without such bodies was convulsed to its centre, and on the verge of revolution, while Ireland with them was comparatively tranquil and motionless. Government paralysed them, and made them negatively to a large extent its supporters, by its influence with their leaders.

The Pitt Clubs included various party heads, and this soon ruined them for purposes of public benefit. The secession of Mr Canning from them, through hostility to the toast of Protestant ascendency, formed one of those instances of suspicious inconsistency, of which too many are to be found in his history. The determined anti-reformer had less right to call himself Pitt's disciple, than the determined anti-Catholic; and it was wholly indefensible in him to abandon them on what was only the exception to the rule. On a single article, and it a questionable one, of a general creed, he introduced into them the destructive spirit of division, and deprived them of a powerful portion of Pitt's followers. His efforts to overturn them, because he could not make them his instruments, aided certain of his colleagues greatly in making them theirs.

Several years ago, the principles and system of Pitt, more especially such parts of them as he rather created than adopted, were abandoned by the government. We need not cite proofs to establish what is matter of general confession. The Whigs made it their boast that they were decidedly opposed to them, and no one suspects that apostasy in them produced the harmony between their creed and that of the Ministry; on the contrary, the latter always acknowledged that the harmony flowed from its own change of creed. When this was done, what was the conduct of the Pitt Clubs? Did they, in conformity with the solemn obligations on which they were founded, divide themselves from party, and make a stand for the Pitt principles and system? No, they servilely supported government in overthrowing what they were formed to defend. They successfully resisted Mr Canning, because they had more powerful official men to lead them in it; but here their resistance ended: the influence which led them to this, also reversed them in object. They

sunk into mere anti-Catholic ones; and it was sufficiently ludicrous to see bodies which bore the name of Pitt, opposing the Catholic Question, and sanctioning the war against the general policy, bank notes, an efficient sinking-fund, and every thing with which such name was more immediately identified.

These Clubs, in truth, degenerated into the tools of the Tory Ministers, and became powerless in any other character. The carrying of the Catholic Question took from them all well-defined peculiarity of principle: at the last meeting of the London one, the speeches exhibited only vague generalities, and since it took place the speakers have acted on different sides in Parliament. Such bodies are much worse than worthless, if they take a Ministry, instead of principle, for their guide: they mislead public sentiment, stifle public spirit, and operate as engines of despotism on all occasions, save when their existence has no real operation.

At the present crisis, it is the imperious duty of the Pitt Clubs, either to return to their original objects, to take their stand on principle and institution, in perfect independence of party and individuals, or to dissolve themselves. Parties, after having been broken up, are once more entering into organization and warfare, under circumstances which would render a continuance of their past conduct in the highest degree injurious. The distinctions of name and person have been, in regard to creed, confounded, and in a large degree reversed; and those who may blindly act on them alone will be pretty sure to act the part of public enemies. In the contest which has commenced between the Whigs and the Wellington Party, it is unhappily a question, not only how far they differ on public interests, but which is the most worthy of public confidence: and it is a farther question, whether either can be supported by patriotic men, save occasionally, conditionally, and with a view to lead and purify.

The history of those who compose the Wellington Party exhibits the most astonishing specimen of selfdestruction on record. Individuals, and even bodies, putting insanity out of sight, only attack their own existence from troubles and misfortunes;

but they plunged into the crime from sheer excess of prosperity and happiness. They had beaten the Whigs into impotence, the country was theirs, and they were omnipotent: such was the case when they voluntarily cast from them their weapons, name, numbers, in a word, every thing on which their possession of power depended. It was entirely from choice that what was called the liberal part of the Liverpool Ministry changed its creed, and arrayed itself against the other part and the great body of the Tories. The Wellington Ministry, on its formation, disregarded the instructive lesson supplied by the Canning and Goderich ones; and separated itself from both the old Tories and their creed: the means were pressed on it of giving the Tories even more than their former triumphant supremacy, but it deliberately rejected them, and embraced ruin. It ruined not only it self, but the whole Tory party.

The old Tories, whom it in reality expelled from power, and reduced to a minority, imitated it in folly. Powerful in character, creed, public esteem, and the weakness of both the Ministry and Whigs, they might have constituted themselves the effective Opposition, and regained what they had lost. It was a duty imposed on them by their professions of faith, to array themselves against the Ministry on general measures; and they could have done it with argument, fact, many potent interests, and public feeling, in their favour. While the Whigs had no ground to stand on as an Opposition, they had the very best that could be imagined. They could, as one, have restricted Ministers to the worthless weapons to which, in general, an Opposition is restricted. All they required was able leaders, union, and a proper system of operations -matters far from being above their reach. Deficient, however, as they were in leading talent, they made no effort to obtain it; and they could not brook the idea of making any members of their own body their leaders. As to union, each differed more or less from his fellows; they agreed on nothing save the defunct Catholic question. Their system of operations was displayed in this;—a portion of them soon ratted to the Mi

nistry, and the rest backed out of their professions to become the followers of the Whigs. With a very small number of honourable exceptions, they have, during the present session, studiously framed their speeches to meet Whig views, and been silent when they could not calculate on Whig assistance. No important question could be taken up by them as a distinct party; no distressed part of the community could obtain their advocacy, if it would embroil them with both the other parties; they could say and do nothing as Tories. They have thus lost public confidence, and destroyed themselves in the public eye, as a body holding a separate creed. Every man of them, we imagine, will soon be divided between the Wellington party and the Whigs.

The two latter are, in truth, the only ones in the field; the country, in reality, has none but them as candidates for its favour; and that it thoroughly despises both manifest to all men. The reports of a change of Ministry which have been so general, have been received with contemptuous indifference in every quarter; no one has regretted the fall of the Wellington cabinet, or rejoiced at the prospect of a Whig one. All the essentials for interesting the community in such a change have been wanting: the contest is not one of measures, or personal worth, it is merely to determine whether the benefits of power and place shall be enjoyed by one set of families or another; it is one for private gain between two parties, which are about equally odious in creed and charac

ter.

The Wellington party has, in principles, sunk even below the Whigs. On all the essentials which formerly rendered it triumphant against them in public favour, it has either gone over to them, or placed them in the right; in the few matters on which it differs from them, it is opposed to public feeling. On free trade and the currency they are agreed; the ultras of the one party go quite as far as those of the other; the extreme opinions put forth by Mr Herries and Mr Courtenay, have not been surpassed by those of any Whig or

Liberal.

1

This party, after surrendering eve

ry thing to the Catholics, resists concession to the Jews. The latter, as a body, are, we believe, rather hostile than friendly to the change, and it was therefore excessively absurd, in the Whigs to attempt to force it on them. Putting this aside, the removal of the Catholic disabilities destroyed all ground for continuing the Jewish ones. The reasons urged by the party form the most exquisite burlesque on argument imaginable; a few thousands of men, who are conspicuous above all others for never parting with their money without a valuable consideration, abstinence from politics, destitution of political objects, and loyalty, would, if their exclusion were removed, obtain dangerous influence in the Cabinet and Legislature! An English Jew cannot feel like an Englishman, but an Irish Catholic must, as a matter of course! Could any thing be more ludicrously impotent than such doctrines in the mouths of the very men who removed exclusion from the Catholics? The country defended this exclusion on the most solid and practical grounds; it knew the gigantic power of the Catholics, and it believed that the granting of their claims would have destructive consequences. But it thinks the Jews are powerless, and it has no evidence to convict them of evil intentions; therefore its feelings are in their favour, rather than otherwise.

With regard to Parliamentary Reform, the Wellington party has annihilated every valid plea on which it could be resisted. It has completely changed the question, in both character and circumstances. That which was an unnecessary innovation, opposed by the better part of the community, has been rendered by it a needful remedy, which the community at large desires. It would be idle to deny that public feeling is in favour of reform-we mean such as would be cautious, gradual, and practical; and it would be equally idle to attempt to prove that it is in error. From the turn which this question has taken, its effects on the character of both the House of Commons and the Cabinet, and the feelings which it generates among the lower orders, the public weal calls aloud for its "settlement."

In matters relating to the Church, this party has placed itself below the Whigs in public opinion. Every sn. cere churchman regards it with ndignation and suspicion; he sees in it the men who divorced the Church from the State, swept away her bulwarks, and corrupted her clergy into their instruments for accomplishing the unhallowed work. The past. compels him to suspect them of. every thing for the future; little as he can trust in the Whigs, he can trust still less in their opponents.

On other matters of domestic policy, and on foreign policy, this party, professes to agree with the Whigs in general principle; if it differ from them, it is only in unimportant points of application. It here lies under the stigma of being only their follower and instrument.

Its newspaper instruments boast of what they call its liberal opinions, in contradistinction to the principles of the high or ultra Tories. What are these liberal opinions? When we look at its exclusion of the Jews, opposition to all Parliamentary Reform, prosecutions of the Press, forcing a king on Greece, in contempt of the will of the people, &c. &c., we find bigotry and ultraism, such as were never exhibited by the Tories. Here is blind adherence to names when nature is changed-to forms, when reasons and circumstances are reversed to the letter, when the spirit is gone; and this constitutes bigotry and ultraism. The high Tories always took their stand on fact and argument, they avoided the extremes which form its distinctions, and they are more or less opposed to it on these extremes.

In the flourishing and triumphant days of Toryism, this party consisted of men who ranked far above the Whigs in every branch of personal character; the case is now reversed in regard to both leader and follower. The terrible fall which the party has on every point sustained, is not, so far as concerns itself, a theme for lamentation. We cannot see the unavoidable misfortune-the error prompted by pure motivesthe loss occasioned by fidelity to virtue, or any of the things requisite for rendering it worthy of compassion and sorrow. On the contrary,

we behold every motive and act which could make it a matter of just and deserved punishment.

The fall of the Wellington Party has been the exaltation of the Whigs. The latter-such are the miracles which now abound-without making any change in themselves, have been made the first party in both creed and character. A few years ago, this ranked amidst the things which appeared utterly impossible. The Catholic Question, Reform, the domestic changes they called for, and their opinions of foreign policy, seemed to render their extrication from the slough of public distrust and enmity perfectly hopeless; nothing was apparently more irremovable than the brand they bore as superficial theorists-wild disturbers, whose schemes were calculated to involve both the empire and the world in confusion and calamity. The millstones which held their necks in the mire have been cut away; their name has been cleansed from stain and suspicion; and this has been done by the Tories. The latter have not only freed them from unpopular questions and suspected principles, but they have given them the exclusive possession of honourable consistency; they have made them the only party which can be depended on for steady fidelity to faith and pledge.

In point of talent, the Whigs are far superior to the Wellington Party; no Ministry in modern times has possessed so little of it as the present one; and the followers have as small a share as the leaders.

Whether the Whigs-we include in the name all the parties comprehended in the Opposition-are on the eve of being called to office, is a matter which will probably be determined before this Article will see the light. But either as a Ministry or an Opposition, their conduct, we conjecture, will direct the course of public affairs; and they must adopt a radical change of conduct, or they will neither stand as the one, nor succeed as the other.

What made them so unpopular and powerless, so long as the Tory body differed from them? What caused many of their more honest supporters to confess, that they were better

out of office than in it? It was not the want of talent, because they generally possessed much more of it than their opponents; they greatly excelled in parliamentary oratory; their press displayed far more ability, boldness, and zeal, than the Tory one; but still, with these immense advantages, the country despised and hated them. The causes are not involved in mystery, and if they be again put into operation, they will produce the same effects.

In the first place, they followed extreme abstract principle, without regarding other considerations. They advocated Catholic Emancipation on abstract right and liberty, although it is manifest that these are dependent on, and therefore ought to be subordinate to, the Constitution. They called for reform on abstract right, although it is clearly a matter of public utility. They attacked the whole trading and monetary system of the empire on abstract opinion, although it was evident to all that a change would produce general confiscation and misery. On similar ground they warred against almost all laws and institutions. They were so far from allowing weight to circumstances, that they insisted their doctrines ought to be adopted, no matter what evil and loss might be the consequence. These doctrines were, in general, mere disputed and fallacious opinions; yet they placed them in opposition to the public weal, and made their application, even through the sacrifice of the latter, the great object of government.

This was their conduct touching foreign policy as well as domestic. Abstract liberty, whether real or counterfeit, was to be supported, in utter contempt of national interest and reputation. Every foreign revolution or rebellion, no matter what its real objects might be, or what consequences it was calculated to produce in the state where it took place, or to the world at large, was to be countenanced by this country, though the heaviest losses, and even war, might follow. They thus made foreign policy a thing, not to protect and promote the foreign interests of the empire, to maintain general tranquillity, and to improve the condition of men and nations, with cautious re

ference to circumstances and obligations, but to sacrifice British interests, generate war, and fill the world with convulsion and anarchy.

In the second place, the Whigs not only acted thus, but brought their creed to bear regularly against public interests and feelings; they made their war against the Ministry, one against the leading divisions of the empire, both severally and in the ag gregate. The Sovereign and his Court were continually assailed by them on no better ground than the character which kings and courts are reputed to bear in the abstract; and while this drew on them the animosity of both, the country was not blind to its revolutionary tendency. Not satisfied with indirectly attack ing the Church by their support of the Catholic claims, they carried on direct hostilities against her on every point, and compelled her to be their enemy for self-preservation. It was not enough for them that their trading, currency, and reform doctrines struck at the possessions of the aristocracy; but they vilified it in every way, and, of course, gained its hatred. They displayed similar conduct to wards most of the great interests. In their advocacy of the Catholic claims, &c. they not only opposed the feelings of the community, but cast on it every calumny and insult. On every contested point between this country and foreign ones, they fought with the latter, and exhibited the blind fury of hired partisans. An anti-English spirit, flinty, morose, and malignant, pervaded their whole conduct, which assailed every thing dear to the Englishman, and from which he recoiled in disgust and disdain.

Abroad, their patronage of liberty was coupled with relentless hostility towards almost all established go vernment. In addition to espousing the cause of disaffection and rebellion, they continually declaimed against friendly monarchs as despots. On the one hand, this covered them with the animosity of every ally, and almost every foreign power; and on the other, it produced the conviction in the nation, that as Ministers, they could not do other than inflict all imaginable injuries on its foreign interests. It served as evidence that a Whig Ministry would be distrusted and detested by foreign

governments, and would give to Eng land both the character and the treatment of a common disturber.

By all this the Whigs gave every advantage to their opponents: they forced them into the right, and seized on the wrong themselves, in every matter. They conferred on the Tories the reputation of being the only men of business-the only cautious, practical, and wise statesmen. The Crown, the Church, the Aristocracy, various of the great trading interests, and the body of the community, were made by them almost the slaves of the Tory Ministers. All the latter required for preserving their invincibility, were the cheap merit of consistency, and opposition to Whiggism; with these they could do, or leave undone, as they thought good, in perfect security from the loss of power. In no time of distress and dissatisfaction was a Whig Ministry thought of; the Whigs had wholly incapacitated themselves for identifying themselves in such times with public feeling.

We repeat, that the same conduct will again produce the same fruits. In every party contest, the country is pretty sure to support the right. Those who are the most prudent, practical, and upright in personal character, who are the most disinterested and patriotic in creed, and who are the most closely identified with its feelings and interests, will have its favour, and be invincible.

At present, both the great parties are in harmony with each other, and in opposition to the country, on the points which more immediately affect public interests. The country entertains about equal dislike for both; but the advantage is on the side of the Whigs. The latter, in addition to this advantage, have the choice of ground and weapons.

As a Ministry, if the Whigs make no change of system, they will speedily be ruined; it will be utterly impossible for them to maintain themselves in office. The present system must prohibit the empire from knowing prosperity, and keep it generally in great suffering. So long as it may be adhered to, it must receive extension, and, by such extension, the suffering must receive continual augmentation. If a Ministry be bound by its policy to keep the community