Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

in distress if it be restricted from removing the sources of loss and want, and compelled to multiply them, it is impossible for it to stand for a moment, save through the support of an Opposition.

If the Whigs enter office, and make no change, how will they be circumstanced? The country is filled with misery and discontent; and, instead of being able to remove, they will be compelled to increase them. Their puerilities touching retrenchment and the reduction of taxes will avail them nothing, because these are incapable of yielding any sensible relief. Not a single leading public evil can they attempt to remove; all their measures must be unpopu lar ones, and calculated to array against them the most powerful interests. And they will have to encounter a potent opposition, which will have the advantage of argument, and be supported by the country at large. A large part of the present ministers will back out of their creed, and their supporters will be relieved from silence. In such a state of things, it would be utterly impossible for the Whig Ministry to endure, saying nothing of other matters.

The formation of such a Ministry, to act on the present system, would at once give to party warfare the proper character; it would make such warfare turn on the real nature of principles and measures. The Whigs in late years have rested their hopes of office on supporting government; but if the present Ministers lose it, their hopes of regaining it must stand on general opposition. The currency, the free trade laws, the relief and defence of the landed and other interests, would form the topics of contention; the Opposition would take its ground on public interest and feeling, and it would be irresistible.

As an Opposition, if the Whigs act as they have done, they will only uphold the Ministry and destroy themselves. Nothing, in truth, could be more ridiculous and vain than for a body of men who profess to agree with the Ministry in essentials, and especially in those on which the country differs from it, to stand forward as its regular opponents.

[ocr errors]

Here is the Jewish Question, on which we have already given our

opinion in the abstract. If the Jews, on the whole, be rather hostile than friendly to the measure-and such we believe is the fact-it is highly improper to press it. A change is attempted at the cost of the Church, in favour of which no public necessity or benefit can be pleaded, and which is distasteful to the only people whom it can serve. The Church must naturally infer, that its injury, and not the advantage of the Jews, is the real object of the Whigs; and it must throw its political weight into the scale against them.

Speaking with reference to party interests only, nothing could be more preposterous than the aggressive war which the Whigs wage against the Church. She must, and will, be supported by the aristocracy and the body of the country; and they must provoke the political hostility of both if they provoke hers. Iis hopeless for any party to triumph by heading the Dissenters against her in offensive hostilities, and it ought to be so. A Ministry should be a conservative body; and should never consist of men who would mutilate and undermine national institutions, fan the flame of religious strife, and aid such strife in producing the worst conse

quences.

By attacking the Church, the Whigs will do that for the Wellington Party, which its own efforts can never do; they will coerce the Church and country into the support of this party against them.

Here are Lord Milton and other Whigs assailing the corn laws. Let the body of Whigs support them in it, and they will make the aristocracy and landed interest their enemies from necessity; whatever dislike the latter may feel towards the Wellington Party, they must still support it; however they may wish for a change of ministry, they must still do their utmost to prevent the existence of a Whig one.

In the Greek business, the country at large takes no interest. This business, in all its changes of form," never varies its character for folly and iniquity. It began in plundering Turkey, and it is ending in plundering Greece. It was originally a wild crusade to give to the Greeks freedom and independence; and it is now a savage conquest over them, to

deprive them of the most sacred national rights, and hawk them about for a sovereign as something even below slaves. Here is a pretended independent nation, which is not suffered to have a voice in the defining of its own territory or the choice of its own monarch! In happy consistency with the whole, is the bungling portion which concerns Prince Leopold. The three great powers, without troubling themselves even to assert that they have a right to do it, and in utter scorn of the opinion of the people, fix the territories of Greece and offer its throne to a foreigner. The foreigner, who has not the smallest claim, instantly assumes all the airs of ownership, and insists, that with the throne, they shall supply him with a treasury and a portion of the dominions of Turkey. Because they will only suffer him to grasp the money, and refuse him permission to draw his own boundaries, he rejects the gift they offer, and seals them a-begging through Europe for a king for Greece.

On this business, the Whigs might take strong ground. They might ask, why, if the Greeks be competent to form an independent nation, they have not been suffered to manage their own affairs. They might protest against the right of the three powers to assign limits to their territory, and impose on them a form of government and a ruler. And they might make a stand against imposing on Britain the liability to pay the debts of Greece. They even might denounce the policy of forming a number of souls into an independent state, who are incapable of conquer ing their own territory, selecting their form of government and king, providing themselves with revenue, managing their general affairs, defending themselves in a word, of discharging the duties and obligations of independence. Instead of doing this, the Whigs are identifying themselves with all the folly and wrong, and labouring to give the matter the worst issue possible touch ing public interests.

What is the public feeling in respect of Portugal ? It is that the people have a right to choose their own form of government and sovereign, and that it is the duty of England to

attend to her own interests without mixing herself up in their broils. Year after year the interests of this country are neglected and sacrificed in relation to Portugal; and for what? Is it to plunge that nation into war and anarchy, or to enable the Brazilian emperor to deprive it of all national rights? Or is it to gratify pique and revenge in a personal war against the king? Nothing could be more foolish than the conduct of the Whigs on this subject. Granting that the Portuguese sovereign is what he is represented to be, it is still clear to all men, that in what he has done, he has had, not only the country's consent, but its assistance. His acts, in so far as England can take cognizance of them, are the acts of Portugal-they form no ground of quarrel; yet to be revenged on him the Whigs call for the sacrifice of public interests, and even the violation of national law and rights. The country does not participate in their folly; and it naturally asks itself whether a Whig Ministry would not light up general war by endeavouring to dethrone the King of Portugal.

Conduct like this must compel the country to support the Wellington Party against them.

In regard to affairs generally, if the Whigs as an Opposition only differ from the Ministry on petty points, in which the country takes little interest-if the difference reach no farther than trifling details of retrenchment, impracticable reductions of taxes, and minor points of foreign policy; and if in it they trample on public advantage, sacrifice practical good to abstract creed, and thwart, impede, and oppose merely for party gain; they will cover themselves with the contempt of the country. And if on important matters they support the Ministry-if when great masses of the community petition Parliament for relief from injury and suffering, they join in refusing it—if when the community at large calls for enquiry and remedy under distress, they combine with the Ministry to disobey the call-if they assist in forcing on the country perilous changes and innovations against its wishes if they aid in refusing to enquire into the operation of laws which are alleged to be destructive,

to remove evils and to redress wrongs -if they do this, they will cover themselves with the country's hatred. Such conduct will ruin them, and make the Wellington party omnipotent.

There is only one path which can possibly lead the Whigs to success; if they take it, their triumph must be equally certain and glorious.

An Opposition, to tread this path, must, in foreign policy, advocate the settlement of the Greek and Portuguese questions, on such grounds as public law and British interests prescribe. It must separate itself from romance, abstract visions, and foreigu interests; and labour to promote the weal of this empire by rational, practical means, and in an English spirit. When Ministers, in obedience to the existing system, of fer to surrender British monopolies to foreigners, or to give advantages to the latter, it must firmly withstand them; when they neglect to use the power and means which this country possesses for obtaining monopolies and advantages against its competitors, it must denounce their conduct.

The West India colonies are in great discontent and suffering. It must advocate such a settlement of the slave question as will meet their sanction, and such sober practical measures as will give them better prices for their produce.

The Canadas are in danger of being grievously injured by the concession of their West India trade to the United States. It must strongly oppose such concession.

The Colonial fisheries are distress ed and declining. It must state their condition, detail the benefits they are capable of yielding, and call for bounties, and other means of enabling them to contend successfully with their competitors, and to flourish.

It must oppose the monopoly of the East India Company, as being one enjoyed, not by this country against foreign nations, but by a few individuals to the prejudice of the community at large. And it must call for measures to encourage in the East Indies the production of various commodities which this country now buys of foreigners.

Great changes have been made in the commercial and monetary sys

tems of the empire, and the time, at any rate, has arrived when rigorous enquiry should be made into the fruits. The public feeling, as well as the public weal, imperiously demands such enquiry. Have these changes succeeded, or met with decided failure? Has the empire flourished, or declined, under them? The Opposition, instead of taking for granted that the dogmas on which they have been made are true, must ascertain how far their truth or falsehood has been established by expe riment; it must cast mere opinion to the winds, and call for demonstra tion.

Agriculture is in great suffering; and, disregarding abstract creed, it must enquire impartially into the causes. It must, looking at every article of produce, ascertain how far the present laws yield that protection to the agriculturists which is essential for preserving them from loss and suffering, and advocate sound measures for giving them prosperity.

The shipping, and many other interests, are distressed; and it must act towards them in the same man ner. It must not be the partisan, but, on national grounds, it must receive facts, scrutinize causes, and support the approved means for removing evils and creating prosperity.

Various counties are suffering severely from excess of labourers and pauperism. It must endeavour to apply a remedy, not by mutilating and making experiments on the Poor Laws, but by the rational means of removing the excess. The influx of Irish labourers does great injury to the body of the working classes and the payers of poor-rates; it must endeavour to prevent it, by provi ding such labourers with employment on their waste lands at home, causing them to emigrate to the colonies, and compelling Ireland to maintain her own poor. A vast part of the labouring orders are enduring great misery from inadequate wages; it must investigate the sources of such wages, and call for the proper remedies.

With regard to the currency, it must examine its working, and collect facts to discover whether the charges against bank-notes, and the praises bestowed on gold, be true or

erroneous. It must insist on comprehensive enquiry, and the adoption of the measures which the result of such enquiry may prescribe.

In church matters, this Opposition must make itself the friend and protector of the Church as well as of the Dissenters. It must, in alliance with her heads, assist her in accomplishing such necessary reforms, as will relieve her from odium, render her general clergy more efficient, and increase her popularity and stability. When she is slandered, it must vindicate her; when she is unjustly attacked, it must defend her. It must cultivate peace between her and the Dissenters, keep both as much as possible from party politics, and restrict both from attempting vicious encroachments.

It must on all occasions labour to protect and promote the interests of religion and public morals.

Were an Opposition to act in this manner, it would, on most important points, range itself against the Ministry on unassailable national grounds; the support of the country would render it irresistible, and, as a Ministry, the success of its measures would give it the confidence and popularity requisite for enabling it to crush every enemy.

We are not saying what the Whigs will do, or what they ought to do.

Our object is merely to shew the state of parties, and to point out what will flow from the course they may decide on. That they will cast from them the golden opportunity for retrieving their character, and obtaining power, is pretty certain; if they even be not compelled to do so, their past madness almost demonstrates that they will do it from choice.

But whatever course the Whigs may take, the country can scarcely fail of benefiting largely from their acting as a regular Opposition. If they do not take the right one themselves, they will in time drive the Ministry into it. Let the war be fairly commenced, and one of the belli gerents must make its stand on public interest and feeling. Its weak ness on some points will compel it to court public support by sacrifices on others; its interest will lead it to place itself under the direction of the country.

In this state of things, it is evident ly the duty of all patriotic men to disregard names, to look at creed and conduct alone, and to make their support depend solely on merit. Instead of being again degraded and trampled on as the instruments of party, let them, in conjunction with the country, control and direct it.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR.

SIR,

My aunt Adelgitha Penelope Smith was a most worthy old lady; and her memory will long be held in respect, in consequence of her various good properties; but more especially for the inflexible resolution with which she defended herself against the attacks of a legion of lovers, and, at length, departed this life, leaving many grounds of consolation to her relatives. Yet, during her valuable life, she lived not for herself alone. She was kind to the poor, and supported a school for their children, which was holden daily in a small building, in the roof of which dwelt an aged favourite, whose habits and temper, in his latter days, rendered him an unfit companion for her boudoir, wherein he had whilom spent much of his time. The animal, thus banished from society, became morose and ascetic, which we should not have wondered at, had we been aware that he had taken to scribbling, a propensity which commonly leads the victim thereunto to believe himself a very important animal, whatever other people may think or say to the contrary. So-there he seems to have sat, "alone in his glory," profiting by the instruction of the schoolmaster, and hugging himself, according to the manner of his kind, in the belief that he was inditing what would

astonish the world.

It was my lot to discover his papers, which have been sadly nibbled by the mice; and I forward you two or three of the most perfect sheets, thinking that they may be found to contain matter quite as important as the "Reminiscences" of certain bipeds which have lately been given to the public. I am, Sir, Your most obedient servant, J. SMITH.

Christopher North, Esq.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

THE REMINISCENCES OF AN OLD MONKEY.

For the last few days I have felt myself extremely uncomfortable. My appetite has failed me, and I have been troubled with unpleasant dreams and strange fancies, both by day and night. Why is this?" I ask myself," what can the matter be? I cannot surely be in love in my old age?" Oh, no! The years of such pleasing folly have long since past, and all the gaieties and frolicsome pranks of my youth are but as a dream. I recall them to memory alternately with a smile and a sigh; and, as I sit and mumble my nuts in solitude with my few remaining teeth, and view the grey hairs which cover my emaciated and shrivelled frame, I find it difficult to imagine that I am the same monkey that was once the life and soul of every party. And as for love-even if my years did not exempt me from the torments of the tender passion, who could I be in love with? I have often felt a conviction that I am the only survivor

of my race; and love cannot exist without hope!

Of this latter truth I was long since convinced, by an adventure which befell me in my voyage from India to Europe. The ship in which I was a passenger, or rather a prisoner, stopped to take in a supply of water, and was, as I then thought, very fortunately, becalmed. The face of the country was altogether too tempting to be withstood, and I made my escape to the shore, where I roved and revelled for many hours in all the luxury of newly recovered liberty. But, when evening drew near, I felt a painful sense of loneliness, and was beginning to wish myself again on shipboard, when my eyes were ravished by the sight of one of the most beautiful creatures I had ever beheld. She was sitting upon the bank of a small rivulet, with her elegant tail gracefully spread in a circle upon the ground close around her, so as to appear as though she was

« ПредишнаНапред »