342 The Coronation Oath, and the Cabinet. CArriz, 
mention this noble lord as one of the very dullest individuals that ever 
pocketed five thousand a year on the merit of his being a Scotsman. The 
merit has gone far in other times, but in Lord Melville it has gone be- 
yond any endurable length ; and we feel ourselves warranted in the 
conclusion, that if Scotland could not produce a duller person, England 
could at least find his equal in naval affairs, and the empire would be, 
by no means ruined, even if Lord Melville should be sent back to his 
native North, and be left to vegetate on his recollections of the integ- 
rity of his father, and his own popularity in the navy. - 
Then comes Lord Bathurst. This noble person is in exactly the same 
predicament ; and, after a salaried life of a quarter of a century, no man 
living can recollect any one public service of his—any trait of talent— 
any evidence of his being beyond the most common grade of clerkship. 
Lord Bathurst is, like Lord Melville, a mere cash-bag, for receiving so 
much per annum of the public currency. 
Then come the three secretaries of state. First, the foreign secretary, 
Lord Aberdeen. Who, on earth, knows any thing about Lord Aber- 
deen? He is a scribbler in the Edinburgh Review, he wrote some 
nonsense somewhere or other about sculpture, and he is. president of the 
Antiquarian Society—that learned body which meet to read abstracts — 
of the bricklayers’ bills of old London, write papers on Queen Elizabeth’s 
farthings, and publish memoirs on all the cobwebs of history. Worthy 
president of a worthy assembly. And this sullen and dull personage, 
one of the very “ weeds that grow on Lethe’s wharf,” is the holder of 
the office which is presumed to conduct the whole foreign diplomacy, 
the treaties, negociations, and wars of England with the world! This 
man is actually in the office which Canning held, which Castlereagh held, 
which Fox held, which a crowd of the first names of English history 
have held. And, yet, we are to be told that the world could not go on 
if Lord Aberdeen were to be kicked out of office !. 
Then comes Mr. Peel. But of this wretched being we will not permit 
ourselves to speak. Our hearts shrink at the mention of the apostate. 
Scorn has no word deep enough for the emotion that his very name stirs 
inus. He is undone: if he were to live for a thousand years he can ~ 
never wash away the name that his apostacy has earned for him. The 
best thing for him to do, is to fly from public life, and make his peace 
with Heaven ; for, by his country, he will be called apostate during his 
existence, and it will be the only title upon his grave. 
But, what are his abilities? Neither of the first, the second, nor the 
third rate. During nearly twenty years of perpetual opportunity, he has 
not signalized himself by any one great public measure ; by any one 
marked evidence of talent, not even by any one distinguished speech. 
Mr. Sadler’s speech, the other night, was worth all that Mr. Peel has 
spoken since he was born, as an evidence of ability. It had more of’ 
powerful thinking, the real matter of a vigorous mind, than all the long- 
winded stuff that Peel nas ever prosed. ‘The home secretary was always 
a poor creature, puffed by the sycophants who hang upon the heels of 
every man who can feed them, and who would puff the devil at the same 
wages ; but dull, dry, long-winded, and wearisome, to a degree not to 
be borne by any human being, except some miserable expectant, whose 
business it is to sit on the back benches and cry “hear,” from five in the 
evening till three in the morning. We could do, incomparably well, 
even though Mr. Peel were kicked out. 
Then comes Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald. We have yet to learn what are 
