THE late Debate on the Vote of Want of Confidence in Ministers, is not to be regarded merely as a party struggle between one class of statesmen and another. It is in truth an exposition of the action and effects of the antagonist principles which for fifteen years have distracted the state, and by the ascendency of one of which to supreme power during the last ten, all the elements of strength in the British empire have been wellnigh dissolved. These solemn and portentous events give a nobler character to the debates of party than they have ever yet assumed in this country; they be come the exposition not of the strife of men, but of the contest of principles; and to them future ages will turn for contemporary evidence of the effects of those democratic principles, which in all ages have been loudly contended for by a large portion of mankind, and will probably never cease to agitate the world, so long as their pristine nature shall descend to the children of Adam.

This debate forms a fit opening for a new decade in the history of the nation. The lapse of such a period-a long space in the lifetime of an individual, no inconsiderable one in the annals of a nation-naturally recalls us to deliberate thought; it leads us to compare the past with the present state of our country, and to enquire what we have gained what we have lost during the ten years that liberal principles have ruled the Cabinet; and to examine how many of the expectations of the advocates of change have been realized by time, and how many of the predictions of its opponents have been now placed beyond the reach of doubt by the results of experience. Such an examination will both best demonstrate the tendency of the course which the nation has adopted, and throw an important light upon the merits of the memorable debate which has just been concluded in Parliament.

It was uniformly held forth by the movement party, at the commencement of the Reform agitation, that the grand object which they had in view, essential to the country, was to restore

the confidence of the people in Parliament, and to revive that cordial spirit of obedience to the laws, which can only be obtained in a free country by their being enacted by a legislature whose sentiments are in unison with those of the great body of the people. The old Parliament, it was acknowledged, possessed the confidence of the aristocracy and the holders of large property, whose representatives were the members for the close and nomination boroughs. But then it was said these representatives had entirely forfeited the regard of the middle classes of the community, who found themselves possessed of great real importance, but no deliberative voice in the legislature. This state of things, it was strongly urged, could not lastif it continued, it would render the constitution the mere mockery of a representative government; and therefore the great object was to put the sentiments of the legislature in harmony with those of the great mass of the people. No danger, it was said, need be anticipated from such a change; the people will be perfectly satisfied by the great addition to their power which they will receive; and even if it should prove otherwise, the middle classes, now become the real rulers of the state, will unanimously rally round a government which represents their feelings and attends to their wishes; and the waves of extreme democracy will beat in vain against the ramparts of a constitution founded in the wishes, and supported by the interests, of the whole middle and higher classes of the community.

Such were the predictions on which the advocates for change based the new constitution, and succeeded in establishing their power. How have these anticipations been realized? Is there any one interest in the community which possesses confidence in Government, as they are at present constituted, and as they have been moulded by the principles of innovation? Does the existing Government possess the confidence even of the Parliament elected in Great Britain according to the franchise which they themselves bestowed, and the boundaries of constituencies which they had curiously framed, so as to render their power immortal? Does the Government really possess the confidence of any one class in the community? Have they the confidence of the landholders? have they the confidence of the merchants? have they the confidence of the operatives? have they the confidence of the Conservatives? have they the confidence of the Chartist Revolutiensts? have they the confidence of the Church of England? have they the confidence of those who are members of the Romish persuasion? In short, has any one class of the nation the slightest trust in them as sincerely attached to their interests, and willing to peril a social conflict to maintain them? And has the nation at large, as a whole, any reliance upon either their ability or their inclination to defend the country from foreign aggression, and uphold the interest and honour of the empire? It is in the answers to these questions that the solution of the real question at issue between the Conservatives and Revolutionists is to be found; and it is by pondering on them that the best commentary on the late debate in Parliament is to be got. And strange to say, while it will at once appear from the decisive evidence of the votes of their own Parliament, and the official admissions of their own Administration, that the revolutionary party neither possess the confidence of the nation, nor of any one interest, party, or persuasion in it; yet, by a strange but not unprecedented combination of circumstances, they have hitherto succeeded in maintaining themselves in power even on the basis of popular representation, while respected by no one class of the state; they continue to exercise all the functions of government just because they have been proved incapable of exercising any of them, and are now immovable in their seats, precisely because they are the objects of universal contempt.

The Liberal party will ridicule these propositions, and exclaim against the possibility of such a state of things existing in a democratic community. Before joining in the cry, let them ponder upon, and answer if they can, the following considerations :

If Ministers possess the confidence

course that confidence must be demonstrated in a country in which the elective franchise has been so widely extended, and carved out according to their own wishes, and the system of representation which they themselves have laid down for their own purposes in the returned members of Parliament. The present Parliament was assembled under circumstances of unparalleled good fortune to the Liberal party. Not only had the Legislature been recently elected according to a system devised by themselves, and supported by all the fervour and gratitude of a large newly enfranchised class, but they had had the unparalleled good fortune of having had the existing Parliament elected amidst the transports immediately consequent on the accession of a youthful Queen, with the whole weight of government at their command, and the cordial support of the reigning Monarch in every step of their career. What, then, was the result of such a Parliament, elected under such circumstances, when first seriously called upon to declare whether they had or had not confidence in the Movement Ministry?

Let the following Table, compiled with great accuracy by the Morning Herald, answer the question, which brings out both the actual majority of twenty-one in their favour, and the elements of which it was composed:

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