124 THE LATE AND PRESENT MINISTRY. 



Men who are accustomed to look upon politics, not as a question 

 of the party-squabbles of the day, but as a test of the state of the 

 great thermometer of opinion, (and there are many such), will, per- 

 haps, be inclined to regard the present aspect of affairs in the same 

 light that it is looked upon by the self-willed but sagacious member 

 for Oldham. When his prejudices do not interfere with his judgment, 

 few men can pronounce with greater accuracy on matters offered than 

 the honourable gentleman, He says that it is perfectly immaterial who 

 is minister and who is not who is in office and who is out; that the 

 cause of the people is equally safe in the hands of one party as in those 

 of the other, for that without concession to the demands of the people, 

 no government can be carried on in England; and that Whig and Tory 

 have become so diluted and amalgamated, that the distinction exists 

 but nominally, and should not occupy the attention of the nation a 

 single hour. We are disposed to admit the truth of all this ; nay, we 

 go further than Mr. Cobbett, and assert, that government is not 

 capable of proceeding a single step without the concurrence of the 

 people. But, though we admit this, and though we also admit the 

 difficulty of choosing men calculated to the emergencies of the occasion, 

 yet it surely cannot be contended, that all England cannot supply a 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer less oafish that Lord Althorp ; a Minister 

 for Foreign Affairs less ignorant, frivolous, or unsteady than Pal- 

 merston ; and, above all, a man suited to manage Ireland less parrot- 

 prattling-headed than Mr. Littleton. If the places of these worthies 

 cannot be suppled, then, we say, that a Wellington administration 

 would have been just as acceptable to the nation at large. Blunders 

 through downright incapacity, at least, would not be perpetually 

 recurring under such a leader ; and the country would have the 

 satisfaction of knowing that the government understood itself. But, 

 it will be said, that the Commons are desirous of retaining Lord 

 Althorp as their principal in the lower house. Need we wonder. 

 Any half-witted gentleman, who has got a crotchet in his head, no 

 matter how absurd, may hold forth by the hour, and prose, and re- 

 prose, and dogmatise, about nothing, or any thing, as the case may 

 be, with the full concurrence of the good-natured member for 

 Northamptonshire, who leaves the business of the county to get on as 

 it may. Is not the public mind stuffed to surfeiting by the countless 

 projects with which the time of the house is wasted in discussion ? 

 Bills on omnibus-driving, ginger-beer drinking, pie baking, and 

 duelling, and Heaven knows what beside, are the orders of the day ; 

 and if Lord Althorp be asked, why no business is done, he gets up 

 and says, " Surely, honourable members will give me credit for good 

 intentions ;" and a volley of cheers rewards the sage declaimer. The 

 more we reflect on these things, the more fully persuaded do we feel 

 that the public have no reason to congratulate themselves on the slight 

 change the cabinet has undergone in the removal of Earl Grey. The 

 ministerial majorities in the lower house (in the upper there are none) 

 exhibit a catalogue of the most unideal, unthinking, and frivolous 

 personages that ever sat in St Stephen's. It is true there are many 

 names to be found in favour of government measures that would save 

 even Lord Althorp from contempt ; but the herd who scamper off 



