Church must organise its press, like the other institutions of the land. There is a good time coming sure enough, and the cause of its coming is easily understood. The Conservative party are superior alike in sincerity and in statesmanlike ability to the party which has so long prided itself in the advocacy of organic changes. Moreover, they represent the normal feeling of Englishmen. Conservatism is the distinguishing feature of the British character. The public of this country has no love for those theoretic ideals of government, those paper-constitutions, which have so often fascinated and brought misery upon other nations. The reign of Innovation is ever short-lived with us; and the supremacy of the party who represent that principle must be equally transitory. The Whig party, who became champions of innovation in order to regain the power which they had lost, now find that their old vantage-ground has slipped from under them. They have had their day as rough-hewers of the Constitution, and now give place again to the more masterly artists who know how to chisel the marble while preserving the lineaments of the noble design. This natural decline of the Reform party has been rendered more inevitable by the very efforts they have made to maintain themselves in power. Everything portends the speedy ascendancy of the Conservative party in Parliament; and the leaders of the party are the very men to lend to such a cause the lustre of personal renown. Derby, Malmesbury, Disraeli, Bulwer Lytton, Pakington, Walpole, Stanley, Cairns, Whiteside, are names of which any party and any cause might be proud. They have the advantage of years, too, on their side; for, compared with their rivals, they are all in the vigour of life, and in the prime of states-manhood. The tide of public opinion has long been rising in their favour, and they have not long to wait. They are strong, and therefore are calm; they are patriotic, and will not imitate the factious tactics of their rivals. But their final success is at hand; and their triumph will be all the more glorious, inasmuch as it promises to partake less of the character of a party-victory, than of an ovation offered to them by the whole enlightened classes of the community. _Printed by William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh._ ----- Footnote 1: ‘La Vie de Village en Angleterre; ou, Souvenirs d’un Exile.’ Paris: Didier. 1862. Footnote 2: ‘Vie Moderne en Angleterre.’ Par Hector Malot. Footnote 3: ‘Studies in Roman Law; with Comparative Views of the Laws of France, England, and Scotland.’ By Lord Mackenzie, one of the Judges of the Court of Session in Scotland. W. Blackwood & Sons. 1862. Footnote 4: I should add that, since writing the above, one day my eye was attracted by the unusual number of people (there were nine) reading one of the royal decrees just promulgated and placarded on the wall: it concerned the uniform of subordinate officials. Footnote 5: