THE LATE AND PRESENT MINISTRY. 125 



to the treasury side of the house the moment there is the least 

 symptom of a division, no matter what may be the question in dispute, 

 are the most pitiable, but, at the same time, most strenuous backers 

 of the Exchequer man's fooleries. He repays their assiduity by 

 allowing them to make themselves conspicuously silly whenever they 

 have a notion that they have got something to say ; and hence Lord 

 Althorp is popular in the Commons. 



Though the present position of affairs in high quarters is any thing 

 but cheering, the public have attained the knowledge of a fraud 

 which never can be attempted to be imposed again. Lord Grey had 

 one note in the upper house, which he never failed to ring out as often 

 as occasion (and it was not seldom) required. " A Tory government ! 

 a Tory government!" was his incessant exclamation whenever he 

 suspected that his measures were not universally approved. In the 

 other house Lord Althorp echoed his master; and between them 

 they succeeded in creating an opinion, that the resignation of the 

 reformers would be the signal for Sir Robert Peel and his quondam 

 associates stepping into power. This cry of " wolf! wolf!" was kept 

 up to the last ; and the late premier shared the fate of the boy in the 

 fable, though the country did not. Now, supposing the converse of 

 this were to be tried on Lord Melbourne, we should like to know 

 what effect it would produce. "A Radical government" sounds just 

 as awful to a certain class as a Tory government did to another. 

 Though we deem extreme opinions on either side unwise ; if words 

 will produce effects, we say, that there is much less improbability in 

 the idea of the formation of an extremely liberal than of an extremely 

 illiberal administration. No one will deny that, exclusive of the 

 Tories, the opponents of ministers (generally speaking) in the lower 

 house exhibit much more mind and intelligence of every description, 

 and reflect the opinions of ten times a greater number of the people 

 than the swarms who opposed a revision of the infamous Pension 

 List, a repeal of the Septennial Act, of the corn laws, of the taxes on 

 knowledge, and dozens of statutes disgraceful to a state pretending 

 to be free. If, then, the cant of the Whigs be fully exposed (and 

 few, we imagine, can doubt it) relative to the Tories coming into 

 office, let them look to the other extreme, and make just and timely 

 concession to the wants of the age, without waiting to be forced to 

 surrender what they can make a grace of bestowing. This we can 

 say, however, without much fear of witnessing its refutation, that, be 

 the disposition of the government as liberal as it may, and be it never 

 so willing to comply with the wishes of the times, its councils must 

 be puling, its resolutions impotent, its conclusions despicable, and its 

 measures ludicrous, contemptible, and absurd, as long as Lord Mel- 

 bourne retains the premiership, and Lords Althorp and Palmerston, 

 and Mr. Littleton, keep their present, or, indeed, any situation under 

 him. It is folly to expect that Lords Brougham and Duncannon, 

 Mr. Rice, and Sir John Hobhonse can do their own business and 

 atone for the more than incapability of their colleagues. As for Lord 

 John Russell, he has made some good speeches, and, with the excep- 

 tion of Sir Henry Parnell and Sir John Cam Hobhouse, was, perhaps, 

 the most consistent person connected with Earl Grey's government; 



