The Wellington and the Grey Administrations. 629 



attempts on the part of nations. But there can be no doubt that the 

 Polignac ministry were in the league, that the famous " ordinances" 

 were the commencement of an open declaration of the Metternich 

 system, and that the late French cabinet had only waited the success of 

 the Catholic question in England to make that declaration. The prin- 

 ciples of the league are popish. Rome is at its head, and its politics 

 are all constructed with a reference to the principle of keeping the 

 people in awe by the priesthood. We must leave the public to decide 

 for itself how far the concessions which placed the subject of the Pope 

 on an equality with the subject of the King of England, were influenced 

 by views beyond the borders of England. But this we know, that the 

 eyes of all the popish courts of Europe were fixed on the progress of 

 the measure, and that immediately on its completion Prince Polignac, 

 who had been stationed here as Ambassador to inspect that progress, set 

 off for Paris, where he was made Prime Minister, and where, from that 

 moment, preparations were set on foot for abolishing the French consti- 

 tution, and bringing the principles of the Metternich league into full 

 activity. 



But let him be tried on his domestic polity. What class of the British 

 empire has the Duke of Wellington's ministry, unlimited as it was for all 

 his purposes, brought over to his side? Has it won the Irish Pro- 

 testants? They load him with the heaviest hatred. Has it won the 

 Irish Catholics ? They libel him by the hour, scoff at his conciliation, 

 and charge him with having given up to fear, what he would never have 

 given up to policy. How stands he with the Commercial Body of Eng- 

 land? They point to their decaying trade. How stands he with the 

 Agriculturists ? They point to their burning farm-yards. How is he 

 received by the Country ? They have thrown out all his adherents at 

 the elections. How by London ? Dares he ride through its streets to 

 Guildhall even under the protection of his own police ? How stands he 

 with the Tories? They shrink from him. How with the Whigs? 

 They have turned him out. And thus flourishes in public opinion the 

 Wellington Administration ! 



Religious men remark that from the time of his forcing the Catholic 

 Bill on the country, all the minister s measures have been luckless ; that 

 he has stumbled on from blunder to blunder ; that the country has been 

 going down ; and that the first feeling of national joy has been in the 

 utter rejection of the military minister ! 



Europe is still in confusion, but we have to rejoice that we have got 

 rid of a man in whom we had no trust, and who, to the most hazardous 

 passion for engrossing all power, added its most disastrous and luck- 

 less employment. We must have no more soldiers roughly attempting 

 to be statesmen, and bringing the principles of the Barrack into the 

 Council-room ! 



Of the men who have succeeded the pro-papist cabinet, we can yet 

 say nothing. We have no love for Whiggism. But the Tories of the 

 last administration so utterly disgraced the name, that we defy any 

 Whig in existence to do worse. At least the public will gain something 

 by the change ; there must be some retrenchment, there must be also 

 some purification of parliament. From their predecessors nothing was 

 to be expected but additional burthens, foreign disgraces, and domestic 

 dangers. Lord Grey is luckily no Field-Marshal, nor Lord Goderich a 

 Quarter-Master-General! We shall have probably less military arrogance, 



