220 Notes of the Month. 



more of a juvenile, and has a very ambiguous reputation for good intentions. 

 As in the case of the ladies before mentioned, it is their interest to humbug 

 the third party ; but human nature will be human nature, and it is the bent 

 of human nature to do malignant things sometimes, though their folly be 

 apparent. The old one wishes to be sole ruler of the Tories and the younger 

 one aspires to the same distinction. If there be no asses' hoofs there are 

 numerous asses' heads at the command of both, and we all know that mortal 

 distillations might be prepared in such alembics. The knife too is ready, but 

 the fact of its being poisoned is known to both, and consequently its us'e is a 

 matter for nice consideration. The name of the potent fluid is, we believe, 

 Ireland ; and that it will be administered to one or other of them very shortly 

 is certain, and whoever tastes thereof losses all chance of Tory sovereignty. 

 It is said that the old one's olfactories can sniff Ireland, come in what guise 

 it may, and that instant rejection is the consequence. The proboscis of the 

 young one was equally keen for a long time, but we believe is now so blunted 

 that any dose would not come amiss. Our belief is that the old one wins. 



THE MYSTERIOUS ONES. In any calculations that one may enter into 

 respecting the approaching parliamentary conflict, one can by no means rest 

 satisfied as to what will be the conduct of Peel, Brougham, and Stanley. Of 

 the last let us speak first. He affords a striking example of that " vaulting 

 ambition which o'erleaps itself." Somehow or other he acquired a reputation 

 for extraordinary ability, the possession of which we, and a few others such 

 as we, denied him in the height of his celebrity. He was not the man to 

 suspect his own deficiency, and unfortunately his self-confidence was accom- 

 panied by the most unbounded contempt of abler heads than his own. His 

 arrogance met its reward. A season of difficulties arose, and instead of rising 

 superior to them he sunk to the level, if not below the level, of any quondam 

 functionary of his standing in the House. Still his family position, and that 

 aptitude for getting rid of any given amount of words, which so often acquires 

 distinction for the owner of that small-change faculty, preserved him from 

 oblivion and imbued many with a notion of his importance. Let us assure 

 his admirers, arid more particularly himself, that with all his adventitious 

 accessories he is, and must ever remain, a very mediocre personage. He has 

 had his day, such as it has been, and if he knows his own position correctly 

 he will be rather inclined to deepen into midnight the twilight that now sur- 

 rounds him, than to start into a fitful lurid notoriety again. Let him not for 

 a moment suppose that he retains .the capability of retrieving past errors as 

 Brougham unquestionably does, and which we hope he will speedily un- 

 questionably demonstrate. How he means to set about it is not very evident 

 at present. He can effect much good or much harm one way or the other, 

 and therefore must necessarily be regarded with anxiety. Reformers of all 

 classes do regard him with anxiety, but that feeling is by no means mixed 

 with the fears and suspicions that harass the Tories when cogitating on the 

 probable bearing of Peel for the future. Brougham never has been, and his 

 friends and enemies do not suspect that he ever can be, any thing but a Liberal, 

 and hence all Liberals must rest satisfied in that respect. But not so with 

 the ex-premier. It is difficult to say who are his friends beyond the few par- 

 tisans who would reap immediate advantage from his promotion to office. 

 Peel now is not the Peel of a dozen years ago, and there are not wanting 

 those among the Tories who fancy that the Peel of six months hence will be 

 a very different person from the Peel of the present moment or the fault 

 won't be his. Liberals of all shades are opposed to Toryism of any shade, 

 but there are Tories of several hues to whom Liberalism of a very unmis- 

 takable complexion is by no means repulsive, particularly when suffused with 

 the glow of office in perspective. Will the gentry then who are everlastingly 

 talking about the schisms of reformers, be ever unmindful of the fine philo- 

 sophy of the fable, wherein the cock says to the horse, " Don't let us tread 

 on each other's toes ?" 



