RESULTS OF THE PARLIAMENTARY SESSION OF 1849.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 411, 19 January 1850, Page 183

RESULTS OF THE PARLIAMENTARY SESSION OF 1849.

[From the London Correspondent of the Scottman, Aug. I.] Everybody seems [to allow, in tbe first place, tbat Lord John Russell's Government is considerably stronger at tbe close of this, its third Parliamentary session, than at any previous period. " Coalition" rumours still indeed float about from time to time, and it is quite within the limjts of probability that before Parlament meets next, 'the country may have the benefit of the official services of more than one eminent member of the socalled " Opposition." But reports of this kind have a very different meaning under present circumstances from that which they are ordinarily understood to bear ; and should it so happen that the energetic and efficient support afforded to the general policy of the Government by a man like Sir James Graham comes in future from the Treasury benches, or that talents and dispositions like those of Mr. Cardwell are enlisted into the avowed services of a Liberal administration — the event would now be regarded as indicating the inclinations of the Cabinet rather than its necessities, and as showing likewise the increased hold which a Liberal policy has acquired over the class of public men whom the above-mentioned names represent. lam not aware that there | is at this moment any actual reason for anticipating this result, but I believe that the wishes of the Government on tbe subject continue unchanged, and I more than suspect that a junction with Lord John Russell's administration would now be highly acceptable to some, at least, l>y whom former overtures have been inconsiderately rejected. Among the causes of this improved position of the Government,one of the most prominent is the courageous and successful vigour which they displayed on the moat critical question of the session. One such triumph as that which Ministers achieved on the Navigation Bill gives a Cabinet a fund of reputation and prestige which — if not too

freely drawn upon and impiovidently dissipated — will last a long time. Certain it is, that since the carrying of that most valuable measure, the later progress of which was so conspicuously marked by tbe moral qualities in which the best friends of Ministers had found them deficient, they have risen materially in general estimation and influence ; and although some more recent passages of their history (such as the unaccountable concession to the Lords on the subject of the Irish Poor-law Amendment) are not calculated to sustain this impression, it would be absurd to speak of incidents of this kind as essentially impairing the results of a firstrate victory in the great Parliamentary struggle of the year. In the meanwhile they have been fortunate in their opponents. For every section of the Parliamentary Opposition this has been an unproperous session. The Country party have not only seen the free- trade "column" crowned with its appropriate " capital/ but they have on two occasions been signally routed in debate by the Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and, if half what I hear is true, they are extremely out of humour with the leader whom the necessities of their political and intellectual poverty have compelled them to accept. After having descended to the laughable bathos of begging for a " small fixed duty," because it could mean no offence to free-trade principles, they will find it very difficult to rally their forces for a decent fight in another Parliamentary campaign. The Peelites without Peel are, despite their great individual talent and political respectability, even less effective as a Parliamentary party than the Protectionists without Protection. Several of the most interesting divisions of the session have shown the leading members of this political section voting, pretty equally, on opposite sides ; and on one memorable occasion their chief had the mortification of finding himself unable to keep a " house." As a party they are completely hors de combat; and it may at least be doubted whether they will ever resume the very arduous and unpromising attempt to maintain a distinct Parliamentary organisation. By every law of political attraction, the elements of which their body consisted must almost inevitably be drawn towards one or other of the larger masses in their vicinity. The Financial and Parliamentary Reformers, again, have managed a good cause so badly, that, if it were a cause which could be ruined by the mistake of its advocates, "the session of 1849" might possibly be ihe title of the last chapter of their political annals. Their Parliamentary displays have been largely tinctured with exaggeration, ill-humour, timidity, and other faults of judgment and temper; and their out- door agitation has been a total failure, except in the estimation of their Chartist allies. But Mr. Cobden and his friends can afford to make mistakes, and can begin again, after a hundred failures, almost as if nothing had happened. Their own reputation, indeed, cannot altogether escape the penalty which, naturally attends on a series of false moves and other political directions ; but as it is their good fortune to be indentified with a cause which is essentially that of justice and sound policy— as all their ultimate objects are those towards which the spirit of the age is itself steadily advancing — they have immense facilities of self- recovery, and may always count on a liberal amnesty for 'any blunders and extravagancies tbat are compatible with thorough sincerity of purpose. I hear much about this party's plans of agitation for tbe ensuing recess. It is not difficult to prognosticate, in a rough way, the general character and results of these. Onr Reform friends will, in all human prabability, say and do many unwise things, and they will sometimes be culpably bitter against those who cannot go quite so far and fast as themselves. But they will attack real abuses, invoke many just and generous sympathies, and throw out many useful hints of which a prudent Government will not be slow to avail itself; and when we come to sum up the session of 1850, it may very possibly show a fair balance to be carried to tb« credit of their account.