118 THE MINISTRY AND THE PARLIAMENT. 



have paid court to their opponents, was, with the view of disarming 

 them in some measure, if not wholly, of their hostility. The pre- 

 mises are unfounded ; the inference, as a matter of course, is unjus- 

 tified. That the Tories have been zealous in their efforts to thwart 

 Ministers, or rather would have been so, had Lord Grey brought 

 forward any measure which they deemed worthy of their special hos- 

 tility, is at once admitted ; but this admission is very far from being 

 tantamount to one, that such hostility would have been successful. 

 It were a sorry commentary on the power to do good, conferred on 

 Parliament by the Reform Bill, to find the first beneficial measures 

 proposed, after it had passed, unavoidably frustrated by the conserva- 

 tive faction. But such an assumption is altogether groundless. Mi- 

 nisters, had they pleased, could, for all beneficial measures, have 

 commanded large majorities in the Lower House, and if, in the Lords, 

 such measures had been pertinaciously resisted, Lord Grey either 

 was, or ought to have been, on his second acceptance of office, armed 

 with the power to neutralize their opposition by an ample addition 

 to the peerage. The simple circumstance of knowing that Earl 

 Grey possessed such power, and that he had the energy of character 

 to exercise it, if need were, would have spread dismay among the 

 Tory noblemen, and taught them the prudence, if they are not to be 

 taught the justice, of yielding to the nation's wishes. The reason, 

 therefore, why the Ministry did not accomplish a greater amount of 

 good last session, was not because of the obstacles interposed by the 

 Tories, but because they themselves lacked the will. Even the little 

 that they did do was not spontaneous ; they were forced to it by the 

 resistless current of public opinion. 



As to the pretext, that the reason why Ministers evinced so great 

 an anxiety to concilitate the Tories, was to modify their hostility, and 

 thus be enabled to effect a greater amount of public good, we put 

 no faith in it. Our conviction is, that Earl Grey was so anxious to 

 be on a friendly footing with the Conservatives, either from a greater 

 sympathy with them than with the people, or from some other cause 

 with which we are unacquainted, that to accomplish that object he 

 would have compromised the past principles of his life to any extent 

 that would not, of necessity, have caused such a burst of public in- 

 dignation as would, at once, have annihilated both him and his Mi- 

 nistry. 



It would be gathered from the tenor of these remarks, even had 

 we not made an observation to the effect in the outset, that we have 

 no great confidence in ministers. When we say this, however, we 

 chiefly confine the observation to their dispositions. We are not 

 without hope that they may, however reluctantly, accomplish a 

 tolerable amount of good in the course of the approaching session. 

 If they are only possessed of anything approximating to average 

 shrewdness, they must see that the retention of place is altogether 

 out of the question unless they pursue a more liberal line of policy 

 than they have hitherto adopted ; and such is their love of office, that 

 they will rather do any thing than put their places in jeopardy. 

 There will be no possibility of giving the go-by to any of the great 

 questions which are now agitating the empire from one extremity to 



