1829.] England and Europe. 487 



Constitution, Lord Liverpool was the patient witness, if not the unhappy 

 perpetrator. 



The Catholic question, thus promoted by the negative resistance of 

 Lord Liverpool, by the affected neutrality of Mr. Canning, and the in- 

 creased activity of the pro-popisli members of the ministry, perfectly 

 well acquainted with the true state of their leaders' bosoms, made an 

 instant advance. The debate was less a discussion than a decision, less 

 a trial of opinions than a triumph of resistless and ostentatious supe- 

 riority. The motion was feebly opposed by men strugghng under the 

 dispiriting consciousness that there was treachery where they looked 

 for faith, and hollowness where they had calculated upon estab- 

 lished honour. It was daringly and contemptuously urged by the com- 

 bined force of the Blinisterial party, the Democratical party, and that 

 whole loose crowd who float up and down the stream with every turn of 

 the tide, and are incapable of any thought higher than how to keep them- 

 selves buoyant, the question was carried by an unusual majority. But the 

 degree of the success was to be still more measured by the unequivocal 

 knowledge that the cabinet was only waiting to capitulate, that the 

 decency of resistance was only to be kept up for a season, and that the 

 commandant of the garrison had in his hand the white flag ready to be 

 imfui'led on the walls. 



Now, let us turn from ]\Ian ! Within three months from the exulting 

 speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the prosperity of the Empire 

 received the most tremendous blow in human experience. The blow 

 was not inflicted in any of those parts of public strength which might 

 seem peculiarly exposed to the chances of pubhc evil. It was no loss of 

 a fleet by storms or the enemy, no havoc of our population by pesti- 

 lence, no waste of the fruits of the soil by the inclemency of the skies. 

 It struck us in that portion of our national vigour on which we had rais- 

 ed our highest hopes, and of whose permanence and resource we had no 

 more doubt, three months before, than we had of the foundations of the 

 Island. The blow fell on our wealth, and fell with the force of a thun- 

 derbolt. Before December of that year, the whole country was con- 

 vulsed from side to side, credit was a dream, the most opulent and 

 flourishing establishments sank as if they had been swallowed up by an 

 earthquake; no man could trust his fellow ; national bankruptcy stared 

 us in the face; rich men lay down on their pillows at night, to awake 

 beggars in the morning. The shock spread its skirts through all 

 nations wherever an English connexion existed ; and, when the first 

 ruin had ceased to fall upon ourselves, we heard the successive sounds of 

 English overthrow echoed from all the regions of the world. 



The arguer will only deceive himself, who shall attempt to answer 

 this, liy looking for its causes in the rapacity of commercial avarice, in 

 extravagant foreign speculations, or in the imposture of Joint-Stock 

 Companies. For all ends there are means, and the ruin to be wrought 

 by human hands must be impelled by human motives. But the true 

 question is, by what influence was a whole experienced and singularly 

 sagacious commercial people plunged into this, madness of speculation ? 

 How was the wisdom of the wise baffled, and the sanguineness of spend- 

 thrifts, and the weakness of children, suffered to displace the habitual 

 caution of men, furnished with the experience of a life of public dealing .!* 

 Why was tlicir wealth, tlie god of so fond and eager an idolatry, 

 risqucd oji ventures, -whose giddiness was palpable, and was even 



