NEWS OF THE WEEK.
WEAK in all departments, the Government is weakest in its Colo- nial administration ; insomuch that it has brought about a crisis in several colonies, and has at last brought that long-deferred sub- ject under the now not unwilling attention of the House of Com- mons. Mr. Baillie's motion to inquire into the administration of Ceylon and British Guiana occasioned the most interesting de- bate of the session—the first of a series. For the same Member threatens inquiry into the administration of Mauritius ; and unless the earliest inquiries of the series should have the blessed effect of arresting the mischief at its source and at once, it is not pro- bable that the other colonies of the empire will withhold the ex- position of the grievances that make them also discontented if not disaffected. Mr. Baillie opened the series well : he made out his case not by the force of epithets but of facts ; facts in themselves so damnatory, that it is not surprising if Ministers afterwards looked back upon the plain and temperate statement of events as if it had been violent—the simple narrative of their own acts, derived from documents of their own selection, in their own blue books, sounded to their ears like vituperation. A curious flank movement had been got up to defeat the original motion : by whatsoever process of cajolery, Mr. Ricardo had been persuaded that it menaced "free trade" in some way ; and under that spell, he placed on the notice-paper an amendment, enunciating a ca- veat against any reactionary meddling with free trade. Mr. Baillie's speech, indeed, must have removed any notion that he intended to assail any commercial doctrine ; but Mr. Ricardo still moved his amendment, and Ministers still endeavoured to take shelter under it. If they could have raised a pother about free trade, there might have been some hope of evading the real question of Colonial administration. But the case was too strong, and the Free-traders must have been much more ser- vilely Ministerial than they are, to be duped, as Mr. Ricardo had been by favour of his ultra-ingenuity. Mr. Hawes was singular m assuming that the amendment would be carried ; singular in supposing that his own studied warmth, in the presence of his master, could impart such a conviction to any one else : and Earl Grey—who had regularly changed places with the Lord Stanley of l845—must have felt his heart sink as he listened to the im- portunate alacrity of Mr. Hawes in sharing obloquy with "his noble friend." Lord Grey might have been pardoned if the re- flection occurred to him, that such participation between himself and the former Member for Lambeth was not an equal bargain; for Lord Grey has been accounted a man of aristocratic feelings : we do not know, however, that he entertained them then, and gossip does exonerate him from evincing any such pride. But he cannot fail to have observed that not a soul was caught by Mr. Hawes's assiduous impetuosity : not only Members distinguished for their knowledge of Colonial policy, like Sir William Moles- 'worth, sustained the original motion, but the most general of politicians, Sir Robert Peel, demanded an inquiry into the sys- tem of Colonial government ; and even Mr. Hume, so benevolent to the Whigs, persevered in pushing home the demand. Lord John Russell assented to the inquiry, but deprecated "person- alities." Personalities! No charges were made against in- ffividuals except in their official capacity.. What does the Pre- oiler mean ? Ministers no longer undergo decapitation for errors in judgment. They are no longer expected to be compe- tent: Lord John, for example, has avowed that he is not wise enough to-construct a plan'of an Irish Poor-law by which he can rand, yet he is not ousted from office. He now claims for pub- ue officers exemption from criticism : you must not say that he selected an unfit Governor when he chose his cousin, nor that ford Torrington has committed this or that offence : but your "ngUage must be couched only in impersonal verbs. This is Pushing the modern doctrine of Ministerial irresponsibility to an extreme—making it equal with the inviolability of the Crown. Where then is the responsibility to lie—in the clerks of depart-
ments, or in select committees of Parliament? The last would establish a highly revolutionary state of public affairs. A distinct question was incidentally raised by Sir William Molesworth, as to what should be done with Ceylon. The Go- vernorship is an appointment not sought by persons distinguished for qualifications, because it is obscure. The error seems to hav_e commenced in classing Ceylon as a "colony." Ceylon is not a "colony," though it is a "possession." We hold it for no proper colonial purposes; it has descended to us with other territories in the East, from our Portuguese and Dutch predecessors ; we hold it only because it is necessary to round off our Indian conquests, and keep out an enemy too close to the shores of Hindostan: it is therefore only a part of India, and would be much more appro- priately and conveniently governed by the same department as India. Service in India is a better qualification for governing Ceylon than service in the Queen's bedchamber, or even in a board of Kentish railway directors. The general effect of the debate was to exhibit in the House as well as out of doors, a pervading want of confidence in the ad- ministration of the Colonial Office. Confidence in that depart- ment is gone: even the cautious patron of the Cabinet, Sir Robert Peel, has concurred in making the notch of the axe upon its bark. Bishop Wilberforce has obtained a Select Committee of Peers to seek the best means for "the final extinction of the slave- trade " : but, from the manner of all the speeches, it is to be feared that it will only be a Committee of search to collect pleas, if any, in favour of the blockade squadron.
Lord John Russell has again introduced a bill to let Baron Rothschild into the House of Commons, by altering the oath which excludes gentlemen of the Jewish race and faith. On the one hand, he has modified its form, so as to relieve the alarm of those who feared that some Edward Gibbon or David Hume might enter Parliament without being forced to use a little hy- pocrisy. On the other hand, the motion was received with evi- dent signs that the measure had become a matter of course : it has "baked" enough in the public and senatorial mind, and may perhaps be carried this session. Mr. Stuart Wortley has introduced his bill to alter the mar- riage-law, so far as to permit the marriage between a widower and his wife's sister. Like the Jew Bill, although opposed, the measure was received with -fainter resistance, as a thing that must be carried some day—perhaps now. Sir George Grey sup- ports it—in his "individual" capacity. Sir John Pakington has procured a second reading for his bill to prevent bribery and corruption at elections to the House of Commons' and Lord Cottenham, in the other House, has re- introduced the rival measure, appointing a Commissioner of in- quiry into election abuses. For just efficiency, neither measure goes far enough : for many Members, who sit in fear of election- agents and what they may de hereafter, both bills go too far. They are signs of uneasy conscience in both Houses.
