FRASER'S MAGAZINE. JANUARY 1866. POLICY AND PROSPECTS OF THE GOVERNMENT. THE first and most important tolerable ones from the House of of a Government under a new Prime Minister, is that of its durability; and the best-accredited political prophets have confidently announced that Lord Russell's Government will not survive Easter. This prediction must be based either on its internal weakness, on the strength of the opposing forces, or on the peculiarity of the situation,including the risk of striking on an easily discernible rock ahead. Let us calmly weigh, singly and together, these alleged causes or elements of caducity. Three years since, at a countryhouse near London, five Cabinet Ministers being present, there arose a discussion as to what would happen on the sudden death, or resignation from illness, of Lord Palmerston. It was agreed, nem. con., that Lord Russell would, as a matter of course, succeed to the premiership, and Mr. Gladstone to the lead of the House of Commons. The late Sir George Lewis, laying his own personal claims aside, was foremost and strongest in urging the superior qualifications of Mr. Gladstone; and on this occasion he made a remark which, as it has been more than once misunderstood and misquoted, we repeat 'Never mind about the prime minister; I could supply you with three or four very VOL. LXXIII.NO. CCCCXXXIII. speculating on fresh combinations, begin by naming your House of Commons leader.' It would be unfair, however, to represent Lord Russell as succeeding by seniority or descent. He would have been set aside without scruple (as he had been two or three times already) if he had merely relied on precedence in the Whig hierarchy, on historic name, or long services. His varied knowledge, his vast experience, his cultivation, his enlightened (if not quite unqualified) liberality of opinion, his familiarity with every department of public business, his very selfconfidence and pluck, marked him out, despite of advancing years, as the head of the new ministry,-more than half made up of gentlemen whom nothing but the instinct of self-preservation would induce to accept a Peelite in that capacity. Voice, manner, and delivery-all that Demosthenes meant by what is translated action apart, Lord Russell is quite as good a debater as Lord Derby: his general replies, in his prime, were rarely surpassed in argument and point; and he is still the most effective speaker that the Upper House can oppose to the political Rupert. Curious that these two statesmen, who won their spurs fighting side by side, should now be seen confronting each other in this B 2 |