1830.] Proceedings of the British Parliament. 373 



to this foreigner no less a sum than 600,000/., we are to go on paying 

 this intolerable sum, year after year,, while he lives. 



So much for the wisdom of the choice ; so much for the economy of 

 the government ; and so much for the reviving influence of England 

 through the establishment of its notorious pensioner as a sovereign. 



That Prince Leopold should have been selected for the throne of 

 Greece has astonished every one. Of all the connexions of royalty in 

 Europe, no man had ever exhibited humbler pretensions to be intrusted 

 with the great concerns of states. His life here was utterly obscure ; 

 he lurked in perpetual privacy ; he took no part ' in public affairs ; he 

 took no interest in the country which was to him a hundred-fold worth 

 the land where he was born. Among the nobles he was, comparatively, 

 unknown ; among the people unseen ; to the nation a general stranger, 

 except in the matter of his receiving twice the pension of any member 

 of the blood royal. The caprice of Nature, that so often places the 

 crown of a brave or a good king on the head of an imbecile descen- 

 dant, was not here to account for the chance that has astonished Europe. 

 Yet the choice may not have been without a reason. There may have 

 been a settled system in the mind of individuals whom no man must 

 venture to name but with a prostration, unless he have the inextinguish- 

 able familiarity of an Irishman, or the privilege of a cabinet councillor. 

 That system may have been making a regular progress for the last few 

 years. Every anomaly of that conduct of public affairs which has 

 perplexed the wise, and irritated the great body of the nation ; every 

 extraordinary instance of hazardous concession, and every equally 

 extraordinary instance of the rigid exercise of power ; the whole 

 process of insidious retreat and haughty advance, of violence and cun- 

 ning, may have had a determined reference to one principle, and on 

 that principle the dismissal of Prince Leopold to take care of his own 

 concerns fifteen hundred miles off, may be accounted for. On this point 

 we say no more. Time will give the solution, and to time we leave it 

 for the discovery of the principle in its full action. 



The parliamentary proceedings have been signally unimportant on 

 the part of Ministers. The whole activity was on the side of oppo- 

 sition; and the striking and most gratifying circumstance in those 

 debates was, that this trial of ministers was not the exploit of Whig- 

 gism, but of those acknowledged friends of the Constitution who are 

 equally above the Treasury and the Whigs ; who equally scorn both, and 

 are looked on by both with equal alarm. Thus we have Sir Francis 

 Burdett battling for the moral principles of Mr. Peel, and the pliant 

 dulness of Mr. Peel's associates. The first debate of any interest was 

 a Whig attack on the Duke of Newcastle for ejecting some of his 

 tenantry who had broken their covenants with him, and had com- 

 menced dabbling in election affairs. The ludicrous part of the business 

 was, that the Whigs, the most notorious boroughmongers in the land, 

 and whose parliamentary influence is wholly dependent on boroughs, 

 should have suddenly felt their sensibilities thrown into agony by the 

 return of Mr. Sadler for a borough in the interest of the Duke of 

 Newcastle. The Coryphoeus on this occasion was Mr. Thompson. 



" Mr. Thompson was anxious that the petition should be referred to 

 a select committee, for several reasons, first, because the Duke of New- 

 castle did not pay to the Crown the just value of these lands ; secondly, 

 because he had used his influence in a manner injurious to the public ; 



