an awful crisis; and many a drooping soul will thank God, and take courage.'

'But, uncle, I don't quite comprehend the ground of your extreme satisfaction. You certainly were more angry with the Tories, and particularly with their gallant leader, five or six years ago, than I have seen you to be with the Whigs, since they came into power.'

Certainly I was: and to this day I attribute to the men, now again invested with that power, the beginning of all the evils that have come upon us. They took from our firmly-compacted arch its keystone; and what but its ruin could ensue? Neither did I hold it wise, particularly after such fatal concessions, to make a sudden and obstinate stand against reforms, that would have been comparatively harmless, but for their own previous act; and, in some respects, positively good, useful, necessary. But I am led to hope, from observation, that the dear-bought experience of a few past years, will be faithfully acted upon by the men who clearly see their error. Consider, they did not make the sacrifice as a step to the destruction of what we hold most dear, but as a means of its preservation. They acted on a short-sighted, a most fallacious and dishonest principle of worldly expediency-they have seen its fruits; and if the Lord, who will not utterly forsake us, now gives them grace to be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, the beautiful ruin of our constitution, like that which lately passed the ordeal of material fire, may stand out, in the solidity of its original framework; and, under the hand of judicious repair, may yet continue a grace and a bulwark through many generations.'

Do you expect such great things from a mere change of ministry, uncle; seeing how short its duration may be?'

It is not as a political change, from one set of men to another, my dear, that I regard it. Our establishments were menaced with a general downfallthe church-the aristocracy-and, beyond doubt, the monarchy also. The late ministry saw this, and the majority of them, I sincerely believe, were willing to throw themselves in the gap; but they had fatally committed themselves, in yielding to mob-government, or rather in availing themselves of it, to pass the measure of sweeping reform, which, in many of its tendencies, was fraught with destructiveness. Conscious of this disadvantage, the ablest men among them voluntarily relinquished office, rather than lend a hand to those infamous measures, which must have led to the re-establishment of popery in Ireland; and this dismemberment was followed by the memorable stratagem against Lord Grey. The last was, in fact, such a decapitation, that the doom of that administration was sealed; and the question before us was, how would the blank be filled up? A set of men were gasping for office, whose avowed object it was to operate, with sledge hammers and battering-rams, on what remains of our ancient fabric, while poor Ireland was to be pitched into the gaping jaws of the pope. We had but one thing under heaven to cling to; the declaration of our king to the representatives of the church. This was hailed with grateful joy: it put new life into our prayers, and gave new energy to our hope. I welcome the present event, because it betokens that hope comes from the right quarter.'

' But, numerically, not the most powerful, uncle.' 'Numerically! stuff! Is there any restraint with the Lord, to save by many or by few? Look you, "the king's voice is as the roaring of a lion," when he utters it in the faithful performance of those duties which he holds in trust, for the maintenance of God's honour and worship among us. Without entering upon the question of a monarchical form of government, though, for my own part I hold it to be clearly the most scriptural-we find ourselves placed, by the providence of God, under one; and we may not seek to alter that form, or to fetter the exercise of kingly prerogative, so beautifully regulated as it is among us. God has enthroned a sovereign ruler in these islands; and to him we owe allegiance, not as the first servant of the people, but as the vicegerent of God, appointed of Him, to be a terror to evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well. Now, the king can, under our nicely balanced constitution, do nothing without the sanction, and by the hands of his responsible advisers; while these, again, are subject to the decision of a majority of those who represent the two grand classes of our population. This would, indeed, render the king a non-entity, a mere puppet of state, were not one prerogative secured to him, by which he is free to choose or to reject individuals, in forming that especial body of responsible advisers, called the cabinet ministers. Now, my dear, when we find the lower orders of our population, uniting by clamour and violence, so to controul their representatives, as to menace with extinction the higher branches of the state; and when we see the ministry willing to yield almost anything to the majority, thus commissioned to overawe them, as a very slight

glance at Ireland must convince you has been the case for some time past, there is but one mortal hand that, without violating the constitution, can be stretched out to arrest the progressive evil. That hand is the king's, in the exercise of his just, his legitimate, his becoming authority. I scruple not to affirm, that, situated as we now are, no motive could influence our sovereign to interpose, as he has done, but one worthy of his sacred office, as father of his people-upholder of his church-and accountable steward of God for the very high trust committed to his charge.'

'I believe it, uncle. Our king is not a young man, looking forward to events of coming years, as they might affect his personal dignity and security. He stands not in a parental relationship to his presumptive successor. Selfish considerations would lead to a line of conduct, just the reverse of that which he has adopted: and an act of conscientious, disinterested duty is surely the fruit of a blessing begunthe pledge of its further continuance.'

6

Exactly so: and as to the ministry, I have no more confidence in this man or that, than I have in the cinder just falling out of the grate. Political principles, too, when they strike not the root into the word of God, are of exactly the same value in my estimation. Of course, I would rather see intrepidity and talent, than pusillanimity and folly, entrusted with the management of our concerns: but what I mean to say, is this: that if a man, or a set of men, still acknowledge their obligation to uphold those institutions, which they admit to have been originally founded on scripture authority-to uphold them BECAUSE they are so founded-then, howsoever short

sighted such persons may be in the momentous things that concern individual salvation, I concede to them the title of God-fearing legislators; and I hail their assumption of office with overflowing gladness of heart.'

I comprehend you perfectly, my dear sir; and I see the ground on which we are encouraged to pray, and not to faint, in this particular crisis. It is not a party question—a whig and tory contest—our all is, remotely perhaps, at stake: the all of poor Ireland is trembling on the balance at this moment. Oh, for a spirit of prayer, to be universally poured out from on high!'

My uncle's interest, it may readily be supposed, did not flag. His cold disappeared, and he walked forth more erect, and with looks of more universally complacent benevolence than I have ever remarked. One day he certainly stole a march, and placed himself where he could obtain a full view of his majesty, when in town; and very roundly did he assert that the king had not looked so sailor-like for years, as on that occasion. The little symptoms of spruceness that I adverted to, have been apparent from the date of the above conversation, and seem to arise from a very innocent feeling of increased respectibility derived from his professional, no less than his political allegiance to the king, whose health he usually prefaces with his after-dinner glass of port, under the special appellation of His Majesty, the Lord High Admiral,' which he conceives to express the very highest degree of royal pride and attachment.

‘It is singular,' said he the other day,' that royalty appears to be rousing itself, in several quarters, to that independency of action, which is considered a