THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE f 



OP 

 POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND THE BELLES LETTRES. 



VOL. IX.] APRIL, 1830. [No. 52. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT. 



THE proceedings of the British Senate the name at least is lofty- 

 have only confirmed all our opinions. Some of our contemporaries had 

 conjectured that the Horse-Guards' Ministry could not stand ; that the 

 palpable mediocrity of all its component parts must sink it that a 

 British King would grow weary of throwing the public respect for the 

 kingly character, as a shield, between an insulted people and an apostate 

 cabinet, and that the good name of Parliament itself would be redeemed 

 by some act of that indignation, which in such times belongs to justice 

 and virtue. 



We, on the contrary, pronounced that all this theory was Utopian ; 

 that every measure of the cabinet would be carried ; and, utterly scorn- 

 ing the official ability of Ministers, utterly hating their principles, poli- 

 tical and personal ; and burning upon them the deepest brand of 

 ignominy for that one odious measure of tergiversation, duplicity, and 

 apostacy, by which they have made themselves memorable for ever 

 in the history of a protestant people ; we said, unhesitatingly, that the 

 Ministry would stand. 



The vices of a cabinet may produce its own dissolution. Or, the most 

 eager ambition will sometimes grow ashamed of reaching its height by 

 steps of ignoble materials. The pride of the chief incendiary may revolt 

 from the use of vulgar evil, fling away the reeds and twigs that every 

 marsh could have cheaply furnished, and feed his flame with more costly 

 sustenance. The great leader may at length disdain the miserable mob that 

 he drives into the breach as food for the sword, and feel that the honours 

 of the conquest will be tarnished by such contemptible associates of the 

 toil. But we expect no such things ; for there may be ambition without 

 dignity, pride without delicacy in its choice of means, and the haugh- 

 tiest determination to carry things in the last resort by force, coupled 

 with the most crouching readiness to avail itself of the most paltry con- 

 trivances. It is not in the page of poetry alone that the master spirit 

 of ruin extinguishes his kingly shape and stature, squats down into the 

 toad, and insinuates his evil in dreams into the sleeping ear of vanity 

 and folly, to spring up a giant armed. The page of politics has 

 exhibited the whole process in every age. We have there the whole 

 picture of the haughty aspiration and the mean compliance, the thirster 



M.M. New Series. VOL. IX. No. 52. 3 B 



