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WHIG-RADICAL CORRUPTION,

"In closing this article (on the Influence of the Crown), it ought not to be omitted that when we say the influence of the Crown is increased, it by no means follows that the influence of the King is equally augmented; indeed, it may be directly the reverse. A Minister, especially if he has been long in office, may have so engaged and corrupted the great proprietors of boroughs; may have so distributed honours, and ribands, and offices; may have so obliged the principal Members of the House of Commons by providing for their principal friends and relations in the Customs, the Excise, or the Colonies; may have so fettered every public man of weight and influence by the ties of private interest, that at last they shall be enabled to say to their Sovereign, however pernicious our measures may be, and however unpopular our persons, you must maintain us in power, for we alone can command a majority in the House of Commons, though our conduct and our acts are offensive to the country, and disgusting to your Majesty.'"-LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S Essay on the English Government and Constitution, London: 1823. Page 427.

A HISTORY of the Whig party since the famous coalition between Mr Fox and Lord North, would be one of the most amusing productions in the whole catalogue of English political narratives. In days of yore when Mr Pitt, long before the commencement of the French war, endeavoured to increase the trade with France, how loudly did Mr Fox declare that country" the natural enemy" of England! When Mr Pitt went on in the execution of his plans of economical reform, how boldly did the Whigs attack him, and how mournfully they lamented the sad decay of Ministerial patronage, and the abolition of private jobbing in the public loans! When Mr Pitt was, in his early days, a reformer, Mr Fox, Lord Rockingham, Mr Burke, and many more, openly stood up not only against "the bill and the whole bill," but against even the slightest amendment of the representative system. More recently the Whig friends of liberty hailed joyfully the despotism of Napoleon, and ridiculed the absurd attempts of the Duke of Wellington to emancipate degraded Spain; and more lately still Lord John Russell, Lord Melbourne, Lord Palmerston, Lord Glenelg, and a majority of the rest of the present Cabinet, denounced nearly every single measure-whether of church spoliation or Irish "justice" -which they have subsequently been the instruments of carrying through Parliament. Honest Lord Althorp once candidly avowed, when pressed to repeal the house and window taxes, that he could not do so as a Minister, though for party purposes he had endeavoured to effect that object while in opposition. We need not, then,

marvel to find that the men who now rule this country are quite unscrupu lous as to consistency, and quite deprived of all power of recollecting their past opinions and proceedings. For instance, if Lord Althorp could thus factiously act, we cannot be surprised to find that the extravagant Whigs of 1806 became, a dozen years afterwards, when the loaves and fishes were in other hands, great sticklers for economy; nor can we wonder if again these rigid economists of twenty years back, have now become the authors of corruption, and the humble imitators of Walpole's extensive profligacy. But if at these things there be little cause to marvel, it must be owned that the Conservatives have some right to complain of them, when it is remembered that all the odium heaped upon the Duke of Wellington Government during the reform mania, was nothing but the effect of the artful hypocrisy of designing men pretending to a purity they never intended to practise. It is to be hoped that the people now know how complete the delusion was under which they then acted. It is high time that honest men should acknowledge that the Reform Bill was intended for nothing but securing the supremacy of the Whig oligarchy; and that all the clamour about Tory corruption was designed for nothing but to blind the people while the hungry tribe of Whig-Radicals fattened on the hardwon money of the poor. If, however, this acknowledgment be still withheld, we will undertake to extort it from every man who seeks only the ascertainment of the truth; we undertake to prove that, under the Whigs since

1830, patronage has been more increased and more scandalously abused, and that the public money has been more lavishly and suspiciously squandered, than at any period during the past fifty years. Of course we do not mean to commence a crusade, like the Radicals, on the prerogatives of the crown, or to picture in exaggerated colours the influence and corruptions of the Court. We leave these themes to others, confining ourselves to the point contained in our extract from Lord John Russell's book-namely, the aggrandisement of Ministerial power as distinguished from, or, perhaps, opposed to, the just authority and influence of the Sovereign. It will be no difficult matter to show that the Whigs have struggled for an im perium in imperio, and that they have recently, as oftimes they did a hundred years ago, endeavoured to close round the monarch on every side, so that neither the wishes of the people, nor the advice of the ablest statesmen, can find access or acceptance. Lord Chatham first struck down this great conspiracy, and trampled on the Newcastles and the other "great Whig families" then dominant in the country. His illus. trious son struck the second blow after the notorious India bill; and from that time till 1830 the Whig party languished in distress, and crippled by the lasting operation of merited popu lar distrust. But from 1830 till the present time no effort or no energy has been spared to consolidate the faction's strength; no exertion or display of ingenuity has been wanting; no scruples have stood in the way. In 1834 so much success had attended this system, that when the late king dismissed the first Melbourne Ministry, the Whigs resolved on revenge, and determined to force themselves back into his Council. This, also, will be no matter of surprise when we have accomplished the proof we have undertaken of the augmented corruption of the present Ministers.

In 1822 Lord Brougham brought forward in the House of Commons a resolution to the following effect :"That the influence now possessed by the Crown is unnecessary for maintaining its constitutional prerogatives, destructive of the independence of Parliament, and inconsistent with the well government of the realm." It was alleged, in support of this resolu

tion, that there were then 87 placemen in the House of Commons, but in order to make up that number there were included all King's Sergeants and King's Counsel, and others holding honorary offices on both sides of the House; so that, in fact, the real number of placemen directly or indirectly under the influence of the crown, or in receipt of pay, was reduced to 47. Now, without further preface, we will enumerate the persons in the House of Commons-the reformed House of Commons-who are similarly situated at present, mentioning only those in the actual receipt of salaries, and under the direct influence and command of the Administration:

Sir Charles Adam, Lord of the Admiralty.

Sir George Anson, Surveyor-General of the Ordnance.

Colonel Anson, Storekeeper of the Ordnance.

Nicholas Ball, Attorney-General of ire.and.

Francis F. Baring, Secretary to the Treasury.

G. C. Berkeley, Lord of the Admi. ralty.

Charles Buller, Member of Lord Durham's Canada Council.

G. S. Byng, Comptroller of the Household.

Sir John Campbell, Attorney-General.

W. F. Cowper, Secretary of Lord Melbourne.

William Curry, Prime Sergeant of Ireland.

Lord Dalmeny, Lord of the Admiralty.

T. S. Duncombe, attached to Lord Durham's Mission.

Edward Ellice, junr., Secretary to Lord Durham.

Cutlar Ferguson, Judge-Advocate General.

Robert Gordon, Secretary to Board of Control.

Sir George Grey, Under Secretary to the Colonial Department.

Sir John Hobhouse, President of Board of Control.

Edward Horsman, Scotch Church
Commissioner.

Lord Howick, Secretary at War.
H. Labouchere, Master of the Mint.
James Loch, Arbitrator for Govern.
ment under the Railway Bill.

Dr Lushington, Judge in Ecclesiasti

cal Courts.

Fox Maule, Under Secretary for

Home Department.
Lord Morpeth, Secretary for Ireland.
J. A. Murray, Lord Advocate.
R. Lynch, Master in Chancery.
M. O'Ferrall, Lord of the Treasury.
Lord A. Paget, Equerry to the Queen.
Lord Palmerston, Foreign Secretary.
John Parker, Lord of the Treasury.
Sir H. Parnell, Paymaster-General.
Captain Pechell, Equerry to the
Queen.

Spring Rice, Chancellor of the Ex
chequer.

Henry Rich, Equerry to the Queen.
Sir Robert Rolfe, Solicitor-General.
Lord John Russell, Secretary for
Home Department.

Lord Seymour, Lord of the Trea-
sury.

Richard Shiel, Commissioner of Green. wich Hospital.

been selected for honourable notice in
the different modes we have mention-
ed :-

R. M. Bellew, created a Baronet.
E. G. Bulwer, ditto.
J. R. Carnac, ditto.
S. Crompton, ditto.
J. Duke, knighted.

J. Dunlop, created a Baronet.
J. Edwards, ditto.

H. Fleetwood, ditto.

Lord Dundas, gazetted Lord-Lieute-
nant of the North Riding.

J. Guest, created a Baronet.
R. Ferguson, gazetted Lord-Lieute-
nant of Fifeshire.

B. Hall, created a Baronet.
R. Howard, ditto.
C. Jephson, ditto.
Roderick Macleod, created
Lieutenant of Cromarty.
R. B. Philips, created a Baronet.
D. Roche, ditto.

Hon. R. J. Smith, Lord of the Trea- J. Seale, ditto. sury.

Robert Vernon Smith, Secretary to the Board of Control.

Edward John Stanley, Secretary of

the Treasury.
Doctor Stock, Judge of Irish Admi-
ralty Court.

J. C. F. Strangways, Under Secre-
tary of Foreign Department.
Robert Steuart, Lord of the Trea.
sury.

Earl of Surrey, Treasurer of the
Household.

C. P. Thompson, President of the
Board of Trade.

Sir E. Troubridge, Lord of the Ad-
miralty.

Sir Richard H. Vivian, Master-General of the Ordnance.

Major Vivian, Aide-de-camp to Ditto. Charles Wood, Secretary to the Admiralty.

Here then are fifty, exclusive of minor commissioners, as Mr Wrightson, Mr Duckworth, Mr Maule, &c.; and of persons who have held offices, as Sir Edward Codrington, Sir Charles Grey, &c., though at present unemployed. But still these are by no means all who have felt the benefit of Government patronage in these days of purity and reform; and, therefore, we will proceed to name a few more who have solid reasons for voting black white to keep Whig-Radicals in office. The following members have

Matthew Wood, ditto.

Lord

E. De Lacy Evans, made a K. C.B.

Again, the following members have retired from Parliament and received their reward for past services. Some have kindly resigned their seats to make way for others-a Lord John Russell, or a Palmerston for instance

and have in return received a suitable acknowledgment of their magnanimous self-denial :

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Mr Stewart Mackenzie, appointed Go-
vernor of Ceylon.

Mr Hanbury Tracy, elevated to the
Peerage.

Mr Tracy Leigh, gazetted Lord-Lieu-
tenant of Monmouthshire.

Mr Carew, elevated to the Peerage.
Sergeant Wolfe, Chief Baron of Ex-
chequer in Ireland.

Sergeant O'Loughlin, Master of the
Rolls in Ireland.

Mr Western, elevated to the Peerage.
Sir J. Wrottesley, ditto.
Mr Hanbury Bateman, ditto.
Mr Methuen, ditto.
Mr Ponsonby, ditto.
Mr Coke, ditto.
Mr Littleton, ditto.
Mr Portman, ditto.
Mr Pepys, ditto.

Mr Deuman, ditto.

Sir A. L. Hay, appointed Governor
of Bermuda.

Mr R. Grant, appointed Governor of
Bombay.

Mr Kennedy, appointed Chief Commissioner at Cuba.

Mr O'Dwyer, Stipendiary Magistrate in Ireland.

Mr Fitzsimon, Clerk of the Irish Hanaper Office.

Lord Belfast, appointed Vice-Chamberlain to the Queen.

Dr Bowring, appointed Foreign Agent to the Foreign Office.

Mr H. L. Bulwer, Secretary of Legation at Constantinople. Mr Brady, Solicitor-General of Ireland.

Mr Crompton, Judge in Ireland. Mr Perrin, Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland.

Mr Blamire, appointed Tithe Commissioner for England.

Mr D. Browne, elevated to the Irish Peerage.

Mr Lefevre, appointed Poor Law Commissioner.

Colonel Fox, appointed Clerk of the
Ordnance.

Sir John Newport, appointed Con-
troller of the Exchequer.
Admiral Elliot, appointed Admiral on
African Station.

Of this tribe we could easily discover dozens more, but it is unnecessary; the specimens above will show that many a pure and patriotic member in the House of Commons, who has not hitherto deigned to take place or pay, may nevertheless have some pleasures of hope to console him for his rigid independence. Others who have nothing given to themselves, who probably also expect nothing, are sufficiently enchained to the Ministry by the employments or honours enjoyed by their relatives. At the risk of fatiguing our readers we subjoin a few of these gentlemen, with a designation of their, mode of indirect dependence on the Government.

Lord Acheson. His father created

an English Peer by the Whigs. Mr Baines. His son made Recorder of Hull.

Mr H. Berkeley, brother to a Lord of the Admiralty, and to a new Whig peer.

Mr C. Berkeley, ditto.

Lord Brabazon.-His father created a
Peer by the Whigs.
Lord Clements, ditto.
Mr Ponsonby, ditto.

Lord Duncan.-His father created an
Earl by the Whigs.
Lord Dundas, ditto.
Hon. Mr Dundas, ditto.
Lord Leveson, ditto.
Hon. Mr Moreton, ditto.
Lord Worsley, ditto.

Lord Ebrington.-His nephew (Lord
King) made an Earl by the Whigs.
Mr Lambton.-His brother made an
Earl by the Whigs.

Mr Mildmay. His brother-in-law
made a Peer by the Whigs.
Mr G. Byng. His brother created a
Peer by the Whigs.

Mr Brodie. His brother created a
Baronet by the Whigs.

Mr Craig. His father ditto.
Sir W. Clayton.-His brother ditto.
Mr O'Callaghan. His father created
a Peer by the Whigs.
Mr J. Westenra, ditto.
Colonel Westenra, ditto
Lord A. Conyngham, brother to the
Lord Chamberlain.

Mr Denison, uncle to ditto.
Mr J. E. Elliot, brother to the First
Lord of the Admiralty.
Lord Melgund, son to ditto.

Mr E. Ellice, father to Lord Durham's
Secretary.

Mr Evans, brother-in-law of Sir H. Parnell.

Sir R. Ferguson, brother to the new Lord-Lieutenant of Fife.

Lord Fitzalan, son to the Treasurer of the Household.

Mr Fitzsimon, brother to the Clerk of the Hanaper Office.

Mr O'Connell, brother to the new Go

vernor of New South Wales, &c. &c. Mr M. O'Connell, son of the former Mr O'Connell.

Mr J. O'Connell, ditto.

Mr M. J. O'Connell, nephew of the member for Dublin.

Mr Maurice O'Connell, son of ditto. Lord B. Grosvenor.-His father made a Marquis by the Whigs. Mr Cavendish. His grandfather made an Earl by the Whigs. Mr Hobhouse, brother of the President of Board of Control.

Mr Hurt, brother of the new Governor of South Australia.

Sir C. Lemon, brother-in-law of Lord Lansdowne.

Mr J. Ponsonby, son of the Lord Privy Seal.

Mr Lefevre, brother of the Poor-Law Commissioner.

Mr G. R. Philips, his father, made a baronet by the Whigs.

Mr J. Power, stepson of Mr Shiell of Greenwich.

Lord Russell, nephew of Lord J. Russell.

Lord C. Russell, brother of ditto. Lord Shelburne, son of Lord Lans downe.

Sir Wm. Somerville, brother-in-law of the Lord Chamberlain. Mr W. O. Stanley, brother of the Secretary to the Treasury. Mr Villiers, brother of the Ambassador at Madrid.

Mr J. H. Vivian, brother of the Master General of the Ordnance.

Besides these individuals, a more diligent search would discover fully fifty more whose relatives have potent motives for supporting Whig- Radical Government. Many members have sons in the navy, and a glance at the navy list will show how these gentlemen prosper; others have connexions in the army, and even there they are not quite unheeded.* Some have brothers or cousins in the Church, and if so, stray deaneries or bishopricks may fall to their lot as they did to Doctor Denison Bishop of Salisbury, Doctor Stanley of Norwich, and Dr Howard, dean of Litchfield, who were well represented in Parliament; like Dr Longley, Bishop of Ripon, brotherin law of Sir Henry Parnell; Dr Allen, Bishop of Ely, tutor of Lord Althorp; and Dr Otter, Bishop of Chichester, the father-in-law of a Liberal member for Derby. Other members may happen to have friends in the colonies, or relations who have no peculiar dislike to visiting remote settlements. If so, dozens of places are constantly to be had in every quarter of the globe. There is something good ready for every one who

wants; just as in the child's game of

66

open your mouth, and shut your eyes, and see what God will send you." But certainly the shutting the eyes is the main point in the Whig proceeding.

We

With such lists before them as we have here produced, how does it happen that no jealous Whig opponent of the influence of the Crown now makes a motion like Lord Brougham's? There is more provocation than ever, more corruption, and there are more placemen in Parliament. But, in truth, the influence of the crown is not increased; nothing is augmented but the public expenditure, and the influence of the Whig-Radical faction. find among the votes of the current year, charges which clearly denote the creation of a very large number of new places throughout the country. In Ireland, there is a charge of L.66,700 for the expenses of criminal prosecutions, the chief part of which goes in the payment of salaries, and not a small number of those entirely new ones. In England, there is an item of L.54,000 a-year for Poor-Law Commissioners, all which is spent in the payment of newly created officers. Further on, we find L.14,700 a-year for Slave Commissioners who enjoy almost absolute sinecures; L.9055 ayear for the new Superintendents of Factories; L.6000 for new Inspectors of Prisons; L.5000 a-year for the Steam Navigation from Egypt to India; L.5100 for the Criminal Law Commissioners; L.4213 for the Record Commissioners; L.4000 for the Scotch Church Commission; L.2500 for the Ecclesiastical Commission; L.4010 for the Hand-loom Weavers' Commission; L.700 for the Irish Charity Commission; L.7000 for the Irish Boundary Survey; and L. 12,700 for the Irish Railway Commission.

The Whigs are accustomed to pretend, that as Lord Hill is now at the head of the army, they are deprived of the patronage connected with it. But on looking at the army list, we find the following Whig members of the two Houses of Parliament in the nominal and sinecure command of regiments, besides the enjoyment of pay, pensions, and red ribands; Sir Hussey Vivian, M. P., the Marquis of Anglesea, Lord William Bentinck, M. P., Earl of Ludlow, Lord Lynedoch, Earl of Effingham, Lord Stafford, Lord Howden, Sir William Anson, M. P., and Sir R. Ferguson, M. P.; and in the list of the other generals commanding regiments, there are the approved Whig names of the Hon. Sir William Lumley, Hon. Sir H. Grey, Sir E. Blackeney, Sir Rufane Donkin, Hon. Sir E. Paget, Hon. Sir A. Duff, Hon. Sir R. W. O'Callaghan, Sir F. Adam, Sir F. Wetherall, and Sir Richard Bourke. In this respect, therefore, the Whigs, to say the least, have no cause of complaint, particularly when it is remembered how marvellously others among their friends advance in lower ranks of the army.

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