schools, " was never more un- equivocally affirmed than it has been by Lord Wharncliffe the Pre- sident of the Council " ; nay, " we have reason to believe, that in this as in other questions the measure originally intended to be adopted has not yet been fully carried out." In Ireland, again, " the [educational] measures of Lord Eliot have been those be- queathed to him by his excellent predecessor, which he has adopted, to the signal overthrow of the expectations of his Ultra political supporters." The effect of Lord ELIOT'S firm and liberal policy upon the bigots is truly and powerfully described by the Reviewer- " How deeply their disappointment is felt, appears, among other things, in an address moved by a party of Orangemen in Dublin, praying the Queen to remove Lord Eliot from her Councils for ever. It also appears in the opposition of the University of Dub- lin to the Irish Solicitor-General, and the pledges required from the more successful candidate to vote against the declared wishes of Government. When, in addition to other mortifications, we consider the exclusion from political office of all the prominent members of that section of Irish politics which has furnished the most eager partisans and the most active skirmishers in the Tory cause, we cannot imagine any line of policy so well calculated to excite discontent, and a bitter hostility, which only waits an opportunity for manifesting itself. This hostility, and the causes which produce it, must bring to the Government real strength, as more than an equivalent for party support. If they lose the applause of a faction, they are laying in their claims to the grati- tude of a people, who require no more than justice at their hands." The news of the late change of Ministry in Canada arrived too late to be noticed in the Review ; but a writer in the editorial columns of the Morning Chronicle may be allowed to express the view taken of that event by the more clear-sighted and judicious Whigs—" The great subject of gratification is the complete triumph of Lord Durham's principle of responsible government, which the recent change recognizes and establishes. * * * The national system of representative government is established in Canada in the most marked manner. The men in whom, probably, of all in the province, the Governor confides the least, are taken by him to direct his policy, because they are those in whom the people confide the most. A vote of the Legislature in Canada, as in the Mother- country, now determines who shall wield executive authority. This has been the great subject of conflict hitherto between the Tory and Liberal politicians of the province. It is now decided in favour of the latter. • * * This, after all, is only one of many proofs of the fact, that government in the present day, whether in the hands of Tories or of Liberals, must be carried on on liberal principles."
Non Roster hic sermo ; but we coincide entirely in these views,— which, indeed, are but a reproduction of our own ; and we would have repeated them in our own language, but that we know the writers from whom we have been quoting are likely to be more acceptable to some readers. Now what is the moral of all this ? It seems clear that the present Ministry feel what public opi- nion requires, and are prepared to strengthen themselves by inlist- ing public opinion in their favour. The duty of the true Liberal is to make the most for the public out of this disposition. Sir Ro- BERT PEEL has done some good, and be promises to do more. But we are not to expect that he will do any thing to weaken his hold of office. When the Free-traders asked the late Ministry, in vain, to declare in their favour, they were told confidentially—" If Minis- ters were to avow your principles, they could not command a ma- jority of the House : you cannot expect them to turn themselves out.' The present Ministers are influenced by the same consi- derations : they will not turn themselves out. They have shown that they have little objection to let the Ultra-Orangemen and the advocates of monopoly rail on, provided they are certain of re• ceiving fair support from other quarters in doing what they believe to be best. Every taunt levelled at them for their advance in Li- beralism—every triumphant exclamation at seeing them irritate the old-world Tories, as if they thereby weakened themselves—must necessarily make them pause and hesitate in the course to which they are evidently inclined. They will not be encouraged to ad- vance by support given avowedly for the purpose of weakening them.
The objection usually made to support Ministers in order to confirm them in their Liberal policy is the question, " what right have they to be Liberal ?" and the assertion, that " they ought to have left that to their predecessors." This feeling is not unnatural in party- men, but extremely silly in the great body of citizens, who have no- thing either to gain or lose in the lottery of place. They have nothing to gain by changing the persons who hold office, unless they can be sure that they exchange those who will do less good for those who will do more. It is by no means certain that this would be the consequence of restoring the party lately ousted—even though more were to be gained thereby than a War Minister and an addition to the Funded Debt, instead of peace and an Income-tax. In certain quarters it is the fashion to represent them as martyrs to the cause of Free Trade. The truth is, that so long as they had a majority in the House of Commons, they refused to meddle with Free Trade; some because their minds were not made up, others because they feared that by meddling they should be placed in a minority. They had lost their majority before they took up Commercial Reform. The vote which turned them out did not say, that, having become Com- mercial Reformers, they ought to cease to be Ministers, but that, having ceased to have the majority, it was not for them to propound their scheme from the Treasury-bench. The Opposition came into office because they could no longer be prevented ; and, whatever they may have said out of office, are doing in it just what their pre- decessors admit they ought to have done. It turns out that there is no very essential difference between the commercial policy of the parties—certainly not enough to make it worth the nation's while to convert the Opposition into a Ministry. Even though it were true (which it is not) that the Tories in Opposition retarded commercial reforms which Whig Ministers wished to carry, in order that themselves might get in, it does not follow that the commer- cial reforms which the Tories are inclined to carry ought to be re- tarded in order to give Whigs another chance of place. The only interest the nation can have is in getting the reforms carried as soon as possible, whichever party offer them.
In short, it is high time that the paltry squabbles of persons and parties should give way to the consideration of the interests of the country. Party-spirit is the meanest form that low selfishness can assume. The party-man has not even the merit of being devoted to his principles or his associates; for who does not know how often a party can change both in the course of a few years. He is devoted to self alone, and values his party only because it is his. He can point with malignant glee at the difficulties a rival en- counters in striving to effect ends which he has professed him- self devoted to : his love of country is of the kind that could perhaps die to attain its object, but could put that object to a cruel death rather than see it prosper without him. This is their temper who would turn the best actions of Ministers against them. Nothing can be gained for the country through such agency. It is only by enlightening and strengthening public opinion that any thing is to be gained. To give Ministers credit for what they do right—to point out their errors in the way of warning when they do wrong—to confirm public opinion in favour of the abandonment of unreasonable prejudices, which we have recently witnessed—this is at present the duty of the true Liberal. We are at present, in regard to questions of political economy, where we were, in Gx.ozoa Cuss/1140's time in regard to general liberality : the Whigs supported CANNING because they knew that he could do what they could not ; but their support was not given for the ungracious purpose of ruining him. The first . ten years of the Reform Bill have been in no small degree wasted in the squabbles of party : it is of the ntniostronsequenee' that the young politicians who are daily emerging 'rho atitivity should be trained to more useful and generous contests—to the investigation of principles and the love of truth, not the flattery or abuse of persons—to inquiries how the state may be best served, not to unmeaning halloos of up with this party and down with the other.
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