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THE

DUKE OF WELLINGTON

THE WHIGS,

LONDON:
J. HATCHARD AND SON, PICCADILLY.
1830.

LONDON:
rUINTED BY J. I.. COX, GREAT QUEEN STHKET.

It has been said, and the observation has
also been made in the House of Commons, that
the public good is often more advanced by a
weak, than by a strong, government. Than
this there cannot be a greater error. No
government, whatever be its strength, can
long resist the force of public opinion in
such a country as Great Britain ; and a
strong administration, whilst it cannot, there
fore, be successfully used against the public, is
enabled to act vigorously on its behalf. On the
other hand, a weak administration, however
well-intentioned, has not the means of effecting
much that is good, or, what is equally impor
tant, of preventing that which is evil.

The schoolmaster is indeed abroad, and all
enlightened men must rejoice in the diffusion of
knowledge. But the evil spirit, as of old, is
abroad also, seeking whom and what to de
stroy ; and a desire has been manifested of
late to level all things to a new standard of
imaginary perfection. It is the fashion of the
day to innovate : this may too soon grow into
a mere passion for change ; and innovation,
which has hitherto been limited to the relaxa
tion of restrictions upon civil rights and of
fiscal regulation, will, if not guarded against
and checked, attack ancient and venerable in
stitutions, and may even at last assault the
throne. Important changes are frequently inevitable
at the period when they are made : the stream
when first it begins to flow, may without diffi
culty be diverted from its course ; but every
advance that it is allowed to make swells its
waters, until at length it becomes impossible to
resist the sweeping torrent.
In the present circumstances of this country
and of Europe, we require an administration
wise enough and strong enough to steer between
arbitrary power on the one hand, which sooner
or later must inevitably lead to the disgrace and
ruin of those who use it, and a tendency to
democracy on the other, which, wherever it is
permitted to raise its head, will in the end pro-

duce tyrannous, and in all likelihood military,
despotism. ^
It appears to us that the Duke of "Wellington
has proved himself eminently qualified to guide
the vessel of the state between these two ex
tremes, and that the country at large is deeply
interested in his continuance at the helm. We
are indeed so strongly impressed with this sen
timent, that we cannot resist the communica
tion of it to our countrymen. It is the honest
conviction of our mind that, whether considered
in himself or by comparison with others, he is,
in the present critical juncture, peculiarly fitted
for the office of Prime Minister of this country.
The difficulty against which the Duke of
Wellington has to contend is, not so much the
hostility of a united body, as the opposition of se
veral conflicting parties, who, having no view in
common but that of self-interested objection to
the Ministers, do not themselves furnish materials
for the construction of an effective government.
This state of things is deeply to be deplored.
The opposition, though sufficiently combined to
present a stumbling-block to the existing admi
nistration, is composed of such discordant ele
ments, as to forbid all reasonable expectation
that it could itself administer the affairs of
the empire : success therefore in the common
object of driving the Ministers from office, could
B 2

have no other effect than to cause a lamentable
confusion. But surely the disease is not without a remedy.
Many of the Whigs objected to the Duke of
Wellington's Cabinet at its first formation,
merely because he was thought to be adverse to
the Catholic Claims, and the ultra Tories have
ceased to support that Cabinet only because
it proposed the concession of those claims.
That question is for ever put at rest. The
measure of emancipation, as it is termed, has
passed, and cannot be recalled. In other
respects the policy of the Duke of Welling
ton is precisely what it was when his admi
nistration commenced, and when the Tories
vehemently avowed their determination to afford
it their most cordial support. To oppose that
of which they approve, merely because the
Government have taken one step of which they
disapproved, is surely unwise as respects the
country, and ungenerous towards the Minister.
The ultra Tories, if they have the temper and
the wisdom to see where their interest and
security lie, will cease from an opposition alike
inconsistent with their principles and with the
welfare of the state. The Duke of Wellington
is the most powerful opponent of all rash theories,
and the most determined supporter of tried and
approved institutions.

Let us now look back and enquire what was
the position of affairs when the Duke of Welling
ton accepted the office of Prime Minister, and
what has been the course of his administration :
not that it is here intended to discuss at length
matters relating either to our Foreign, or to our
Home, concerns ; it will be sufficient for our
present object briefly to direct the attention of
the public to what has been effected by the
Duke of Wellington at home and abroad; to
shew what claims he has for support ; and then
to leave it to be decided whether, in the event
of the Duke's retirement, such a government by
any new combination could be formed as would
beneficially replace that of which he is the
head.

The long duration of the last war, and the
degree in which its pressure had been sustained
by Great Britain, made it peculiarly desirable
that she should be enabled, by continued tran
quillity and repose, to recruit her energies and
strength. This object, however, would have
been too dearly purchased, if, in the attainment
of it, the national honour and character had in
any way been compromised. The victory of
Waterloo, upon which the destinies of Europe
hung, achieved all that, in these respects, the
most ardent patriot in England could desire —

so decisive in its political results, that it closed
the war by the liberation of Europe from the
trammels and galling tyranny of usurpation ;
and so glorious to the British arms, that it left
inscribed in grateful recollection on the heart
of every Briton, the name of Wellington and his
victorious troops.
From the moment when this mighty struggle
was concluded, the obvious policy for England
was peace. She had accomplished much, but
at a prodigious cost. The effort had been in
tense — ^the exhaustion was therefore great. She
had by her deeds placed herself in a situation to
command respect and attention from the other
powers of Europe. But although it might still
be said —
" 'Tis Britain's care to watch o'er Europe's fate,
" To hold in balance each contending state ;"
yet it was neither her duty nor her interest —
" To threaten bold presumptuous kings with war,
" And answer each afflicted neighbour's prayer."
Internal dissensions were to be expected in
neighbouring states ; but England had no busi
ness to meddle in them. Interference would
probably do little good to others, and must as
suredly be prejudicial to ourselves. Disputes
might also arise between the continental na^
tions. The duty of the British Cabinet in such

cases was, to endeavour to avert the calamity of
war by friendly negotiation, cautiously abstain
ing from pushing the effort so far as to involve
this country in the conflict, unless indeed the
object were to maintain that balance of power
which is essential to the tranquillity of Europe.
Such appears to have been the policy pursued
by England since the termination of the war :
such at least was the policy as long as Lord
Liverpool administered the affairs ofthe country.
The military occupancy of Spain by France,
afforded a memorable opportunity for its exer
cise. Upon that occasion England maintained
a strict neutrality. She did not hesitate to in
terpose her good offices in an endeavour to ad
just the difference. If she had gone further, a
general war might have been the consequence.
The same line of policy may be traced in the
protocol, signed at St. Petersburgh by the
Duke of Wellington in April 1826, the British
Government then agreeing with that of Russia,
to interpose with the Porte for the settlement of
the affairs of Greece. This interference was to
be that of amicable negotiation with an object
exclusively pacific. Hostile measures were not
only not contemplated, but special care was
taken by the noble Duke, our negotiator, to
prevent the occurrence of them.
The determination to send British troops to
Portugal, for the purpose of protecting that

country from an apprehended Spanish invasion,
was certainly a departure from the principle of
non-interference by forcible means; but there
were peculiar obligations in our relations with
that country, which made necessary and justi
fied this exception.
The late Mr. Canning, in announcing that
determination to Parliament, took occasion to
express sentiments much at variance with the
principle of neutrality. He gave the public to
understand, that in not recommending a forcible
resistance to the French invasion of Spain, he
was solely influenced by an expectation of being
able to remedy the inconvenience of it to Eng
land, by separating South America from the
mother country, which statement, as justly ob
served by Lord Grey, indicated a disposition to
sacrifice every feeling of national right and inde
pendence at the shrine of self-interest. But
Lord Grey's authority is not the only one which
we have to produce ; we have, what in the pre
sent instance is a still higher authority ; we have
that of Mr. Canning himself, to shew that he had
acquired the knowledge and conviction, that the
sentiments he had uttered in the House of Com
mons upon the occasion of sending the troops to
Portugal, were not in unison with the feelings of
the country. What else could have induced
Mr Canning to publish a speech very different
from that which he had spoken ? Must he not

have discovered that alarm had been excited by
his abandonment of the non-interference prin
ciple in the affairs of other states ? Could any
thing short of this discovery, have brought him
to erase or to alter all the passages of a revolu
tionary tendency that had so justly excited such
general sui^rise and fear ? The effect upon
Mr. Canning's mind must indeed have been great
before he could have prevailed upon himself to
take a step so unprecedented, and so much to be
deprecated as destructive of confidence in public
men, as the proclaiming of principles in one
place and the disavowing them in another.
That Mr. Canning's policy was not of the
cautious and pacific character which marked the
administration of his predecessor, further ap
peared in the treaty which (after the retirement
of the Duke of Wellington and Mr. Peel from
the Cabinet) he negotiated on the part of Great
Britain in July 1827, this country then uniting
herself with France and Russia in a solemn
league to effect, at all risks, the pacification and
deliverance of Greece ; and binding herself by a
secret article to maintain a naval force in the
Mediterranean. This treaty, it has been asserted, was founded
on the protocol of 182fi ; and the two docu
ments have been referred to in debate as being
of one and the same tendency. Such, however,
is far indeed from the fact. Both the protocol

10
and the treaty had, it is true, the same object
in view, but the means by which that object
was proposed to be accomplished were essen
tially different. The protocol contemplated
nothing more than amicable negotiation with
Turkey. The treaty pledged the parties to
coerce Turkey (if coercion should become neces
sary) into an acquiescence with their views re
garding Greece.
That it was desirable to liberate Greece from
the oppression of Turkey, no man who has any
love of freedom or of humanity will deny ; but
does it follow that it would be right for England
to involve herself, for that purpose, in a conflict
which would probably terminate in the dismem
berment of Turkey, to the advantage of Russia
perhaps, but to the certain and inevitable injury
of this country! All Mr. Canning's predecessors,
including Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, concurred in
thinking (and no man of judgment who looks at
the map can be of a different opinion) that the
political and commercial interests of this country
are to a certain extent involved in the integrity
of Turkey. The treaty of July 1827 virtually
required that if the independence of Greece
could not be otherwise obtained, Turkey should
be attacked. The Minister who negotiated the
treaty may not perhaps have contemplated fai
lure of the object by amicable means ; but he
must have been prepared to encounter the al-

11
ternative before he became a party to such a
pledge. The treaty had scarcely been concluded,
when Mr. Canning died. His successor was
only a few months in office : sufficiently long
however to become sensible of, and to prove, his
own weakness and inability to conduct the go
vernment ; and also sufficiently long to learn
that the treaty had produced as its first-fruit,
the battle of Navarino ; which, as having caused
the destruction of the fleet of a state with whom
we were at peace, was well termed, and can
never cease to be called, a most "untoward
event." The battle of Navarino tended more
than any other circumstance to cause the subju
gation of Turkey to Russia. If the Turkish fleet
had not been destroyed, the Ottoman superiority
in the Black Sea would have been preserved ;
and the probability is, that Varna would not have
fallen. Upon the success or failure of the Rus
sians before that fortress the fate of the first
campaign depiended ; perhaps even the fate ofthe
whole war. The battle of Navarino therefore was
fought for interests not our own ; and the wisdom
of those counsels must be questioned which led to
the humiliation and the weakening of a power in
whose strength and stability we ourselves have
the deepest concern.
When Mr. Canning became the First Minister
of the country, the Duke of Wellington, from a

12
distrust ofthe political principles and views of that
statesman, retired, as has been observed, from the
Cabinet. Upon the resignation of Lord Gode-
rich, the Duke was called upon by his Sovereign
to form a government. The undertaking, in the
then state of public aff'airs, was a fearful one.
Our foreign relations (let the panegyrists of Mr.
Canning say what they will) were in a state
most critical and unsatisfactory. The British
troops were still in Portugal ; and although that
country, not being then threatened with a Spa
nish invasion, no longer required their presence
for the purpose for which they were sent, yet
there was too much reason to apprehend that
internal dissensions were bursting into a flame,
and were more to be dreaded than even a foreign
foe. The treaty of July 1827, to which the Duke
of Wellington had been no party, and of which
he could not but disapprove, as being opposed to
the principles upon which he had himself acted,
not only as a member of Lord Liverpool's cabi
net, but also as the ambassador who signed the
protocol of April 1826 — this treaty was as yet
unfulfilled, and had caused the embarrassing
conflict of Navarino, and also the departure of
the Ambassadors of the Allied Powers from
Constantinople. Nor was the prospect at home more encourag
ing. Trade and agriculture were depressed, and
the revenue had fallen off. The affairs of

13
Ireland were daily becoming more and more
embarrassing. The Catholic Question was a
rallying point for the seditious and the dis
contented ; and its repeated agitation had
served only to foment dissensions, and to
sow the seeds of disunion in the Cabinet and
in Parliament.
Such was the posture of affairs when the
Duke of Wellington consented to take office.
Zealously devoted to the country which he had
so long and so successfully served, he was not
to be deterred by any apprehensions of what
might be the result. He saw the difficulty in
which the King was placed ; and in obedience
to His Majesty's command, he undertook to
form an administration, of which he was to be
the head.
The party which had been opposed to the
policy of Mr. Canning rejoiced iii this arrange
ment ; and even many of the friends of that
statesman professed such confidence in the
Duke of Wellington, that they readily consented
to belong to his administration. It has cer
tainly become matter of doubt whether, in their
junction with the Duke, they had not cherished
an expectation of being able to master or cir
cumvent him ; and, indeed, this notion has
been strengthened by the conduct which they
have pursued since they quitted office : an event,
let it be observed, caused, as most men will

14
now allow, by the rash precipitancy of their
leader. At the period of the formation of the Duke of
Wellington's administration the affairs of Portu
gal, as before remarked, were in an unsettled
state. When the crown devolved on Don
Pedro he was resident at the Brazils, which had
ceased to be a dependency on Portugal : Don
Pedro had therefore to make his election of the
crown either of Portugal or of the Brazils. He
did the latter, and appointed his daughter, an in
fant, to be queen of Portugal ; and his brother,
Don Miguel, was to be regent during her minority.
Don Pedro, at the same time, prepared a new
charter for the future government of Portugal ;
and this, while Mr. Canning held the depart
ment of foreign affairs, was conveyed to Lisbon
by a British envoy. The charter was not accep
table to a large portion of the Portuguese nation.
In their resistance to it they were supported
by Spain, who threatened to invade Portugal;
and this, as is well known, was the cause of
the British troops being sent thither. Don
Miguel, who was at Vienna when the new
charter was communicated to him, had solemnly
pledged himself, as regent, to conform to its
provisions. It had been determined by Lord Goderich's
government, at the close of 1827, that our

15
troops should be withdrawn on the arrival in
Portugal of the new regent.
Don Miguel proceeded to Lisbon early in
1828, and so soon as he reached that capital,
he violated every pledge which he had so recently
given. The new charter was rejected, and Don
Miguel usurped the throne. In the mean while,
our troops being no longer required for the pur
pose for which they had been sent, returned to
England. To have retained them in Portugal in
forcible opposition to Don Miguel, would have
been a departure from the principle of non-inter
ference in the internal dissensions of other states.
It was for the Portuguese themselves to decide
the fate of their own country. We had, how
ever, recognised the right of Donna Maria, the
infant Queen, to the throne of Portugal ; and as
Don Miguel had opposed himself to that right,
we could not properly maintain our former rela
tions with that country. The functions of the
British Ambassador at Lisbon were accordingly
suspended by the Duke of Wellington's admi
nistration. This was obviously the wise and
prudent course to take between recognising a
usurper, and going to war on behalf of the young
Queen. It has, however, been asserted, that
our Government have interfered against Donna
Maria, by forcibly preventing the landing of a
body of Portuguese emigrants at Terceira ; but

16
notwithstanding all the sophistry, and all the
declamation upon that subject, displayed in
Parliament and out of it, a simple and brief
statement of facts will convince every unbiassed
man, that the Governraent ought not to have
adopted any other course than the one which has
been pursued.
Upon the usurpation of Don Miguel, about
three thousand Portuguese in the interest of the
young Queen, fled from their country, and ob
tained shelter in this kingdom. It subsequently
appeared that this body of men was in a course
of training for military purposes. This could
not be allowed : no government would have
been justified in allowing it. Orders therefore
were given for the separation of the men from
the officers ; but still permission was given to all
of them to reside in the several villages in the
neighbourhood of Plymouth. The emigrants
protested against this arrangement ; and de
manded leave to proceed in a body to Terceira.
Now what was the situation of that island ? It
was a dependency of Portugal, but administered
in the name of the infant Queen, the parent
state being under the dominion of Don Miguel.
If we were right in declining to interfere against
Don Miguel in Portugal, surely we were also
right in not allowing this country to be the me
dium, and the instrument as it were, of providing'
a military force for the service of Donna Maria

17
at Terceira. To have permitted England to be
the nursery of troops for hostile service against
a country at peace with her, would doubtless
have been an infraction of neutrality; and it
would be wretched quibbling to say that there
is any practical difference between allowing
such a force to be trained in England, and the
permitting it when trained to proceed to the
seat of war. When it was seen that the emi
grants from Portugal had actually used Ply
mouth as a dep6t and arsenal whence war
like stores were surreptitiously sent to Ter
ceira, and that they intended themselves to
proceed as a military force to that place, no
alternative remained but to prevent them from
doing so. They might, if they had pleased,
have gone to the Brazils : a convoy to protect
them was even offered by the British Govern
ment ; but this was not in accordance with
the hostile views of the emigrants, and it was
declined. When, therefore, it was obvious
that from our own shores the hostilities against
Don Miguel were to be directed, it became the
duty of Ministers, as a manifestation of their
neutral conduct, either to detain the armament
before it sailed, or if that were impracticable (as
indeed it was found to be), to prevent its sub
sequent arrival at the place for which it was
destined. In thus acting, we did that which, had the

18
case been our own, we should have required
from other states; and we did no more. It
matters- not whether the right to the sovereignty
of Portugal; was with Donna Maria or was not ;
that is a question with which we have no direct
concern ; the Portuguese themselves must set
tle it. Neutrality would equally have been
violated by an interference in favour, of Donna
Maria, as by one on behalf of Don Miguel. The
opponents of the Duke of Wellington and his
government may clamour as loud as they
please ; but they will never persuade the large
majority of the British nation that the course
pursued was not the wise and just one.
With respect to Greece, there is abundant
evidence that, how much soever the Duke of
Wellington may have objected to and have felt
embarrassed by the treaty of July 1827, he has
acted with an earnest desire to fulfil the stipula
tions of that engagement ; but to do this without
a war with Turkey, in which it is more than
probable that Mr. Canning, had he lived, would
from the course he was following have found
himself involved.
It appears by Count Nesselrode's despatch
to Prince Lieven, dated the 6th of January
1 828 (written, it is to be observed, before the
administration of Lord Goderich had been
dissolved), that the Russian Government,
depending upon its influence with our's, had

19
strenuously urged that the parties to the treaty
should, in pursuit of the object of it, forcibly
possess themselves of parts of the Ottoman
empire. This was not consonant to the views
of the British Cabinet. They objected to it
temperately but with firmness; and persever
ing in pacific measures, the acquiescence of
Turkey in the arrangements regarding Greece
has at length been obtained. We do not mean
to say, or to insinuate, that the signal success of
the Russian arms was not the main cause of
hastily inducing the Ottoman Porte to agree to
the independence of Greece ; but we do mean
to say that the Duke of Wellington would not
have been justified in becoming a party to .an
unprovoked aggression against Turkey, even
though the result of such aggression were the
attainment of an object ever so fervently to be
desired. The Duke of Wellington was not the
man to do evil, through a hope that good was to
be derived from it.
We cannot dismiss the subject of Greece
without adverting to the extraordinary conduct
of the Prince who had been selected for its
sovereignty. It is not our wish to cast more
blame upon that illustrious personage than (as
maybe collected from the papers presented to
Parliament) he has cast upon himself by his own
exposition of his proceedings ; nor do we stop to
enquire whether, in withdrawing from the high

20
charge he had undertaken, he was influenced by
the state of the country he was to have governed,
or, with our late Sovereign upon his death-bed,
by what he might imagine would come to pass
in the country he was about to leave. Upon all
this we will say no more ; but it may not be here
irrelevant to observe, that the newly combined
opposition against the Duke of Wellington mani
fested a most ardent desire to make the proceed
ings respecting Prince Leopold the ground-work
of attack, although as it appeared, the more they
examined and considered his Royal Highness's
case the less they seemed to like it, and before
Parliament closed they had abandoned it alto
gether. We will now direct our attention to the Home
policy of the Duke of Wellington's adminis
tration : we will do this as concisely and as
faithfully as we can.
The exclusion from civil rights on account of
religious tenets had, during a long course of
years, been the ground of complaint from large
classes of British subjects, whose petitions for
relief had excited frequent and angry dis
cussions in Parliament. The petitioners were
chiefly Protestant Dissenters and Roman Ca
tholics ; and their claims had from time to
time been strengthened by concessions, which,
though far short of what was sought for, had
undermined the principle upon which alone re-

21
sistance could have been permanently main
tained. The Test and Corporation Acts re
mained it is true upon the statute book, but re
lief was annually granted to Dissenters including
Socinians who impugned some of the most vital
doctrines ofthe Established Church. The Ro
man Catholics were still excluded from certain
offices, and from seats in Parliament ; but the
elective franchise had long been granted to
them. Although they could not sit in Parlia
ment themselves, they had a voice in choosing
those who should. These concessions, as
might have been expected, induced and stimu
lated the complaining parties to prosecute with
increased heat and vigour their claims to the
full benefit of the constitution.
The Duke of Wellington's administration had
been scarcely formed, when a proposition was
submitted to the House of Commons for the
repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. This
was resisted by the Government. The objec
tions, however, were overruled by the House,
and the proposition for the repeal was carried by
a considerable majority. The Government consi
dered it wise to yield to the public voice, so
decidedly expressed. Had they done other
wise, instead of affording support to the church
of England, they might have injured that
venerable establishment, the doctrines of which,
and above all its practice, should ever be in

22
accordance with the great principle of " peace
on earth and good-will towards men."
In the same session of Parliament a majority
of the House of Commons had voted in fa
vour of the Roman Catholic Claims ; but the
time was not yet arrived when these could
be conceded, so adverse to them was the late
King and a large proportion of the House of
Peers. It was not, however, difficult to
foresee that the decision in favour of Protestant
Dissenters would increase the zeal of the Ca
tholics and of their supporters, and would in
an equal degree tend to nullify and weaken the
objections of their opponents ; and indeed
other circumstances had occurred plainly indi
cating that resistance could not long be main
tained without endangering the peace of the
country. The Cabinet had for more than
twenty years been divided on this question.
The consequence of this naturally was a system
of compromise in the administration of affairs
in Ireland, the attempt being to balance the
effect of the opinion which the Lord Lieutenant
might happen to hold upon the subject, by
appointing as his principal executive officer a
man whose feelings respecting it were known
to be different. " Divide et impera" is a wise
principle in contests with opponents, but when
applied to our own concerns it must inevitably
lead to disgrace and ruin, for nothing is more

23
certain than that " a house divided against
itself cannot stand." How, indeed, could the
affairs of Ireland be well administered while
the Government on the spot was divided, and
was acting under a Cabinet also divided? It
required no great foresight to perceive that so
unnatural a state of things could not last much
longer. But there were further considerations affecting
the condition of Ireland, which rendered the set
tlement of the Catholic Question a measure of
pressing urgency. An association had been or
ganized throughout that country with the inten
tion of forcing Parliament to acquiesce inthe de
mands of its leaders, actually levying taxes for
that object on the Catholic community, and con
tinuing its operations in defiance of a law which
had been passed for its suppression. The princi
pal manager of this association, a Cafiiolic, had
been returned to represent an Irish county in
Parliament ; and there was the best ground for
believing that Catholics would, as vacancies
arose, be returned by all important places in
Ireland ; or, what would have been still worse,
that Protestants of the lowest description, and
the mere tools of the Catholics, would be sent
as their representatives to the House of Com
mons. No seat for a county could have been
vacated without causing atumult there ; and a

24
dissolution of Parliament, with the Catholic
Question unsettled, must have thrown all Ire
land, if not into open rebellion, at least into
utter and dire confusion.
Who could contemplate such a state of things
 disunion in the Cabinet, and anarchy in Ireland
 ^without desiring that a remedy should be
devised? The Duke of Wellington saw the
danger, and he immediately determined to meet
it. He might have attempted to root out the evil
by main strength and force, and torrents of blood
would have been witnesses to the endeavour ;
but in his place in the House of Peers, that
noble Duke, when adverting to this subject,
declared that he would rather lay his head upon
the block than see the raging of civil war in
Ireland ; and there was not a man among his
hearers whose heart did not respond to a de
claration so evidently uttered in sincerity and
truth. The Duke of Wellington saw that the hour
was come when the question must be settled by
concession, and that that great impediment to
the internal pacification and prosperity of Ire
land must be removed. He laid the whole
state of the case before his Sovereign. We can
not pretend to know what passed upon the oc
casion between the King and his Minister.
What we do know is, that his late Majesty

25
decided upon concession to the Catholics, and
at the opening of the session the speech from
the Throne announced the determination.
And here let us pause to observe, that too
great praise cannot be bestowed on the Duke of
Wellington and Mr. Peel, for their conduct on
this memorable occasion. It was self-denying.
Had they consulted their own feelings, and
merely regarded what they werp aware many
of their most zealous and warm supporters
would think and say, they would have per
severed in opposition to the Catholics. But in
what a situation would the King and the empire
have been placed, if those distinguished Minis
ters had adopted such a course I Be it always
recollected, that the Ministers of the Crown, as
accountable functionaries, are in very different
circumstances from those other members of the
Legislature, whp must generally give their opi
nions, and take their line of conduct, without
either the information which the King's servants
possess, or the responsibility to which they are
subject. Upon this occasion, also, the Duke
of Wellington and Mr. Peel, acting in opposi
tion to mafiy of the persons of great influence
upon whose support their government had
mainly relied, could not have been ignorant,
that whatever might be the fate of the Catholic
Question so brought forward, the result
to them raust be, that, for a time at least,
E

26
the administration, by loss of strength, would
be shaken to its very centre. Their conduct
therefore was not only self-denying ; it was
more — it was most disinterested.
While the debates in Parliament were carry
ing on, difficulties were said to have arisen in
the highest quarter, indicating, as was confi
dently supposed, a vacillation, if not an entire
change of purpose. This was attributed, and
most truly, we believe, to the interference and
advice of a Prince of the Royal Family.
The Duke of Wellington did not shrink from
this new difficulty, but promptly met it. He
would not have brought forward the Catholic
Relief Bill, had not his Sovereign given his
cordial consent to it. He was now embarked in
the undertaking. The peace of the country and
his own honour were concerned. He had the
full right to call upon his Royal Master to decide
whether the great measure of conciliation should
be persevered in, or whether new Ministers
should be appointed. The King wisely re
solved to persevere, and the Relief Bill was
passed. Other subjects of great national and domestic
importance have occupied the attention of Par
liament since the Cabinet of the Duke of Wel
lington was formed. We will advert very briefly
to three of them : — the Corn Laws ; the Cur
rency ; and the Public Expenditure.

27
The number of persons is very small who ad
vocate either the total prohibition, or the unre
stricted importation of foreign corn. The opinion
has been universal among statesmen, who of late
years have taken part in the administration of
the government of this country, and it is also
very general with the well-informed part of the
public, that corn should be allowed to be im
ported, but upon conditions calculated to give
protection to agriculture. The only debateable
points have been, the degree and the mode in
which that protection should be afforded.
By the Duke of Wellington's administration
an Act has been passed, which allows the
importation of foreign corn upon payment of a
duty graduated according to the average prices
of corn in the United Kingdom. A bill upon a
similar principle, though less favourable to the
British agriculturist, was in progress when the
severe and fatal illness of Lord Liverpool brought
to a close his government ; and it was withdrawn
during Mr. Canning's administration, because
he was dissatisfied with an alteration in it intro
duced at the instance of the Duke of Wellington,
and which alteration had for its object to check
a disposition to fraud and gambling speculation
that had prevailed to a destructive degree from
the system observed of taking the averages.
That system was corrected previously to the in.
troduction of the new Corn Bill ; and thus the
E 2

28
Duke of Wellington has been enabled to pass a
measure, proved by experience to be more satis
factory to the public and to the landed interest,
than any that had been before adopted; whilst
it is always to be remembered that the friends
of Mr. Canning were still in the cabinet when
that measure was passed, and that upon their
testimony it is known that the degree of pro
tection obtained for the agriculturist, is not
greater than what Mr. Canning, had he lived,
would have proposed. The Duke of Welling
ton's Corn Bill has had the effect of preventing
violent fluctuations, which in our late adverse
seasons must otherwise have arisen, and which
could not have failed to be alike injurious to
the grower and to the consumer.
It is to the return to a metal currency that
some persons have attributed the distresses
under which the country has at times been la
bouring ; and an extensive issue of paper has
been prescribed as a perfect panacea. Had the
Government listened to such counsels, convulsion
and ruin must sooner or later have been the
consequence. Temporary relief might indeed
have been obtained; but it would have been
only the suspension of pain as a prelude to a fatal
gangrene in the state. The Government had
the wisdom stedfastly to resist all idea of tam
pering with the currency, which would have
been nothing else than tampering with private
property.

29
We see then in each measure, as the con
sideration of it comes before us, a consistent
determination to uphold the great interests of
the country ; conciliating where conciliation was
the only mode of preserving internal peace ; ad
justing with impartiality the pretensions and the
claims of conflicting parties ; and firmly resist
ing a clamour for changes, destructive of public
credit and good faith.
Another distinguishing feature of the home
policy of the Duke of Wellington's administra
tion has been economy in the management of
the public finances. The expenditure for the
army, navy, ordnance, and miscellaneous ser
vices, as detailed in the budget brought forward
by Mr. Canning, amounted to £18,243,000;
and the establishments then were, as indeed
they had long been, upon the peace scale. The
estimates forthe same services in the present year
amounted to no more than £16,500,000, being
a reduction in the two years of £1,743,000,
which is not much short of ten per cent, upon
the expenditure of the country. In addition to
this, the reduction of the interest of the four
per cent, stock to three and a half per cent,
will cause a further saving of about £750,000 a
year. These decreases of charge, together with an
alteration of the Sinking Fund, have enabled
the Duke of Wellington's government to repeal

30
taxes to the amount of four millions sterling
annually ; and in doing so care has been taken
to let the measure of relief be fully felt by the
labouring classes, and thus diffuse itself through
out all the immense and various interests of
agriculture, manufactures, and commerce.
Such retrenchment of expense could not be
effected without great sacrifices. No minister
of England has ever relinquished to the same
extent, or with such unsparing hand, that pa
tronage upon which former administrations had
been supposed mainly to depend ; but the Duke
of Wellington has looked only to his country's
good ; and it is for the country to decide whe
ther or not such disinterested conduct should
have its reward.
We have thus taken a rapid and hasty view
of the course of the Duke of Wellington's
administration. We have referred to the most
prominent of its measures, and with the ex
ception of the Catholic question, respecting
which it is too true that intense heat and vio
lent collision unfortunately prevailed, there has
scarcely been an act of the present Government
of which the country has not seemed almost
unanimously to approve. This we can the more
boldly assert, as, had cause for complaint ex
isted, we may be quite sure that at the late
election contests it would have been sounded
far and wide. But even Mr. Brougham himself

31
hardly thought it prudent to utter a word in
disparagement of the Duke of Wellington or of
Sir Robert Peel ; and the public has seen enough
of that extraordinary man's irregular and ec
centric course, rushing furiously into invective
one day, and as wildly into panegyric on the
next, not to be certain that if, in addressing the
freeholders of Yorkshire, he did no more than
attempt an ill received insinuation against the
noble Duke, it was from the proof that was
given to him, that this was not the way to pro
pitiate his new constituents.
The retrospect of the past, then, should give
us confidence in respect of the future ; and as
in the present aspect of public affairs, whether
we look to our relations with other powers or to
our own concerns at home, we more than ever
require in our Government those qualities of
firmness and sagacity which eminently cha
racterize the Duke of Wellington ; the country
would indeed be lamentably wanting to itself
if it were to fail in supporting him with cor
diality and with zeal.
Who is it that can pretend to say what may
be the fate and fortune of France, in the new
and extraordinary position in which she has
placed herself? We will not allow ourselves
to enlarge upon that momentous subject ; but
where is the man, who, under such circum-

32
stances as the present, the country would so
wish to be the director of our councils, as he
who brought France again within limits which,
leaving her mighty and powerful for her own
grandeur and defence, deprived her of the
means of overwhelming at a blow her neigh
bouring states? The Duke of Wellington has
moreover the rare felicity of uniting in himself
unrivalled talents for war, with a disposition
more pacific than has been manifested by any
minister of England since the days of Sir Robert
Walpole. If Providence, in its wrath, should
allow a desolating revolution again to burst its
flood-gates asunder, we have in the Duke of
Wellington the best safeguard that human
means can afford ; and in him also we have
the man who will preserve peace as long as
with honour it can be preserved, for he best
knowing the horrors of war, is of all men the
one who deprecates it the most.
The independence of Greece may be consi
dered complete ; but still there is much to do
to perfect that good work, in consequence of
the fickle and feeble conduct of the prince who
was to have been her sovereign. He has given
sufficient proof that the choice of him was unfor
tunate. Let us hope that out ofthe embarrass
ment which his Royal Highness has occasioned,
a brighter and a safer prospect may open on

33
Greece, than if she had for her ruler a prince
whose mind, by his own shewing, was unequal
to the task.
At home our prosperity essentially and mainly
depends upon the further improvement of our
finances. The Duke of Wellington's govern
ment, far outstripping all the governments that
had preceded it, has entered boldly upon the
great work of retrenchment ; and already the
most substantial proofs have been given of the
sincerity with which this work will continue to
be performed.
The India Question is also pending, involving
great and conflicting interests in this country,
and affecting the happinessof millions of beings
whom Providence has committed to our rule : a
question which no prudent and enlightened
man can contemplate without fear and anxiety,
lest in regard to patronage, its issue should
cause danger to our constitution, or injury,
from other causes, to our wonderful empire in
the East. Here again we perceive the advan
tage of having as minister a man whose local
knowledge and experience must be eminently
useful in conducting us to a safe and wise deci
sion. The Duke of Wellington must be fully
alive to the immense importance of extend
ing our trade, and of opening new vents for our
manufactures by all fair and practicable means,

34
and he must know better than most men
how to appreciate that system by which the
stupendous fabric of our Eastern empire has
been raised.
The opposition which the Duke of Welling
ton has met with would be extraordinary and
unaccountable, had not history abundantly
shewn that the passions of men are not to be
restrained by reason, and that self-interest stifles
true patriotism. Of selfish motives we would
willingly acquit those ultra Tories who opposed
the Minister on the Catholic Question, and who
are still to be found in the ranks of his most
bitter enemies. But, whatever be their motives,
we must tell them, that in the conduct which
they now pursue, they are, perhaps unwittingly,
doing all that on them depends, to inflict a
deadly blow on what they and their forefathers
held most sacred and most dear. In the spirit
of friendship and of old brotherhood, rent, it is
true, but not as yet entirely torn asunder, we
would intreat them, we would warn them,
to reflect and to consider whether it can be in
accordance with their views and principles to
make common cause with men whose watch
words are " Innovation " and " Reform." May
we not be allowed to hope that our excellent
Monarch did not speak in vain when, in his
first address to his Parliament, he urged and

35
exhorted " that the animosities Avhich have
" prevailed on account of religious distinctions,
" might be forgotten ; and that the decision of
" Parliament, with respect to those distinc-
" tions, having been irrevocably passed, his
" faithful subjects would unite with him in
" advancing the great object contemplated by
" the Legislature, and in promoting that spirit
" of domestic concord and peace which con-
" stitutes the surest basis of our national
" strength and happiness."
To the Whigs no exhortation hostile to self-
interest can, we fear, be used. The annals of
history do not present an example of conduct
more ungenerous, more unjust, and more un
principled, than that of the Whigs in their treat
ment of the Duke of Wellington.
Ungeneuous ! for they were well aware
that the Noble Duke had staked his government
upon the result of the Catholic Emancipation
Bill ; and that, with full knowledge of the ill-
will that awaited him from many of his best
and most powerful supporters, he had preferred
his duty to all personal considerations. The
Whigs had not to learn that his Grace was the
more entitled to their admiration and support,
as he was undertaking that which they repre
sented to be the one thing needful for the peace
and happiness of Ireland, but which they,
when in power, had from love of place ab-

36
stained from pressing home upo|i the feelings of
their Sovereign :
Un J u s T — because far different was the measure
which they had meted to Mr. Canning. It has
now become matter of history, and is well known
to all, that Mr. Canning obtained the govern
ment from a promise which he gave to the King
that he should be defended against the Catholic
Question, and that with him for his Minister
that question should not approach the throne.
But such Place-Hunters were the Whigs,
that all in a body they rushed over to Mr.
Canning ; bowing their necks to be trod upon ;
taunted daily by being told that they had come
to him, not he gone to them ; seeing also that in
order to keep faith with his Sovereign, he sought,
though he sought in vain, to surround himself
with Tories and with opponents to the Catholics ;
and not even requiring from him that one single
measure should be passed indicative of those
principles upon which, as Whigs, they had long
rested their claims to the confidence and support
of their adherents. It was only the other day
that the Whigs, in their connection with Mr.
Canning, thus acted, and thus brought down
discredit and disgrace upon their heads : but had
they the common justice so to conduct them
selves towards the Duke of Wellington, as to let
him feel that, although abandoned by his old
friends, he had found new and firm ones, who

37
would stand by him in the day of danger and of
need ? The Whigs were willing to receive the
favour from the hands of the Minister, they
were rejoiced to have the stumbling-block re
moved which had stood in the way of their
acquisition of place and power ; they had proof
after proof that he had no personal objection to
any man ; they could not but have known that
if they would act by him who had carried their
favourite and long-sought-for measure, as they
had acted towards Mr. Canning who had pledged
himself that in his administration it should never
be carried, there could be no impediment to
union between them ; and yet they had not the
generosity or the justice to support the Duke of
Wellington by their deeds, although they could
not do otherwise than laud him by their words.
Unprincipled also has been the conduct of
the Whigs, for they have sounded the tocsin
and the war-whoop against the government,
although there is not a measure, about which a
single Englishman cares a straw, that any, the
most ardent among them, have ever dared to
object to. Hear what Lord Althorp said of the
Duke of Wellington's government at the com
mencement of the last session. If that noble
Lord's speech be reported truly, did he not tell
the House of Commons on the 4th of February
. last, that " feeling convinced that the present

38
" government is able to do more good than any
" cabinet which could be formed at present, he
" was also ready to acknowledge that it had
" done more good than any government that had
" gone before it." If those were the sentiments
of that greatly respected nobleman when the
session commenced, was it by an unexampled
sacrifice of patronage ; was it by great retrench
ment and diminution of expense ; was it by an
immense reduction of taxation ; was it by Sir
Robert Peel's universally admired and highly
applauded amelioration of our laws ; was it by
the liberal treatment of Mr. Denman, and the
restoration to military rank of Sir Robert Wilson
— never thought of, by the bye, when the Whigs
and Mr. Canning were in power : or was it by
the disinterested kindness shown to Mr. Aber-
combie, and to others of the party that, before
Parliament had closed, that administration, pro
nounced at the outset the best that ever had
been known, was, without an imputation against
it, branded and vilified as bad beyond all en
durance ?
It is true that in the House of Commons the
business of the country proceeded more slowly,
and with more difficulty, than of late years had
been witnessed. Was this to be attributed to
want of ability in Sir Robert Peel ? There is not
a Whig who will dare to say so. That highly-

39
gifted and most distinguished statesman has
earned for himself a wreath of honour which not
a man among his opponents can attempt to
pluck from his brow. Was it then from opposi
tion to the unconstitutional measures of the
government, to their lavish expenditure of the
public money, to the illiberality of any of
its proceedings, that the session still lingered
while the King's service remained undone ?
These are questions which the records of Parlia
ment can best answer. If Lord Althorp did in
his heart believe that the present Government
had done more good than any that had gone
before it, and that no other Cabinet could well
replace it, was it generous, was it just, was it in
good principle, to endeavour to destroy the Duke
of Wellington's administration on the very first
day of the session, and that upon the address to
the throne, and for a slight change of words,
termed by Mr. Huskisson to be a mere " milk
and water" sort of an amendment ? But Lord
Althorp was a member of "All the Talents"
administration. We should like to hear from
him what he then thought and what he now
thinks of that assemblage of the bright geniuses
of the age? He would, we doubt not, be
able to tell us whether it was from union of
principle on the Catholic and other questions,
or from the votes to be gained, that the Whigs
sought the aid of Lord Sidmouth ; whether the

40
resources of the country were rigidly preserved
and economically administered; and whether,
when adherents were to be satisfied, patronage
was abolished, as by the present Cabinet, or
whether it was not extended many-fold with
out even the blush of shame.
These are some of the questions which we
should like to put to that noble Lord. We respect
him as one highly honourable in private life,
and we give him full credit for good intentions
in his public career ; but, if without disre
spect it may be said, we would tell him, that
while we appreciate the unsullied integrity and
sterling worth of the man, we must mark the
inconsistency of the statesman who opposes by
his votes the very government which he praises
with his words.
Has Lord Althorp and have his friends ima
gined that the Duke of Wellington was to be
cowed and bullied into a junction with them ?
Did his Lordship suppose it possible to effect
that which, at his own house with his friends
collected around him, he is reported to have
said, that the Whigs by a rallying together,
must force the Duke of Wellington to strengthen
himself, and thus bring him to terms ; or has
the plan been, by a most disgusting and most
unprincipled union between themselves and the
ultra Tories — the Orangemen and Brunswickers,
as in hostility and derision the Whigs have

41
called them, to carry as it were the King and
his Ministers by storm, and thus to grasp at
power, which, even if obtained, they would
never be able to exercise or to preserve ?
Had the Whigs possessed one spark of honest
patriotic feeling in their breasts ; had they
thought fit to place their confidence in the
Duke of Wellington and to support him, after
he had thrown himself upon his country in his
great and successful effort to make us a united
instead of a divided people, they might have
had a claim to power and to place. It is evi
dent, however, that they formed a very erro
neous judgment of the noble Duke, when
they undertook, by combining with his enemies,
and by the factious thwarting of his measures, to
force him to their terms, and to become his
masters instead of his allies.
Of one eminent and distinguished Whig, it
never can be our wish to speak otherwise than with
respect and praise. We allude to Earl Grey. We
may lament what we must feel to be the hasty
and intemperate imprudence of his conduct, and
we may grieve that in allowing himself to be
governed by others (of whom in respect to him
it may be said far more justly than he once said
it of himself, " Noti eadem est cetas non meus")
the intercourse between him and the Duke of
Wellington, commencing as it did upon the ac
cession of Mr. Canning to office, should have
G

42
ended so abruptly, when, without cause or rea
son, he thought fit to declare that the present
Government had tarnished our honour in foreign
countries, and had discredited itself in our own.
It would seem that Lord Grey had allowed his
temper to master him ; or perhaps it may be
nearer the truth to say, that not his temper,
but that of his more youthful and less wise
advisers, was in fault; and to this it may be
attributed that, instead of seeing his Lordship,
as we had fondly hoped to do, sitting side by
side with the Duke of Wellington, we have
had the pain and sorrow to behold him in the
midst of those of whom he used politically to
think so ill. Who would have expected to find
Lord Grey in converse and consultation with the
Duke of Cumberland and Lord Eldon ? Some
of his most devoted friends and most attached
adherents must have mourned at the sight, and
must then have felt that the hour of separation
between them and him was come. When those
early and attached friends of Lord Grey felt it
to be their duty not to follow the course which
he was pursuing, they gave to the Duke of
Wellington the most convincing of proofs that
he had merited no ill treatment from the Whigs,
and that in the hostility he had met with there
had been an over- abundance of self-interest,
but a woeful deficiency of good principle.
Pamphleteers and Reviewers have leagued

43
together in the making of war upon the Duke of
Wellington's cabinet. These gentlemen have
discovered that under his Grace " the coun
try IS WITHOUT A GOVERNMENT." They
have found that he was presumptuous in daring
to be minister without taking the Whigs for his
associates ; they have fancied that scurrility
was argument ; they have by anticipation
hurled him from his high office; in their
classical and polished phrases, they have pre
dicted that the King with his manly sense will
ere long " turn him to the right about ;"
and above all, they have notified to the world
that the press is universally against the Duke of
Wellington's government, and that this is to be
considered as the certain index of the public
mind. But on the very day that we first read
this alarming menace, when some may have
been grieving for the sad fate awaiting the
noble Duke, an antidote was offered to us in a
no mean portion of the same press, which had,
as we were told, consigned the Government and
its leader to obloquy and contempt, to that
infamy, in short, which ever will attach to mis
guidance and misrule, we were tranquilized and
consoled by seeing the attacks upon the Duke of
Wellington thus characterized and thus treated :
" An article" (as the Times paper of the 21st
of August observes) " appears in the number of
" the Edinburgh Review just published, on

44
" which we shall bestow some remarks : it con-
" sists of the railings of some disappointed
" suitor for place, whose occasional misgivings
" between his mortification and defeat, and his
" not quite abandoned hope of possible promo-
" tion, give a whimpering vacillating tone to the
" composition, which excites at once our laugh-
" ter and compassion. He is excessively angry
" with the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert
" Peel for presuming to conduct public affairs
" without the aid of such statesmen, for instance,
" as the author of the pamphlet entitled, the
" COUNTRY without A GOVERNMENT, Or CVCU
" as himself, the critic and admirer of that flip-
" pant production. He then, with the infirm
" purpose of unsettled principles, begins to
" eulogise these two ministers, who may per-
" haps, his vanity whispers, apply to him even
" at the eleventh hour, and whose solicitations,
" his conscience ventures to tell him in a louder
" voice, would at any hour be gratefully re-
" ceived. In the same spirit a fulsome pane-
" gyric on the ' plain and manly understanding'
" ofthe Sovereign, who he predicts will speedily
" send the ministers ' to the right about.' What
" his Majesty intends, or what the force of cir-
" cumstances may dispose him to do, we know
" not ; but sure we are, that no monarch of a
" ' plain and manly understanding' would sacri-
" fiee a lord of the bedchamber, or even a helper

45
* in the royal stables, to such a remonstrance as
* this writer has indited, whose meanness of
* motive and inconsistency of reasoning must be
' apparent to the understanding of a school-boy.
* The article is evidently written to prepare the
* public mind for a coalition between the ultra
' Tories, ' those consistent, honest men, who
' will not quit their principles,' and the Whigs
' ' the great men who have a high destiny to
* fulfil towards their country, and know that
* she looks to them to rescue from the worst of
* evils, the present government.'
" What trash ! The ultra Tories are certainly
' consistent ; so is the miserable ex-sovereign
' of France — consistent in obstinately shutting
* their eyes against the light-^— consistent in un-
' flinchingly adhering to false opinions and
' erroneous principles.
"As to the Whigs, we plainly, and in the
' face of the people of England, deny that the
' country looks to them as its saviours in any
' great emergency. The experience of nearly
' fifty years has proved to the people of Eng-
* land the real character of this party — at once
' haughty and pusillanimous, rash and short-
' sighted ; noisy democrats when out of place ;
'insolent aristocrats when in; ignorant of the
' noble qualities of their countrymen, and timid
* depredators of their glory, while they are
• ever vehement and ready to applaud the

46
" effects, and magnify the successes of foreign-
" ers : such are the men whom we are told
" England is to regard with veneration and
" affection. If we know any thing ofthe nature
" of our countrymen, we say there cannot be
" any sympathy between them and their un-
" English self-elected champions of England's
" cause." We wish that our limits would allow us to
proceed, and to quote the whole of the obser-
vations, so vehemently powerful, and yet so
wise ; so concise, and yet so full ; of which, for
the meditation of our readers, and for the im
provement of our own pages, we have here given
a part. The writer of these observations states
most truly, towards the conclusion of them, that
" the whole article in the Edinburgh Review
" is a mere exposition of personal and party
" motives why the present Ministry should be
" dismissed ; no measure," as he well remarks,
"is reprobated; no objection is raised on the
"ground of principle; but.it is furiously de-
" manded that a cabinet is to be upset, not for
" the sake of introducing good laws and bene-
" ficial measures, but in order to heal the
" wounded vanity of two or three over-rated
" lords, and two or three conceited commoners."
We do not envy the sensations of the writer
of that Edinburgh article on reading such a
commentary upon it as that which we have

47
quoted : it is what that old rogue Cobbett
would in his early and better days have
called " a bone to gnaw for the democrats."
It is so ample and so complete in all its parts,
so true an exposure, and such an unmask
ing of the Whigs, that we fear to add a word of
our own, lest we should weaken its poignancy
and effect.
The time was when Mr. Brougham, leerino-
vnth sardonic eye at the bench below him,
asked of the ultra Tories who among them, in
their ranks of imbecility and weakness, would
have the hardihood to administer the govern
ment ? but the time now is when new lights
have burst upon that unstable, though richly
talented, individual, and he will be seen, we
doubt not, bending lowly to these same Tories,
and with arms stretched out as wooing to fra
ternal embrace the very men whom so recently
he stigmatized as the refuse of the human
kind. It is to the judgment of the country that
we leave the Duke of Wellington and his
adversaries, the Whigs. The country, no
doubt, will bear in mind what claims to her
gratitude the Duke of Wellington, in his long
unvarying course of glory, has established ; and
will equally take time to consider, whether any
one act ofthe Whigs can be brought to remem
brance entitling them to confidence and support.

48
The country will not forget that Mr. Brougham
himself, when office and power were as he
thought within his grasp, was not unreserved in
his praise of the Duke of Wellington and Sir
Robert Peel. Mr. Brougham may now eulogise
Mr. Huskisson and his friends, but it will not be
forgotten how he treated their appeal to the
public, when they thought fit to separate from
the Duke of Wellington. It may suit Mr.
Brougham's purpose at this time to represent
them as victims to the pretended despotism of
the Duke of Wellington : but the country will
not forget that at the period of which we are
speaking, "he felt," as he told the House of
Commons, " comfort derivable from the cha-
" racter of the Noble Duke for good sense and
" discernment. He went no further," he said;
*' but he saw in these a prospect that the Duke,
" looking upon him as a man of sense and pru-
" dence, would bring forward measures of re-
" trenchment to satisfy England, and of conci-
" liation to pacify Ireland."
And have not those measures of retrenchment
been brought forward, and has there not been
conciliation to pacify Ireland ? All has been
done but the offer of place and power to Mr.
Brougham and his associates. Had they, we
must again say, gone to the Duke of Wellington,
when from measures completed he had esta
blished a right to their support, as they before

49
went to Mr. Canning, whose title to the govern
ment was a pledge never to relieve the Catholics,
they might have obtained their share of official
means to serve their country — at least we are
borne out in this belief by what the Duke of
Wellington has done for some among their num
bers. But his Grace would have left himself
without the means of continuing an independent
minister of the crown, if he had consented to
become the mere puppet and servant ofthe Whigs.
He might have had their votes as well as their
praises if he would have abandoned his own
friends and delivered himself up to be their tool
and instrument. He preferred, as might have
been expected, the better, the safer, the more
honourable course, and now these Whigs, writh
ing with disappointment, and indignant with
themselves for the praise they bestowed, have had
their meetings, to establish if they can a gene
ral combination against the Government, and
have done all they could to injure the Duke of
Wellington, save and except that, from fear of
displeasing the people, they have not ventured
to abuse him at their elections.
It will not be long before the new Parliament
shall be assembled. Since the late one was dis
solved, the most portentous events have occurred ;
and the crisis in which we are living cannot fail
to excite the most anxious and serious attention
of every considerate and reflecting mind; and
h

50
where is the man who, laying aside angry feel
ings ; if such he should have had ; will not rejoice
that we in this empire are no longer a divided
people ? Who will not be thankful to the Duke
of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel for having
drawn towards us as brethren our Catholic fellow-
subjects ? Who is there that will refuse praise
to the Government for the relief afforded by the
abolition of patronage ; by the fortitude with
which they have applied a severe unsparing
hand to the necessary but painful work of re
trenchment, and by the taking off burthens from
the people when taxes to a large amount were
repealed ?
Will these acts of the Duke of Wellington
obtain for him the country's confidence ? We
talk not of his former and more dazzling services
to the state, — though these must ever have their
place in the hearts of Englishmen ; but we call
upon the country to decide whether the acts
performed in a little more than two years by
the administration of the Duke do not inspire
confidence and lay claim to support ; or whether
it will be wise and desirable to leave in reality
" THE COUNTRY WITHOUT A GOVERNMENT,"
and to seek for some one to replace him with as
little hope of doing it advantageously from the
research as Diogenes had when he took his lan
tern to seek for an honest man.
Tp the worthiest let the palm be given. We

51
have ill studied the character of the Duke of
Wellington if his ambition for office be other
than the power of serving his country well ; and,
after his long and laborious life of devotion to
the state, we know but little of human nature if
we can doubt for a moment, that to retire upon
his well-earned and glorious fame would be a
repose gladly to be obtained. But, while we
still retain such a man among us, while we see
clouds lowering about us, and know from long
experience that, with his hand at the helm, we
were ever safe from every storm, we think that
common sense, and common honesty of purpose,
will induce the country to crush to atoms the
aspiring hopes of the Whigs, and to arm our old
defender, the noble Duke, with all the power
and all the influence that the present state of
Europe requires, and with which our gracious ,
Sovereign himself has given such manifest proof
of anxious desire and fixed determination to
invest him.

LONDON:
PRINTED BV J. L. COX, GRJiAT QUEEN STREET.

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