1829.3 The laie Prosecutions against the Press. 141 



state — the pi-inciples of the revolution — the whole fabric of the theory 

 by which we guarded the sacred institutions of our forefathers — were 

 with him the objects of a generous and disinterested devotion. The 

 Pope on one hand, and the Whigs on the other, were the Scylla and 

 Charybdis through which he steered, with an experienced hand, the 

 bark that was freighted with the liberties and love of Englishmen. 

 Poor Canning — the dupe of his own impetuosity, the betrayed of his 

 own party, and the scorned of all others — Canning the eloquent, the 

 mistaken, the enthusiastic, sank before the energetic Copley. Then 

 came the water administration, which leaked away like the element 

 from which we di'aw its title, for want of some solid principle to 

 keep it together. Throughout all those vicissitudes in high places, 

 while the country gazed in astonishment upon the distractions that were 

 bringing ruin upon the kingdom. Sir John Copley maintained his name 

 with vmabated glory. That nondescript knot of politicians, who, without 

 a head to direct, or an arm to execute — who, wanting unity of purpose, 

 were pei-petually playing at bo-peep between the Corn Laws, Free 

 Trade, and the Catholic Question — that band of straggling leaders, who 

 deserted from one troop without joining another, and yet affected to 

 govern the operations of both — that pitiful, evasive, weak-hearted batch 

 of fribblers, released tlie country from the bondage of their vacillating 

 control by an act of suicide at the close of the year 1827- The patch- 

 work cabinet being at an end, it became necessary to form a new 

 one from such as remained uncontaminated by the pollution of the 

 events that had followed in such rapid succession upon the death of 

 Lord Liverpool. Then came the new premier, after having pre- 

 viously declared his unfitness for such a station, bringing Avith him 

 some of the adherents of the conciliation principle in Corn, 

 Cash, and Catholics. The unnatural admixture was fated, like all 

 similar compounds of contradictory matei'ials, to explode. Huskisson, on 

 the point of new modelling our colonial policy, was forced to recede : 

 explanation followed explanation ; and, at last, the disasters of the 

 government settled down into a dogma ; and it was found that the Duke 

 of Wellington was " a man of decision," and was not to be bearded by 

 the underlings of office, or the independent supporters of the crown. 

 Yet Sir John Copley was the idol still; unspotted and unsuspected. 

 But the determination of the premier to prove that he possessed 

 decision, led to results for which the nation was little prepared. " Do 

 you dare me to break your head ?" is the petulant phrase of the pas- 

 sionate schoolboy, who, not satisfied with having his courage and strength 

 admitted by his fellows, must needs give them a practical proof of his 

 superiority to the vulgar. '' Do you dare me to carry the Catholic Bill ?" 

 exclaimed the Duke, although nobody had ever thought of exciting him 

 to such an extremity, or provoking him to so extensive a test of his 

 power. Then came the season of panegyric without attachment ; obe- 

 tlience without confidence ; and apostacy without conviction. The sur- 

 vivors of the Grenville faction were to be seen loitering about the doors 

 of the Treasury, and even the haters of the aristocracy were to be found 

 bandying compliments with their masters in the passages of the House of 

 Peers. Radicals were thrown into ecstacies, reformers chuckled. Lord 

 King leered at the bench of bishops, and the bishops smiled upon the 

 mob. The whole body of the legislature, lords and commons, were 

 thrown into confusion. Some gentlemen strayed accidentally from tlie. 



