THERE are conditions of the atmosphere in tropical climates which, without exactly indicating that a tornado or an earthquake is coming, trouble, and to a certain extent alarm, both man and beast. When, the temperature being unusually close and sultry, and the sky without a cloud, there is heard, from time to time, the sound as of thunder in the distance, people look about them, and say that things are not quite as comfortable as could be wished. There may be no storm impending after all-not even a waterspout brewing; and in an hour the land or sea breeze may spring up, giving health and elasticity of spirit to all who breathe it. But so long as the air we inhale seems to come from a furnace, and the pores of the skin shrivel and refuse to do their duty, the stoutest-hearted among us would rather not stand where he does, and is anxious that the crisis, whatever it may be, should come off with as little delay as possible. semblance to the atmospheric phenomena of which we are speaking. Ever since the death of Lord Palmerston, it has been felt that we were probably entering upon a new phase in the relations of parties towards one another. But forasmuch as nobody could make up his mind as to the course which events were likely to take, the attitude of all was one rather of expectancy than of vigilance. On both sides, likewise, among Liberals not less than among Conservatives, there was the utmost uncertainty in regard to the probable temper of the new Parliament. The one asserted that they had achieved in the House of Commons a majority more decided than had ever supported a Liberal Government since 1833. The other af firmed that this was by no means clear; because a third part, at least, of the professed friends of Government were returned for the single purpose of supporting Lord Palmerston. Hence little was heard It appears to us that the political on either side, except an utterance condition of England bore, till of of the vaguest conjecture, mixed late, and still bears, though in a up with a good deal from the modified degree, considerable re- Ministerial press which sounded VOL. XCIX.-NO. DCIV. K very like alarm. Within the last six weeks or two months, however, things have a good deal changed. On the part of Government, indications are given that their policy, so far as it concerns domestic affairs, is not to be what it was. And with a view, no doubt, to confirm what are assumed to be the Ministerial resolutions, great efforts are made to get up agitation in the provinces. Of the agitation in the provinces hitherto, we confess that we think very little. It has been limited in its area, far from hearty in its tone, stirred and kept going, for the most part, by a knot of well-known demagogues; and, so far as the ends sought for are concerned, by no means in unity with itself. The movements within the Ministerial circle itself are undeniably more significative. The changes effected in the personnel of the Government, though few, are remarkable. They show pretty plainly how the wind is setting; and would have sufficed, had they stood alone, to put us on our mettle. But they do not stand alone. There has come upon the back of them this Jamaica difficulty, which, had it occurred in Lord Palmerston's day, would have been no difficulty at all; but which, hampered as Lord Russell is by old ties with the Dissenters, cannot fail to prove to him embarrassing in the extreme. Indeed, the step which he has already taken in the matter is so false, and so mischievous, that if his Administration survive it we shall be very much surprised. For many more than the Conservatives in both Houses of Parliament are indignant with his manner of conducting an inquiry, about the propriety, and indeed the necessity, of which there is no difference of opinion anywhere. And if he now see reason to suspect that this indignation will probably carry highminded Liberals, when the day of voting comes, into the Opposition gallery, then we may depend upon it that he will forestall the danger by proposing measures, as soon as the Houses meet, which will give the people of England something to think about, even more likely to excite them than negro executions, or the hunting to dishonour, if not to death, of a colonial governor. Under these circumstances it may be worth while to consider not only the nature of recent ministerial changes in their relation to coming events, but the course which, assuming our conclusions to be sound, it behoves all public men to adopt, who prefer the claims of country to those of party, whatever their party may be. We must begin by looking back a little and setting ourselves right in regard to the opinions which we entertained, and certainly never affected to disguise, concerning the late Prime Minister. When Lord Palmerston died we did not pretend to load his memory with panegyrics which we never heaped on him, while living. But we were as fully awake to his merits-and they were many-as the most fulsome of his flatterers, though we could not, at the same time, shut our eyes to his defects. Born and bred in the Tory camp, going over to the Whigs only when the Tories destroyed themselves, he carried to his new allies so much of the lore acquired in youth as kept him from going with them further than a certain point in that downward course which he never followed except reluctantly. He understood as well as any man of his day the principles of the Constitution, and was prepared to sacrifice in defence of them everything except his own political power and influence. The consequence of this determination on his part was that the machine worked, on the whole, well in domestic matters so long as the direction of it lay with him. For if he made some bad bishops, he did nothing to separate the Church from the State, and reform of Parliament was in his hands a mere plaything ཚ། with which to amuse the mob. His views on questions of foreign policy were, on the other hand, manly, and bravely avowed. He desired to have the name of England everywhere respected abroad, and for the most part he succeeded. And he would have succeeded to the full, had he better understood the temper of the country on more than one important occasion. But more than once there came in between him and real greatness that love of power, that fear of breaking up a rickety Administration, which more or less kept him in leading-strings throughout the whole period of his Premiership. There were those among his colleagues who told him that, if he pursued his own wise policy, he must do so without them; and rather than see them go into opposition he yielded convictions which were as settled as they were statesmanlike. A man so wedded to office, so little self-reliant when great occasions arose, could not command our respect, as he appears to have commanded that of many for whose opinion we entertain the greatest deference. Yet we feel equally with them that Lord Palmerston's death, occurring when it did, was a great misfortune to the country. In his grave lies buried, to all appearance, whatever elements of Conservatism existed to any practical purpose within the Government of which he was at the head. And now the only chance for the country turns upon the issue of the coming struggle, which is to determine whether it shall again place itself under the control of a really conservative Government, or drift away gradually and helplessly into pure demo cracy. Looking next to the constitution of the Cabinet over which Lord Palmerston presided, and to the foremost place in which Lord Russell has succeeded, we find that there is no lack of Conservatism in its individual members. Unfortunately, however, the Conservative leaven is most ample in the noblemen and gentlemen whose opinions carry with them the least weight, and who are, therefore, the least disposed to assert their own opinions. These know, that whatever prestige belongs to them, belongs to them in virtue of their office; and that if they resigned to-morrow, no human being, in or out of Parliament, would either grieve or rejoice. Still, so long as Lord Palmerston lived, they formed the backbone of his Administration. On all questions about which he was resolute, they voted with him; and their votes enabled him, generally speaking, to dictate its policy to the Cabinet. For it happens in Cabinets, as in vestries and in private families, that though there may be members of each who think apart, on most subjects, from their acknowledged leader, there are comparatively few who feel disposed to make every battle of opinion a battle ad extrema. It is only when some point involving great and immediate consequences comes under discussion— such as a question of war or peace, or a financial operation calculated to tell upon the credit of the country that the most spirited and determined member of an Administration refuses, point blank, to follow his leader. Of this nature were the proposed acknowledgment of Southern independence, the armed support of Denmark, and the repeal or continuance of the paper-duties. On all of these, the opposition in the Cabinet prevailed over the Prime Minister, because he chose rather to yield against his judgment than to force certain of his colleagues to a resignation. On the other hand, the question of Parliamentary Reform, though admitted by every section in the Cabinet to be an important one, was, during the six years of Lord Palmerston's tenure of office, quietly passed by. Nobody cared to press it in opposition to the wellknown wishes of his chief; for if he had pressed it to a division, the division would have gone against him. We are not prepared to say that Mr Milner Gibson, and Mr Villiers, and latterly, perhaps, Mr Gladstone likewise, were entirely satisfied with this state of things. We believe the contrary to have been the case; but they were content to wait till time should remove out of their way an obstacle which, had they ventured in such a quarrel forcibly to override it, might have proved too strong for them. Time has, in this respect, done its work, and Lord Palmerston, having survived just long enough to throw the weight of his name into the scale at the general election, goes to his rest. His Cabinet survives him-the old body in all its parts, with a new head. But it is one thing to have a Cabinet consisting mainly of nobodies, presided over by an experienced statesman, who hated change for the sake of change, and who, having achieved the great purpose of a long life, desired to enjoy in peace what he had bravely won: it is quite another to have at the head of the same Administration a nobleman battered and riven by a lifelong war of party-strife; who has risen and fallen, over and over again, and rests his fame entirely upon the fact that, six-and-thirty years ago, he helped to concoct and to pass into law a great measure of Parliamentary Reform. Such a statesman cannot well be other than a man of one idea-a Parliamentary Reformer and nothing else who finds it impossible to let well alone without losing the only hold which he ever had upon public confidence. Now, Lord Russell is exactly a statesman of this calibre. If he be not engaged in making changes, he is nothing. Over and over again he has already done his part to improve upon the measure which, on its first introduction, he eulogised as anticipating, by its magni tude and fulness, all possible requirements in time coming. And so entirely in earnest has he shown himself in the work, that when last thwarted-thwarted where he counted on support-he burst into tears, not metaphorical but real tears, and wept like a child. No doubt Earl Russell is older, and we hope wiser than he was, when he made that pitiable exhibition of himself; and having for the third time reached the great object of his ambition, it would be natural to suppose that, at the mature age of seventy-four, he might be better pleased to govern the country as it is, than plunge into the turmoil of fresh party contests. But however natural this supposition, it is not in unison with the idiosyncrasies of the man. Lord Russell must be always doing something, and something new; he cannot stand still on ground gained, nor allow the country to stand still for a moment. His unfortunate reference to the resting-place in Glencroe put all his popularity in jeopardy, and he hastened to republish an old bad book, and to prefix to it a dissertation as full of fallacies as it is indifferently written, in order to explain that he did not mean what he said that he is just as impatient of repose as he ever was, and that he would take the earliest opportunity of again throwing the country into the agonies of a constitutional struggle,-that is to say, if he should be able to do so. The reception given to his brochure by the real intellect of the country was disappointing enough. Reasonable people, Whigs as well as Tories, thought that he would have done well to let the dead lie in their graves. The more violent of the newspapers, especially of the Radical newspapers, took it up, however; and as what is written in newspapers makes a greater apparent stir than the dispassionate opinions of sensible people, Lord Russell is doubtless persuaded that the old game of change is still open to him. Hence, we presume, his anxiety to make known, through that promising scion of the house of Bedford, Lord Amberley, that he is quite in earnest in eating his own words. "Rest and be thankful" does not mean rest and be thankful; it means bide your time, keep your own counsel, do nothing rashly; but be ready, as soon as the opportunity presents itself of kicking up a row, to seize that opportunity. The opportunity comes or is occasioned by the death of Lord Palmerston, not while the Houses are sitting, but before they meet for the first time. If it had been left to Lord Russell to determine his own chance, he could have desired nothing so much in his own favour as this; for it is astonishing how much more easy it is to reconstruct a government and remodel a policy at any time during the recess than when Parliament is actually sitting. And if the occasion arise to effect these objects immediately after such a general election as that which the country last went through, the minister who fails to adjust matters so as to suit his own purposes must be wanting both in tact and foresight. Whether Lord Russell has exhibited these qualities in the manipulation of the personnel of his Administration, will best appear when he develops his general policy, and invites the great council of the nation to affirm it. There can be little doubt, looking to the antecedents of his new colleagues, as to the bias of the policy to be developed. There were introduced into the Administration after Lord Palmerston's death first one new Cabinet Minister (the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs), and two Ministers of a second order (a new Under Secretary of State for the Colonial Department, and a new Vice-President of the Board of Trade). There were removed from the Administration at the same time two members, not being Cabinet Ministersthe Chief Secretary for Ireland and the Vice-President of the Board of Trade. Lord Clarendon succeeded to the Foreign Office, vice Lord Russell, who becomes First Lord of the Treasury; Mr Goschen, one of the members for the city of London, went for a few days to the Board of Trade, vice Mr Hutt dismissed; Mr Chichester Fortescue became Chief Secretary for Ireland, in the room of Sir Robert Peel sent about his business; and Mr Forster, the member for Bradford, took Mr Fortescue's place at the Colonial Office. For some weeks there was no Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The place seemed to be kept open as a sort of lure, being offered, in the first instance, to Lord Stanley-an extraordinary admission of weakness on the part of the Minister, who could not find among the members of his own party any one strong enough to bear the burden. Lord Stanley refusing, as it was to be expected that he would do, Mr Bright is understood to have been next sounded. But Mr Bright's demands proved too exorbitant, and his furious speech at Bradford still sent its echoes through the land, to the horror and dismay of the whole Whig faction. The idea of coalescing with Mr Bright was in consequence abandoned; and rumours got into circulation of communications opened with Mr Lowe, Mr Horsman, and even with Lord Elcho. Whether these rested on any foundation of fact we do not undertake to say. They died out, however, as had done the gossip, veritable as it was, about Lord Stanley and Mr Bright. And now, at last, after many days of anxiety and speculation, Mr Goschen is suddenly advanced, from the subordinate office which was thought good enough for him as a starting-point, to the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, with a seat in the Cabinet. If this arrangement please the supporters of the Government, we, who neither support nor trust the Government, cannot have a word to say against |