allies had completely dispelled all remaining apprehensions from that quarter, the coalition virtually ceased of itself, with the cause that created it. The parties naturally pursued on subsequent occasions the course of policy conformable to their habitual principles of administration; and as these were of a directly opposite description, they were brought, almost immediately, out of a relation of close and intimate coöperation, into one of direct hostility. Even before the battle of Waterloo, the first symptoms of this divergence appeared in the dissensions among the great powers at the congress of Vienna, and in the refusal of the British government to adhere to the holy alliance. It became still more manifest when that government declined to assist at the several anti-constitutional congresses of the continent, and even protested directly against their proceedings. Still however there was no change of ministry. Lord Londonderry, though as fully pledged by his known principles and his previous course of life to the former system as almost any man in England, felt no difficulty, under the change of circumstances which had since occurred, in acting on another of a directly opposite character; and we now saw this sworn friend and confidential ally of legitimacy wielding his inoffensive pen (no longer backed by the thunders of Wellington and Nelson) in the cause of freedom.

In the meantime, a change of ministry produced by an accidental cause in fact occurred, and brought to the direction of the foreign affairs a statesman still more deeply pledged than Lord Londonderry to the anti-jacobin policy, and remarkable for an energy of character and a superiority of talent, which exempted him more than most persons from the control of circumstances, and rendered him in an uncommon degree the independent master of his own conduct. The personal relations of Mr Canning with his predecessor were also such, as did not naturally impose upon him any very strong obligation to follow the course which the latter had marked out. This therefore was a crisis in which we might have expected to witness the triumph of the force of individual character over that of circumstances; and it was now, if ever, that the world might have looked for a return to the anti-revolutionary system. What in fact happened? The energy and talent of Mr Canning served only to precipitate the change of policy which had been commenced by Lord Londonderry, and to brush away, without ceremony, the minor difficulties, which that more scrupulous or timid statesman

might have found insurmountable. We saw this ancient champion of the altar and the throne sanctioning by one of his earliest acts the revolt of the Spanish colonies, calling, in his own phrase, a new world into existence, and in the face of the rooted prejudices of his countrymen, publicly professing, with a sort of affectation, a community of system and feeling with these United States.

Another accident again unsettles the ministry, raises Mr Canning to the head of the government, and gives him the free choice of his associates. Now at least, if we suppose him to have been shackled before by the authority or judgment of others, was a golden opportunity for indulging his favorite prejudices, shifting at once the helm of state, and returning to the old course, given out in better days by 'the pilot that weathered the storm.' What, again we ask, was the result? The cherished nursling and fond admirer of Pitt fills his cabinet with avowed and veteran whigs of the school of Fox, and even carries his liberality so far, as to make himself the object of the bitter personal animosity of the principal surviving disciples of his ancient master. The Coryphaeus of anti-jacobins, who had cheered on in poetry and prose, for twenty years together, a general European crusade against revolution, now declares in open parliament before the face of Europe, that he is ready, if circumstances require, to take the field a second time on the other side, and to head the revolutionary troops on a crusade, as long and as bloody as the former one against legitimacy. Finally the last act of his life was to conclude, under the form of a treaty of alliance with Russia and France, for the pacification of Greece, a compact with the latter power, for the real purpose, as we shall show hereafter, of embarrassing the policy of Russia herself, of Russia, the long tried, faithful, and invaluable coadjutor of the Pittstatesmen, in their struggle with Napoleon. Such then is the influence of circumstances over the conduct of a British minister, and so little are his measures dependent upon his own peculiar views and character. If his temper be quiet and feeble, he pursues without a struggle the onward current of events. If, on the contrary, he have anything of a 'tyrant's vein' about him, any disposition (of which the late premier certainly had a good deal) to 'make all split,' he only abounds the more fully in the same sense, and overleaps with the less difficulty all minor scruples.

The principles we have here stated are sufficiently evident, and have their application to a greater or less extent in most other governments; but they are so curiously illustrated and corroborated by the history of that of England, for the last fifteen years, that we have been led insensibly into a fuller recapitulation of details, than was absolutely necessary to the course of the present inquiry. We repeat however, that the late ministerial changes in England are not of a nature to produce, as such, any material effects upon general politics. It does not belong to our present purpose to examine them much in detail under other points of view. Of the three complete revolutions that have taken place within the last two years, the two first were occasioned, as we have remarked above, by events entirely casual. The real causes of the dissolution of the Goderich administration are less apparent, and after the ample explanations given on all sides of both houses of Parliament, are still, to a certain extent, enveloped in mystery. The trifling misunderstanding between Mr Huskisson and Mr Herries, respecting the person who should fill the chair of a Committee of Finance, does not appear to us a circumstance of sufficient importance to have produced this effect, although we are well aware that little things become great, when they affect great interests. It is not impossible to reconcile the positive assertion of Lord Goderich and other members of the late administration, that this misunderstanding was the actual and only cause of its dissolution, with the supposition that other and more weighty difficulties had created in his Lordship's mind an inclination to retire, without which the small matter in question might have been got over. A powerful party in the aristocracy continued to exhibit a menacing aspect, and Lord Goderich, a sensitive and gentle rather than commanding character, may have felt that he had not the casque of three fold brass, which armed the dauntless front of his lamented friend and predecessor, wherewith to stem its fury. On the other hand, affairs had taken a somewhat unfavorable turn in Turkey, and another general war, if not probable, was at least within the compass of no very distant possibility. Lord Goderich may not have chosen to encounter this hazard, from which indeed a stouter heart than his appears to be, might well recoil with consternation. In the apprehension of these impending storms, he may have preferred to resign at once, before the arrival of the moment of actual danger, when it would no longer be possible to quit his post with honor; and on

that account may have attached an importance to the affair of the Finance Committee, which he would not have given to it under other circumstances; while this, being the only motive for his retirement which he mentioned to the King, may have been spoken of with technical propriety as its real moving cause. This view of the subject is the more probable, since we must look for this cause, in circumstances likely to operate precisely on his Lordship's own mind, as he appears to have resigned, not only without consulting with his colleagues, but even without apprising them of his intention. Mr Tierney declared in the house of Commons, that he supposed the government to be going on as usual, twenty-four hours after the head of it had quitted the helm. We cannot however enter any further at present into this discussion.

The new administration seems to us to wear an aspect of firmer consistency and greater durability, than either of the two preceding ones. We consider Mr Peel as the effective Prime Minister. The Duke of Wellington, though perhaps less incapable of conducting the civil affairs of the kingdom, than he is supposed to be by many, and than his noble frankness and genuine modesty have induced him to represent himself, does not appear to be regarded by his countrymen, as the precise person best fitted for the post he now fills; and from intimations which he has given in the house of lords, as well as from the nature of the arrangements which have been made for supplying his place at the head of the army, it is not unlikely that he intends at no very distant period to return to this latter station. In that case Mr Peel may probably be called to succeed him, and to assume the ostensible direction of the government. Of the character and talents of this statesman we entertain a very favorable opinion. He has not perhaps the brilliant elocution, the ready wit, the rich stores of polite literature, and the fine poetical taste, which gave Mr Canning so powerful a sway over the house; but we are not sure that, even as a parliamentary speaker, he is not really equal or superior to his great predecessor. He has more discretion, more familiarity with matters of mere business, and, we incline to believe, more precision and correctness in his habits of thinking. These are solid qualities, which cannot but secure, in the end, the confidence of the nation to a greater extent than mere rhetoric. Mr Peel is however by no means defective in manner as an orator. He possesses, on the contrary, a copious,

manly, and unaffected style of elocution, highly appropriate to the subjects he is called to treat, and graced perhaps with as much ornament as good taste would admit. The mixture of firmness and moderation exhibited in his conduct on the occasion of the forming of the Canning ministry, whether he be right or wrong on the Catholic question, was creditable to his moral character, which is also, we understand, in all respects unexceptionable. He is now in the flower of life, possessed of every accidental advantage, and at the opening of a public career which promises, we think, to be highly honorable to himself, and useful to his country.

2. The late changes in the administration of the French government, to which we next propose to direct our attention, are different in character, and much more important to the general politics of Europe, than those which we have just been considering. France seems to be almost the only country where the great political parties which divide to a certain extent, and under different shapes and names, the whole christian world, are actually in presence of each other, and carry on the war with activity and vigor. In the military monarchies of the East of Europe, and, as at present constituted, in the two Peninsulas, the liberal opinion is crushed into silence by main force, and has no public expression. In Great Britain and in all parts of our own Continent, the legitimate opinion, if it in fact exist at all, is too feebly sustained by the public sentiment, to form the avowed creed of any considerable party; and the political controversies that are carried on from time to time, with more or less warmth, turn, for the most part, in England, on the merits of particular measures, and with us, where the field is still more narrow, on the characters of individuals. In France, on the contrary, the two opinions are pretty nearly balanced; for if the liberal party have, as we incline to think, a decided superiority of force in the nation, their legitimate opponents are, on the other hand, backed by a powerful foreign influence, which can never be entirely overlooked in a kingdom having an immense open frontier. This reinforcement enables the party to keep the field, and has even given them, for a considerable portion of the period subsequent to the restoration, an appearance of success, and at times a complete and undisputed predominance. The respective opinions and objects of these two parties are sufficiently familiar to our readers. They are determined in general by the great changes in the state of civ