104 NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



KING LOG v. KING STORK. Lord Aberdeen's particular and very 

 amiable friend Don Carlos, has conferred the honour of his dignified 

 presence upon the good people of Portsmouth. It is somewhat sin- 

 gular that Sir F. Maitland should have been the individual who re- 

 ceived Napoleon in the Basque Roads, after that dazzling luminary 

 had run his fitful career, and should also have the questionable honour 

 of now receiving the Spanish despot, under almost similar circum- 

 stances. The Spanish people, in throwing off the splendid despotism 

 of Bonaparte, shackled themselves with the despicable thraldom of an 

 embroiderer of petticoats, and thereby " gained a loss," as the Irish- 

 man remarked, when a coach run over his leg and did not break his 

 neck. They have now got rid of Carlos, and it will be well if in 

 putting away Log, they don't get Stork. Already has the queen 

 regent indicated what her notions of liberty are, in fettering the pub- 

 lication of opinion by all manner of restrictions on the press ; and this 

 one of the very first acts of the new government certainly does 

 not impress us with any very sanguine anticipations as to the cle- 

 mency that will be afforded to the slightest deviation from legitimate 

 subserviency and baseness. In Portugal the people had Stork for a 

 King him they have got rid of, and now have King Shark. Never 

 surely were people so plagued as are those of the Peninsula out of 

 the frying-pan into the fire is their only alternative ! 



PEACEFUL COMMOTION. The press is eternally harping on the idea 

 of silencing OConnell with a place under government. He has 

 wealth, political power, gratified vanity, and present and posthumous 

 fame : and yet it is contended that he would sacrifice all these, and 

 render his person hateful to his supporters, for the empty distinction 

 of being called Sir Daniel, and enjoying the emoluments of a judge ! 

 Ministers had the power to shake the hold of their dexterous opponent 

 on the passions and prejudices of his countrymen, by removing the 

 causes that have led the Irish to repose confidence in all who promise 

 to redress their wrongs. But what have ministers done ? they have 

 disgusted their most time-serving tools by a barefaced and insolent 

 avowal of their intention to renew the atrocious Coercion Act, and 

 have provoked the laughter and indignant scorn of every man in his 

 senses, by their criminally absurd demand for a commission to inquire 

 if the Irish Church is not what it ought to be. Their conduct, in 

 this respect, became nauseous even to themselves, so much so, that 

 splittings and divisions have been thenatural consequence. Ireland has 

 been the bitter drop in the cup of successive administrations, and has 

 been the ruin of this. Thus are the wrongs of that unfortunate scape- 

 goat of doating and empirical statesmen, made the avengers of 

 themselves. The Grey cabinet never can carry a motion for the 

 renewal of the Coercion Bill, and certainly cannot hold office if that 

 question be mooted at all. Success is out of the most sanguine hopes 

 of their most degraded followers, and failure entails unavoidable 

 resignation. In either case, the field for OConnell is open, and must 

 ever remain so while timidity, rashness, and irresolution, are the 

 component parts of a British ministry. 



