Every day’s returns tend to corroborate more and more strongly the truth of that statement, which was one calculated to challenge vehement contradiction, could it have been given consistently with fact. There was a will, but no way, to do so. Our own over-zealous friends may have been too sanguine in their expectations, and hasty in their calculations; but those of our opponents, at least of the more eager and unscrupulous, are preposterous, impeaching their good faith, or their capacity as political observers. We entertain no misgivings as to the position and reception of Ministers in the new Parliament. Their majority, on vexed questions, may not be large, but it will be sufficient; and against faction, it will be _decisive_. What, then, was the question which has been put to the constituencies, and answered? It was not that of Free Trade or Protection. The question was one of a far wider description. Lord Derby, in February last, stated in terms the question which he sought to have answered; a question not of details, but of principles, relying on the estimate formed of his character by the country, for its allowing him to carry these principles into operation. “These are the PRINCIPLES on which I shall make my appeal on behalf of myself and colleagues. We are threatened with far more serious difficulties than opposition to a five shilling, six shilling, or seven shilling duty on corn. It is a QUESTION, whether the Government of this country can be carried on, and on what principles, and through what medium. Will you support a Government which is against hostile attacks; which will maintain the peace of the world; which will uphold the Protestant institutions of the country; which will give strength and increased power to religious and moral education throughout the land; and which will exert itself, moreover, I will not hesitate to say, to oppose some barrier against the current, continually encroaching, of democratic influence, which would throw power _nominally_ into the hands of the masses, practically into those of the demagogues who lead them?” This was, indeed, a GREAT QUESTION, and it has been ANSWERED satisfactorily to all lovers of constitutional freedom. _Printed by William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh_ ----- Footnote 1: _Reise nach Persien und dem Lande der Kurden._ Von MORITZ WAGNER, 2 vols. Leipzig: Arnold. London: Williams & Norgate. 1852. Footnote 2: “Ararat and the Armenian Highlands.” Blackwood’s Magazine, No. CCCCIII. Footnote 3: “Caucasus and the Land of the Cossacks.” Blackwood’s Magazine, No. CCCC. Footnote 4: _Reise nach Colchis_, &c. Leipzig, 1850. Footnote 5: Fallmerayer—_Fragmente aus dem Orient_. Footnote 6: The Sultan’s physician. Footnote 7: