NEWS OF THE WEEK.
.WEILE we write, the debate which has excited more political in- terest than the general election itself, and far more than the origi- nal announcement of Mr. Villiers's Free-trade resolutions, still pro- needs ; and we can deal only with its progress, for too many sur- prising-inoidents have 'oCcurred for us to presume the final issue. A• a c h section appears to have made mistakes as to its resources for action, and the result has been a complication 'unknown to political affairs of late, even with the broken-up state of parties.. It Was absolutely necessary for the Free..-traders to obtain a Parliamentary reCord of their policy as the established policy of the nation, not only because it was essential to record the decision of" the country" on the appeal made to it by Ministers, but also because the para- graph in the Queen's Speech, which might have stood for that re- cord, was studiously equivocal in its terms, and might subsequentlY have served for a pretext to deal with the decision as uncertain. And to the last the language which fell from the lips of Ministers, unfettered -by -the" reserves of a Royal Speech, was ambiguous. In attempting to arrest the Member who proposed that Parliament should make the explicit declaration, Lord Derby only imposed a new necessity ; for when, Speaking from his place in the House of Lords, he threatened the Commons with a Ministerial resignation and crisis if Mr. Villiers's motion should be adopted, the very threat disclosed an intent to put a compulsion on Parliament, if that were possible • and it also implied anew that an explicit declaration. of Free-trade and the present Ministry would be things incompatible.
The embarrassment which was caused by thus 'superfluously mix- ing up the question of the Ministry with that question on Which the Ministry had professed to yield, might have been saved if the issue had been taken at the earliest possible stage, by substi- tuting an explicit paragraph for the ambiguous one in the Address. We thought so, then, and the event has confirmed our impression. We do not 'forget that " etiquette " was supposed to require an acquiescence in ambiguity, out of deference to the Queen and to the memory of Wellington ; but an etiquette which requires a compromise of truth must be.in itself an untruth, and ought to be reformed. The memory of Wellington is not hallowed by acquies- cing in an untruth, and reverence for the Sovereign Lady cannot require that her faithful Commons should become accomplices in making her the medium of a false record.
Mr. Villiers took up his position with the concurrence, it was understood, of most of the Liberal leaders, and advanced his reso- lution, declaring the measure of 1846 to be "wise, just, and bene- ficent," with a plain statement of the moral compulsion upon him to do so. Mr. Disraeli met him with a long pseudo-historical sum- mary, constructed to back a representation that the Protec- tionist party had never been essentially pledged against Free- trade. He contrived 'to give some plausibility to this story by a species of substitution in the narrative. In lieu of his party, stood himself, with all his mental reservations, which, it now seems, were not stored up -without forethought, nor in vain. Ac- cording to the view of the past that he now conjures up, there has been no agitation to revoke Free-trade ; the events of the last six years have been a dream—a nightmare—which, with grateful delight, we are to awake and find all untrue; And it was after that adulteration of history, that the Romancist of the Exchequer asked the Commons to accept a resolution in lieu of Mr. Villiers's; drawn up by the-Same hinds that had drawn up the ambiguous paragraph in the Speech. The question was now extended from the explicit assertion of Free-trade, to one of censure on her Ma- jesty's Ministers ; being so extended by Ministers themselves. To teem the question was "Shall we continue in office or not ?" and they asked the Htuse to vote in the affirmative on that question. Here Lord Palmerston stepped in with a new form for the resolu- tions, so constructed, by avoiding the most disputed points in either version, as to enable the House to vote " yes " on both sides—to vote continuance of Free-trade and of Ministers too. The sequel is painful to the politician who has the interests of his country at heart. Lord Palmerston had been placed in a separate position, or hid voluntarily sought it; and in the guise of mediator he advanoed between conflicting parties, using their conflicts and uncertainties to make his own power felt. And it was felt : Ministers accepted the asylum offered to them; and the Liberal Opposition was broken up, hardly into sections, but rather into individuals, disclosed in con- fusion, each acting for his own separate credit, and trying to bear off what he could for himself. Some stick to Villiers, some run after Palmerston, and many don't know what to do. It is evident that the Liberal leaders had made the grossest miscalculation as to the management of the Commons : Lord John Russell, the "leader," has lost his command ; the pure Free-traders are a minority ; and they all leave it to one off-lying member of the Oppositaon to collect the unguided votes of the herd. The strength of Lord Derby lies in the corrupt debility of those who confront him. It seems that he is right when he says that if his Cabinet were broken up there would be none to fill the vacancy. -At other times and in other lands, it has happened that a state has been left without a government ; and then there have been found men, bound together by solicitude for the commonwealth, who could meet, could determine a policy for their own guidance, and could grasp the vacant helm. But the present debate discloses the utterly disorganized confusion of the Commons of Great Britain, in -which the titular leader is hustled out of notice; and a country without statesmen capable of acting together in her service, is left to endure the infliction of a Ministry purchasing power by false professions—the religion of Free-trade has for its high-Fiesta not converts but renegades, pushing into the temple with the creed of the true faith babbling on their lips and the heathen traditions in their hearts. Political morality is suspended, and office.falla to the party strongest in the competition of dishonesty.
