- 74 Notes for the Month. [FEB. 



in h. In our article of June 1827, upon the formation of that ministry, 

 we endeavoured to do justice to the claims of the Duke of Wellington, 

 and to the services which he has rendered to the country. The political 

 opinions of his Grace are in many points widely opposed to those which 

 we entertain, and to those which we believe, in this country, must even- 

 tually prevail : but the miserable fallacy of attempting to speak of him 

 as a mere " soldier," we treated with the contempt and indignation 

 which it deserved. We never doubted that the same mind which could 

 conceive the plans of the campaigns of Spain and Portugal, and see the 

 policy of assisting French credit in the affair of the loan after the treaty 

 of Aix-la-Chapelle, must be able to apply itself with vigour and advan- 

 tage to any subject which might be brought before it. We admit this; 

 and we feel the full value which the mere name of the Duke of Wel- 

 lington though it were only for the influence which that name will 

 have in foreign courts has, and must have, in the councils of the coun- 

 try. But still we do not believe that the Duke of Wellington is a fit 

 man at the present day to be prime minister of England To imagine 

 a campaign, and to govern a country, are distinct duties, and require dif- 

 ferent characters of ability. It is one affair to discipline a hundred thou- 

 sand soldiers ; and another to reign over twenty millions of free men. 

 The education of a military man is seldom of a nature to qualify him 

 particularly well for the discharge of public civil duties : his habits and 

 feelings still less frequently of a kind to make him popular in the execu- 

 tion of them. From the Duke of Wellington, the country may look 

 probably for a course of domestic policy, not widely different from 

 that of the late. Marquis of Londonderry : marked by the same valuable 

 firmness and vigour always in the work of repressing discontent j but 

 displaying a full share of the same facility, in occasionally exciting it. 

 And of the memory of the late Marquis of Londonderry, we shall 

 ever speak with respect. He had great and commanding qualities for 

 the situation which he filled ; and the triumphant ascendancy which he 

 maintained in that situation in despite of popular odium proves the fact. 

 But the day in which his qualities imposing as they were joined to 

 his policy, could be tolerated in England we believe, is gone. 



Then, if we turn from the view of the Duke of Wellington in power, to 

 the claims of Mr. Peel, the prospects of the country are not materially 

 improved. The personal competency of the candidates is not exactly 

 equal : but there are points, and unluckily most important ones, as to 

 which the effects of their administration upon the country will be the 

 same. Mr. Peel is the fitter man, perhaps, of the two for the office ; 

 though the least likely to obtain it. At home, there are circumstances 

 in which he will give satisfaction : he will be less the minister of the few 

 (against the many), than the Duke of Wellington, because he is, 

 for the purposes of government, better informed and better educated. 

 He knows that the eventual power is in the many ; and that to do them 

 something like justice is the easiest mode (and will soon be the only mode) 

 of ruling them with safety. Mr. Peel will rid us of that stain upon the 

 common sense and character of the country the offensive as well as 

 oppressive absurdity of " the Game Laws" that is, he will do this if he 

 can. He will render the Criminal Code of the country generally (the 

 Civil, he will not have courage enough to meddle with) intelligible to 

 the thousands who have to execute, and the millions who have to abide 

 by it as far as he can. He will tolerate some approach to the princi- 



