THE MINISTRY AND THE PARLIAMENT. 117 



passing, resounded with vehement denunciations by the Whigs in 

 office and the Whigs in parliament, not only of those who imme- 

 diately inflicted on Poland her flagrant and manifold wrongs, but on 

 those also in this country who were accessory to the infliction of those 

 wrongs. Triennial Parliaments is well known to have been a stand- 

 ing toast at every Whig festival, as well as a topic in every Whig 

 harangue to the mobocracy, ever since the faction had an existence. 

 The propriety of repealing the assessed taxes and the malt tax, and 

 of effecting the other objects referred to, are equally well understood 

 to have been essential parts of Whiggery. 



How ministers and the parliament attempt to justify to their own 

 minds this glaring apostacy from their principles, we know not, nor 

 is it material to inquire. One thing is plain that no sophistry, 

 however refined, will ever satisfy the people that they have not been 

 grossly betrayed by them. 



To the abandonment of principle with which ministers and the 

 parliament are chargeable, is to be added the crime of ingratitude. 

 Who placed Lord Grey and colleagues in power ? Who secured the 

 passing of the Reform Bill ? And who put our present representa- 

 tives, if so they must be called, into Parliament ? The people. And 

 for all this they are rewarded with a scornful rejection of their peti- 

 tions, with a haughty refusal to forward the objects most dear to their 

 hearts. This is ingratitude with a vengeance ; but a day of reckon- 

 ing will come : if the signs of the times be not delusive, it is not far 

 distant. 



So long as the ministry and their Whig supporters had an object 

 to be gained, and which could be gained most conveniently by the 

 people, or not at all without them, so long the people were the god 

 of their idolatry ; but the moment they fancied themselves secure in 

 their places, they practically repudiated all connexion with the mil- 

 lions, and paid the most servile and ignoble court to the Tory aris- 

 tocracy. Every day of Lord Grey's ministerial career has afforded a 

 fresh illustration of this. His lordship individually, and his cabinet 

 collectively, have submitted to acts of obsequiousness which every 

 manly mind would spurn at, with the view of ingratiating themselves 

 with the most influential of the Tories in both houses. 



And with what success have all these efforts at conciliating the 

 adverse party been made by the Grey administration ? Why, their 

 approaches have been met precisely in the way they deserved. 

 Their treatment has been of the most cavalier kind. They have been 

 laughed to scorn by the persons to whom their homage was offered ; 

 the Tories have, as if instinctively, shrunk back from their advances. 

 They seem to think there would be pollution in the contact. There 

 are symptoms at this moment of a disposition on the part of Ministers 

 and their friends to throw themselves again into the arms of the peo- 

 ple. Will the people receive them ? Not they. They have been so 

 deceived and betrayed already, that they have not now a particle of 

 confidence to repose in them. 



It is urged by the apologists of Ministers, that the reason why they 

 have done so little, is, because of the obstacles interposed by the To- 

 ries. It is, of course, meant to be inferred, that the reason why they 



