the experiment must have been tried, whether or no it was impossible to form a government elsewhere than from among the Red-tapers on both sides. But these other gentlemen, are they so little acquainted with the true nature of their position as to suppose that their secession would have impeded Peel's movement in the least, or that there was the smallest necessity for their undergoing a selfinflicted political martyrdom? We must entreat them to lay aside so absurd a crotchet. No human being cares how they vote or how they speak. Their adherence to Peel has become a source of weakness - not of strength to him: their retirement from office might have made them something, but it could have done no damage whatever to him or to his measure. At the same time this irreparable mischief has accrued from their tergiversation, that confidence in all public men is destroyed. The premier deceives and disappoints his party, excusing himself by making a frank avowal that his views on certain points are changed. The majority of his colleagues, having shewn that, so lately as November last, they had not changed their opinions, and could not conscientiously act against them, return to office, after resigning, and falsify their own declarations by supporting the premier's measures. It is a harsh thing to say, and a cruel thing to feel, but the recusants of November last would not be believed upon their oaths, were they to swear that their free-trade speeches of February came from their honest convictions.

Again, not the least galling part of this unworthy business is, that the whole British empire is insulted and abused by the leaders of two parties, almost, perhaps, equally untrustworthy. Looking at events as they have occurred, it seems to be the settled opinion of Sir Robert Peel on the one hand, and Lord John Russell on the other, that they are the only two men in the kingdom worthy to be honoured with the queen's confidence. Hence Lord John, when the ground is slipping from beneath him, advises her majesty to send for Sir Robert Peel. Hence Sir Robert Peel, finding his cabinet restive, advises the queen to send for Lord John; while Lord John, having tried

and failed to form a government, recommends that Sir Robert Peel be sent for once more; and, behold, we have him once more in Downing Street! Thus the fortunes and the honour of this great country are held, like a pack of cards, in the hands of two gamblers, who shuffle us all backwards and forwards just as they please, and tell us that if they were to lay us down there is nobody in England capable of playing out the game. Now we beg to assure them that they are mistaken. Clever men we admit them to beeminent men, if you prefer the term, standing as far above the hack statesmen of their respective factions as the dome of St. Paul's stands above the church-towers in the City. But, notwithstanding all this, it is our honest belief that we can play our own game for ourselves; and very sincerely do we wish that both would give us the opportunity of trying. Moreover the insult, for an insult we hold it to be, touches men of all ranks and stations in society. Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell have no more right to denounce the possible elevation of Mr. Cobden to a seat in the cabinet, than they have to sneer at the Duke of Buckingham or the Duke of Richmond, as if they were wanting in the talents and weight that are needed for high political station. And if it be true, as we have heard it whispered, that one reason which induced Peel and his colleagues to resume office was, "that her majesty might not fall into the hands of the League," we must say that any thing more unconstitutional, as well as unwise, was never said or done by public men, since public men came into existence.

But we have not yet done with Sir Robert Peel and his cabinet, and their measure. If we are to believe the premier, the plan on which he is now proceeding is not that which he originally proposed to his colleagues; the dread of an impending famine (God knows whence conveyed to him), and a knowledge that the potato crop was very bad in Ireland, induced him to propose in November last that the ports should be opened, and that arrangements should be made while things were in this state for getting rid of the Cornlaws altogether. There was wisdom

as well as moral courage in this,assuming the premises on which the idea rested to be sound. When famine comes, or while it threatens, all laws must give way; and supposing Sir Robert Peel to have been honestly convinced that a calamity so frightful hung over the nation, he I could not do less than propose that it should be met by giving every facility to the importation of foreign grain. But what has he actually done? His colleagues would not consent to open the ports; he could not bring them over, even on this point, to his way of thinking; he, therefore, declares his intention to resign office, and to a man they resign likewise. This is very considerate in them; very complimentary, after a fashion. It reminds us of the generosity of school-boys, who, when they are going to be flogged, always make a point of getting as many of their companions into the same scrape as they can. But, lo and behold! the noble act of selfdevotion won't do. The other gambler cannot manage the cards, and they come back again into the hands of Sir Robert. What follows? He is now doubly armed. He goes to his friends, of course, and says, "Now, my good fellows, you see how the land lies; I must be prime-minister. There is nobody to fill my place; and, convinced as I am that famine is at the door, I must open the ports. Are you willing now to sanction the measure, because if you are not, I must find others who will ?" Was this the premier's argument? We cannot tell; but this the whole world knows, that, if used, the argument availed nothing. It seems, on the contrary, to have been met (that is, if it were spoken), by a rejoinder after this fashion: " My good fellow, this famine is all blarney. We don't believe a word of it, and we don't believe that you believe it either. What you want is free trade; and so, rather than lose our monopoly of office or let in Cobden, we will consent to the abolition of the Corn-laws: but we cannot permit the ports to be opened now, nor our Corn-laws to go in a moment." Accordingly the famine, with the arrangements which were to meet and obviate the evils occasioned by it, are postponed; and a measure is concocted, which, if we

may judge by the time that has been required to carry it to a second reading in the House of Commons, is likely to furnish members with a subject of debate till the new potato crop shall have been housed, and perhaps eaten.

Meanwhile the effect produced upon all the relations of social life in this country, by the proposal of such a measure by such a minister, is most deplorable. It has led to the severance, perhaps to the destruction, of the ties of kindred and connexion; to the array of tenants against landlord, brother against brother, father against son. The late contest for South Nottinghamshire, presents to our eyes the saddest spectacle on which we have ever looked. Not that we ourselves have much sympathy with the excessive alarm of the agricultural interests. We hope, and indeed believe, that in the changes and chances of times and seasons, all things will find their just level; we are confident that, since the battle must be lost, it were better to withdraw from the contest with a good grace, and instead of filling the heads of tenants and labourers with notions of impending ruin, and of course of falling rents, to direct the energies which are thus wasted to the encouragement of agriculture as a science. For, indeed, we have no nervous dread of foreign competition, and are therefore ready to say with Mr. Cobden, that the great error in Sir Robert Peel's measure is that it prolongs anxiety and distrust, by putting off for three years arrangements which might just as well be effected at once. If there be no absolute famine, there is, unquestionably, a defective crop elsewhere than in Great Britain; indeed we are inclined to think, that while foreign nations suffer a good deal from this deficiency, our own share of the burthen is a light one. But the cases may be reversed three years hence; and if they be, and there come pouring in upon us all the surplus produce of the world, then indeed the shock given to agricultural confidence may be a serious one. On the other hand, suppose the Corn-laws to be repealed nownow when we have supplies sufficient, or nearly so, at home, and foreign powers have no surplus, or next to none, wherewith to over

whelm us, time and opportunity will be afforded to adjust matters between landlords and tenants to their mutual satisfaction. For these, among other reasons, we should have been well pleased had Sir Robert Peel, since he must needs take the initiative, fairly belled the cat, and declared for an immediate repeal. However, that is a point comparatively of small consequence. The matter really to be lamented, both in the measure and in the manner of working it, is the frightful influence which it is exercising towards the dislocation of society. For feuds between fathers and sons are at once more bitter, and a thousand fold more lasting in their effects, than any mere squabble of factions. The future duke who fights the present, will probably win the battle in the end; for, in the order of nature, he may be expected to survive his father. But such a victory will bring him, personally, no great satisfaction; and it well tell forcibly against the tenants who may have served under his father's banner against him. How could Sir Robert Peel commit so grievous an outrage on nature as to permit Lord Lincoln, at this crisis, to change his office ?

In like manner we perceive and deplore the beginnings, in such contests as these, of absolute anarchy. Whigs and Radicals may condemn, as much as they please, family power and hereditary respect: but we look upon both as essential to the wellbeing of society in a country like this, where the law holds all men to be equal. What right-minded person, for example, would desire, because of a little obstinacy or blindness in one duke, to root up and overthrow for ever the influence of the Dukes of Rutland or Newcastle in their own neighbourhoods? Yet the sluices are struck through which, in many quarters, the flood is to rush; and a very sanguine mind must that be which anticipates that, once fairly opened, there will be strength enough any where to close them again.

But what would we have had Sir Robert Peel to do? Moved to a particular course by a sense of duty, was he, because of pledges of old standing, to hold back from it? Was he who felt that the time had come

for effecting a complete change in the commercial and fiscal management of this country, to be deterred, through deference to the opinions of a party, from attempting to accomplish it? We answer, that till he should have altogether changed his own position, he was deterred from taking any step of the kind. He had not only no right to entrap and mystify, and mislead the present parliament, but, before coming forward in the character of an avowed freetrader, he was bound, in our opinion, to have retreated for a season into private life. Not only his place in the cabinet, but his seat in the legislature ought to have been resigned; and even these steps, had he played the lofty game, would have been but supplemental to others. We don't care at what period Sir Robert Peel may have begun to surrender up his mind to the soft enticements of the political economists. Whether it were three years ago, or six, or nine, that misgivings on the subject of a restrictive policy arose within him, he ought to have communicated the fact then to his political friends; for it is sheer nonsense to think of governing a free country like this by a system of mystification. The people, or if not the people, their representatives, have a right to be told what the minister proposes to do with them and their property, ere he mature his plan; and till the minister of the crown, whoever he may be, understands this, he will never be able to govern the country pleasantly. See how entirely the system of secretiveness has failed of effecting, in this instance, its intended object. Has Sir Robert carried his measure by a coup de main? has he any chance of carrying it, except after much acrimonious dispute and agitation? But suppose another course had been taken, what might not have followed? We are not prepared to say that the members of the Agricultural Association could have been talked over at any time by Sir Robert Peel. Probably many of them would have been deaf as the adder both to his arguments and to his persuasions; but, at all events, had he moved about among them, or gathered them by little knots about him, and opened his mind now on this topic, now on that, their atten

tion would have been awakened, and they would have gone to the consideration of the great question with fewer prejudices than confessedly obscure their perceptions of it now. But Sir Robert Peel has never had the frankness to act thus.

Had Sir Robert Peel acted thus, even in 1841, and his party forced him, nevertheless, into the place which he now fills, his great measure

for a great measure it is-would have been received, even by such as now oppose it, in a very different temper. Having failed to act thus, another course was still open to him. Instead of consulting only in the cabinet, he ought to have called the heads of the party together, and stated to them both his intentions and the reasons which led to them. If they refused to be convinced, his next step should have been to sever the connexion that was between them; and having effected this, he ought to have retired from the House of Commons, openly declaring why he had done so. His retirement from

parliament would have gone hand in hand, of course, with his resignation of office; and in all probability the very same results would have followed on which we lately looked. Lord John Russell, had he tried to form a government, must have failed; and then Peel, no longer the head of a party, might have been called by his sovereign out of the retirement into which he had withdrawn. With what perfect dignity, with what unblemished honour, might he have placed himself under such circumstances at the helm of state, and proposed, if he liked it, the very

same measure which he is now strugling to carry against his friends! But it is not quite certain that all this would have come to pass. With Peel out of the way, our belief is, that the uncompromising section of the cabinet would have constructed a government of their own; and had they done so, we see no reason to doubt that they would have been able to carry it on, at all events, during the natural life of the present parliament.

We have elsewhere stated, that it was not our intention to discuss the comparative merits and demerits of Sir Robert Peel's plan. Had it been proposed to us by almost any other individual in public life, we should have sifted its claims upon public support to the bottom, and found, as indeed we find now, a great deal in it to commend. But offered by Sir Robert Peel, and argued for by his present cabinet, there is every thing about it to repel inquiry. That the measure will pass, we believe; that it may prove eminently useful to the commerce of the country, we more than hope; but the giver of the boon, if a boon it be, can never again be to us what he once was. He has ruined himself, and dragged after him to political destruction every member of the cabinet which he has succeeded in making his tool. Now, the country cannot stand duplicity of this sort in public men; and hence though they continue in office, if the present change be tolerated, during the parliament that now is, they will find when the general election comes, that the voices of all parties are against them.

THERE are no countries in the world so little traversed by the migratory swarms that issue annually from the modern officina gentium, Great Britain, with the which countries and their inhabitants the English reader at home is so well and familiarly acquainted, as with the Spains. I use the last word advisedly, meaning thereby the Spains merely of the Peninsula and I do so because it is idle now, even as it was always, to talk of Spain as a kingdom, or the various classes of Spaniards therein maintained as a nation. This has been remarked by many writers, French and English, and dwelt upon by Mr. Ford, the accomplished author of the Hand-Book of Spain. He says,

"The aggregate monarchy of Spain is composed of many distinct provinces, each of which, in earlier times, formed a separate and independent kingdom; although all are now united by marriage, inheritance, conquest, and other circumstances, under one crown, the original distinctions, geographical as well as social, remain almost unaltered. The language, costume, habits, and local character of the natives, vary no less than the climate and productions of the soil. Man following, as it were, the example of the nature by which he is surrounded, has

VOL. XXXIII. NO. CXCVI.

Old Proverb.

little in common with the inhabitant of the adjoining district; and these differences are increased and perpetuated by the ancient jealousies and inveterate dislikes which petty and contiguous states keep up with such tenacious memory. The general comprehensive term 'Spain,' which is convenient for geographers and politicians, is calculated to mislead the traveller. Nothing can be more vague or inaccurate than to predicate any sin gle thing of Spain or Spaniards, which will be equally applicable to all its beterogeneous component parts. The northwestern provinces are more rainy than Devonshire, while the centre plains are more calcined than those of Barbary : while the rude agricultural Gallician, the industrious manufacturing artisan of Barcelona, the gay and voluptuous Andalusian, are as essentially different from each other as so many distinct characters at the same masquerade."

Again, he observes,

"There is no King of Spain; among the infinity of kingdoms, the list of which swells out the royal style, that of 'Spain' is not found; he is King of the Spains, Rey de las Españas, not Rey de España."

Besides, there is no capital in Spain that forms a point of general concentration, like Rome, Constantinople, St. Petersburg, Vienna, Lisbon, Paris, or London; no one place

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