as to render it impossible for either the one or the other to act at all, except for the purpose of reciprocal obstruction; and to make the highest interests of the community regarded as subservient to the achievement of a momentary triumph, is a state of things at once discreditable to the Legislature and injurious to the public. CHAPTER VII. State of parties at the period of the dissolution of Parliament-Reasons for the decline and fall of the Whig Administration--The Whigs appeal to the country as Anti-Monopolists-Election of Members for the City of London-Conduct of the Ministry with regard to their Equity Courts' Bill, and the appointment of the Attorney-General Lord Chancellor of Ireland-Elections for Northumberland and the West Riding of Yorkshire-Defeats of Viscount Howick and Viscount Morpeth Mr. O'Connell defeated at Dublin, and Sir De Lacy Evans at Westminster-Abstract and Analysis of Election Returns Assembling of Parliament-The Royal Speech-Earl Spencer moves the Address in the House of Lords-The Marquess of Clanricarde seconds it The Earl of Ripon moves an amendment of want of confidence in the Government-Speeches of Lord Fitzwilliam, Lord Lyttleton, and Viscount Melbourne-The Duke of Wellington supports the Amendment, and censures the use made of the Queen's name in the Royal Speech-Viscount Melbourne explains-Speeches of the Duke of Richmond, the Marquess of Lansdowne, and the Marquess of Northampton-Lord Brougham declares that he shall vole in favour of the Address, but attacks the conduct of MinistersDivision on the question of the Address, and defeat of Ministers. THE HE dissolution of Parliament having taken place, both the great parties in the state, known under the names of Conservatives and Liberals, prepared themselves for the struggle which was immediately to ensue at the general election. But the hopes and expectations on the two sides were widely different. The Conservative party had been, throughout the country, increasing in numbers and strength for a long period. Their ranks had been recruited by a large accession of those who, although they had supported the Reform Bill, and been accustomed to identify themselves with the Liberal cause, yet believed now that the time was come when the exigencies of the country imperatively demanded a strong and efficient government, and who were willing to accord to Conservative statesmen the merit of being ready to support all measures of real amendment, knowing, as they well did, that the latter only had the power to carry such measures into effect. Many, who still stood aloof from the Conservative party, and professed jealous suspicions of its future policy, were not averse to give it a trial in the possession of power; hoping that an exclusion of ten years (with a brief interval) from office, might have disposed it to look with more favour on their own views of what was best for the nation. They saw clearly that the large and comprehensive mind of the distinguished leader of that party, Sir Robert Peel, had no sympathy with a narrow or ultra system; that he had, in all matters of trade and commerce, been the advocate of measures which tended to give free scope to the energies of the country, and had given his zealous co-operation, while at the head of the most powerful Opposition ever known in parliament, in furthering the cause of practical reform. The sands of the Whig party were well nigh run out; and owing to the conduct of the Government during the later period of its existence, a combination of interests was raised up against Ministers, which rendered an appeal to the country on their part an almost suicidal act. They had never possessed the confidence of the Church, and the large and influential body of the clergy was decidedly against them. The landowners and farmers, amongst whom the strength of the Conservatives had always chiefly lain, were united in opposing a Ministry which had agitated the question of the Cornlaws. The mercantile body was alarmed at the attack which had been so suddenly made upon our West Indian and Canadian interests, in the articles of sugar and timber; and all agreed in an anxious desire to get rid of a Government which seemed to pursue no settled line of determinate policy, but to depend upon temporary expedients, and bring forward its measures from time to time, in order to gain popular support, rather than from any conviction of their own intrinsic merit and expediency. It could not be disguised that the proposal of a fixed duty on corn instead of the slidingscale, and the reduction of the duties on West Indian sugar and Canadian timber, were no part of any system of free-trade policy pursued by Viscount Melbourne and his colleagues; for, during their long tenure of office, they had brought forward no measures of a similar character-they had in no respect unfettered trade; and had emphatically denounced any tampering with the Corn-laws; and therefore the constituencies of the country looked with suspicion upon such proposals when they were made at the eleventh hour, after so many defeats and so many failures. Even the extreme section of the Liberal party, the more violent Radicals, had ceased to place any confidence in the Whigs. The doctrine of "finality," as asserted by the latter, was wholly repudiated by them; and numerous occasions had occurred of late, in which the Whig party had been spared the ignominy of being defeated by their Radical allies, through the intervention of the Conservatives. The Radicals, however, though alienated from the Government, did not, as a body, desert it in the last struggle. If they liked the Whigs little, they disliked the Conservatives more; and to exclude the latter from power was their great object. The only mode of effecting this, was to keep or reinstate the former in power; and hence Radical support, however grudgingly and unwillingly given, might be reckoned upon by the Whigs in the approaching contest. The Ministry and its partisans were wise enough to see what was the safest ground for them to take in appealing to the people. Their ultimate defeat had happened in consequence of certain financial measures which they brought forward in their Budget. These measures bore the specious character of a removal of disabilities from trade. The interests which they attacked were called "monopolies" -a word odious in its signification -and which was for the first time applied to every species of protection given to commerce or agriculture. Thus the whole of the landowners were styled monopolists, because, for the encouragement and protection of native agriculture, the legislature had imposed a duty on the admission of foreign corn. The same term was applied to the body of West Indian proprietors, because their interests were protected by a duty on foreign sugar; and in the same way it was attempted to excite popular odium against other classes, as favoured in the acquisition of wealth at the expense of the community. All who opposed the Melbourne administration were subjected to the same charge, while the supporters of that government assumed to themselves the name of AntiMonopolists. It is also worthy of notice that, throughout the struggle at the elections, the pretensions of the Whig Ministry to support were not rested on past performances, but on future promises. It was not what they had done, but what they intended to do, that was put forward as their claim upon popular sympathy. They represented their fall as occasioned by an attack upon selfish class interests, and by an attempt to act upon large and enlightened views of commercial policy; and kept, as much as possible, in the back-ground, the real causes of their weak and tottering condition in parliament. VOL. LXXXIII. The Conservatives, however, although they did oppose the ministerial propositions of a fixed duty on corn, and of a reduction of the duty on foreign sugar, under the particular circumstances of our West Indian possessions, yet openly declared that these were not the grounds on which they sought to deprive the Government of power. They maintained that the issue which the country had to try, was not whether these propositions might or might not be beneficial, but whether the Whig Ministry did or did not, by the whole history of its past conduct, deserve the present confidence of the people. The indictment which they preferred contained a long catalogue of offences; and they denied the right of the accused party to select one or two articles of charge, and plead only to them. Antimonopoly was, however, taken as the watchword of the Liberal party; and thereby a vain attempt was made to enlist popular feeling in its behalf. One of the most interesting struggles was that for the representation of the city of London, owing to the circumstance that Lord John Russell himself was a candidate for the suffrages of the electors. During the late parliament the four members had all been Liberals; on the present occasion four Conservatives, Mr. Lyall, Mr. Masterman, Mr. Wolverly Attwood, and Mr. Alderman Pirie, offered themselves as candidates, and the result was, that two Conservative and two Liberal members were returned; a Conservative (Mr. Masterman) being at the head of the poll, and Lord John Russell at the bottom, with a majority of only 7 over the third Conservative candidate, who failed. In the counties the elections went against the ministry by an overwhelming majority; and even in the towns and manufacturing districts, it was found that the cry of "cheap bread," which was every where raised, met with a formidable rival in the counter-cry of "low wages," which were predicted as the certain consequence of a fall in the price of the staple necessary of subsistence. One or two circumstances, also, had just occurred, which brought additional odium upon the government, and gave their opponents convenient topics of accusation on the hustings. One of these was their recent abandonment of their bill for creating two new Equity Judges, on the sole ground that a clause, inserted by Sir Edward Sugden, had been carried in the House of Commons, whereby the appointment of the new judges was to be postponed until the following October; and thus patronage would be wrested from their grasp, in case, as seemed inevitable, they were driven from office in the mean time. The other was, their calling upon Lord Plunket to resign the Chancellorship of Ireland, after the dissolution of parliament -which he was very reluctant to do-in order that their Attorneygeneral (Sir John Campbell) might be promoted to that high office. This excited at the time a burst of indignation, which was not much allayed by the assurances which were given that the new Lord Chancellor would not receive any pension on ceasing to hold the seals of Ireland. If such a pension were paid, under the circumstances of the appointment, it was looked upon as a gross and unjustifiable job; and if not, it was an acknowledgment of ministerial weakness and foreboding of defeat, to be compelled to bestow so high an office on their Attorney-general upon such terms. Not the least significant signs of the times were the defeat of Lord Morpeth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and of Lord Howick in Northumberland. In the general election that took place in August, 1837, the hon. Stuart Wortley stood as the Conservative candidate for the West Riding, and the numbers at the close of the poll were as follows: For Lord Morpeth... 12,576 Hon. S. Wortley 11,489 Conservative members, Mr. WortBut on the present occasion, two ley and Mr. Denison were returned, after a severe contest. The num bers stood thus: Hon. S. Wortley Lord Milton 13,165 12,780 ... 12,080 12,031 ... and it should not be forgotten that the West Riding constituency embraces a large manufacturing population. Mr. O'Connell also was defeated in Dublin, and two Conservative members, Messrs. West and Grogan, were returned for that city. Even in Westminster, which has been usually regarded as an impregnable stronghold of the Liberal party, the Conservatives were able to wrest a seat from their opponents, and Sir De Lacy Evans was compelled to give way to the hon. Captain Rous, as the representative of its numerous constituency. Upon the whole returns, the result was more favourable to the Conservative cause than had been anticipated by the most sanguine of that party; and it seemed certain that Sir Robert |