Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 028.djvu/14

they attempt sincerely to remove the abuse, and fail of a majority, they must resign; if they dally with it (to oppose it openly would be too ahenean,) the public accuse them of "trimming," and infidelity; they lose their only support, the popular confidence, and confess that there is one difficulty greater than that of getting into place,—viz. the difficulty of staying there. Thus, as the Tories have not the wish to reform, so the Whigs have not the power; and the Public, like the drowning Jew in the story, remains sinking in its pool of disasters, because those who are willing to save are unable to swim, and those who can swim think it impious to interfere with the current of events, but declare, in the Tory spirit, of optimism, that it will be best for the wretch hereafter, to be drowned for the present.

If these unfortunate consequences of party have been a cause of the want of correspondence that has hitherto subsisted between the Government and the ends for which government should exist, it is desirable, obviously to all candid men, that an administration should, if possible, be formed neither from one party nor the other; that it should not be vowed against amendment, nor absolutely pledged to especial points fought with a vehement struggle, and on which the alternative to an arduous conquest is resignation. As efficiency is no less requisite for an Administration than honesty; we wish for an Administration not only desirous to reform abuses, but able to carry the desire€ into effect; and instead of hollow and fruitless promises on peculiar topics, it would be better could we obtain a pledge for general conduct, founded on something more valuable and less precarious. Such is the Administration unprejudiced men would desire at least to try, and such, for the first time in this country, appear the Ministry we at present possess:—

For, in the first place, every one allows that the Administration does not stand on either party. Wherever we look, we see strange transformations in the old world of politics: Whigs and Tories meet on the same Treasury-benches—Whigs and Tories unite in the same seats of Opposition. So far this is good; the dread necessity of ruling by one of these factions is done away with. A principal cause which made former Administrations inefficient is no more. We have a Ministry that is not sworn to blindness, nor fettered to impotence. So far, we repeat, this is good. let us inquire farther. A new effect must succeed to the removal of the old cause, or we shall not be contented with the removal. Are the Ministry sufficiently powerful to stand their ground without falling back so entirely on one of these parties, as to govern through their principles or their infirmities? if so, from what source arises the power, and to what use will it be put? In a word, as they exist upon grounds no other Ministers have done yet, so do they unite what no other Ministers have yet done—the desire to do good, and the ability to execute it? Before we proceed, we must observe that, when we speak of the Ministry, it is of the Prime Minister we chiefly speak. To nearly all cabinets the Premier gives the peculiar character; this is especially the case in the present. The rank of the Duke of Wellington, and the pre-eminent nature of his renown, without recurring to the commanding and lofty temperament of his mind, might alone suffice to stamp the Administration with a strong impression of its chief. The temperament we allude to, has been, we know, a great cause of invective to his adversaries, and some have termed it the token of the despot, even while they found, in the opinions that