"With Avito Honore would Wortley turn tail,
To his Præsto Et Persto is Binning untrue?
Could the Sperno Timere of Somerset quail,
Or a Ripon with treachery blot Foy Est Tout?
Could the princely Buccleuch
Stoop the star-spangled blue
Of his Bellenden banner when Leaguers came on?
Proved the Lion a jest
On great Wellington's crest?
Did his Virtus exude at the shriek of Lord John?
VII.
"Arthur falter'd?—I'll swallow such inpudent flams
When the ears of the sow yield us purses of silk;
When there's no Devil's Dust in the Cotton Lord's shams,
And the truck-master's pail holds unmystified milk.
Not a Tory, I swear,
Will be forced to declare
In the face of the Nation's assembled Senatus.
That from duty he shrunk,
Or once felt in a funck
About Cobden, and Bright, and some rotten potatoes!
VIII.
"We shall see them again, even now or erelong,
Upon Wisdom and Equity taking their stand,
Calm, able, and upright, harmonious, and strong,
In peace and prosperity ruling the land.
Firm, faithful, and free?
What they say they will do—
No Right unprotected, no Wrong unredress'd;
While writers of Letters
And all their abettors
Stand in swaggering impotence caught and confess'd."
THE CRISIS.
The announcement that the Peel Ministry had resigned was received by us, as we believe it was by the nation at large, with feelings of sincere and solemn regret. We do not know that any Cabinet has existed within our memory whose retirement was wished for by so few, and deprecated by so many among all classes of men. We have doubted the policy of some of its measures, and more than doubted the propriety of others. But we have never ceased to respect the energy, the ability, and the honesty of the great men composing it; and have always felt that in those points on which we could not agree with them, they were entitled to a generous forbearance, due to their responsible and arduous position, as the ministers who have most strenuously and most successfully endeavoured to solve the problem, how the government is to be carried on under the Reform Bill. The disappointment of some expectations among a powerful and prominent part of their supporters had diminished the enthusiasm, and divided the feelings, of the party who mainly contributed to bring them into power. But, on the other hand, it should not be forgotten, that they equally disappointed the adverse expectations, and ultimately gained the confidence of a large, and not unimportant, portion of the country, who for years had been taught to believe, that the accession of Conservatives to power would commence a new era of warfare, oppression, profusion, and corruption. Let us look fairly at some of the practical and palpable facts of the case—at some of the most conspicuous features of public affairs, during their administration. Agriculture has flourished, and agricultural improvement has advanced in an unprecedented degree. Commerce has plumed her wings anew, and added other regions to her domain. Public Credit has been supported and advanced, and the revenue raised from an alarming and increasing depression. Peace has been universally maintained abroad, and agitation rendered powerless and contemptible at home. The Poor have been contented and employed, and not a murmur has been heard against the authority of the Crown, or the principles of the Constitution. These unmistakable results have been felt by all men, and all have confessed, in their hearts, that however they may have been offended with minor blemishes—whether by the short-coming, or by the excess of ministerial liberality,—the great purposes of government have been achieved by the ministry now dissolved, and they will frankly acknowledge with ourselves, that we shall not soon look upon its like again.
We know nothing of the causes that have led to this memorable and momentous event, except that apparently differences of opinion prevailed among the members of the Ministry in reference to the corn-laws. We shall not believe, until we hear it from their own lips, that any portion of the Cabinet have advocated any scheme fraught with danger and injustice to the best interests of the country: nor shall we indulge in any conjecture as to the real nature of the policy that may have been under discussion, where conjecture must be so vague, and where it must so soon give place to authentic information. We shall merely say, that any measure calculated to place agriculture and industry generally, in a disadvantageous and defenceless position, must have met with our unfactious, but firm, opposition. If ever the day should come, when protection, by common consent, were to be withdrawn, truth compels us to declare, that there is no one by whose hand we should desire to see that painful and dangerous operation performed so much as Sir Robert Peel;—not because we should be insensible to all the awkward and painful embarrassments of such a change of course; but simply, because we are bound to say, that there is no other man of whose knowledge, skill, and sagacity we have the same opinion. By none we think could the fall be so much broken, or the transition made so smooth, or so little injurious. Certain it is, that a measure of total and immediate abolition from the Whigs, incompetent and incapable as they have been proved, would be a calamity of which the magnitude can scarcely be estimated by the most gloomy imagination. We are far, however, from contemplating the necessity or possibility of such a policy from any Ministry whatever.