THE ELECTIONS. 107 



inculpation or mistrust. But by far the most conspicuous documents 

 submitted to the public in the past elections, are the several addresses 

 of Lord Stanley and Sir Robert Peel. They are signally distinct in 

 spirit and in style. Of the importance attached to the co-operation of 

 the noble lord, we cannot possibly discover a more striking test than 

 that avidity with which the organs of opposing parties have con- 

 structingly laid claim to his adherence. But the conduct of Lord 

 Stanley furnishes no precedent of casuistical effrontery. Can a states- 

 man of his singular importance hesitate one moment between the 

 everlasting strength of character, and the ephemeral advantages of 

 place ? If there be significance in language, then Lord Stanley's is 

 the earnest language of sincerity ; and we view his coalescence with 

 Sir Robert Peel as matter of confirmed impossibility. Lord Stanley's 

 speech at Lancaster, has engrossed the serious attention of the British 

 public. It has, perhaps, done more for the conciliation of the public 

 temper, than any similar address on any occasion equally momentous. 

 It is so happily fraught with all the topical considerations which 

 affect the interests of society at large, in the immediate crisis of the 

 constitution and the country, that there are few, however diverse their 

 political opinions, who can read it without reasonable hope and tem- 

 porary moderation. If the ministerial influence of England should 

 ensure the plenary fulfilment of the just and reasonable hopes pro- 

 pounded in Lord Stanley's view of national necessity, that moderation 

 must be lasting. There exists among the stedfast and reflecting por- 

 tion of the people, no absurd desire of a destructive policy. The pro- 

 gress of reform must not be artfully retarded by evasion ; the temper 

 of the nation will admit of no recurrence to the fictions of expediency, 

 of no unworthy artifices levelled at the popular delusion ; nor need 

 the active measures of amendment be advanced with indeliberate preci- 

 pitation. Lord Stanley's speech to his constituents is prominently re- 

 commended to the contemplation of the public by its measured and 

 precise significance. It comprises no fallacious ambiguities ; it pro- 

 vides for no unworthy refuge from the singleness of an explicit policy; 

 it claims no neutral ground between abuse and reformation, on which 

 the qualifying talent of apostacy may practise tardy treachery against 

 the people. It hits the happy medium between subservience and 

 dictation; it evinces that precious jealousy of reputation, which 

 places its possessor on the moral pedestal of personal integrity and 



