ULTRA RADICALISM. 33 



of him,) credit for a willingness to look at every measure wholly and 

 solely with reference to its intrinsic worth arid fitness for the existing 

 condition of society. 



We deem the present Cabinet men of principle,, but we consider them 

 to be influenced by some portion of the Ultra Tory fanaticism. Sin- 

 cerely liking and respecting them, we have nothing of severity, much 

 less bitterness, to say against the party, and shall not scruple, there- 

 fore, to fix upon the noble Premier himself, as exhibiting, what we 

 deem their essential imperfections. It is quite enough for us, that 

 Earl Grey once deliberately avowed himself unable to view any poli- 

 tical measure without reference to the interests of his order. This 

 nobleman is a man of thoroughly tried principle and consistency ; 

 and being too old in politics to have a new leading opinion to adopt, 

 and too wary and self-possessed to utter a sentiment on the mere spur 

 of the moment, we confess ourselves widely at variance with him in 

 political principle. The notion of a titled and privileged class, upon 

 any other ground, and with any other object than the common good, 

 is to us an insufferable heresy ; nor can a man, endowed with such 

 an intellect as Earl Grey, be deemed, we think, less than incurably 

 and damnably* unsound, for uttering a sentiment in exception to the 

 absoluteness of general interests. Evil, we think, ought to be, and evil, 

 we prognosticate, will be the day, for the English Nobility, when it 

 shall contumaciously insist upon maintaining any privileges of its 

 own without due regard and deference to the essential principle of 

 their origin, in the spirit, if not always in the letter of Constitutional 

 Law. The golden calf of such wilful and invincible idolatry will assur- 

 edly be broken and pounded into dust, although, as we devoutly hope, 

 the idolaters, with their families, may not be swallowed up in the 

 yawning abyss of a political earthquake. 



Upon casting our eye over the names of the present ministers, we 

 cannot single out one, to be entirely trusted, as free from the Grey 

 heresy, except Sir John Hobhouse. Of this man we entertain not the 

 slightest suspicion. We cannot praise him for discretion towards the 

 Westminster Electors. We think he has treated them with a pre- 

 sumption and levity quite preposterous. How he would deem him- 

 self justified in flying off at a tangent, as he has done, from the circle 

 of his old political professions, the moment his former supporters 

 applied the test which he used to glory in being subject to, is more 

 than we can account for ! We have no notion of the honour of repre- 

 senting a constituency, over particular in prescribing opinions on 

 questions still in a debatable state. But Sir John Hobhouse had li- 

 terally no pretensions but those derived through his former pledges, 

 to the representation of Westminster. Old service, though it will 

 support a just claim to reward, is not always admissible as a plea for 

 future employment. The man who has hitherto served us faithfully, 

 may be justified, in some instances, no doubt, for refusing to solve 

 doubts of his future trust-worthiness. But if ever there was an 

 exception to the propriety of such scrupulousness, Sir John Hob- 



* Damnably, in the classic and controversial sense.. 

 M. M. No. 85. D 



