INS AND OUTS—ETYMOLOGIES IN POLITICS.
WE forget the name of the play, in which there is a sagacious person who, on every strange discovery or unexpected turn of affairs, em- phatically observes, "I always thought so, though I never said it." The Ultra Tories are playing this part in politics, and professing views which, like the rowers, have been the exact opposite to their courses. They now declare themselves always to have been Parliamentary Re- formers, though they never said it. The truth, as the nursery maxim teaches, is not to be spoken at all times. Forms, says another pro- verb, keep fools in awe ; and when men sit within the influence of the Treasury form, they conform—when they pass or are kicked over to the other side, they reform. The whole business, indeed, of Parlia- mentary politics, is to be resolved into the conjugates of forms; they who sit on certain benches conform and inform, while on the opposite seats they reform and deform. Swirr maintains that clothes are the real agents in worldly affairs, and that men who fancy themselves something are merely adjuncts to coats, vests, and pantaloons; but in politics, as at whist, the seats determine the success and the content. HORACE'S worthy gentleman, too wise to walk into a well or run his head against the wall, and who saw excellent plays in an empty theatre, had got a good place,—for in theatres, as in senates, our view depends entirely on the place. The honest man's friends cured him with a medicine like that which the Tories have taken, and which from its disagreeable effect of curing flattering visions, has been named " hellabore,"—a corruption of h * * *-of-a-bore. From what is the word "locusts" derived, but from locus,—those creatures being the plaeemen of the insect world? Throughout our political scheme, the importance of the seat is to be traced. The Kingly estate is described by the Throne. The Church has its Cathedral. Justice has its bench, and the very soul of English Law is its forms for the con- venience of lying at ease. Why is whipping boys at school the grand means of education, but for the object of driving wit into the quarters of business ? A boy is scourged through the several forms till he is well-informed, and sufficiently callous for the seats of after life. Look out " sedee" in AINSWORTH'S Latin Dictionary, and for the fifth sense you shall find these words—" a base or foundation," and for the ex- ample—"Rempub. in sua sed,e sistere—Sueti ;" which, according to Tory translation, signifies that you shall deem the public good as resting in your place. The sedes, implying base or foundation, or base story, gives that licence for misrepresentation of which such free avail is made by the sitters of both Houses of Parliament. There is yet another and most curious secret sense in this word, but perfectly un- derstood by those who have the seats of power. If we take it to pieces, it seems to be composed of the Latin verb of giving and the pronoun hinzsell ; and to imply, that in the potential mood, present tense, the person having place should give himself all good things. " Grizzle's rebellion, What need I tell on pa?" as the ghost appositely asks in Toni Thumb, —a piece which precisely represerds the politieal ipoideats and temper of or times. Truly does CuoiteniLL affirm, . . . "Patriots laid Ministers ere much the same ; - The only difference, after all this ront, Is that the one is in, the other out."
From one end of the country to the other, however, "our cat is wringing her hands," and there is the Duke as insensible as Launce's dog. What a change has cone o'er the spirit of the §cene within a few months ! The Constitution, poor dear thing, gone : the Collective Wisdom, an ass: Representation, rottenness : Reform, essential—" we always thooght so," add the Ultra Tories, "though we never said it" —and why, hecause when the system worked well, there was no need of repair. That is to say, when the system worked well, as the gal- lows Worked well, according to the grave-digger in Hamlet, for those who did ill, they were centent With it ; and it is only when the ladle is opt of their own hands that they quarrel with the length of the handle, as of a convenience for supping Tail broth with the Dell. There is here a conviction of the dishonesty or vast imprudence of the Tories. To provide securities against misgovernment, is the wisdom of policy ; Ind the means Of security which they now agree to be neces- sary, they never supplied while the power was theirs ; and they left the liberties of the nation dependant on persons, because they hoped to be the persons having the charge and the dangeroes license of abuse. "We always perceived the weakness," they now contend, "and saw the occasion for the repair ; but, relying on eur own great honesty, we resisted putting on the lock while the strong-box was in our hands. Not that we thought of stealing, Or any impropriety, but we liked the power, which we eee to be so great and intolerable an evil when it has passed to Others." • raze is the appropriate covering of forms in houses of debate, because it is cloth of along uap. Haying tiles far explained the power of seats, places, and forms, the change of sentiment in those Tories who have lost their determinators of political conduct, elleuld be intelligible to everycapacity. Poets may sing for their boys, which ii a fruitless tree, but the green baize • of the TmSlity-hench is envied ae, the cloth of gold—as 4NAGEt4oN says, WAttooi and through the love of it we have now Tory opp,oellion,
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