STATE OF PARTIES.
A.D. 1839
It has been noticed in a previous page that the relative strength of the two great parties in the country continued much the same as they were at the commencement of the year 1837. The Whigs, indeed, gained by the change which had taken place in the monarchy, inasmuch as by the death of the late king they were delivered from an avowed adversary, and by the accession of Queen Victoria they gained a known friend to their cause. The ministers, indeed, found considerable advantage in her support. Yet in the house of commons the number of’ their supporters had upon the whole rather decreased since their accession to the government; and in the country generally their popularity may be said to have continued on the decline. One of the principal grounds in this change is to be found in the connection of government with the agitator O’Connell. Although that gentleman had rendered many services to the cause of reform, yet his delinquencies were so many, that he never enjoyed the sympathy of any considerable mass of the English people. Moreover, popery, of which he was one of the leaders, is still unpopular in this country, and the Conservatives sedulously took advantage of the connection of the ministers with him to raise apprehensions of Romanist intrigue and encroachment. This was, therefore, a great source of embarrassment to the ministry; and yet they could not offend this man of the people of Ireland by standing aloof from him. Another cause of embarrassment was the movement of the people calling themselves Chartists.