Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward
Sir: * * * * * * * * * * *
Little has taken place during the week that is deserving of notice. The issue of the elections thus far has proved much more favorable to the ministers than had been anticipated. The calculations of those supposed to know best did not at the outset go beyond a gain of ten votes. It appears likely to be twice as great. Hence, if the majority can be depended on to keep together, it will prove quite large enough to effect a return to something like a positive system of policy.
The defeat of Mr. Gladstone at Oxford is by no means the least important of the results of this struggle. That connexion had become an unnatural one, and its severance will prove a relief to both sides.
The barrier is removed to the consolidation of the liberal section of the ministerialists, under the lead of that gentleman. Whether it become successful in engrafting its policy upon the whole party, or be driven into opposition in a minority, in either event the effect will probably be to infuse once more something beyond merely personal objects into the political movements of the country. The first indication of this change will doubtless be the renewal of an attempt at revisai of the representation in the Commons. Some measure of that kind cannot be much longer delayed. The obstructions to it will rather be raised upon the details inseparably connected with every scheme, than against the principle itself. The bugbear held up on all occasions is the Americanizing the old English institutions. Nevertheless, it is tolerably evident that to a certain extent Americanized they will be, if the proof continues to flow in that America furnishes the best example of a successful application of the true principles of government to the advancement of the human race.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.