position, whose main dignity is derived from associations of antiquity! But for historical associations, a crown has, in our age, absolutely nothing in it at all. If conferred by the united impulse of a nation, the honor of sovereignty is still the highest conceivable; but such a position is, in the present age of the world, one of leadership - one of personal responsibility-which is only impaired by reference to hereditary associations. There may have been reasons of policy for placing a crown on the apex of the destinies of Greece; but, whatever might be the tastes of the parties most nearly concerned, it is certain that the tastes of Western Europe were offended by the act of turning a venerable symbol into a politic bauble. And it is very conceivable that though a sensible man might, in the hope of usefulness and true honor, get over his objection to the insignia of his new office, it is no wonder that, upon the hope of usefulness and true honor being reduced to painful doubt, he should give way to his disgust, and decline the office and its titles and decorations together.

It was not till two years after this time, not till the year 1832 was far advanced, that the three Powers could procure the acceptance of the crown of Greece by a European Prince; and then the new sovereign was a mere boy. Otho, a younger son of the King of Bavaria, with nearly three years of his minority yet to run, went to Greece, as King, in December, 1833, with little chance of composing its dissensions, and affirming his empire. The only thing that can be said is, that, where a boy must fail, the ablest man might have succeeded no better.

Distress.

CHAPTER X.

THE year 1830 opened gloomily, not only in England, but throughout Europe, and even in America. In Russia, great efforts were made to raise subscriptions to feed the laboring classes, who were suffering, under the depression of agriculture, from bad seasons and other causes. Throughout the whole of Germany and Switzerland there were stirrings of discontent, which gave warning of revolutionary movements to follow. In the rural districts of the north of France, that strange madness of rick-burning, which afterwards spread fearfully in England, had begun. The educated classes of England spoke of it at first with contemptuous amazement, as showing the desperate ignorance of the rural population of France; not yet dreaming how soon the proof would be brought home to them, that our own agricultural laborers were in a similar condition of savagery. In the United States, the pressure upon the least opulent class was extreme; and that prosperous country came to the knowledge of real and extensive distress. At home, the distress was so fearful that even the sanguine Duke of Wellington, with all his slowness to see the dark side in politics, and all his unwillingness to depress his valetudinarian sovereign, felt himself obliged to take emphatic notice of it in the royal speech; and the debates on the address, which were keen and protracted in both Houses, turned chiefly on the dispute, whether the distress, which all admitted to be intolerable, was pervading or partial. The Duke maintained that there were some parts of the kingdom where the distress was not pressing; the opposition maintained that there were none. The Duke spoke of the ranges of new houses that were rising in the neighborhood of most of the large towns, and declared that he had heard of no complaints on the part of the retail traders: while his opponents looked upon these ranges of new houses as monuments of the speculative mania of five years before; declared that they stood empty, or that their inhabitants were pining with hunger within the walls, unable to pay rent, and allowed to remain only because the owners knew that they could get no other tenants, and it was better for new houses to be inhabited than left empty. The interest of money was never

Discontents.

known to be lower; and the manufacturers' stocks, with which their shelves were too well loaded, had suffered a depreciation of forty per cent. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, we find, spoke, this session, of topics of "consolation," and no longer of “ congratulation; and one subject of earnest deliberation with the ministers was, whether they should propose a property-tax. They resolved against it; but the deliberation indicates the pressure of the time. The restless spirits of the mercantile and political world, who, in seasons of distress, want to be doing something for immediate relief, turned now, as usual, to the ready device of an issue of paper money. This was urgently demanded, not only by many half-informed people throughout the country, but by some who should at least have known that they had better not speak on this subject unless they understood it. This idea of an issue of paper money seems to have lain under the opposition to the address in both Houses, and to have been the real drift of the amendments proposed. And yet money was abundant throughout this period of distress; and, as has been said, the interest of money never was lower.

The national discontent with the government was very great; and the discontent of the government with itself was hardly less. The continuance of the Administration would not have been permitted for a day or an hour after the meeting of Parliament, but for one consideration, the understood state of the State of the King. And some members of the Administration King. would not have borne the galling yoke of their military chief's authority, if they could, with any honor or humanity, have left him, or known what to do with themselves when free.

The state of things was understood to be this: The King, always selfish, and swayed by his passions, had been an occasion of incessant difficulty to his ministers since the failure of his prosecution of his Queen. The sense of weakness and loss of self-respect consequent on that failure had added distrust of his servants to all the evil tempers which existed in him before. His caprices became incalculable. Like all jealous and suspicious people, he was fond of having little plots of his own, — sly ways of putting his ministers to the proof, or disconcerting and spiting them; so that, between this jealousy and his constitutional infirmity of purpose, matters had now come to such a pass that his decisions and commands were worth nothing. He changed his orders between night and morning, and held contradictory opinions or notions from day to day. It had become necessary to rule him first, in order to rule the country. By some means or other, he must be held to his pledges, and brought back to declared opinions, and supported in the enforcement of his orders. The Duke of Wellington could do this better than any one else.

At least, it was certain, that, if he failed, no one else could succeed. The times were too grave for any trifling,—for any ungenerous driving-on of party objects. Nothing would have been easier than to turn out the Wellington Ministry any day; and nothing could be harder than it was to some of the subordinates of the Premier to remain under his humiliating rule: but then no other government was possible in the existing state of affairs; and the consequences of leaving the King and country without a Ministry were too fearful to be braved by the hardiest. All were aware, too, that there must be a change before long, and every one was disposed to put off all struggles of parties till the fair opportunity of a new reign.

Rarely has a Minister held a more lonely position than the Duke of Duke of Wellington did at this date. He had no Wellington. party, no colleagues, no support of any kind, unless it were that questionable support of which the country heard much at the time, of fashion in London drawing-rooms. There could hardly have been so many reports prevalent, and we could hardly meet with so many allusions to this kind of support in the records of the time, if there had not been some truth in the allegation, that the Duke was the fashion among the ladies in the higher circles in London, and that these talking ladies did no good to their hero, nor added any security to the chances of the perilous time by their exaltation of the despot of the day. Just as the court ladies of Charles X. were praising the vigor of Prince Polignac, the great ladies in London were praising the Duke of Wellington; and probably the consternation of the English ladies. at what they saw before the year was out was nearly as great as that of the French ladies when they beheld their idol consigned to prison and civil death. Happily, however, the cases presented no further parallel. If Paris is France, London is not England; and England possesses a Parliament with which no Minister dreams of meddling, and a press which, as the Duke of Wellington found by an experience less disastrous than that of his friend Polignac, cannot be assailed with impunity.

First, for the Parliament that is, the House of Commons

State of

at this time. The opposition consisted of three parties, parties. while the Ministerial party was nothing. Mr. Peel was the only Minister whom anybody saw or thought of in the Lower House; and his only natural and organized supporters were those who, under the name of adherents of the Ministry, have no opinions, or are never asked for any, and therefore afford no particular credit to a government. Mr. Peel was observed with intense interest, and spared or supported by a generous admiration and sympathy, which graced the time, but could not long have put off the struggle of parliament

Mr. Peel.

ary conflict. The Premier and he had carried the Catholic question in the best possible manner and temper that the circumstances admitted. Mr. Peel's sacrifices were universally respected; his sincerity universally confided in, thus far; and his present difficult position generously considered. He stood, in fact, the supporter and administrator of liberal principles; and, in order to be fraternized with by the leaders of the liberal opposition, it was only necessary that he should also profess those principles which he was actually working out. For this he was evidently not yet ready. His heart could not yet be with those whom he had regarded as antagonists during his whole political life; his heart was naturally still with the allies with whom he had lived, and worked, and fought, till now. This was easily comprehended: and it was known that he had suffered much in his private and public relations on account of his recent political conduct; and that he must suffer under the stern rule of his chief; and that he must have his share of difficulty in the relations of the Cabinet with the King: and therefore was he observed with intense interest, and time was given him,- and he was spared or supported by a generous admiration and sympathy. Mr. Canning had specially exempted him from censure for the secession which he complained of in every other case; the Liberals exempted him from the mockery and censure with which they visited his comrades in conversion on the Catholic question; and now, the liberal section of the opposition exempted him from the censure with which they visited the other managers of a perplexed and almost profitless session, a session marked at the time as that which had exhibited most talk and least work of any since the Conquest.

The Premier's view of the opposition was, without disguise, one which did not secure him any indulgence from it. The bulk of the opposition was the liberal party, now strengthened and graced by an abundance of parliamentary talent, while its weakness of administrative ability was, of course, not yet shown; and animated by victory, hope, and expectation. Another powerful though small party, in opposition, was that of the "Canningites," led by Mr. Huskisson in these his last days. The old Tories made up the third party, not a very numerous one, but strong in the energies of grief, disappointment, and fear. The Duke's tactics were well understood. He expected to hold his position, by playing off these parties against each other. He did not see, as others did, that the causes of their disunion had mainly disappeared; while, amidst the heavings of this volcanic time, new ground had arisen on which they might stand together, and look The Duke was abroad upon the agitations of the political sea. blind to this, because he was not yet aware of the critical charac