( fi ) 



STATE OF PARTIES. 



AT all times the interval between the termination of one parlia- 

 mentary session, and the commencement of another, affords a suitable 

 opportunity for inquiring into the respective weight and condition 

 of those political parties, by which the government of this country 

 has for years been directed, and must, in all probability be for the 

 future greatly influenced. Such an inquiry at the present moment 

 has more than common interest : in conducting it no source of error 

 appears more certain than that which would flow from an attempt to 

 judge of the future prospects of the great political bodies into which 

 the country is divided by a reference to their present position, for 

 that may have resulted from causes, the natural operation of which 

 must, at no distan period/' entirely change. It is the opinions of 

 these different parties and the measures, which either from principle 

 or policy they would effect, that in connexion with the feelings and 

 interests of each particular class of the community, can alone enable 

 us to judge of the relative strength and weight which each is likely to 

 possess, when the people shall have fully brought into action the force 

 of those privileges with which they have now began to be extensively 

 intrusted. The extensive variety of political opinions amongst all 

 classes consequent upon the agitation and success of the Reform Bill, 

 still renders public opinion in some degree unsettled and inconsistent, 

 but it must speedily merge in some general and standard deduction 

 from the great opposing principles which are professed by Ultra 

 Tories, Ultra Liberals, and Whigs : our present object is to examine 

 briefly, the existing situation and future prospects of each of these 

 parties. 



At first sight, the Whigs appear to possess greater advantages, 

 than ever before belonged to any political party. Their administra- 

 tion identified itself with the people by the introduction of the 

 Reform Bill, and by that means became a national body, Popular 

 inconstancy has always been a favourite topic of declamation, with 

 the enemies of the democracy, but popular gratitude, although it has 

 excited less attention, is not less remarkable, and there never was a 

 more striking instance of it exhibited, than in the conduct of the 

 people towards the Whigs at the general election, after the passing of 

 the Reform Bill. Much in the ministers' conduct, during the interval 

 between the introduction and final success of that great measure,|had 

 been calculated to excite distrust and dissatisfaction, but when the 

 moment came in which public confidence and the gratitude of the 

 people were to be tried, every thing was forgotten, save the signal 

 good the ministry had done ; and the only desire of the people ap- 

 peared to be, to repose power in the men who had promised to rege- 

 nerate the country. Many individuals attempted to prove the expe- 

 diency and necessity of exacting pledges, but they spoke in vain ; 

 the new constituency disclaimed to extort what they fondly imagined 

 would be freely given. It was in truth one of those great occasions, 

 when the feelings of the people, always just, and noble in their 



