594 OAN THE TORIES TAKE OFFICE AFTER ALL ? 



to uphold the laws and wherefore they are not to subscribe to 

 " things as they are." 



They may, indeed, deny the imputation of disloyalty. How then 

 comes it that we find them stimulating his Majesty to an act which 

 directly places him at issue with his people ? How does it happen 

 that these men are found playing a game which goes in some measure 

 to invalidate the influence which the King has hitherto possessed, 

 and which, indeed, he had deserved at the hands of his subjects ? 

 They are, we say, abusing the King's name for their own desperate 

 ends they are cajoling the monarch and at the same time trifling 

 with the people. The regal prerogative is sacred and let it be so 

 but it is not well that things sacred should be too often seen, lest they 

 lose that mysterious virtue which belongs to them, or which they are 

 supposed to possess ; least of all is it expedient in affairs of weighty 

 public moment to urge no better argument than prerogative against 

 a power which includes within itself not only prerogative but the 

 option of transferring it. 



But it is only fair to the Tories that the prevailing motives to their 

 present proceedings should be shewn. It has long been supposed 

 that the daily and weekly papers of this metropolis represent the true 

 state of public opinion and feeling in the country at large. That 

 they ought to do so we admit that they have done so we deny. For 

 the most part they have written to or at, and not for the people. The 

 rock upon which the Tories have now, or are about to split, is the 

 monstrous notion that by dividing the papers they have divided the 

 people. Their motto has ever been " Divide et impera," divide and 

 conquer ; and they have thought that by dividing " the fourth estate," 

 a clear passage might be obtained, through which they might lay 

 hold upon the third with secure impunity. It may be well both as a 

 hint for the present, and as a warning for the future, to state briefly 

 what tender mercy or what strange justice the Whigs have met with 

 at the hands of the independent " fourth estate." 



When the Whig Ministers took office four years ago, they laid a 

 plan of Reform before the House, which at once astounded the Tory 

 party, and delighted the people. It might naturally be expected, that, 

 during the early stages of this bill, the liberal portion of the press, in 

 accordance with its previouly expressed approbation, should have lent 

 the Ministers its support; and so, for a time, it did. But, immedi- 



