BR0U(2iAM AM) VAUX 
 The Country Without a Govern^ 
 merit
 
 THE COUNTRY 
 
 WITHOUT 
 
 A GOVERNMENT; 
 
 OR 
 
 PLAIN QUESTIONS 
 
 UPON THE UNHAPPY STATE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PRESENT ADMINISTRATION 
 
 FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JAMES HIDGVVAY, 1G9, PICCADILLY. 
 
 M.DCCC.XXX.
 
 DAi-ilA UAtlijIiJXA 
 
 THE COUNTRY, 
 
 The time seems, in the opinion of all men, 
 now to be come, when it behoves the people of 
 this country, and none more than those who in 
 station or in possessions stand at their head, to 
 ask themselves a few plain but most important 
 questions, touching the constitution of that 
 Administration, which has for two years past 
 undertaken the management of public affairs. 
 It is the object of the following pages to assist 
 in answering those questions, which must have 
 already occurred to every body's mind, espe- 
 cially during the last two months. 
 
 When we speak of the Members of the pre- 
 sent Administration, we, in fact, use, from ha- 
 bit, a very unnecessary circumlocution. — The 
 shorter, as well as plainer, and by far the more 
 accurate expression is, the Duke of Wellingtoti. — 
 He has thought proper to become the sole Minis- 
 ter of this great Country, whose interests are 
 complicated beyond those of any other State, 
 
 B
 
 whose affairs are in a condition of unprece- 
 dented embarrassment, whose policy, domes- 
 tic as well as foreign, involves every abstruse 
 and difficult question in the science of national 
 economy and of legislation ; and the time which 
 His Grace has chosen for making this extraor- 
 dinary display of his attributes and his accom- 
 plishments, is to the full as extraordinary as the 
 scene on which he has been pleased to exhibit 
 himself — a crisis not only of unwonted pressure 
 upon all classes of the people, but one in which 
 the greatest changes are making in our system, 
 both of commercial polity, and of jurispru- 
 dence. The moment is one requiring all the 
 resources of civil wisdom and experience in 
 the acts of Government ; but it is, at the same 
 time, one in which a familiarity with the Art 
 of War is absolutely of no use. And to this 
 prodigious task, the work of regenerating our 
 Finances and our Laws, His Grace brings the 
 capacity of choosing his Ground for a battle, 
 of conducting a siege, and of arranging a com- 
 missariat. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington (he is called, by his 
 flatterers of both sexes, the Duke, as we say, 
 the King,) is a confident, perhaps a presump- 
 tuous man. His great success in War, and the 
 remarkable services which he has rendered his 
 country, make it very natural that he should
 
 3 
 
 rely upon himself, and estimate highly his own 
 endowments. But he is a sensible man, not- 
 withstanding. He cannot but feel the strange 
 nature of his present position. What would he 
 say to a Gentleman of the long Robe, if, upon 
 the faith of his victories at Nisi Prius, or Ses- 
 sions, he were to present himself at head-quar- 
 ters, and assume the conduct of a siege, or the 
 disposition of troops for a general engagement ? 
 But this would, in reality, not be more ridicu- 
 lous, than a General Officer presiding over the 
 complicated details of our financial and legal 
 reforms. To gratify the learned pretender, 
 might wear, at first sight, a more destructive 
 appearance, because the discomfiture which 
 his self-conceit and blunders must entail upon 
 him, would cost the lives of many men within 
 a few hours. But assuredly the whole effects 
 of the Soldier's failure in Downing Street, 
 at the Bank, and in Westminster Hall, are 
 likely to be far more disastrous; and in his 
 path through those unknown regions, he is cer- 
 tain to leave behind him much more lasting 
 and wide-spreading marks of his incapacity and 
 presumption. 
 
 This is the light in which the subject must 
 strike every man of reflexion. It is the light, 
 too, in which, three years ago, the matter must 
 have struck His Grace, when he declared, that he 
 
 B 2
 
 must be worse than a Lunatic to dream of being 
 Minister. But the great blame which would 
 unquestionably attach to him, if no peculiar 
 circumstances existed to account for his con- 
 duct, must be shared with others, and in part 
 ascribed to those very circumstances. 
 
 The late King (it is in vain to deny the mat- 
 ter from any courtesy) made his private and 
 personal feelings a prominent principle of Go- 
 vernment. He would not hear of this man ; he 
 must not have that man named : and the Cour- 
 tiers, always the cause, because the instru- 
 ments of mis-rule, were ready enough to cry 
 out, *' Name him not, — the King will have it 
 so." When, therefore, the Ministers of Christ- 
 mas, 1827-8, exposed their weakness and dis- 
 union, and when the parasites of Windsor dared 
 not suffer the Royal Ear to be invaded with the 
 names of those men, who alone could form a 
 strong and able Government, it was hardly a 
 matter of doubt, that the Duke of Wellington 
 must be Prime Minister. It is injustice, it is 
 ignorance, to blame him for accepting power 
 under these circumstances ; but it is both just 
 and unavoidable, to charge him with monopo- 
 lizing it, and resolving, as he has pertinaciously 
 done ever since, to rule alone, to surround his 
 throne with cyphers, and to bear nothing like 
 an equal near it.
 
 This monopolizing, or, it may perhaps fairly 
 be called, domineering spirit, has been espe- 
 cially displayed since the resignation of Mr. 
 Huskisson, Lord Palmerston, and Mr. Grant, 
 if, indeed, it did not occasion that event ; and, 
 no doubt, it has been encouraged by the kind 
 of men whom the Duke has since had for his 
 colleagues, with the exception of Mr. Peel, 
 who appears not quite enough to have felt his 
 own importance ; and Lord Rosslyn, who, be- 
 longing to a different class, became of no weight 
 when he quitted it. It has been also greatly 
 encouraged by the arts of those worst of ene- 
 mies, the parasites of both sexes, by whom 
 great men are so apt to be surrounded, and who 
 have actually been extravagant enough, in their 
 fawning, to represent their idol as of himself 
 all-sufficient; nay, have discovered in him the 
 powers of a politician, and even of a debater. 
 His Grace ought to be aware, that some of these 
 sage Counsellors have, to say the very utmost, 
 about as much right to hold an opinion upon 
 such subjects, as the most ignorant of their 
 waiting maids. 
 
 One of the first questions which men natu- 
 rally ask, is. How can all this have been suf- 
 fered to go on so long ? Nor is the answer far 
 to seek. There was a rare combination of ac- 
 cidents in favour of any one man who had a 
 
 i?3
 
 6 
 
 sway over the late King, and a firm purpose of 
 his own, how deficient soever he might be in 
 every other quality required in a Minister. The 
 conduct of Mr. Huskisson, and others of Mr. 
 Canning's friends, in deserting his allies, and 
 joining those who had hunted him to death, made 
 distrust of them for some time almost a matter of 
 necessity. The unhappy differences of 1827 
 continued to sever Lord Grey, and one or two 
 other leading Whigs, from the rest of that pow- 
 erful party. Some of its most preponderating 
 Members were known to be averse to office, 
 from personal and accidental considerations. 
 To others the King had insuperable objections. 
 For a season, therefore, the Duke's Cabinet, or 
 Board of General Officers, was pretty secure ; 
 and, indeed, all wish to remove them was dis- 
 avowed ; while some hopes of their attempting 
 conciliatory measures in Ireland, were plainly 
 expressed. Thus were they carried over the 
 long vacation, and 1829 opened with Catholic 
 Emancipation, which gave them another year's 
 forbearance, at the least. But that great event 
 requires a single observation in passing. 
 
 The Duke's flatterers are fond of appealing 
 to it, in order to contrast his power and his de- 
 cision with the infirmity of purpose, which 
 always marked the policy of the Whigs, the 
 Grenvilles, and Mr. Canning, towards Ireland.
 
 " He has done what none of you ever could." 
 Nothing more true than the fact ; nothing more 
 absurd, — more thoughtless, than the inference 
 in his praise, if intended as a disparagement 
 of his adversaries. Why could not they do it ? 
 Why durst they not even attempt it ? Because 
 of the Duke, and such as the Duke, who, had 
 they taken a step towards it, would have raised 
 the cry of No Popery, and set themselves at 
 the head of a High Church party, to destroy 
 whatever ministry should venture upon such 
 courses. The King and the Court were with 
 them, and a change of Government would have 
 been the consequence in four and twenty hours. 
 The Duke carried the question exactly, because 
 he, its enemy, luckily came over to join its 
 friends. To praise him for doing so is fair and 
 just ; but to praise him at the expense of those 
 friends of the measure, whom he had so long- 
 prevented from carrying it, and to whom he 
 went over at the eleventh hour, would be ex- 
 actly like praising Jussuf Pasha for the sur- 
 render of Adrianople, and exclaiming — " See 
 how much better a friend to Russia this bar- 
 barian is, than her own Diebitch ? When 
 did he ever do such a thing ?" 
 
 Another observation may be permitted upon 
 the same point. The conduct of Mr. Peel was 
 above all praise; he lost his weight in the 
 
 B 4
 
 8 
 
 country, and with the Church party ; he did so 
 with his eyes open, and to serve the State, 
 not himself. No one who loves his country 
 ought ever to forget this rare claim to grati- 
 tude. Nor ought Mr. Peel to forget that he is 
 following a false light, if he ever tries to re- 
 gain the favour of those whose indignation he 
 faced. His opinions and theirs, are on all, or 
 nearly all other subjects, wide as the poles 
 asunder. But the Whio; leaders shewed to the 
 full as great a spirit of disinterestedness on that 
 memorable occasion. The Duke's Government 
 could not have stood an hour, had the Whigs op- 
 posed the Disfranchisement Bill, and thrown it 
 out. This they might have done with perfect con- 
 sistency ; they might even have raised their cha- 
 racter with the people of Ireland ; they could have 
 incurred noblame for factious conduct; but they 
 honestly preferred the less popular course, and se- 
 cured the success of the great measure to which 
 they had so often made similar sacrifices, and 
 for which they have reaped so little gratitude. 
 
 The next question that suggests itself is not 
 so easily answered as the last. How has such a 
 Government contrived to go on to this time? 
 The end of last Session was marked, on the 
 part of the Ministers, by an abandonment of 
 every one measure to which any opposition 
 was threatened ; and the Whigs preserved them
 
 9 
 
 the first night of the present one, when they 
 were on the point of losing the question of the 
 Address. 
 
 How then have the Ministers gone on since 
 the beginning of this Session ? It must be ad- 
 mitted, that they have gone on as no Ministry, 
 of whom we have any knowledge in history, 
 ever yet did. Their career has been a suc- 
 cession of mortifications and humiliations — of 
 constant discomfiture in the debate; and, for 
 the most part also, in the division. They have 
 had to meet the whole artillery of the Oppo- 
 sition, Whigs, Ultras, Canningites ; the heavy 
 troops, and the light troops ; and to oppose to 
 all of these, they have but one single debater 
 to whom the House will listen, and to him not 
 always. But they have not yet encountered 
 the worst that may befall them ; for the most 
 powerful part of their adversaries has thus far, 
 in a great degree, spared them. The guns 
 have not been loaded with heavy shot, or have 
 been fired over their heads on purpose. But if 
 the princi})al debaters on the side of the Whigs ; 
 if Mr. Stanley — if Sir James Graham — if Lord 
 Althorp -and, above all, if Mr. Brougham, /// 
 himself a viigJitij host, were to unmask the bat- 
 tery which may now at length be supposed 
 to be ready charged, and to await the slow, 
 the very reluctant match — if ihcji were to hold
 
 10 
 
 up the Government and their measures to the 
 wonder of the country, how could so baseless 
 a fabric continue to exist even for a short pe- 
 riod ; when it has hardly been able to exist up 
 to this time, saved, as it has hitherto been, by 
 the long suffering and forbearance of its anta- 
 gonists ; manifestly, and in all but a very few 
 debates, walking with studied care ; and, as it 
 were, lifting high the foot to avoid treading on 
 and crushing it ? Those adversaries, too, have 
 hitherto been disunited. What would they be 
 in concert ? The Duke has some experience of 
 their power in occasional co-operation : he may 
 conjecture what it could compass, if conso- 
 lidated by a regular coalition. 
 
 Can this last much longer ? Can any set of 
 men so far forget what is due to themselves, as 
 to go on in this way, merely because a self- 
 willed master says, " Go and expose yourselves 
 for me — I am in the House of Lords, and do not 
 mind what castigations you may receive in the 
 Commons, or what figure you make ?" 
 
 A remark here presses itself on the attention 
 of all who observe how the present Ministry is 
 supported and opposed. A Government with- 
 out talents, or even ordinary powers of de- 
 bating, may go on for a considerable time 
 trusting to the support of the Crown, and of 
 the Country, if it possesses the favour of a
 
 11 
 
 popular Prince, and has either the public voice, 
 or a number of supporters, whose rank and 
 wealth gives them weight in the community. 
 Mr. Addington withstood a formidable union of 
 opponents ; it may be asked, Why should not 
 Mr. Peel ? One answ^er is, that Mr. Peel has 
 far less firmness than Mr. Addington. He 
 speaks better, and is not ridiculous ; but he 
 has not Mr. Addington's nerves. The Duke, 
 however, has his own, which are better, it may 
 be said. In War he is a bold man, doubtless ; 
 in Civil Conflict he has not yet equalled Mr. 
 Addington. But Mr. Addington had, besides, 
 what the Duke has nothing of, and Mr. Peel 
 less than nothing — he had popular favour ; — he 
 fed the prejudices of the multitude, as he pam- 
 pered those of the Court ; — he was the Cham- 
 pion of the Church, as of the King. No such 
 chivalry is the Duke's ! Again, he had an 
 assured protector in George III. A^o Son of 
 that Monarch can give the same confidence to 
 the Minister of his choice. — But chiefly he had 
 much of the Aristocracy of the Country with 
 him; the present men have little or none of it, 
 and all, or nearly all, the great families banded 
 against them. If it were no question of talent, 
 no question of popularity — if all the genius, all 
 the eloquence lay on the side of the Ministers, 
 the fearful force of wealth and station, cmbat-
 
 12 
 
 tied against them, would make the struggle 
 most perilous. If, instead of Mr. Goulburn, 
 Lord Ellenborough, (himself a host of unpopu- 
 larity,) and Lord Aberdeen, (who has inherited 
 all Mr. Pitt's insolence, with less than Mr. 
 Addington's capacity,) the Cabinet numbered 
 among its members the Pitts, the Foxes, and the 
 Windhams of other days, and were only opposed 
 by such a race as now compose it, there would be 
 the utmost difficulty in keeping together a body 
 divested of Aristocratic support, and resisted 
 by all the great houses of England. What 
 English Nobleman of weight in the Country 
 belongs to the Government by the tie of office? 
 How few such support it? The Duke has got 
 Lord Lonsdale, who opposes no Government; 
 the united families of Beaufort and Rutland, 
 who support all Governments ; and of late Lord 
 Cleveland, whose accession has been as unac- 
 countable, as it has been generous; but whose 
 feelings and principles must be in favour of a 
 strengthened Ministry. Look to the ranks of 
 Opposition — look to the division on the Galway 
 Franchise Bill in the Lords, when all the exer- 
 tions of the Duke, and of Lord Rosslyn, could 
 only secure a majority of {5\ Against him 
 were seen the Dukes of Norfolk, Somerset, 
 Richmond, Grafton, Bedford, Portland, New- 
 castle, and Buckingham, (the Duke of Devon-
 
 13 
 
 shire being ill, and, therefore, ab>sent.) But 
 it is useless to go through the list of the great 
 families, who, on that occasion, opposed him; 
 the names here mentioned, may serve as a 
 sample of what composed the minority. 
 
 But there must be no misunderstanding, wilful, 
 or other, on this matter: the want of aristocratic 
 support, and the powerful coalition of families 
 in opposition, is not the ground upon which the 
 King is called upon to distrust a Ministry which 
 the Country has rejected, as utterly incapable 
 of managing its affairs. The constitution of the 
 Ministry, and of the Opposition, is the real 
 ground of decision. What powers of face can 
 enable any one to look grave at so prodigious 
 a contrast ! The Duke of Wellington is a 
 veteran soldier, and, if you will, a hero. He 
 is to rule the Senate by his powers of debate, 
 and superintend all our financial and juridical 
 reforms. — Mr. Peel is a highly respectable 
 man, both in Parliament and out of it ; and 
 no Ministry could be indifferent to the value 
 of such service as he well can render. At 
 the same time, it is somewhat unfortunate, 
 that the ground of his popularity should 
 have been so entirely changed; for he was of 
 weight, as the leader of the Anti-Catholic 
 party, and is now chiefly praised, as having 
 carried the Emancipation by the sacrifice of his
 
 14 
 
 personal influence. Of the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer it would be cruel to speak ; but is 
 the Lord High Chancellor at all fitter for his 
 station? an advocate of no celebrity; indeed, 
 unknown at the Bar, as he was in Politics, 
 until he became a Tory, and took office, from 
 having been an Ultra- Whig. The most signal 
 passage in his life, was his entire failure on the 
 memorable occasion of the Queen's Trial. Of 
 the other Ministers, what shall be said? Sir 
 George Murray, a most admirable Quarter Mas- 
 ter General, and a very amiable man; till he 
 quoted Horace, and undertook the Colonial 
 Department, supposed to be, also, a sensible 
 one. Lord Aberdeen, a tolerable scholar, and 
 respectable gentleman, about as fit for the Fo- 
 reign Department as Lord Dudley, whom he 
 succeeded. Lords Ellenborough and Bathurst, 
 whom, to say the least of, is to treat the most 
 kindly; — and there may be one or two more, 
 whose names do not immediately occur to the 
 recollection. Such are the Ministers whom, 
 according to report. His Majesty is disposed to 
 consider adequate for the present crisis, and 
 whom some of the chosen friends of Earl Grey, 
 the Duke of Bedford, and the Earls of Jersey, 
 Rosslyn, and Lauderdale, have been most slan- 
 derously charged with preferring, to that ho- 
 nourable, experienced, and highly-gifted per-
 
 15 
 
 son—because the Duke of Wellington has 
 chosen to have it so! The charge mast be 
 groundless ; but were it true, let those who are 
 its objects, be well assured, that their support 
 might forfeit the confidence of their country for 
 themselves, without enabling their new favou- 
 rites to gain any portion of it. 
 
 How long the Country can bear such a state 
 of things, is another question. The Duke of 
 Wellington must render himself far more pre- 
 cious than he has thus far done, even by all his 
 Great Services, before the people of England 
 will continue to submit to him as their Ruler, 
 if the only terms on which he will consent to 
 trample upon them, are, the having such col- 
 leagues as Lord Aberdeen, to manage our rela- 
 tions with the Polignac's and Metternich's ; 
 Lord Lyndhurst, to shew how much worse the 
 Court of Chancery can be conducted than by 
 Lord Eldon — by indolent incapacity, than by 
 dilatory genius — and. Lord Ellenborough, in- 
 credible ! to dispose of India. It is very likely 
 that the Duke of Wellington would be a useful 
 and a popular member of any Government ; but 
 he must consent to have significant figures with 
 him, and not, by the vain effort of giving value 
 to a row of cyphers, expose himself to the deri- 
 sion of the nation. 
 
 His incai)acity to regulate, unaided, our do-
 
 16 
 
 mestic affairs cannot be doubted ; but has he 
 been more fortunate abroad ? Let Greece, Por- 
 tugal, France, testify against him. In his ne- 
 gociations with all these countries, the erroneous 
 and narrow-minded nature of his policy has been 
 as remarkable as its total want of success. 
 
 In the East, while intending to prevent the 
 establishment of Greece as an independent 
 State, he has realli/ occasioned the fall of 
 Turkey. For had he not encouraged the Porte 
 to resistance against the Russians, the latter 
 could never have had a pretext for marching 
 to Adrianople. In Portugal, while the moral 
 support and favour he has afforded to the blood- 
 stained Miguel, and the outrages he has suf- 
 fered to be committed in the waters of Terceira, 
 have degraded our name in Euro}>e, he has 
 yet hardly been able to preserve his favourite 
 Legitimate upon the throne ; and a Regency 
 in favour of Donna Maria, has actually, in spite 
 of his efforts, been established in the Azores. 
 With regard to France, he has disgusted that 
 nation by his support of ultra principles and 
 opinions; he has weakened, nay almost anni- 
 hilated our influence over the gigantic power 
 of Russia; and all that he has gained for us 
 in return, is, the friendship of worn-out Austria 
 — the general opinion that England is against 
 all lil)eral institutions— and the consequent
 
 17 
 
 abhorrence and contempt of the most enlight- 
 ened portion of Europe. Such are the fruits, 
 as far as foreign affairs ago, of a two year's 
 administration of His Grace, which, when it 
 commenced, found this country looked up to, 
 and courted by all other nations — the centre 
 of enlightened diplomacy, and the umpire of 
 the civilized world. 
 
 But, after all, it is at home we must look, 
 when we wish to form or to give an opinion of 
 the Government — not because foreign policy 
 is less important — for what can be more weighty 
 than the consideration of how the peace shall 
 be preserved on which our very existence 
 depends? but because questions of domestic 
 policy are more easily understood by all men. 
 
 Then let us reflect for a moment on the pros- 
 pect before us at home, and ask ourselves if 
 the times now approaching seem more easy, 
 or sufficiently easy to be likely to suit the 
 capacity for government of tlie kind of ricketty 
 thing that calls itself the Duke of Wellington's 
 Ministry — if the discussions so near approach- 
 ins: are those to which a General Officer and his 
 Aid-de-camps are the best suited — if the diffi- 
 culties surrounding us on all sides are such as 
 his skill and habits may be the most likely to 
 steer us through. 
 
 The accession of King William, and the 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 discussion of a Regency question, are, by the 
 consent of all men, one and the same thing/ 
 If, then, His Majesty were disposed to retain the 
 Duke as his Minister, that is the first debate in 
 which he would be involved. He would, no 
 doubt, upon this occasion, send his Subalterns 
 for the volumes of the Debates in 1789, and 
 1810, and read them — and he probably would 
 feel, having perused these, ready to discuss the 
 question. But would that provision of know- 
 ledge and sagacity satisfy the exigencies of 
 the case ? There are great changes in the world 
 since 1789 — even since 1810. There are 
 mighty considerations which now imperiously 
 press themselves non our notice. The state 
 of the Royal Family — the condition of the 
 Empire — the power of the people — the aspect 
 of foreign nations — and the state of public feel- 
 ing in France, are all elements in this gigantic 
 question : and the Country will demand in its 
 Minister a degree of wisdom and capacity — a 
 forbearance, as well as a firmness — of which His 
 Grace might, peradventure, be found wholly 
 destitute, even though he had gained greater 
 victories than Salamanca or Waterloo. 
 
 But to suppose that the Duke of Wellington 
 can dream of trying such questions with a se-t of 
 Colleagues like those, who nightly excite the 
 pity of the Commons, and the contempt of the
 
 1^ 
 
 Country, is too extravagant. If, however, he 
 can get them to stand in the breach any longer, 
 let them rest assured that a real and determined 
 opposition awaits them. That discreet friend 
 Lord Ellenborough has told Lord Grey he pre- 
 fers an open enemy to an insidious friend.* 
 Well, then, his Lordship will be suited to 
 his heart's content. No more courtesy — 
 no more displays of superiority without mis- 
 chief — no more exhibitions of skill in shewing 
 men their weakness, without doing them any 
 harm — no more shaking them good-humouredly 
 over the precipice, and then setting them down 
 on its edge — no more tak^' ■ them up by the 
 nape of the neck, or holding vilem on the palm 
 of the hand, and patting them on the head, as 
 the Brobdignag King did Grildrig. The time 
 for action is come — the buttons are dashed away 
 from the foils — the guns are shotted to their 
 lips — they are pointed at the weak parts — that 
 is, they are pointed at all parts — the matches 
 are on fire — and the word only is wanted to 
 make them roar. The Captain is a bold man ; 
 but to lead the forlorn hope upon such an occa- 
 sion as this, requires a madman, not a bold 
 one. 
 
 * Every man who knows Lord Rosslyn must expect him 
 instantly to Ictavc a Cabinet that can so treat Lord Grey. 
 
 C 2
 
 20 
 
 But is there no other Kinsf to be consulted 
 
 o 
 
 beside " King ArthurV Have we no longer an 
 hereditary Sovereign to guide us ?- What object 
 can it be to William the Fourth to have a trou- 
 bled and a stormy reign ? 
 
 It is said the Duke of Wellington will have it 
 all his own way, or he will have nothing to do 
 with it. This is supposing him to be one of the 
 foolishest, and certainly one of the very worst of 
 men. Therefore, we have no right to believe it 
 possible in one so distinguished for good sense, 
 who has given ample proofs of patriotism, and 
 whose government has shewn a spirit of rare dis- 
 interestedness. Suppose it true, however; and 
 what follows, but that the New Sovereign should 
 say, courteously and graciously, but firmly — 
 If you mean to continue my Minister, you must 
 look for support to a united people, and to all 
 the great Statesmen of the day, who, with 
 hardly one exception, are to be found without 
 the walls of the present Cabinet. 
 
 The last question that occurs is this — Whence 
 arose (for it exists no longer) the notion of the 
 Duke of Wellington alone being able to govern 
 the country as Prime Minister? It arose from 
 the disunion of some parties, now no more — the 
 want of decision of some individuals, now little 
 regarded — the dislike of office in others, now 
 likely to be overcome — but above all from what
 
 21 
 
 was held necessary in the late King's time, 
 namely, a firm man to controul him. A King 
 who had no childish fancies to gratify — who did 
 not one day want to get rid of his wife at the 
 risk of a civil war — another day to build palaces 
 at the cost of a million — who had no minions to 
 rule over him — and no personal spites to gratify, 
 would never have required an unyielding Mi- 
 nister to keep him in order ; and the necessity 
 of the Duke of Wellington, as Premier, would 
 not have been felt. With the Duke's failures 
 abroad, and the deplorable state of his parlia- 
 mentary campaign at home, much of this sup- 
 posed necessity, even during the King's life, 
 had disappeared, and men had begun to find out 
 that other qualities were wanted in a Minister 
 than those, which any ignorant and obstinate, 
 yet bold individual, possesses equally with His 
 Grace. But the demise of the Crown at once 
 puts an end to all that remained of the de- 
 lusion, restores to the country the chance, at 
 least, of a respectable Government; while at 
 the same time it presents to the Duke of Wel- 
 lington the fair choice, of either ceasing to 
 govern at all, or being content to govern with 
 colleagues, fit for the service of the State. This 
 is a choice, which he may rest assured, all 
 mankind, except some half-dozen flatterers.
 
 22 
 
 have long foreseen awaited him. It is equally 
 clear, that to his own naturally excellent un- 
 derstanding the truth will not come by sur- 
 prise. 
 
 Tilling, Printer, Chelsea.
 
 Slecklen, Colif. 
 
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