[ 222 ] [AuG. 



NOTES OF THE MONTH ON AFFAIRS IN GENERAL. 



That wretched creature Lethbridge has given up Somerset. THere 

 is justice for apostates even on this earth ; and scorn and disappoint- 

 ment have been the first reward of those who swallowed their words, and 

 voted for what Peel had at once the hardihood and the folly to term 

 a " breach of the Constitution !" Lethbridge stands no more for the 

 county which he represented when he was an advocate for the Pro- 

 testant Constitution; always a clumsy, a vulgar, and a blundering 

 advocate, we must allow ; but still we passed over his foolery for the 

 sake of what we supposed his sincerity. But the time of trial came, 

 and showed what a miserable creature he was. However, now let him 

 hide his head where he can : for he will not be suffered to hide it in 

 Somersetshire. " Sic pereant." So sink every man of that set, who, 

 after years of vehement protestation, suddenly abandoned every pledge, 

 and kissed the dust at the feet of the minister. 



And one of the pleasantest parts of this retributive justice is, that 

 those men have got not one iota of the good things of government ; not 

 a peerage, nor a baronetcy, not a knighthood. Their virtue has been 

 its own reward and a more fitting reward it could not have. They 

 have been turned out of their seats ; and the best and the worst we 

 wish them is the perpetual consciousness of their fall ! 



After " all the difficulties started against the new street from Waterloo 

 Bridge to the North Road, there is now some chance of its completion. 

 Sir J. Yorke has lately presided at a meeting of the Waterloo Bridge 

 Directors, in which they came to the resolution of advancing 5,000. 

 for the beginning of the work. The estimate is 43,000., of which 

 Government have offered 25,000, and the Duke of Bedford gives 

 4,000. His letter to the Chairman expresses his gratification at the 

 probable completion of the opening. The street is to lead up through 

 the former site of the Lyceum to Charles- street, and thence by Gower- 

 street to the New Road. But this must be a work of time. The imme- 

 diate improvement will go no farther than Charles-street. The Duke 

 of Bedford's politics are not calculated to do him honour with the coun- 

 try. But it is only justice to acknowledge that he is a friend to public 

 improvements ; and that he lays out his money readily where the fair 

 opportunity of public good is shown. The new street will doubtless 

 increase the value of his property in the neighbourhood j but it is not 

 every great proprietor who has the sense to see even his own interest in 

 such efforts. And the Duke deserves the credit of good sense, and even 

 of generosity, on this occasion, as indeed he has done in many others of 

 the same kind. 



We have at length got rid of the Parliament, for which we thank the 

 stars ! We have got rid of the Parliament, that compound of lofty pro- 

 mise and beggarly performance, of insolent dictatorship and paltry 

 intrigue, of boasted defence of the Constitution, and abandonment of all 

 the objects for which, as Englishmen, we can feel any value ! What has 

 the Parliament effected ? Nothing. It had promised a revisal of the 

 Criminal Laws. What has it done there beyond compressing a multi- 

 tude of foolish and useless old statutes into a mass of foolish and useless 

 new ones? It promised a reduction in the public burthens. But the 

 subject is taxed not a shilling less than he was at its commencement ; for 

 the apparent abolition has always been followed by some compensating 

 burthen. It promised to extinguish the abuses of the Pension list 



