116 THE LATE AND PRESENT MINISTRY. 



least hesitation in asserting, that, for a considerable time to come, 

 this feeling of half-regret, half-mortification for Earl Grey's removal 

 from office, will retain no small hold on the public mind. The very 

 persons who may be influenced most by those political sensations, 

 will, we suspect, be least anxious to admit the fact, even to them- 

 selves ; for the class we speak of comprises those who are grateful 

 for the Reform Bill, if its provisions were duly followed up by the 

 parliament, without indulging in any anticipations of premature per- 

 i'ectability in government. The late administration was characterized 

 by a series of legislative frolics, that had not even the wretched 

 merit of being productive of a feeling higher than contempt ; and, 

 consequently, all that portion of the community (and it is not small) 

 whom half-and-half measures would content, seceded. The late ad- 

 ministration was also characterized by a series of legislative blunders, 

 that were not ridiculous, only because they were not less serious in 

 their effects ; consequently, all that portion of the community, (and 

 it is not small) whom half-and-half measures would not content, 

 seceded. Thus was the Grey cabinet a thing apart from the nation ; 

 perfectly isolated ; possessing the affections of none, the sympathy of 

 none, and above all, the respect of none. Here were negative evils 

 enough to scare any men less pertinacious of office, its emoluments, 

 and power ; and, when coupled with the systematic virulence of the 

 Tories, and the more than questionable indifference of the court, the 

 wonder is, not that that cabinet is now no more, but that it outlived 

 the carrying of the Reform Bill. 



This, we think, is an impartial and strictly correct view of the 

 question. The difficulty experienced by his Majesty and advisers in 

 the formation of the present ministry, such as it is, fully sustains our 

 hypothesis respecting the long retention of power by Earl Grey and 

 his colleagues. No body of men entrusted with the direction of pub- 

 lic affairs, ever had the opportunities of endearing their names to the 

 latest posterity possessed by the ex-ministers; none ever received one 

 lithe of the support from the people, properly so called ; and none 

 ever set so assiduously to undermine the fabric of their own reputa- 

 tions. Could any one have foreseen that the men who in 1831-2 

 were the idols, not of the populace, not of the rabble, not of the 

 swinish multitude, as the poor are politely designated, but of the 

 nation at large, of the entire country, of all grades and all classes 

 the class once Tories has long merged into a faction could any one, 

 we repeat, have supposed that these men., in so short a time, would 

 have witnessed the gradual decay, and at length, final extinction of 

 their popularity ? Sundry elections refute the notion that this revul- 

 sion of the public mind was sudden or instantaneous. The retrogres- 

 sion of the feeling towards ministers kept pace non passibus cequis, 

 but exactly, though in an inverse ratio, with the retrogression of mi- 

 nisters from their original principles. Every declination from the 

 basis on which they professed to stand, was attended by a corres- 

 ponding abandonment of their quondam supporters ; and it is the 

 painful sense of the difficulty of supplying their places that prevented 

 the resignation of the premier, and the presumed removal from power 

 of his colleagues, being hailed with almost universal rejoicing. 



