280 Notes for the Month. [MARCH, 



to bind any man to the recollection of personal quarrels : and there are 

 even political professions, which we could bear to see (under peculiar 

 circumstances) left for a time in abeyance : but such changes must be 

 very uncommonly well-justified always ; and, above all, they must not 

 be repeated too often. Now, Mr. Huskisson's laudable desire to " serve 

 his country" r-is laudable but is so paramount with him, we are 

 afraid, that he could be content to serve it with "any body who 

 happens to be going that way !" " In sua movenza e fermo" as the 

 Italian maxim says of the windmill the right honourable gentleman 

 " turns, and turns, and turns (like Desdemona in the play) again:" 

 but still he seems only to " turn" upon a centre, and that centre-bit is 

 always place. We find him in place when Lord Liverpool is minister, 

 in alliance with the Duke of Wellington and Mr. Peel. In place when 

 Mr. Canning is minister, and Mi. Peel and the Duke of Wellington are 

 in opposition. In place again when Lord Goderich is minister. In 

 place when Lord Goderich is out, and the Duke of Wellington is 

 minister. In place if Lord Althorpe is Chairman of the Finance Com- 

 mittee. And in place when his Lordship is not Chairman of the Finance 

 Committee. But out of place all his habits of reconciliation and agree- 

 ment lie one way out of place, never. 



Now this is wrong : and, as Colman says of the inconvenience of a 

 hump-back, " You may bolster it, but you cannot set it right." Mr. 

 Huskisson will be a useful officer of the government. He has abundant 

 knowledge upon many important subjects of policy; and that know- 

 ledge he will bring as any essayist or speculator might bring it to 

 account. But the confidence of Parliament and of the country in his 

 political faith, and public principle we make the declaration with regret 

 i-we fear, the events of the last six weeks will have destroyed for ever. 



We can hardly conclude without adding one word upon the late speech 

 of Mr. Huskisson at Liverpool, out of which so much discussion has 

 arisen : and upon the disputed passage containing the allegation that the 

 speaker had obtained " guarantees" from the present government for the 

 free course of the policy which he had been accustomed to support ; tli? 

 whole of which is now disposed of as an " error of the press." We are 

 content to give every gentleman who speaks in public so much at least 

 of allowance or justice, that we will prefer his 'own statement of that which 

 he said (or meant to say), in all ordinary cases, to the account furnished by 

 the most able reporters. But nevertheless we should be sorry to have the 

 reports of the London press hastily impugned : first, because we are 

 fully convinced that they are almost invariably correct ; and next, 

 because they present the only means, by which, upon the most important 

 subjects as, for instance, the explanation which Mr. Huskisson gave at 

 Liverpool the public can possibly obtain information. 



It is worth while, therefore, to observe, that the error committed 

 here (if it was an error) is extremely trivial in its effect : and, that 

 which is still more, that the setting it right leaves Mr. Huskisson's 

 declaration wholly destitute of value ! The right honourable gentle- 

 man's own account of what he said at Liverpool, as repeated by him 

 in the House of Commons on the 18th of February, is this. He said, 

 according to his explained version, that, ' ' before he consented to form 

 part of the present administration" (that of the Duke of Wellington), 

 " he had sought for explanations, in respect of principles, as well as 

 impending measures, of the general policy of the administration : and, 



