nished, not knowing what to think, or in whom to confide. There was a Prime Minister (Mr Canning was yet alive) who was witty, eloquent, irritable, and who, though of avowed Tory principles, was unfortunately a man about whose principles NO ONE WAS SURE, and this was his great fault as an English Minister. The Tories thought that he was too much a Whig, the Whigs that he was too much a Tory. With this Prime Minister of doubt -ful or unsettled principles, there was a newly acquired body of supporters, who, it was very well known, had no principles at all. Place, and the power and the money to be gained by place, were things so extremely desirable to them, that they were at once grasped at, and the principles were left to be settled afterwards. Moreover, the vague notions, unworthy the name of principles, which as Whig oppositionists they had talked so much about, were, as they well knew, totally unfit for any thing but talk. They might as well have tried to grasp the wind and fashion it into shapes, as to make any practical use of the wholesale maxims of the Whig and Radical creed. For the present, too, it was more gratifying to their taste, more pleasing to the small personal vanity which belongs to modern Whigs, to babble about their official business, than about any thing else; and talk indeed they did, so pleased were they with having the power to do so, as men having authority, to men and women, and to children even, whenever and wherever they thought they could excite admiration by the display.

The result of all this was, that the public did not know what to think about the government. They hoped, and feared, and suspected; but certainty of any kind they had none, whether for one line of policy or another. Such was the state of things at the close of last session. Let us look at what has been done since, and how we stand now.

Mr Canning's ministry was dissolved by his death, and to it succeeded that of Lord Goderich, which is allowed on all hands to have been a change for the worse. Mr Canning's government was dangerous, but not contemptible-that of Lord Goderich was both. It fell in its turn, and the administration of the Duke of Wellington and the session commenced together. The Duke's government took

up the affairs of state when they were in any thing but an encouraging condition for the success of that line of policy of which he had been for some time recognised as the leading supporter. At home, he had to deal with a House of Commons which had in a great measure lost the healthy tone of English feeling that is so closely allied with Toryism, and which had very much given itself up to the guidance of certain plausible smatterers in political science, who advocated a spurious liberality, alike unsound in theory, and unsanc tioned by experience. Abroad, Mr Canning's ministry had left to us the troublesome and dangerous legacy of the treaty respecting Greece, to which chance and Sir Edward Codrington had added the "untoward event" of the battle of Navarino. Such were the present difficulties to be contended with, and in prospect, were the Test and Corporation Acts repeal question; the Corn Laws question, and the Catholic question; the Financial Inquiry, and the current and incidental business of the session. Here was plenty of work, and of rather an arduous kind too, for a Ministry at which the Whigs sneered, half in mere bitterness of soul for being ousted from place, and half in the exultation of egregious self-conceit, which led them to believe that a Minister who despised what they considered wisdom, must be a fool. On the other hand, the old Tories, who confided in the Duke, and rejoiced to see him where his sovereign had placed him, shook their heads, and feared that such a Ministry as he had formed could not stand. The event proved they were right, but the partial and necessary change was happily effected without deranging the system of government of which the Duke was Premier. But I must not anticipate events. The new government, with all these discouraging circumstances before it, proceeded with cautious steps, following a system the very opposite of the hasty and arbitrary policy with which we were threatened by those who affected alarm at seeing a Field Marshal at the head of the Ministry, and the success which attended it was commensurate with the care evinced in conducting its different departments. In foreign affairs, the great object was not to do any thing, but to avoid doing any thing; yet this was a very difficult policy to manage, considering the situation in which acci

dent, and previous mismanagement, had placed us. We had no point to gain by going to war, and therefore peace, if it could be maintained consistently with our national honour, amid the angry jarring of Continental interests, was the policy at once the most prudent and the most difficult to be pursued. This policy, notwithstanding its difficulty, has hitherto been pursued with success..

Our home policy commenced with what I, as a Church of England Protestant, cannot help considering a blot upon the Duke of Wellington's administration. It appears to me, that the Ministry too easily took fright at the temper of the House of Commons, to which I have already alluded, and yielded up an ancient bulwark of the constitution, for which if they had fought boldly, they might have main tained it with honour and advantage. I cannot see with what consistency men can advocate the yielding up of every thing without security, to dissenters, and deny every thing, with or without security, to Roman Catholics. I do not by any means mean to contend that the political tendency of the religion of Protestant dissenters, and of Roman Catholics, is equally dangerous to the British constitution; but if the exclusion of Roman Catholics be defended, as it is with great justice, upon the ground of preserving inviolate the union between the Church of England and the civil authority in matters of government, then the same argument which justifies the perfectly unrestricted admission of Protestant dissenters, must open the way for Roman Catholics also. This much, however, is to be said, that at present, practically speaking, the change of the law makes no alteration in the state of things. Dissenters, in point of fact, enjoy no more now, than they have done for eighty years past, and so far as the repeal gives them satisfaction, without producing any other change, it is a good thing; but the guardians of the state will do well to take care that the building of the constitution do not become loosened hereafter, by this pulling out of the first stone.

Upon the Catholic question, the result of the discussion in the House of Lords has certainly been to the country a satisfactory one. We now see our way more clearly upon the subject than we used to do. There is now ma

nifestly one means, and but one, by which the admission of Roman Catho lics to all the privileges of Protestants may be allowed, and that is the providing of such securities as will guard against the danger naturally appre hended from the admission to the British legislature of the trained foes of Protestantism. The Premier too has declared, that the preliminary to deli beration for the benefit of Irish Catholics, must be good order and peaceable behaviour on their parts. This hint, the Irish have, with their usual im prudence, and contradictory mode of action, thought proper to treat with scorn, though an opposite course is ob❤ viously the most direct road to that emancipation for which they are con tinually clamouring. They little know the people and the government they have to deal with. A variety of circum stances have contributed to bring the Irish closer to the observation of the English than they have hitherto been. If the present government retain its power, the fate of the Irish will en tirely depend upon themselves. If they are disorderly and turbulent, they will be dealt with very strictly, and kept at arm's length; if they rebel, they will be put to death: if they be have themselves like calm and reasonable men, and by so doing shew themselves trust-worthy, their case will be favourably considered.

The Corn question came on in due course, and has been settled. This is a subject of great difficulty, because it is one on which it is impossible to satisfy the two great interests of the kingdom. They are not, it is true, really opposed to each other in this or in any other particular, but it is impos sible to persuade the people concerned, of this fact, and hence the difficulty of the adjustment. The provisions, however, which have been carried into ef fect, give, I believe, as general satis❤ faction as any adjustment could give; and I am persuaded that the expectation announced in the King's speech respecting these regulations, will be fulfilled, because they are in truth well described as " combining ade quate protection for domestic agricul ture, with due precaution against the consequences of a deficient harvest."

The choice of the Finance Committee appears to have been another consequence of the dread of a liberal House of Commons. Several of the members upon it, had no business

there at all, nor indeed in any thing else of high importance to the nation. They had neither the understanding nor the feeling appropriate to the task which was given them, and the consequence was, that their propositions were received with disgust by the Parliament. They did some good, however, in getting accounts from public offices, and putting those officers who were behind hand in their duty, in wholesome dread of being overhauled; beyond this, I am afraid no benefit will result from their labours.

The hasty and indiscreet conduct of Mr Huskisson, met by the admirable firmness of the Duke of Wellington, led to important changes, which at length opened the eyes of the Ministry and the kingdom to the real weakness of the party who had so long domineered in the Lower House. The strength which was either held wholly aloof, or but occasionally and coldly exerted for the mixed government of the Duke, rallied at once around the new Cabinet, of which, whether taken in the aggregate, or man by man, there was now no suspicion; and the philosophers, the men who listened to the abstract theories of books, and their own book-bewildered brains, while they shut their ears to the groans of the people, were completely defeated in the Commons House.

The session now rapidly closed, but not until Mr Huskisson had time to find in the regulations of the new American Tariff, some cogent reasons for doubting the infallibility of the "reciprocity system;" and the public had good reason to believe, from the continuance of some protecting duties, and the restoration of others that had been abandoned, that the absurd and pernicious Free Trade system was no longer to be part and parcel of the policy of the British Cabinet. The only measure of the spurious liberal cast which the Commons countenanced after the last ministerial change, was an attempt to rob corporations of their funds, or, what amounts to the same thing, to prevent them applying these funds to legal purposes. This bill, although upon the very face of it, palpably absurd and unjust, was got through its several stages, generally after one o'clock in the morning, when there were not three dozen members in the house; but it no sooner came before the Lords, than it met the fate VOL. XXIV.

which a proposition so revolting to common sense, and the common law of England, might be expected to meet in that assembly. It was immediately thrown out.

As to the King's speech at the prorogation of the Parliament, little is to be said about it one way or the other; it was a matter of form quietly got over, and that's the whole." Deliver your self," says Hamlet to Osrick, "to this effect, after what flourish your nature will." Now the ministers had to deliver themselves to the effect, that they were much obliged to Parliament for all the trouble it had taken; and that not having any further occasion for its services at present, they wished it a very good morning, and a pleasant journey into the country; and not being of the school addicted to flourishing, they did this in the calmest and genteelest manner possible, civilly turning the Parliament out of the door, to the huge disappointment of Mr Grant and Mr O. Cave, who not even yet, in the last week of July, were tired of hearing themselves speak, and wished for a few more "last words." As to Mr Grant's returns, I humbly trust that under Providence the country will be able to go on without them till after Christmas; and as for Mr O. Cave and his petitions, the House had a happy escape of both. Truly this Mr O. Cave is a modest person, to continue to put himself before the public, after the exhibition he has made as an honourable pay-master in Leicester, and as a decorous member of Parliament, when called to account in the House for impudent and unparliamentary language: If Mr O. Cave were not as destitute of feeling as the bench he sits on, instead of being in the house on the last day of its sitting, watching to present petitions, he would have been away in some remote solitude, his head sunk on his breast, and his eyes bent on the ground, not daring to look up, lest he should encounter some mark of the scorn which his public career has so universally brought upon him.

And now that the session has closed, I think it may be safely said, that at no period of modern times, did the nation part for a season with the immediate control of Parliament, with more firm confidence in the safe guidance of the executive government, notwithstanding the critical situation of Continental affairs, which seem to 2 T

indicate a general weariness of peace. It is true, there are some both here and on the Continent, who affect to see the evidence of weakness in the quiescent demeanour of Great Britain, while the other nations of Europe are buckling on their armour, and wars and rumours of wars rouse up the military spirit of the Continental kingdoms. But the very men who write and speak with pretended contempt of our policy, are stung with the conviction that that policy is the wisest course for this country's advantage, and for their harm and loss. They know, that under the guidance of the Duke of Wellington, the government is not the less likely to be prepared for action, because the Ministers have refrained from making newspaper editors acquainted with their intentions. They have had some experience already of the Duke's silent preparations, and their successful issue, and in fear they write down the lies which hatred dictates.

So much for politics-a monstrous heavy subject, it must be confessed, after July has set in; and I now bid it farewell, until dark November comes again, begging it, in the meantime, to receive the assurances of my high consideration. I hope the Opposition will look about them during the vacation, and pick up a few lads of spirit, that there may be some good sport in grappling with, when the next campaign opens; for now that Mr Brougham is sparing of his exertions, there is hardly any one in the Opposition worth the trouble of flooring. One cannot even laugh at two such sapient and loquacious gentlemen as the members for Preston; they make one sick. Waithman I like, and Hume, when they do not speak above ten minutes; they amuse, and when they require rebuke, they receive correction quietly, and pass on to something else. I should like to know how Joey Hume means to spend his vacation. I should think it must hang heavy on the hands of so active a patriot. I have heard that he proposes a voyage up the Mediterranean, to take a peep at the Greek Islands, and judge, by actual inspection, of the probable value of their scrip; and his taste lying in figures, rather than in landscape, he intends taking Cocker's immortal work with him, to study upon deck during the voyage. This, however, is merely ru

mour. Mr Huskisson has gone to the Continent, and Cobbett has paid him his compliments on his departure, and promises to do the like on his return, which is very kind and considerate of Mr Cobbett. The amiable Mr Stanley goes to the sea-side for the sake of cold bathing, which, by bracing his nerves, may give him confidence for the next session, as nothing but his retiring modesty, and constitutional timidity, prevented him from cutting a great figure in the session which has just closed. Mr Villiers Stuart returns to the embraces of his dear constituents, the Forty-shilling freeholders of Waterford, who love him so tenderly, that they would willingly tear him in pieces, in order that they might each have a small part of their much-loved representative as a keepsake. Lord John Russell proposes devoting his leisure to a work on the practical benefits derived by the Dissenters from the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts, a point upon which the perception of the public is rather obscure. Mr Paulet Thompson is to perfect his studies in Political Economy, in which, with the assistance of a private tutor, he is already so great a proficient, as almost to rival that sage of sages, Professor Peter MacCulloch himself. Mr Wallace, the Irish counsellor, and M.P. for Yarmouth, is said to be engaged in an Essay on Failures ;" but whether this is in reference to the Bankrupt Laws, or his own experience in the House of Commons, is not clearly known. Such are the flying reports concerning some of that interesting body, the Whig Opposition. I wish them all manner of success in their several undertakings.

There seems to be something like a coolness about the King's College undertaking. The John Bull thinks it sees something like the cloven foot of Liberalism peeping from beneath the robe of orthodoxy, with which this establishment was expected to have been enveloped, and John is rather a formidable adversary in a matter with which the clergy are so immediately connected. So far as the controversy has gone, there can be but little doubt that Bull has the best of the argument; and I think it will puzzle the opposite side to shew how they will effect the object avowed in the first resolution of the meeting, at which the establishment was proposed, if they teach all