1828.3 Notes for the Month. 279 



Clowns who have made all the racket, and bantered the Pantaloon into 

 leaving his chair, jump into the best seat, shake hands, and are better 

 friends than ever ; and poor Lord Goderich walks about, holding the 

 flaps of his coat up, and looking to where his place was, with great 

 anxiety, without even a joint-stool to deposit his person upon, for his 

 pains ! 



The whole of this question, therefore, as it applies to the cause of 

 the dissolution of the late ministry, we believe we must be content to 

 abandon. We qualify, and explain away, until nothing very tangible on 

 any side is left. Mr. Huskisson says, that, independent of his quarrel 

 with Mr. Herries, " between the 2d arid the 26th of December, many 

 circumstances had occurred to impair the strength and shake the stability 

 of the administration :" some of which were notorious, others had come 

 to his knowledge in a way which precluded him from describing them.** 

 Lord Goderich does not deny that there were other causes operating than 

 that quarrel ; and it is a little strange that -with his reputation for can- 

 dour he entirely passes over the affair of his first resignation (when he 

 took office again) three weeks prior to that of the 8th of January, to 

 which, in his explanation, he so pertinaciously alludes. And Mr. Herries 

 says the quarrel never was the cause at all. Therefore, we must be 

 content to admit, that no necessary contradiction exists that the quarrel 

 spoken of was a cause, but not the only cause aud so get rid of the 

 dispute between the Master of the Mint, and the Secretary for the 

 Colonies, and the late Premier, whether it was, or was not the direct 

 cause of the dissolution of the late ministry. But the quarrel did exist-* 

 that fact, we cannot get rid of. Lord Goderich avowed, whether rea- 

 sonably or unreasonably, that he should break up the Cabinet upon it, 

 Yet Mr. Herries and Mr. Huskisson were inexorable. It was impossible-. 

 that they should continue to sit in the (old) cabinet together. And they 

 are sitting together, and explaining, together, in the (new) cabinet, at 

 the present moment. 



This change of purpose, then, must be accounted for : and we are 

 afraid that its explanation (of which the country has no glimpses yet) 

 belongs properly to Mr. Huskisson. Mr. Herries appears certainly to 

 have made considerable, and rather unintelligible, strides lately in the 

 way of importance : but he is on the safe side as regards the present 

 question. Whether he has been a firebrand, or a " sower of strife and 

 envy," we do not determine; but certainly in joining the present 

 ministry, he has given up no pledge. He put his place upon the rejec- 

 tion of Lord Althorpe as Chairman of the Finance Committee : and he 

 has carried his point : Lord Althorpe (and we very much regret it) is 

 not appointed. Mr. Huskisson though told distinctly by Lord Goderich 

 that his resignation must break up the ministry perseveres in offering 

 that resignation if Lord Althorpe' s appointment is not carried : the ap- 

 pointment is not carried : Lord Althorpe is not Chairman of the Finance 

 Committee : and Mr. Huskisson is still in office. 



Now, there may be some motive, or some juggle, here, unexplained, 

 which will exonerate all parties: but until that private history is made 

 apparent, enough is known, we are afraid, to do Mr. Huskisson's political 

 character very considerable mischief. It is an excellent virtue to have 

 the faculty of waving differences (particularly where it seems to be a 

 losing game the maintaining them) ; but it is a virtue which becomes a 

 vice when carried to too extended a degree. We are far from desiring 1 



