, TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE ANTI-REFORMING DEMONSTRATIONS.
• :ee the stirring bustle of the Tories in all parts. . . . What t• object to is, the system of mutilating and tsimpromising to gain an en, my rho cannot be oneiliated. . We have a Liberal Administration professing Liberal principles, supported tiv an immense Liberal majority iu the liouse of Commons, and that majority re• Mimed by a laticial constituency ; and vet, with a Government so constituted, so maintained, and so supported, we have Ministers surrounded in every department by Tory subalterns. The patronage of the Army and the Church is still exercised by Tories. for the benetit of Tories. Ali appointments by Bishops, Judges, Magis- trates. Lord-Licutenants, are Tory. The Diplomacy of the country is composed of nearly the same persons as it was in the time of my Lord Liverpool. In short, all the inferior instrument h through which the Liberal measures of a Liberal Govern- ment are to be accomplished, are Anti-Liberal."—Lord Durham's Speech at Glasgow.
ALTHOUGH time more shrewd and well-informed members of the Conservative party—the WELLINGTONS, PEELS, anti CROKERS- maw be aware of the impossibility of regaining their lost footing in the government of the country, it is not to be doubted that the great body of their adherents are more sanguine. They imagine that a reaction in favour of Toryisna has taken place in the public mind. To keep alive and encourage this feeling, seems to be their main object at present. Hence their unusual activity during the Parliamentary recess. In all parts of the country—in Kent, Gloucestershire, Lancashire, at Perth, Aberdeen, and Hillsborough in Ulster—they have mustered their forces, and told them to hope for victory in the ensuing contest with the Liberals. Unques- tionably they will gain something by this activity. Their own friends will'he reassured, and their numbers and influence will be demonstrated. But after all, their great reliance is in the vacilla- tion and pusillanimity of their opponents. The Reformers are gallant, determined, active; but, alas for their leaders ! many are listless, many timid and feeble-minded, and some are traitors. Were it not for the overwhelming superiority of numbers which the Reformers possess, the Obstructives would long ere this have reoccupied the Treasury bench ; and nothing proves more strongly their essential weakness, than their inability to overturn a Government which supplies them from its own armoury with weapons of offence. Thousands of their avowed and stanchest enemies are paid and cherished by the Whig Ministers. Proofs of the inefficacy of the system of con- ciliation present themselves daily, but are disregarded. Not an instance can be adduced of the conversion of a Conservative of eminence to even an ontwaid semblance of support of the Gevern- ment. Overtures are repelled and scouted with contemptuous vehemence; and bitter reviling is the return for all the degrading sacrifices which the Whigs make to soothe their sneering opponents. We doubt not that Lord BROUGHAM has chuckled with the thought that he had talked over the Aberdeen Conservatives; but at the late meeting of Captain GORDON'S friends, in the very same room where the Chancellor was feted, and where he enacted the Traitor to Reform only in an inferior degree to his Inverness per- formances,—in that very room, the Ministry he belongs to, and he himself more especially, were the object of repeated attacks and numberless sarcasms. That was no doubt considered a discreet and conciliatory arrangement which kept Mr. BLACILBURNE in the influential post of Attorney-General. for Ireland, despite of his Orange Tory politics : it met with a suitable acknowledgment from the orators at the great meeting at Hillsborough, last week. Conspiracies to overthrow the Protestant religion, and to install Catholic Demagogism in the place of Government, were the mildest crimes imputed to Ministers, by the men for whose sake the mass of the Irish population have been disgusted. At Tewkes- bury, in the county where the Duke of BEAUFORT strains all the influence of his Lord-Lieutenancy to thwart the Whig and Re- forming party, the tone of Lord ELLENBOROUGH and his com- panions was fierce, contemptuous, or denunciatory. Loid FITZROY SOMERSET has the virtual disposal of a large part of the Army patronage : have his powerful family relaxed in the least from their sturdy opposition to the Government ? No—one and all, they would ridicule the very idea of relinquishing an opportunity
to thwart and harass it All these facts afford additional proof of the folly of the system
of "compromising with enemies who are not to be conciliated." Surely, Lord MELBOURNE and his colleagues must see that they have pursued this course too long. What delight or satisfaction can there be in kissing the foot that spurns, in filling the mouth that reviles them? What advantage is there in an ovenvhelming ma- jority of the Commons, if it does not enable Ministers to govern the country on their own principles, and by trustworthy agents? The Anti-Reforming meetings to which we have referred, and the tone of the Tory press, indicate that a vigorous effort will be made next session to oust the present occupants of place. Now, the course which Ministers ought to pursue, if they wish to para- lyze the force of their assailants and recruit their own strength, seems plain enough. They should be well prepared with a few of those measures which they are pledged to bring forward : the Reform of the Irish Church, of the English Tithe system, and of the Corporations, may be put down as three principal ones. Raving decided on these, or others of equally pressing importance, if such there are, the next step should be to look to their means of carrying them. The captain of a man-of-war, who went into action with a large portion of his crew and his first lieutenant in the pay of the enemy, would be looked upon as either a traitor himself, or a madman. Yet his case differs little from that of a Minister, who on the approach of the Parliamentary lession, is not sure even of his colleagues, and who knows beyond doubt that the subalterns in the principal offices and situations of trust and .influence throughout the kingdom, are generally prepared to annoy and to thwart him. This, nevertheless, will be Lord MELBOURNE'S position, unless it be amended and strengthened without delay : for no one can dispute the accuracy of Lord DURHAM'S description of it, which we have taken for our motto. It is safe to prophesy, that Ministers will be involved in constant difficulties—that their prin- cipal measures will be mutilated or rejected—that their enemies in both Houses will be strengthened, and the discontent of the Reformers fearfully augmented, unless Lord MELBOURNE makes vigorous preparations for the ensuing struggle—unless he dis- misses traitors and babblers from his councils, and evinces a de- termination to support those only, who are ready, able, and honest in support of the Reforming Government. If, as it has often been alleged in extenuation of former failures, there are Courtly obstacles in the way, which he cannot surmount, then it may become the duty of Lord MELBOURNE to retire from power, and declare the true reason of his inability to carry his avowed prin- ciples into operation. Though such an issue is possible, we hold it to be unlikely, if the crisis be met with skill and courage. At all events, it is right and necessary that the Nation should un- derstand who it is that insists upon perseverance in the "clipping and compromising" system, and in the appropriation of the public money to the support of the public enemy,—for such they must be considered who obstruct measures for the national ad- vantage.
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