foresaw must have taken place, when they should have attempted to prepare the king's speech, and arrange the other measures of the approaching session, but which the death of Lord Spencer accelerated by a few weeks. It would be a great mistake to imagine that the Cabinet was dissolved by the removal of Lord Althorp from the House of Commons; the Cabinet has been dissolved by its own internal and irreconcileable dissensions; and Lord Spencer's death has only effected in November, that which the most sanguine of the Cabinet hoped to have postponed to January. When, by this event, they were obliged to proceed to the selection of a new Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the House of Commons, it became inevitable that the future line of conduct and policy of the government should be also arranged; and it was soon evident that no such arrangement could be agreed on. We do not affect to have access to the secrets of the Cabinet or the Closet, but we believe that the following statement of the circumstances of the dissolution of the ministry will be found substantially correct; for minor details we do not pretend to vouchbut of the leading facts we have been assured by the concurrent testimony of well-informed persons. There were two parties in the Cabinet: one-the majority, we fear-thought that they could not meet Parliament without announcing some strong measures of what they called Church Reform, or, to speak more truly and plainly, Church Spoliation ;—the other (to which section Lord Melbourne himself is said to have inclined) were reluctant to pledge themselves to this extent, and declared that they must resign if such measures were to be proposed. In this dilemma Lord Melbourne waited on the King to inform him how the matter stood, and proceeded to offer a series of arrangements and alternatives for remodelling the Cabinet; one of which has been-we presume because it looks like a joke-allowed to transpire; Lord John Russell was the first person proposed as leader of the House of Commons! Such a nomination was no very potent pledge either of the strength and respectability of the government in public estimation, or of discipline or good understanding amongst the ministers themselves; and Lord Melbourne is said to have candidly informed His Majesty that his propositions, even if agreed to, would not have the effect of establishing unanimity on the great and vital question of the Church, the two sections of the Cabinet would be still irreconcileable; and it followed, as a matter of course, that whenever that question should be brought into discussion, the dissolution of the Cabinet must ensue. In this state of things, His Majesty, with equal frankness and good sense, suggested that--if the proposal then submitted to him was was avowedly to settle nothing, but, on the contrary, to render another and early crisis inevitable, there could be no use in patching up a provisional expedient; and that it would be better to do at once that which was admitted to be unavoidable at lastnamely, to dissolve the incoherent and distracted Cabinet. In this rational and indeed unanswerable suggestion, we have heard that Lord Melbourne freely acquiesced-the Cabinet was dissolved, -and the late premier conveyed to the Duke of Wellington His Majesty's letter, summoning his Grace to Brighton. In all this there was not-and could not be-any concert, much less any intrigue, between the King and the Conservative Party; and we believe we may assert that the retiring ministers confess that His Majesty was not acting under any other influence, or with any other views, than those which were naturally and obviously suggested by his communications with Lord Melbourne himself, and by his lordship's own statement of the difficulties of the case. If His Majesty had been less frank, less gracious, less straightforward, he might have rendered his own share in this affair more easy and less liable to any possibility of misconstruction-by allowing his discordant ministry to have squabbled on a few weeks or days longer, when they must have exploded with all the scandal and odium of internecinal hostility; but His Majesty, though he could not be insensible to the indignity with which he had been treated by one leading member of the Cabinet, disdained taking any such retaliating advantage, and with the honour of a British gentleman, and the sound policy of a British King, suggested the course of proceeding which, though least convenient to himself personally, was most indulgent to his resigning servants, and most creditable to the general character of monarchical government. His Majesty has already reaped some of the fruits of such upright conduct in the full admission, as we have heard, of various members of the late Cabinet, that they have nothing to complain of, and that His Majesty's conduct was in every respect candid and gracious; and we are satisfied that his people at large will show that they see in all this affair additional motives of respect, loyalty, and affection. The Duke of Wellington, too, has not been wanting to his noble character. With a magnanimity unparalleled, we believe, in political history, he has assumed all the difficulties and responsibilities, while he declines the personal honours and advantages, naturally belonging to the circumstances in which he was placed. He has advised his Majesty to make Sir Robert Peel First Minister, and has generously undertaken to carry on the routine of government till the Right Honourable Baronet's return from Italy. Until that event, no permanent appointments will take place-no more will be done than is necessary to secure INDEX TO THE FIFTY-SECOND VOLUME OF THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. : A. ADAMS, William, his interesting adventures Admission of Dissenters to degrees, 466. Alimentary Substances, Prout on the Ulti- Andronicus, Livius, on the writings of, 59. Autenrieth, Professor, his process of making B. Barke-bröd of the Laplanders, method of Beke, Charles Tilstone, his 'Origines Bib. Bérard, S., his Souvenirs Historiques sur Bokhara, Travels into, by Lieut. Alexander Burnes, 367-fitness of the East India drabad, 372-Sehwan described, ib.— from Kurshee towards Bokhara, 397- Boswell, James, his definition of the human Bowdler, Mr., his expurgated edition of Buonaparte, Napoleon, his 'Lettres à Jo- Burnes, Lieut. Alexander, his 'Travels C. Cæsar, style of his 'Commentaries,' 88. of Dissenters to degrees, 466. Celsus, his work 'De Re Medicâ' quoted, Chaucer, Geoffry, a witness in the Scrope Code Gourmand, 406. (See Cookery.) character of the present edition of his and metrical arrangement, 7-some of - Conolly, Lieutenant Arthur, his Journey |