THE NEW TORY REFORM GOVERNMENT. 11 



and we must confess that Sir Robert Peel is not likely to falsify the 

 assertion. We can see no beneficial possibility lurking behind his 

 two great hulking ifs, that seem placed as sentinels for the purpose 

 of protecting the " necessary vagueness" from the slight " pressure 

 from within/' of meaning. 



" With regard to alterations in the laws which govern our Ecclesiastical 

 Establishment,, I have no recent opportunity of giving that grave consi- 

 deration to a subject of the deepest interest which could alone justify me 

 in making any public declaration of opinion. It is a subject which must 

 undergo the fullest deliberation, and into that deliberation the Government 

 will enter with the sincerest desire to remove every abuse that can impair 

 the efficiency of the Establishment, to extend the sphere of its usefulness, 

 and to strengthen and confirm its just claims upon the respect and affec- 

 tions of the people." 



One might reasonably enough have supposed that Sir Robert 

 Peel had afforded himself many opportunities of gravely considering 

 a subject which is not altogether so new as his tenure of the premier- 

 ship. The plain and simple construction of the paragraph is this : 

 <f I must see in what direction the wind blows before I consent to 

 become a church weathercock." 



We have given these few specimens of the manly, straight-forward, 

 statesman-like manifesto, so extravagantly extolled by the Tory 

 party. All that need be said of its author at present is, that the 

 people of England have nothing to expect from him, or from the de- 

 clarations of principle he puts forth ; but we suppose that he acts 

 under orders. The tool is worthy of the workman, and the workman 

 of the tool. 



Turning away from the paltry performance which we have been 

 too long considering, let us advert for one moment to the ensuing 

 elections. It seems pretty clear that the Tories cannot succeed in 

 obtaining such an accession of strength as will enable them to get to- 

 gether a House of Commons opposed to reform ; what, then, they 

 cannot hope to do with the elections, they may hope to effect in the 

 House itself. " If we cannot mystify the electors, we may humbug 

 their representatives." But they will find the moral influence too 

 strong for them. The old tactics will not do under the new regime. 

 Far more unpopular both with the House and with the country than 

 their predecessors, they will be unable to offer any thing that will 



