A POLITICAL RENOVATION.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, 10 November 1855, Page 3

A POLITICAL RENOVATION.

[From the Daily News. July 19.]

When the history of our times is written by some yet unborn student, who will contemplate the issues of our present situation together with the situation itself, the Haost prominent point of his narrative will assuredly be the beginning of 1842, when it was given to the people of England for the last time, under a system of party rule, to enjoy the luxury of confidence in the strength of the Government. The strength, external and internal, of Sir R. Peel's administration at the beginning of 1842, seemed a sort of return to the old times, when it might be taken for granted that the Government would, and could, do its work, as other people do theirs. For a dozen years the country had suffered under that irritating modern misery — the inability of an administration to get its work done. Then, when Peel showed by his way of setting about his work that he was competent to it, the country drew a long breath, and seemed relieved from a nightmare. The nation was full of woe and difficulty. Agriculture and manufactures were in a most depressed state ; and the annual deficit had become an evil so great as to require an income tax and a revision and relaxation of the customs duties to restore our finances to a state of security. In the satisfaction of the country at large at the accession of a strong Government, the liberalised Conservative party became so mighty that it seemed as if its leader, the Prime Minister, might do anything he chose within constitutional bounds. On this, the last bright aspect of the British mode of governing by permanent party organization, the future historian will dwell, in order to develop its significance ; — a significance perceived by very few at the moment. Under this apparent and actual strength the disintegration of parties was already preparing, and even proceeding. The great Whig party, as it had existed for a hundred and fifty years, was extinct. There was no general and organised reform party to take its place ; but only a special organization which could not be called a party in any high sense of the word, as its object was simply to obtain the repeal of a pernicious law. When the controversy between the Free Traders and the Protectionists should he solved, there would remain no materials for party opposition, nor, therefore, any platform for party government. For a little while the Conservative converts to free trade formed a party for the nonce, like the free-traders ; but it was only the softening of the transition from the old method of government to that new and yet obscure principle which it has now become our business to ascertain and to inaugurate. The free-trade party remained a mere name from the time of the repeal of the corn laws till the final surrender of the doctrine of protection by Lord Derby's Government ; and the Peelites, who were so important an off-set as to be called a party for a short time, have had finally to surrender their name and existence. During the interval between the final break-up of parties and the present time — just nine years — we cannot be said to have been in any proper sense governed at all. The men who have been left in power have owed their seats to the absence of organized opposition, and to the unwillingness of every body to displace an administration before any principle or party was ready to be proposed in its stead. Such a Government, however confident or strong it may appear, is about' as dreadful a curse as a constitutional country can be visited with ; it matters little whether the name posted above the door of the Cabinet be Russell, or Derby, or Palmerston, or any other. The curse of a desultory government is much the same under any of them. The political life of the nation languishes under it ; the vital strength oozes away ; its notions of the functions of government become confused ; and its idea of statesmanship and of national* welfare and honour becomes debased or cruelly mortified. There have been a few persons, within the last ten years, who have thus interpreted the condition of their country from year to year ; and Peel himself certainly anticipated it under the anguish of accepting the mission which he could not refuse — that of immediately causing the disintegration of parties. Yet the rude shock of war was needed to make the case clear to the people at large ; and by the rude shock of war the thing is effectually dgne. Though war was anticipated for many months, it found us in utter confusion. Our legislators, and their instigators amongst the people, were floundering about in a slough of false legislation, unable to make the most necessary laws under the most general confession of their urgent need ; and passing, with ease, in consequence of Parliamentary indifference, laws which are wholly incompatible with the personal liberties and social wellbeing which our fathers won for us, and which with the slightest effort we might keep untouched. What our methods of administration are found to be worth, in every department of the State, there is no need to describe; nor yet, how the consistency and honour of our so-called statesmen have bourne the first and most common-place tests. The discovery of these results of a period of desultory Government has so shocked and discouraged a multitude of political men, that they cry out against the war which has been the immediate cause of the exposure. But the great body of the British people take a wiser and a nobler view. Those who were, and those who were not aware that there was this rottenness to be exposed some day, are glad, not only that the exposure is made so soon, but that it is made by the pressure of a high and solemn duty which has the welfare of all Europe for its object. The goodness of the principle of the war is the force which will carry us through our difficulties at home. The principle of our people is sound and their mood is lofty. Nothing can be finer than the temper with which they have resolved to make sacrifices for the benefit of future generations — to pay any price for the rescue of their children's children from .Russirn encroachment; and this temper is the very best we could desire for the solution of our constitutional difficulties. Therefore are we, and we believe the people generally, glad to know the worst, at the present moment, while purblind legislators and officials hint at getting out of the scrape by peace at any price. There is no need to show that peace would not restore matters to their former state. The people

know too much, and feel too keenly, the consequences of desultory Government, ever to permit it to exist again, or to give power into the hands of any men who would propose to administer it as heretofore. Our destiny is clear, so far as this — that we must work out a total renovation in our entire governmental system ; and no kind of peace, made this very day, could in the smallest degree affect the certainty of the process.

The process is a most serious one — requiring, no doubt, a long course of years, the training of a whole generation at least, and plenty of toil and sacrifice all round, before it can be accomplished; but the thing has to be done whether we are at war or at peace ; and the only practical question is how the war may be most steadily carried on while we are settling our principles and methods of national government. We must renovate our House of Commons, and procure one which shall understand its own function, and ascertain its own principle of diversity of organization — what, in fact, is to succeed the old method of party division. We must have a new class of administrators, and a thorough reform in our method of administration. The work is as serious a one as ever occupied the mind and hands of the people of England; but the people are as sound in heart as ever they were, while more enlightened in mind, and more capable of action at once moderate and effective. The work will be done ; and the history of England will have one more revolution to exhibit — not only bloodless, but gradual — that is, with all the benefits of a renovation without the fearful accompaniments of convulsion. The problem is, how to carry on this work and a great war at the same time. It cannot be impossible, as both are urgent duties, and therefore certainly compatible. We must see to it, instantly, and vigilantly, that the best men are put into the highest military and naval posts ; and that they are supported by popular vigilance at liome, superintending the discharge of all functions which concern the war. Let this be done, and the political transition may proceed at its own rate ; and then we shall hear no more of our grown men — legislators, ministers, or others — finding fault with the war which has brought hard raps upon them, as children beat the floor which has hurt them, because, in their weakness, they have tottered and fallen.