004 GOVERNMENT NO GOVERNMENT. 



is a matter of the most perfect indifference to us, whether Lord 

 Melbourne or any other man is prime minister, and whether 

 schoolboys or superannuated antiquities fill the different depart- 

 ments of state. The Duke of Wellington was universal minister for 

 some weeks;, and never were the official duties of the different 

 Government offices more efficiently performed : so that it cannot 

 signify much, who the people are, who are the nominal heads of the 

 departments the business will go on as usual. 



But are these the sole purposes which, at the present time, should 

 occupy a ministry? Is this an age and a period, when mighty social 

 revolutions are at work, that the destiny of the first country in the 

 world should be wielded by Lord Melbourne and his colleagues ? 

 That a Cabinet without one master-mind in it should be entrusted 

 with the re-modelling of our institutions? That a body of men, 

 without aim, and without guide, should preside over an epoch 

 pregnant with important events ? These are questions that it 

 behoves every patriot to ask himself, and the answer must be NO. 

 Well might Lord Melbourne remark in the House of Lords, that 

 the re-construction of his Cabinet had been attended by vexations 

 and mortifications peculiarly trying and severe; and well might more 

 than one lip be turned up in scorn at the simple observation. Yes, 

 compelled by a power which he dared not brave, he was humiliated 

 into the necessity of confining himself to his former colleagues, and 

 by the sternest command to leave out the Chancellor. A moderate 

 Government might have been formed ; but the fiat was gone forth, 

 and a sounder policy could not have been adopted, and the victims 

 were installed in their places. 



What will be the consequence ? a Government absolutely useless, 

 a session or two absolutely wasted. They have demanded a trial, 

 and we rejoice that it has been granted them rejoice, solely because 

 the trial will be definitive. But if we rejoice on this account, we 

 deeply deplore it on others. We shall lose half a century of just 

 and rational reform, and shall reduce our executive from the proud 

 eminence of sound and enlightened statesmanship, to party in- 

 trigue and this at a time when the dearest interests of the 

 country are at stake. Parties taken in the mass are so equally 

 balanced, that in point of fact we are without Government, as far as 

 the capability of carrying important measures through the House of 



