414 PUBLIC OPINION. 



prerogative, and though the time is gone by in which his speeches 

 were echoed, in the words of Bacon, " as the king's voice is the voice 

 of God in man ; " that the kingly office is still a most powerful one, 

 and that, as the high-priest of the constitution, the monarch ex- 

 ercises vast influence; and farther, that the Tories are numerous, 

 wealthy, intelligent, and closely banded together. Listen to what 

 Lord Melbourne says, and no one will deny that his position must 

 of necessity have made him familiarly acquainted with the subject: 

 " You will not," says his Lordship (in his answer to the Reformers of 

 Derby), "consider me as employing the language of complaint and 

 discontent, but rather that of friendly admonition and advice, if I 

 enumerate among the causes of the dismissal of ministers the want of 

 confidence expressed in quarters from which we expected support 

 the strong condemnation which has been pronounced upon some of 

 our measures, which I consider to have been absolutely necessary 

 the violent and subversive opinions which have been declared and par- 

 ticularly the bitter hostility and ulterior designs against the established 

 Church, which have been openly avowed by several classes and bodies 

 of Dissenters : when I mention the last opinion, I beg leave to say 

 that I do not condemn those who Conscientiously entertain it : it is 

 not my opinion but I mention it politically, and with reference only 

 to its actual effect upon the course of public affairs These sentiments 

 and this conduct occasioned great alarm in high and powerful 

 quarters: they terrified the timid they repelled from us the waver- 

 ing they rallied men around the institutions which they conceived to 

 be attacked and they gave life, spirit, and courage to our political 

 adversaries, who you must recollect, after all, form a very large and 

 powerful party in the country a party powerful in numbers power- 

 ful in property powerful in rank and station, and, allow me to add, 

 a party of a very decided, tenacious, unyielding, and uncompromising 

 character. You, gentlemen, I know, are stronger than they are you 

 are strong in sense and spirit you are strong in reason and justice 

 in instruction and inquiry, and in the general sympathy and fellow- 

 feeling of the community but you are not strong enough to be able 

 to afford to be disunited let me assure you of that. A party of very 

 inferior strength will ultimately be victorious, if it be conducted with 

 singleness of purpose and unity of action ; you are strong enough to 

 concede these advantages to your opponents whilst you subject 

 yourselves to the weakness which arises from division, dissension, and 



