by opposite repulsions; we cannot say, like the fabled stability of Mahommed's coffin, by attractions.

But this vacillating state of things could not be permanent; and it has long been evident that the Melbourne ministry must either be broken up, or that it must so modify its policy as to secure the cordial aid of one or other section of its adversaries. Had its members been united in opinion among themselves, the latter course might have been feasible; but their intestine differences of opinion respecting the most prominent questions of political agitation such as the Corn Laws, the Ballot, Popular Suffrage, the Church and Church-rates, Ireland, the Colonies, and what not-must have rendered such a measure impracticable without a dangerous secession from either the movement or the anti-movement portion of their body.

To bring matters ostensibly to a test, they affirmed, upon occasion of the House of Lords having adopted Lord Roden's motion for an inquiry into their policy respecting Ireland, that they were determined to exist no longer by sufferance;" so that if the House of Commons did not declare itself in their favour, they would resign office. So far, however, from receiving a declaration such as would deliver them from their painful state of "sufferance," had only twelve votes been taken from their scale and thrown into the opposite, the balance would have turned against them; and this, notwithstanding their own votes, and the votes of their retainers and dependents, and of the O'Connell band, and the cream of the Radicals. Such another victory would ruin them; they had a still worse on the Jamaica question, and accordingly relinquished their posts.

The Irish debate having left them where it found them, in precarious "sufferance," and their whole course of policy leading constantly to the same result, it became necessary for them either to bring on a decisive battle, when they could choose their own time and ground, or to wait till they were attacked in some perilous position, without the possibility of escape or rallying. Their leaders would seem, so far as the public can judge from the concurrence of circumstances, to have argued to the following effect:-With the House of Lords against us, with the Conservatives in and out of Parliament against us; with Chartists and Radicals against us; and with most even of our Dissenting and Romanist allies only partially for us; our sufferance tenure is very uncertain, not to say dishonour

able. We must therefore bring on a crisis, the result of which, issue as it may, cannot but be more favourable to us than our present condition. If we hold on till we are fully and unequivocally beaten off by common consent, or till our forces are melted away by increasing divisions, we cannot hope to regain our post; but if we seize a favourable moment for resigning, we have a whole chapter of accidents in our favour. Should Sir Robert Peel, as is probable, take office, and coalesce with Lord Stanley and Sir J. Graham, who quitted the movement party in disgust, and carry with him the general body of Church and State Conservatives, he will still have to grapple with so many perplexing questions, and such discordancies of opinion, that do what he may, he must meet with most formidable opposition. He will not merely be assailed by Whigs, Radicals, and Chartists; but in ecclesiastical questions he has repeatedly opposed the conscientious opinions of many of the most zealous friends of religion and the Church; and in political, of the extreme anti-reform party. With the present House of Commons, he is in a minority; so that it is very doubtful whether he could work with it; and if he dissolved it, he could not be sure that the issue would be so triumphant as to leave no doubt of his stability; for though the spirit of Conservatism has spread widely throughout the land, much of it has arisen from displeasure at the measures of the present cabinet; and Radicals and Chartists have voted for Tories to spite Whigs; but the strength of the movement parties in most of the boroughs is very considerable, and in some overwhelming; and the complexity of questions and parties is so great, that no statesman can now hope to secure a very decided house of representatives, as in former days, when some three-fourths of the members were accustomed to vote with the ministry. But most of all, might the leaders of the cabinet whisper, may we rely upon the impossibility of any administration but our own being able to conduct business without such extensive changes within the palace as would be distasteful to the Queen, whom we had the good fortune to get into our hands at the opening of her reign, and to surround so circumspectly with our friends and relatives, that she can only see through our eyes, and hear through

our ears.

Such might be among the motives of the Melbourne ministry for urging on the crisis; but it seems inconceivable that they should have done so without

some ulterior plan, in the very probable, and, we cannot doubt, projected, event of their return to office. To re-assume their posts merely to live as before, from hand to mouth, upon the sufferance plan- being prevented from falling only, like shuttlecocks, by the opposition of antagonist parties-would be so preposterous a proceeding, that we can scarcely believe they have adopted it merely for the sake of upholding their royal mistress in her refusal to accept Sir Robert Peel's proposition relative to the ladies of her household. Supposing, for the sake of argument, that parliament and the country were unanimously to vote that Sir Robert Peel's proposition was inadmis sible; though this might preclude the formation of any other Cabinet, even a Radical one, it would not add the slightest strength to the present minis ters in conducting the business of the country. They would stand but where they were before the question arose ; they would not have secured a single vote in favour of any of their measures. Unless they shall either swamp, or prac tically nullify, the House of Lords; and also gain far greater strength than they now enjoy in the House of Commons, they must still exist only by sufferance, destitute of power to work out any fixed plan of national policy. Assuredly they must have devised some scheme to meet this exigency; for they have confessed, by their late resignation, that matters cannot proceed upon the footing on which they stood before the Whitsun holidays.

We see but three devices to which they could have recourse. The first is to make overtures to some of the moderate Conservatives; the second, to offer terms to the extreme movement party; the third, to dissolve Parliament, and to appeal to the country, either on the basis of their present measures, or with such modifications of them as they shall deem politic, whether to soften Conservatives or Radicals.

It would be preposterous for us to attempt to anticipate which of these courses they will select; or whether, after all, they will still give the sufferance plan another trial, trusting to casualties to extricate them from their involvement. Before these remarks reach the eyes of our readers, Parliament will have re-assembled, and some light may have been thrown upon the subject. They may endeavour to struggle on for a time upon the endurance plan, by avoiding interference with measures upon which members of the extreme parties are likely to unite against them; as happened in the House

of Lords upon the question respecting Irish disturbances, when Lord Brougham voted with Lords Lyndhurst and Roden; and in the House of Commons, upon the Jamaica bill, when some of the ultra-Liberalists voted with the ultra-Tories. (We use popular terms for intelligibility; though we extremely dislike party appellations). But such a temporising course could not last long, or satisfy any party. Then with regard to attempting to conciliate the Conservatives, the present ministry could never, with the slightest honesty or decency, devise such a scheme; which would require, not only the abandonment of various cabinet measures, but the ejec tion from office of a large portion of their own members, some of whom have expressed upon various occasions extreme radical opinions; nor even if they were willing to submit to such tergiversation, would the Conservatives condescend to coalesce with them; while the opposite party would overwhelm them with a torrent of popular contempt. The scheme of making overtures to the extreme movement section is more plausible; and we are by no means sure that it is not being attempted. The meeting of Parliament will probably disclose whether, during the Whitsun holidays, negociations for this purpose have been in progress; and if so, with what result. A ministry which has secured the warm support of Mr. O'Connell and his followers, would not be degraded by holding out lures to the English Radicals; and, so far as these are represented in the House of Commons, there is a plausible basis of union in their common wish and interest to prevent the growing_strength of the Conservative body. The circumstance that Lord John Russell intends to bring on the Education Commission. question, immediately upon the meeting of Parliament, seems to indicate that he proposes to throw himself upon the good-will of the anti-Church section of the House; for no measure now in contemplation is so strongly and justly denounced and deprecated, not only by Conservatives, as a political party, but by every well-judging friend to religion, who has not been seduced by the falla. cious and godless liberalism of sceptical philosophy. The debates on this question and on the choice of a speaker, will probably show the position in which the Melbourne Cabinet at present stand in the House of Commons; but whether they try to continue the sufferance plan, which they themselves have denounced as unsatisfactory and disreputable; or whether they have devised a union scheme by a treaty of

peace with the more politic of their Radical opponents; or whether they are again forced to resign; or whether, when hard pressed, they shall determine to appeal to the nation, proposing their plans, and professing to be champions for the rights of the Queen; there is a duty incumbent upon all who believe that the best interests of the country are involved in the preservation of its invaluable Protestant Constitution in Church and State, to resist every measure which appears likely to subvert or weaken our great national institutions; especially our Ecclesiastical Establishment. Of such measures, the proposed education scheme is the most fearfully ominous. It is, however, we trust, too preposterous to be embraced by either House of Parliament; and the numerous and respectable petitions against it, show how little favour it receives from the well-judging portion of the nation. The most zealous advocates for an exclusively secular scheme of national education have acknowledged the impracticability of carrying into effect any plan which includes religious instruction, except in connexion with the National Church; but as they object to this restriction, they wish public education to be altogether secular. Yet these very persons approve of the Government plan; as do the Papists, the political Dissenters, and the general mass of Radicals and Infidels. And why, but upon the ground that it breaks down the principle of a National Church Establishment as does also the insidious provision in the prison bill for appointing chaplains of all hues of theology-and therefore aids their common cause. The Infidel, however, has the best cause to triumph; for to profess to introduce the Bible into the schools, and yet not to provide that the Socinian, or any other heretical, version of it shall not be used instead of the authorised; and to propose to collect together teachers of all sects and persuasions to explain it in their Babel varieties of interpretation; thus making the school a hot-bed of religious controversy; and this under the notion of preventing sectarianism; must assuredly prepare the ground for a rank crop of infidelity in succeeding generations.

We have not gone into the merits of the question upon which Lord Melbourne's cabinet resigned; or of that which prevented Sir Robert Peel's accepting office; because it was our wish to confine our remarks to the great principles of our national policy, rather than to discuss the detail of events. We will, however, add a paragraph on each of these subjects.

With regard to the Jamaica Bill, it is too palpable, from the whole history of the Slave-trade and Slavery contest, as well as the insulting and contumacious spirit evinced by the Jamaica mockery of a parliament the representatives of some 2,000 constituents out of a population of more than 300,000— that the planters having pocketed their large share of the twenty millions so lavishly and prematurely paid before the work was done, never intended to do it; and were, and are, determined to prevent, if possible, its being done by the intervention of England. Whether this rebellious and unprincipled conduct had proceeded so far that all hope of effecting the desired end through the hostile local legislature, had become utterly vain; so that no resource remained, but for the sake of justice to England, and to the great mass of the people of Jamaica, to suspend the functions granted to the representatives of the fraction, and which were abused to evil instead of being used for good, is a question which we must leave practical statesmen to decide, as our knowledge of the particulars of the case is far too scanty to allow of our expressing with confidence an opinion upon the subject. The point which we are anxious for is, that the Emancipation Act should be fully, fairly, and liberally carried into effect. If this can be achieved without the extreme measure proposed by the Melbourne cabinet, the plan proposed was unjustifiable; and considering the whole of the circumstances, we think that Parliament might reasonably judge, without making the matter a party question, that it was better to try at least another effort; and if Lord Melbourne's cabinet had not been determined to find an excuse for resigning, in order to embarrass their opponents, we cannot see why it should not have expressed a willingness to withdraw the Bill, and to re-open the negociation, leaving to Parliament the responsibility, and promising to apply again for the required powers, if the experiment once more failed.. It seems to us impossible that the Jamaica Bill should have been made a cabinet question, had not there been some device connected with ulterior objects.

The circumstances which occasioned the resignation of Sir Robert Peel, involve difficulties of we fear no temporary duration; but which may continue to embarrass her majesty and successive cabinets throughout her reign, as often as the state of public affairs leads to a change of ministry. Lord Melbourne's cabinet had filled the court with its own personal and political

friends, male and female. In so doing it acted very much after the manner of all preceding administrations; but it had peculiar facilities for effecting its object, having been in office at the commencement of a new reign; and this under a female sovereign, whose court required a different adjustment of domestic officers from that of a king; and moreover a sovereign of tender years, who could have no experience of society, and could only, for the most part, follow the advice of her royal predecessor's confidential servants whom she found in office. In the case of a king, however young, this would have led to no great embarrassment, as the turning out of the chief gentlemen of state is in the usual course of policy; but ladies are not constitutionally regarded as political officers, and the Queen's ladies are her companions, and she may naturally form attachments among them, and might feel pain in losing the presence of those she confided in, and seeing others whom she did not regard. At the same time, it is perfectly clear that no administration could carry on the public business, or at least feel any confidence in doing so, the near relatives and friends of whose political opponents and rivals surrounded the Queen in the daily intercourse of life; especially in the case of a sovereign so young and necessarily inexperienced as her majesty Victoria, whose natal day is being celebrated while we are writing, and we trust with innumerable prayers for her best welfare and happiness, both in this life and that which is to come. There seems to have been some misapprehension upon the part of her Majesty as to the extent to which Sir Robert Peel might exercise the power, had it been afforded, of displacing the ladies around her; but the extent is a minor question, as the matter turned upon the concession of the principle. The subject will probably undergo further discussion in Parliament; for some understanding must be come to in regard to all future proceedings.

We should be glad, if our limits allowed, to turn from the turmoil of political agitations, to the peaceful festivals exhibited at the recent anniversaries of the religious and charitable societies, which adorn and gladden our highly favoured land, and carry the provisions of spiritual life and health to distant nations. But if we begin, where must we end? We rejoice to learn that, for the most part, they are advancing hopefully in their benevolent and Christian course, and that God has been pleased to bless their labours. Yet compared in the aggregate with the capabilities of this mighty and opulent nation, they are our shame rather than our glory. What have we to boast of that we contribute a few hundred thousand pounds, to Bible, Missionary, Education, Church-building, and Pastoral-aid Societies, when, as the Bishop of London stated in his admirable address at the Temperance Society meeting, we pay in duties on ardent spirits more than eight millions of money, which would build and provide a minister for 1700 churches. We regret to find that the income of the Church Missionary Society has fallen off, though its expenditure has largely increased. This ought not so to be; and we trust the friends of the Church will not be slow in largely increasing the funds; but taking in the numerous church claims during the last year, we feel assured that its members have in the aggregate done far more instead of less than usual. The Bible Society is in a flourishing condition; we regret however to add that some of its old enemies are again endeavouring to impede its labours. We may have occasion to notice the subject; for the present we only say, with the Bishop of Calcutta in his recent Charge: "The praise of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in circulating the Holy Scriptures in the length and breadth of a lost world, is diffused throughout Christendom. It claims now, as it has claimed from its foundation four and thirty years since, my warmest support."