CHAPTER IV.

THE houses presented their addresses to her majesty on Saturday (24th of January), and on that day a rumour was afloat, or rather it might be said a statement was circulated, of so remarkable a character and so high an authority, that it at once arrested some efforts that were then in contemplation among the principal country gentlemen to organize an opposition or to test the possibility, to use the language of that day, of forming a third party, an achievement hitherto deemed by those learned in parliamentary life as essentially impossible. No less a personage than the Duke of Wellington had stated to one of the most distinguished tory members, that, though the proposition of the minister to be made on the 27th certainly involved some material alteration in the corn laws, yet that at the same time it would confer such great advantages on the landed interest, that

his grace felt convinced that it would prove perfectly satisfactory to all the former followers of the government; and that, when once it was made known, no one would again talk of his having betrayed his friends. This statement, made with much emphasis and scrupulously repeated, produced a considerable sensation, and the next two or three days were spent on speculations on the possible character of these mysterious and compensatory arrangements. The effect of this statement was, as we have mentioned, to suspend any attempt to organise an opposition against the government. All agreed to wait until Tuesday before they decided, and many, one might say most hoped that the exposition of the first minister would have them from a painful and mortifying struggle.

These hopes were confirmed by an extraordinary scene which occurred in the house of lords on the following Monday (January 26), when the Duke of Richmond inquired of the Duke of Wellington, whether his grace had yet received her majesty's permission to state the reasons which induced the government to resign, and afterwards to resume office. The Duke of Wellington answered in the affirmative with great promptness, and proceeded at once with a narrative of the transactions and opinions in question, characterised by all that condensed and idiomatic phraseology which often confers a peculiar interest to his public statements. According to his

grace, he was one of those who gave a very decided resistance to the proposal of the first minister to open the ports at the beginning of November. "I was one of those who considered that it was a measure which was not necessary to be adopted at that time." He thought the means heretofore adopted to meet similar evils amply sufficient; and that if, under the existing corn law, it was desirable that the ports should be opened, the law itself had provided for such an emergency. In the first week of November, there was an "insinuation" that the suspension of the corn law might render the renewal of it at a future period very difficult; "undoubtedly it was intimated that it might be necessary to make an essential alteration in the law." But when the cabinet met at the end of November, the possible necessity of the first minister had become, in the opinion of that personage, an absolute necessity—“ an absolute necessity of making an essential alteration in the corn laws." This led to a strong difference of opinion on the subject; "As for my part," continued his grace, amid the sympathising glances of the surrounding peers, "I certainly was of opinion that it was not desirable to make any essential alteration in the present corn law."

Having arrived at this point, his grace proceeded to express the views which he entertained of his duty to the crown; and it would have seemed, that because

"he had served the crown for above fifty years in high public situations," he considered himself exempt from the ordinary rules which regulate political life in this country, and that his fulfilment of duty was to be different from that of any other member of parliament. His grace appeared to be of opinion that neither fidelity to party nor even a conviction of right ought to be permitted to stand for a moment in his way when the assumed convenience of the crown was concerned: sentiments that have certainly never been sanctioned by the present sovereign of England, and which would appear to be more becoming in the mouth of some professional

courtier than of one who had been the keen leader of a great parliamentary party and who by their confidence and co-operation had achieved the longcontrived object of his ambition, the premiership of England. On a subsequent and even more memorable occasion in these debates his grace spoke on this head in language still less equivocal, and we will reserve until then any remarks on the propriety and policy of such a tone.

It would seem that, notwithstanding the strong opinions of his grace, the duke was prepared to adopt the propositions of Sir Robert Peel at the end of November which he had successfully resisted at the commencement of that month and used his influence with his colleagues for that purpose. He

"considered it his duty to make every effort to maintain union in the cabinet, as the best service he could render his sovereign." He was, nevertheless, "unfortunate in these efforts;" and when it became a question whether Sir Robert Peel should come down to parliament, and make a proposition for the alteration of the corn laws, "with a divided cabinet, of which the majority were against the proposition," or resign, his grace counselled resignation.

His grace was in the country when he received a letter from Sir Robert Peel announcing that the queen had again sent for his late colleague, that her majesty had desired him to resume his post, and that Sir Robert had determined, happen what might, even if he stood alone as minister of the crown, that he would enable her majesty to meet her parliament. "This being the resolution of my right honourable friend," continued his grace, "I highly applauded his decision, and I determined that I for one would stand by him. I felt it my duty. I was of opinion that the formation of a government in which her majesty would have confidence was of much greater importance than the opinions of any individual on the corn law, or any other law." For the sake of clearness, we may here state that his grace concluded his speech this evening by the following words: "Upon that ground, my lords, I present myself to your lordships, and I claim from you an acquiescence in the principle I have