tion, or to turn well-merited scorn into even sufferance, far less respect. Yet such is the native force of reaction in favour of Royal personages, that he who a few months before durst as soon have walked into the flames as into an assembly of his subjects in any part of the empire, was well received in public wherever he chose to go, and was hailed by his Irish subjects. rather as a god than a man, he having notoriously abandoned the principles he once professed in favour of that Irish people and their rights.

The accession of the present Queen was supposed by some to be rather a rude trial of the monarchical principle, inasmuch as a young lady of eighteen, suddenly transplanted from the nursery to the throne, might, how great soever her qualifications, be deemed hardly fit at once to hold the sceptre of such a kingdom in such times. But all apprehensions on the subject must have instantly ceased, when it was observed that there broke out all over the country an ungovernable paroxysm of loyal affection towards the illustrious lady, such as no people ever showed even to monarchs endeared by long and glorious reigns over subjects upon whom their wisdom or their valour had showered down innumerable benefits. The expectation bore the place of reality. The Queen was believed to have every good quality that it was desirable she should possess. There was a physical impossibility of her ever having done anything to earn the gratitude of her subjects, because she had only reigned a day; and yet the most extravagant professions of attachment to her person and zeal for her character burst forth from the whole country, as if she had ruled half a century and had never suffered a day to pass without conferring some benefit upon her people, nor ever fallen into any of the errors incident to human weakness. It is true that the best friends both of the sovereign and of the monarchy viewed this unreflecting loyalty with distrust, and suspected

that a people, thus ready to worship idols made with their own hands, might one day break their handywork that they who could be so very grateful for nothing, might hereafter show ingratitude for real favours, and that, having, without any grounds beyond the creation of their fancy, professed their veneration for an unknown individual, they might afterwards, with just as little reason, show neglect or dislike. But at any rate the feeling of enthusiastic loyalty and devotion to the sovereign, merely because she was a sovereign, could not be doubted, and it could not be exceeded.*

And can it, after all these passages in our recent history, be said that the English people are of a republican tendency that they care little for the affairs of princes or their smiles that they are indifferent to, or impatient of, kingly government? Rather let it be asked if there is on the face of the globe any other people to whom the fortunes and the favour of kings and queens are so dear an object of concern. The people of France, under their Grand Monarque, may have made themselves ridiculous by changing the gender of a word permanently, when their prince by mistake called for " mon carrosse;" the Romans may have affected a twisted neck to imitate the personal defect of Augustus; these were rather the base flatteries of courtly parasites than the expression of feelings in which the public at large bore any part. The barbarians of Russia flocking to be murdered by their savage Czar, or the slaves of Eastern tyrants kissing the bowstring that is to end their existence, act under the immediate influence of strong and

* It is hardly necessary to observe that no opinions whatever disrespectful or unkind towards the illustrious persons mentioned in these three paragraphs can be intended to be conveyed. What is said of the Queen's persecutions sufficiently proves this. In regard to the present Sovereign, it may be added that the above passage was written early in February, 1838, and before the harsh and unjust treatment which was soon after shown towards her.

habitual religious feeling-the feeling that makes men quail and bow before a present divinity. But no people, no rational set of men, ever displayed to an admiring world the fondness for kings and queens, the desire to find favour in the royal sight, the entire absorption in loyal contemplations, which has generally distinguished the manly, reflecting, freeborn English

nation.

It is commonly said that the Irish far exceed us in yielding to mere impulses; and certainly the scenes at Dublin in 1821 are well calculated to keep alive this impression. But the excess on that memorable occasion was not great over what had been witnessed in this country; and extraordinary pains were undoubtedly taken to make it believed that George IV. was favourably disposed towards his Irish subjects, nay, that he could be talked, and hurraed, and addressed over, as it were, and deluded by fine honeyed phrases and promises of subscription, into abandoning his new opinions, as he had before given up his old. The balance, therefore, between the two nations being struck, it can hardly be said that the sister kingdom materially excels our own country in the zealous affection for mere royalty.

It is very manifest, therefore, that the notion is wholly groundless which represents the cause of Royalty to be more unfavourably regarded in these kingdoms than elsewhere. A broad and a deep foundation exists in all the feelings, tastes, and habits of the people for building up a solid monarchical structure. Principles of policy, opinions upon the relative merits of different systems, are the result of reason and reflection: they may be propagated, may be acquired; they may be strengthened, may be impaired; nay, they may give place to other views taken up after experience and on deliberate consideration; and the formation or the change of such sentiments is never within the power of the rulers or the instructors of the

community. But these sentiments, also, are much less to be relied upon for support in any crisis, and they are far less to be dreaded in any alteration which they may undergo, than the strong feelings born with men, and constituting a part of their very nature-feelings which they have not learned at the school of state affairs, or had inculcated by their instructors, or dictated by their leaders, but which form about as much a portion of their mental constitution, and almost influence it as much, as the blood that fills their veins does the structure and the functions of the body. This invaluable security the monarchical principle has in England, and it must, therefore, be the fault of the monarch, and his family, and his servants, if it should ever prove ineffectual to save the Crown.

But there is no greater danger besetting that Crown than will arise from a disposition to rely too much upon the strong national love of monarchy which has just been feebly pourtrayed. That its strength and elasticity is great, no man can doubt; that it possesses a singularly restorative virtue, a wonderful power of recovering the kingly authority after the rudest shocks which it can sustain, is certain; but it may be stretched till it cracks, and it may be relaxed by too frequent A wise and a prudent foresight, too, will teach the sovereign and his servants that the antagonist principle, ever at work, may both conjure up a storm which cannot be weathered, and may gradually undermine, and, as it were, eat into, that habitual devotion to royalty which, if the monarchy have but fair play, seems powerful enough to carry it through all ordinary trials.

use.

VOL. IV.

E

50

LORD ELDON.

DURING the whole of the Regency and the greater part of his reign, George IV.'s councils were directed by Lord Liverpool, but the power which kept his ministry together was in reality the Chancellor, Lord Eldon; nor did it exist for a day when that powerful aid was withdrawn. For, although this eminent person did not greatly excel in debate, although he personally had no followers that could be termed a party, and although he certainly was of little service in deliberation upon state affairs from the turn of his mind, fertile rather in objections than expedients, he yet possessed a consummate power of managing men, an admirable address in smoothing difficulties with princes, of whom he had large experience, and a degree of political boldness where real peril approached, or obstacles seemingly insurmountable were to be got over, that contrasted strongly with his habits of doubting about nothing, and conjuring up shadowy embarrassments, and involving things of little moment in imaginary puzzles, the creation of an inventive and subtle brain.

This remarkable person had been one of Mr. Pitt's followers from early life, had filled under him the office of Attorney-General during the troublous period of the Revolutionary war, and had thus been the principal instrument in those persecutions of his reforming associates which darken the memory of that illustrious minister. But when the Addington ministry was formed, and Lord Loughborough resigned the Great Seal, Lord Eldon, who had for a year presided over the Common Pleas with great ability and acceptance in