THE present year opened, as the last had closed, amid the violent agitation excited by the prosecution and issue of proceedings against an illustrious member of the Royal House. The national ferment, instead of abating, might be said to have augmented; yet its symptoms had undergone a pretty decisive change. At the first opening, and during the continuance, of these unfortunate proceedings, the Queen, as a personal object, absorbed all the feelings and enthusiasm of the nation. The regular train and objects of political pursuit, both among whigs and reformers, were all forgotten, and merged in her single cause. Thi intense personal interest, in itself somewhat foreign to the habitual feelings of the age and nation, had now very sensibly abated. The leaders of faction resumed their usual train of objects, and sought only to avail them

selves of the unpopularity contracted by those in power, to forward against them their own favourite designs. Throughout the whole country, meetings were called, of the same persons who had formerly covered reams of paper with signatures of addresses to the Queen. They were now invited to follow up that measure, by peti tions for restoring her to all her rights and dignities; but more especially to pass votes of censure on ministers, with earnest petitions for their immediate dismissal. The impulse still continued so far as to make these meetings be attended by the majority of the people, and to give to that party, in all open and promiscuous assemblies, a great numerical superiority. They could no longer, however, carry their measures with the same sweeping and unresisted success, as when the Queen's cause first appeared to