Wellesley from the government of Ireland; but perhaps delicacy ought not to be expected from one, who having placed a mother and a mistress on the pension-list, assigned the larger salary to the latter.

The Peel and Wellington ministry, with all its defects, was very acceptable to the nation. After the first burst of enthusiasm on Canning's accession, there arose painful doubts as to the possibility of his conducting the government. His death put an end to doubt, for no one ever believed that Lord Goderich's ministry had any elements of vitality. On all sides there was an anxiety to give the new cabinet a fair trial, and from the English press it received even mous support than had been accorded to Canning.

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There were, however, symptoms of dissatisfaction, rather felt than expressed, in many influential quarters. Lord Eldon's discontent was not concealed; his character of the ministry is well known: "It is better than the last, but it is not what was wished and expected. It will be supported, but not cordially."

Rumour at the time, and more trustworthy records since, aver that the Marchioness of Conyngham had a greater share in the ministerial arrangements than under a constitutional form of government ought to be allowed to ladies occupying her position; to her influence Lord Eldon ascribed his exclusion from the cabinet, where he expected to have at least occupied the place of Lord Bathurst. The published letters of the ex-Chancellor show how strongly this opinion was impressed upon his mind, and there is abundant evidence to prove that the opinion was not groundless.

It was a great advantage to Peel that he came into office without being in the slightest degree indebted to the female influence to which we have alluded. We have reason to know that he was not personally acceptable to the king, and we have proofs that he never stooped to conciliate any of

those whose charms and compliances had established an influence over the royal mind. Though not "borne into office on the shoulders of the people," he was, by something more than tacit acquiescence, recognized as "the minister of the people." He felt equally the pride and the responsibility of his position, and never did he stand higher in public estimation-never was a brighter career of glory open before him --and never had he larger opportunities of doing good, than at the moment when he succeeded Canning as ministerial leader of the House of Commons. Seven months of exclusion from office had luckily given him but few opportunities of displaying his tactics as a leader of opposition; and these few had been far from raising his character. We have dwelt at more length on this period, because we shall find that the opposition to which, as minister, in the plenitude of his power, Peel has been forced to succumb, was his own; an opposition hastily organized against his rivals, but turned against himself whenever he adopted any righteous measures which those rivals had proposed.

CHAPTER XV.

WELLINGTON AND PEEL ADMINISTRATION-THE REPEAL OF THE TEST AND CORPORATION ACTS.

Ir was the general opinion of the English that the friends of Mr. Canning, and more especially Mr. Huskisson, had compromised their reputation by taking office under the Duke of Wellington; the Persian proverb was quoted, that they had consented" to eat dirt;" and their new associates seemed by no means anxious to spare them mortification. In the very speech from the throne, the battle of Navarino, so obviously the result of Mr. Canning's Eastern policy, was condemned as "" an untoward event ;" and the implied censure was so tamely received, that the brother of one of the leading members of Canning's cabinet, Mr. Robert Grant, seconded the address in the House of Commons, and thus adopted the implied censure on the policy of his brother Charles and of Mr. Huskisson. This was bad enough, but worse remained behind. His change of office imposed on Huskisson the necessity of being re-elected for Liverpool; he had to explain to his constituents his acceptance of office under those who had been the most vehement of Canning's opponents, and he pleaded as his apology that he had received "guarantees" from the Duke of Wellington for the continuance of that course of policy to which the former cabinet stood pledged. The Duke of Wellington instantly and indignantly disclaimed the pretended "guarantees;" he denied that any such stipulations had been asked or given, and in doing so he showed

that he was not disposed to treat Huskisson's feelings with much tenderness.

In the discussions that arose out of these transactions, Mr. Duncombe made a very remarkable statement, which it will require time to elucidate fully. He alluded to the secret influence possessed, or supposed to be possessed, by the Marchioness of Conyngham, the great money-dealer, Rothschild, and the favourite physician of George IV., Sir William Knighton. "There is a mystery," said he, "altogether about the late change, which I hope yet to see cleared up, by the rising of the curtain which conceals persons of great consequence, corporeal and incorporeal. It has been credibly affirmed, that there is a mysterious personage behind the scenes, who concerts, regulates, and influences every arrangement. There is-deny it who can!—a secret influence behind the throne, whose form is never seen, whose name is never breathed, who has access to all the secrets of the state, and who manages all the sudden springs of ministerial arrangement,

"At whose soft nod the streams of honour flow
Whose smiles all place and patronage bestow.'

Closely connected with this invisible, this incorporeal person, stands a more solid and substantial form-a new and formidable power, till these days unknown in Europe; master of unbounded wealth, he boasts that he is the arbiter of peace and war, and that the credit of nations depends upon his nod; his correspondents are innumerable; his couriers outrun those of sovereign princes; ministers of state are in his pay. Paramount in the cabinets of continental Europe, he aspires to the dominion of our own: even the great Don Miguel himself, of whom we have lately heard and seen so much, was obliged to have recourse to the purse of this individual before he could take possession of his throne. Sir, that such secret influences do exist is a matter of notoriety; they are

known to have been but too busy in the underplot of the recent revolution. I believe their object to be as impure as the means by which their power has been acquired, and I denounce them, and their agents, as unknown to the British constitution, and derogatory to the honour of the crown. I trust that the Duke of Wellington, and the right honourable Secretary for the Home Department (Peel), will not allow the finances of this great country to be controlled any longer by a Jew, or the distribution of the patronage of the crown to be operated upon by the prescriptions of a physician."

Thus personally appealed to, Mr. Secretary Peel could not remain silent. After disclaiming all knowledge of the cir cumstances which had caused the overthrow of Lord Goderich's administration, he said, "I cannot proceed further without noticing one or two expressions in the speech of the honourable gentleman who has just sat down, as to the mysterious, incorporeal, and incomprehensible person or being of whom he spoke-I do not know where it exists. I have for some years been in the service of his Majesty, and I never was aware that any of the measures of the government had been thwarted by this incomprehensible being, nor have I ever found that the other more substantial personage has interfered, in the way stated by the honourable gentleman, with the financial affairs of the country. As I am perfectly ignorant of the existence of any species of influence, like that alluded to by the honourable member, I cannot afford him any explanation upon the point." It was remarked, that Peel spoke very coldly of Huskisson, and left to that gentleman the care of his own vindication.

It devolved on Mr. Peel, as ministerial leader of the House of Commons, to propose the finance committee which Mr. Canning had promised, and he did so in a masterly speech, exhibiting great fairness and candour, a perfect mastery over details,