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necessary, he had ever been ready by his deeds to make good his language; yet in no instance had his free speech and ready courage led to those wars which timid politicians fear and bring about frequently by their apprehensions.

He had, in fact, been eminently a peace minister, and chiefly so because he had not been saying that he would have peace at any price.

Nor is this all. There had been occasions where he did to a certain degree use threats, not shrinking from blows. There had been others where he merely gave counsel or stated opinions. Was that counsel wise? Were those opinions without effect?

He condemned the arbitrary laws intended to oppress the German people. Where are those laws? He forewarned the King of the French when he was getting,' as he said, 'into a false position.' What became of the throne of the King of the French? He condemned the Austrian rule in Italy. What has become of that rule? He condemned the temporal policy of the Pope. What has that temporal policy ended by? Who shall say that our opinion has no moral force, when History stands there to teach the world that our opinion has ever been prophetic of its events?

As to the letters, that which must most strike those who read them is their constant perspicuity in style and correctness in sentiment. Lord Palmerston could express distinctly what he meant, because he knew distinctly what he wanted. Not that he was always exactly right either in the views he took or in his mode of stating them: at times his eagerness after what he thought right hurried him into adopting an extreme opinion or using an exaggerated expression concerning it.

measure,

A severe critic might say, more gravity, more more consideration, both in words and actions, might on occasions have been desirable; his personal likings and dislikings were, moreover, often formed on too slight grounds; and you may find in his

writings instances, as in the case of Marshal Sebastiani, where he passes, on better acquaintance, from unqualified blame to almost unqualified praise. But this proves that his prejudices ceased when experience taught him that they were prejudices. There was, besides, a manliness, a sincerity, a high breeding, if I may use the expression, about his thoughts, which kept them, under all circumstances, at a healthy elevation. They were always full of life and freshness. You can fancy, as you read him, that he had just come home from his ride to Wormwood Scrubs before breakfast, and had infused the morning air into his letters and despatches.

But one more remark. The reader will perceive in this particular portion of his life, not unfrequent complaints as to our relations with France, and as to French policy in general. This fact ought not to lead to exaggerated conclusions. You do not quarrel with nor complain much of those from whom you greatly differ. But if you are near agreeing with parties, with whom you never entirely agree, you are certain to be querulous, and may at times, being very angry, be a little unjust.

Lord

One knows the natural disposition of the Frenchman is always to take the best side of the pavement, and consequently, if an Englishman walks with him he cannot walk quite comfortably. Our intimate arm-inarm alliance with France, possessing other advantages, had that great and constant inconvenience. Palmerston, also, might not always sufficiently allow for the possibility of two persons looking at the same thing from two different points of view. Nor perhaps was he entirely right in treating with indifference the peculiar position of Louis Philippe and his many ministers. It was an object to us that there should be a stable Government in France. It was natural for anyone at the head of the Government in that country-where no Government had its foundation deeper than an inch in the soil-to be always looking for some twig

CONTINENTAL ESTIMATE OF HIS POLICY.

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prop it up, and dreading some breeze that might w it over. But there can be no doubt that the nger of incurring unpopularity was not unfrequently de the pretext for practising political infidelity, and severity with which Lord Palmerston judges in some es arose from the duplicity that he had detected in

ers.

It was a little difficult, too-foreigners said-for n to imagine that a statesman differed honestly from ws he himself honestly entertained. He could not enely conceive-so they expressed themselves-that Rus, Austria, Prussia, and France might have Russian, strian, Prussian, and French ways of considering ngs, which to them seemed natural and sensible, but ich to him seemed unnatural and foolish. It is doubthowever, whether this, which somewhat disturbed the -fect sobriety of his judgment, did not give energy his policy, and place him more in sympathy with his antry, which recognized at once that he was emphatily English. It is again to be observed that the defects re noticed (for this is a biography, and not a eulogy) re only visible in small matters and comparatively important details. His policy as a whole, his conet as a whole, admitted, throughout these transacns, of little censure, for never was England more ked up to by the Powers of Europe, as a powerful enlightened State, than during the time from 1830 1841 when he managed her affairs with them. It is, reover, well to remark, that though he was, at this iod, approaching towards threescore, he had not mpleted half of what may be called his great political reer, whilst each day improved, up to the very last, good qualities and diminished his defects.

CHAPTER XIII.

LORD PALMERSTON IN OPPOSITION.

THE elections of 1841 startled a good many persons at home, but abroad they excited still greater surprise. Foreign statesmen could not conceive how a Government which had shown such vigour, and met with such success in its dealings with other States, should not have obtained a firmer hold on the enthusiasm of their own countrymen.

Some of the causes have already been stated under the influence of which the Melbourne Ministry had been for some time drifting into discredit. No fault, except his dry and curt manner, could be found with Lord John Russell as a parliamentary leader. He had the two qualities most essential for that position-tact and spirit. În face of the most skilful and accomplished debater that ever sat on the Opposition benches in the House of Commons, he never showed any fear of his antagonist; and men often admired the brevity with which, in his replies, he said the thing that was necessary, and omitted everything that was superfluous. In the same manner, Lord Palmerston had achieved the object for which a British Minister is most esteemed without engaging us in war, and he had raised our character and strengthened our prestige as much as he could have done by any successful contest.

Yet, notwithstanding the abilities of these two eminent men; notwithstanding the distinguished talents of almost every member of the highly intellectual Cabinet to which they belonged; notwithstanding the

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wit, the good humour, the various accomplishments and statesmanlike moderation of the Premier-than whom few men ever brought to his elevated station a more cultivated mind or a more manly understandingthe Administration wanted that quality which in a face is called 'expression,' and neither captivated the affections nor commanded the respect of the public.

On the other hand, the Opposition had the advantage of being personified in a chief who was recognised by a large portion of the nation as the type of enlightened Prudence. Known to be averse to great constitutional changes-of which people were then tired; believed to be favourable to useful administrative reforms-which people then expected; the great man of the House of Commons,' Sir Robert Peel, had grown during the preceding years into the great man of the country,' which wished to see him at the head of its affairs. It was no marvel, then, that an election, made to try the strength of parties, placed him at the head of a majority of ninety.

The first question he had to deal with was a financial one. The late Government had gone on from year to year, and from day to day, scrambling by small means through pressing difficulties; without the courage, and consequently without the capacity, to face the growing evil, and provide an adequate remedy for it.

This was perhaps the great moment in Sir Robert Peel's life. Comprehensive, but practical; bold, and yet cautious, he proposed measures which dealt at once with the present position and the future prosperity of the country. An Income Tax assured public credit and at once checked the deficiency in revenue; and the diminution of duties, where their excess destroyed the security of their collection, or where their collection cost more than their produce, or where they weighed unduly on the comforts or industry of the people,placed our commercial and our financial policy on a basis which did not include the extreme doctrines of VOL. I. EE