1828.] Notes for the Month. 173 



diate cause, was the admitted incompetency of Lord Goderich, and the 

 difficulty of finding any other person (with whom all parties would con- 

 sent to act) to supply his place. One other motive, or incentive, strongly 

 urged by a considerable authority the " intrigues of Mr. Herries" 

 seems to us open to an immediate answer. Is it credible that this Mr. Her- 

 ries of whose existence no creature ever heard until within the last six 

 months, as a political character is it likely that he should have had 

 force enough to turn out the whole ministry ? If such be the case, one 

 inference would seem to be nearly inevitable that Mr. Herries is a 

 much more powerful man than he has been supposed to be ? The 

 breach created by Lord Goderich' s secession is the more probable cause 

 of the two ; because it is perfectly well known that the impossibility of 

 adequately filling his lordship's office, was the only excuse for his ever 

 being appointed to it. All that was expected, even by his best friends, 

 was that he would be a ( ' mandarin" minister : content to stand quietly in 

 a certain position for the purpose of keeping out other people who it 

 was known would not be content to stand quietly in that position. As a 

 minister of finance, he had been tried he had been Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer : and the best that could be said of him in that post was, 

 that he had not done mischief in it. Of foreign policy he certainly knew 

 extremely little, and had no reputation for knowing any thing j and, 

 as a debater in the House, he was weak to puerility. But he had con- 

 nexion, and personal character, and popularity (at least to the extent of 

 being tolerated) with all parties ; and his political opinions, as far as 

 they went, were of the right school they were on the side of liberality. 

 Under these circumstances, he was raised to the premiership ; not 

 because asy body who knew him, even a little, believed that he could 

 do any thing in that situation ; but because it was thought that he could 

 maintain himself, by a certain good nature and unaffectedness, in the 

 dignity of it, while a good deal of the duty was allowed to devolve upon 

 other people. Unfortunately, this has not been the case; and Lord 

 Goderich, in his elevation, has accomplished even less than was expected 

 from him. His private worth will remain unimpeached ; but, as a public 

 man, his name must cease to be heard in this country for ever. That 

 both his capacity and his firmness were overrated slight as the estimate 

 was, put upon them is placed beyond doubt : and the mistake must 

 have been shared even by himself, or he never could have accepted the 

 office of first minister so soon, and under such disagreeable circum- 

 stances, to relinquish it. There are other political causes, besides the 

 noble lord's alarm or inefficiency, or the intrigues of Mr. Herries, stated, 

 and confidently, as having contributed to the dissolution of the late 

 ministry ; but a more material subject for our present discussion is, the 

 course of policy which the country has to expect from the administration 

 that is to succeed it. 



The understanding at this moment is pretty nearly universal, that the 

 new government is to be high Tory j and that the Duke of Wellington 

 and Mr. Peel are to be at the head of it : which of the two candidates is 

 to have the place of Premier is not yet known. Of the talents of both these 

 honourable persons, we have repeatedly spoken in the highest terms. 

 Political ability is not so abundant in the present day, that the country 

 should desire to fling away the benefit of any part of it ; and the only 

 circumstance which we regretted about Mr. Canning's administration, 

 was that they (doubtless from honourable motives) refused to be included 



