THE EFFECT OF THE CRISIS. [From the "Times," March 8.]

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 551, 26 July 1851, Page 4

THE EFFECT OF THE CRISIS. [From the "Times," March B.]

We have recently passed through a ministerial crisis, as everybody knows, of extraordinary length and severity. We have been assured by every actor in that most complicated and inconclusive drama, that the obstacle to the formation of a strong, compact, and efficient government was to be found, not in the clamour for protection to agriculture, nor in the signal miscarriage of the ministerial budget, nor yet in the ill-timed opposition to parliamentary reform^ but wholly, solely, and entirely in the irreconcilable difference of opinion on the question of papal aggression. This was a matter of principle on both sides, which no anxiety for the public service —no expediency, however manifest —no calls of patriotism, however urgent, could induce them to compromise. Armed to the teeth in stubborn and unbending consistency, and fortified with his letter to Mr. Howard, Sir James Graham was not to be moved; while, firm in coiiscioub rectitude, and determined to perform his duty faithfully to an insulted crown and an outraged nation. Lord John Russell relied on his letter to the Bishop of Durham, and was equally inexorable. 'It was a spectacle enough to convince the veriest sceptic of political morality and public principle to sec our Premier consent again to undertake the government of the country with the very identical cabinet which he had himself dissolved as incompetent, only ten days before' —ready to endure any given number of minorities, and to run the gaunlet through any species of parliamentary misadventure, rather than, betray those hopes which he had induced the Protestant people of England to repose in him as their champion. Well, the sacrifice has been made, the Ministry has been reconstructed in the full strength of its original weakness, and Parliament and the country naturally look with anxiety to the performance of those pledges for the sake of which so much inestimable time and invaluable support have been so freely and cheerfully sacrificed. How those pledged —for the sake of which the affairs of this great empire are now intrusted to a Government which cannot calculate on a majority in either House of Parliament, and which has only retained office for the purpose of carrying out the wishes of the people with regard to the lloman Catholic question —have been redeemed, our readers will learn from the speeches delivered by Sir George Grey and Lord John Russell in the House of Commons. It is actually determined to strike out of the bill which gave so poor and inadequate an expression to the public feeling, the second clause, which renders invalid all deeds executed under the prohibited style and title, and the third clause, by which all property left or conveyed to persons bearing these illegal titles is forfeited to the crown. The bill will, therefore, be reduced to its first clause, imposing a penalty of one hundred pounds for the assumption of an ecclesiastical title taken from any place in the United Kingdom, to be sued for by the Attorney-General. The effect of the measure is, therefore, this: —lt is unlawful for Dr. Wiseman to call himself Archbishop of Westminister, and for Dr. M'Hale to call himself Archbishop of Tuam, and the government may, if it please —that is to say, if it is disposed to create a violent disturbance and most pernicious agitation among the Irish Roman Catholics —prosecute the only party who systematically so offends. But it is quite lawful for these persons to convey or receive property under these illegal titles, and all donations or bequests made to or for the purpose of supporting or endowing their dignities, which Parliament declares to be Slegal and void, will be perfectly valid, to all intents and purposes. Lord John Kussell told us in his famous letter that the assumption of authority by the Pope and the Cardinal was inconsistent with our national independence. He proceeds to legislate against that assumption of authority, and he openly and avowedly sanctions its exercise, by withdrawing all prohibition from its endowment, and placing the power of repressing it, not in the hands of the people at large, but of the government of the day.