NEWS OF THE WEEK.
WHILE the Premier of this time twelvemonth keeps aloof from the world of politics in haughty or in sullen state at Tamworth, refusing even to ride as far as Birmingham to grace the Tory fes- tival with his presence—while the Duke of WELLINGTON, Lord LYNDHURST, and the other leaders of the Opposition, are in repose, and the most respectable and trusted organ of the party, the Quarterly Review, has not even a line of party politics in its December number—the underlings of the faction, the needy placehunters and their unscrupulous scribes, are busied in getting up all sorts of silly and false stories, about a dissolution of the Ministry, negotiations with Lord STANLEY and the Duke of RICHMOND, overtures to Sir ROBERT PEEL, and dissensions with "OCONNELL.
On Wednesday, the Times surprised the gobentozzches with the information that the rumour was rife—" reports come crowding on us "—that Lord MELBOURNE had discovered his inability to carry on the Government any longer. Then followed the intelligence that his Lordship had put himself in communication with Lord STANLEY and the Duke of RICHMOND; and as of course those noblemen could not think of coalescing with O'CONNELL, it fol- lowed that the " base and pestilential alliance" with the Member for Ireland was on the point of' being broken off. This was pretty well for the morning. The evening organ—whose previous silence on these rumours would have been most marvellous, sup- posing them to have had (which they had not) any real existence— took up the fiction of its leader, and sent it forth with additions, " done " in the best style of " West-end correspondence." Ac- cording to the improved version, the Duke of RICHMOND was to be Premier, or Colonial Secretary, or—ally thing else; the Duke of WELLINGTON had agreed to join the staff of the present Ministry, to the exclusion of PEEL; Sir JAMES GRAHAM was to succeed Sir JOHN HOBHOUSE ; Lord STANLEY to be Premier,— and so on went the farrago. To be sure, the correctness of none of these reports was guaranteed : only one thing was certain, and that was—the MELBOURNE Ministry was on the point of dissolu- tion, and would not dare to meet Parliament.
It was soon seen that the few who took any notice at all of this laborious concoction of imaginary rumours, either laughed at it, or said, "It's all a lie—not one word of truth in it ;" and the best of the joke is, that the inventors themselves immediately set to work to prove that it was quite impossible for Lord MELBOURNE to break with O'CONNELL—a preliminary to all attempts to obtain aid from the Conservatives. They should have thought of this at first; and if they intended any part of their fabrication to pass 'current for probability or for truth, they should Have commenced by proving Lord MELBOURNE to be so complete an ignoramus, so -utterly a simpleton, as to suppose that any junction with Lord 'STANLEY would compensate him for the enmity of the Irish nation, the loss of O'Corsafetes support, and the disgust of the vast ma- jority of his English friends. But, instead of this, they built their superstructure of falsehood on the two following announcements in the Court Circular,—where, of course, State arrangements and political coalitions are always first announced! " Lord Stanley visited Viscount Melbourne on Sunday." (Very probably to inquire if his Lordship's cold were better.) " Viscount Melbourne, on leaving Brighton, is expected to visit the Duke of Richmond at his seat, Goodwood, Sussex." This appeared in the Court Circular of Tuesday; and on Wed- nesday the " rumours came crowding " on the Times of a blow-up in the Ministry. It happens that Lord MELBOURNE never went to Goodwood ; but returned to town, dined with Lord JoHN RUSSELL, and has since gone to Pansanger on a visit to Earl Coweek. No wonder that the edifice of falsehood fell with a breath, when the foundation was so baseless.
If there were any substantial ground of complaint against the Government, there would be no occasion for the tools of the Oppo-
sition to invent such trash as this. But the more impatient of the excluded party arc in a state of desperation. The No-Popery howl has not terrified the King ; who, in appearance at least, is on very proper terms with his Ministers. THIS DAY the old Corpo- rations will be discarded ; and the Town-Councils, the majority of which will be Liberal, must proceed virtually to appoint the new Magistrates under the Municipal Act. This interference with their Magisterial monopoly is felt as a serious blow ; and, altoge- ther, the Tories are aware that the expectations they have re- cently entertained are not in the way of speedy fulfilment—not- withstanding they have elected Mr. MAUNSELL for Northampton- shire, which their organs of the press told them must give the coup de grace to Lord MELBOURNE'S Ministry ! Disappointment multifold has made them crazy. They arc ready to believe in whatever is set before them by their purveyors of news; who having tothing real at hand, exhibit, like showmen, a kind of political phantasmagoria, which vanishes at a word, but can be as easily replaced by the lightfingered workmen. The fact is, that Ministers have been wary and successful in their conduct of the Government. The country is unusually prosperous; and there is need of factious stimulants to get up a show of opposition among the People. Lord MELBOURNE and his colleagues gain general approbation by the measures which pro- voke Tory rage. Thus, in Ireland, Lord MULGRAVE is backed by the mass of the Nation, headed by the Liberal Aristocracy : his courtesy to the Radical Members, his removal of factious Magistrates, disbanding of riotous Orange Yeomanry, and, re- cently, the liberation of Mr. REYNOLDS from prison—all which are deemed criminal by the Opposition—serve to augment his popularity. In England also, and in Scotland, whenever there has been an opportunity of indicating the policy of the Govern- ment, as in the appointment to Lord-Lieutenancies and livings, the conduct of Lord MELBOURNE has been very generally accept- able to the Reformers, and such as can afford no just ground of complaint in any quarter. There are many who think that Mi- nisters do not make a sufficiently energetic use of their power in behalf of Liberalism and its professors ; but as regards their ad- ministration of the Government, with scarcely an exception, it has been praiseworthy and popular. They have given their op- ponents no fair handle against them; and this has obliged the Tory journalists to have recourse to inventions which are palpably absurd.
