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1822. leader which he was invited to fill, the feelings with which he regarded it had probably undergone a considerable alteration since 1812.

Lord Londonderry had, for ten years, been the most prominent and important person in the Cabinet of Lord Liverpool, though he did not hold the office of First Lord of the Treasury, and was not called Prime Minister. Mr. Canning occupied after him a similar position. Here, therefore, we suspend our review of this administration. In another article, we shall resume the subject at this new phase; which will afford us an opportunity of estimating the change which the transfer of power from Lord Londonderry to Mr. Canning produced.

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VII.

ADMINISTRATIONS OF MR. CANNING, LORD GODERICH, AND
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.1

SINCE the appearance of our article on the first period of Lord Liverpool's administration (Jan. 1859), two more volumes have been published from the family papers in the possession of the Duke of Buckingham, which comprise the ten years of the reign of George IV. In continuing our review of events from the death of Lord Castlereagh in 1822, to the accession of the Reform Ministry in 1830, we shall avail ourselves of the materials contained in these volumes. At the same time we must express our opinion that the editor has shown a culpable disregard of the feelings of living persons in publishing at length the private and confidential letters addressed to the late Duke of Buckingham, by his near relations and intimate friends; many of those letters contain passages relating to events in private life, of a comparatively recent date, which it was improper and unbecoming to give the public, and which are utterly valueless for any question of political and historical interest.

Adopting an American metaphor, we may say that the administration of Lord Liverpool, after the second and final downfall of Napoleon, began the peace with a large balance of popularity at their banker's in their favour,

1 Review of Memoirs of the Court of George IV., 1820-1830. From original family documents. By the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, K. G. London: 1859. 2 vols. 8vo.

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formed out of their accumulations during the last years of the war; while the account of the Opposition had been overdrawn, and exhibited a balance against them. Owing to their policy respecting the war with Napoleon, the latter party had an arrear of unpopularity to cancel, before they could set themselves straight with the country; but this object was gradually effected, and before long they converted their deficiency into a surplus. The Whigs were not only more liberal and tolerant than the Tories; less desirous of maintaining a monopoly of power and of permanently excluding the unprivileged and the heterodox; but their opinions on financial, economical and commercial subjects, on questions of law reform, and on colonial and international policy, were more enlightened and philosophical. As the succession of debates and motions in Parliament, and the changes in public affairs, developed this antithesis, and disclosed the true character of each political party, the Ministry lost its hold upon the country, while the Opposition steadily advanced in public estimation.

It should be observed that the progress of legislative reform had been unnaturally retarded in this country during the interval between 1792 and 1815 by the circumstances of the time, and that a vigorous and somewhat enterprising spirit was required of a ministry at the commencement of the peace, in order to bring our legislation into harmony with the growing wants of the country, and the advanced state of intelligence.' This state of things had been owing partly to the war, which engrossed the attention of the Government and the public, and diverted men's thoughts from internal improvement; but principally to the French Revolution, which had

1 Mr. Sydney Smith gives a striking description of this stagnant period in the preface to his collected writings.

engendered a morbid horror of all innovation, and had 1822. produced a vindictive mistrustful feeling in the upper classes towards their inferiors in social rank. If any person,' said Sir Sam. Romilly, writing in 1808, 'be desirous of having an adequate idea of the mischievous effects which have been produced in this country by the French Revolution and all its attendant horrors, he should attempt some legislative reform on humane and liberal principles. He will then find, not only what a stupid dread of innovation, but what a savage spirit it has infused into the minds of many of his countrymen.' The storm

which, on the Continent, had swept away all ancient institutions, even those which were beneficial, had in England rivetted even our ancient abuses to the soil. While Jacobinism had, in France, borne down its opponents, and had therefore been eminently destructive, it had in England only served to rouse a spirit of reactionary alarm, and had therefore been eminently conservative.

The almost unbroken tenure of power which the Tories had enjoyed for so long a period likewise produced its usual corrupting influence, in creating a sense of irresponsibility, and in separating their interests and sympathies from those of the people at large. This state of things is disclosed in the letters contained in the Duke of Buckingham's new publication. In admitting us behind the scenes of the Liverpool Cabinet, they show how much its movements were determined by petty personal motives ;

1 Mem. of Romilly, vol. ii. p. 247. Professor Smyth, in addressing his class in 1826, made the following remark: 'You, who have not exactly lived during the times of the French Revolution, cannot at all imagine how long and how deeply it affected the thoughts, the feelings, and the interests of every human being, without any exception, that then existed in the civilised world' (Lectures on the French Revolution, vol. i. p. 144). The publication of the Anti-Jacobin, and its success, is a striking proof how the public attention of England was engrossed with French politics, and what were then called French principles.

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how many arrangements were in progress in which the public interests was a secondary consideration; how much certain families and sections and interests had learned to consider the Government as a machine to be worked for their benefit, or at least under their direction. Although the feelings and opinions expressed in familiar letters, written without the idea of publicity, cannot always be taken as the deliberate views of the writer, yet it must be admitted by the most prejudiced Tory that the picture of the administration of public affairs, during the first years of the reign of George IV., presented by these letters, is anything but creditable or respectable.

Besides the stationary and unprogressive character which the Liverpool Ministry maintained at a moment when the inaction of twenty-five years demanded of a government a spirit of active improvement; and which therefore tended to lower the esteem in which it had been held; there was another circumstance which operated against the Ministry at this time, as compared with the previous reign. George III. always exercised a considerable influence, independent of his Ministers. His shrewdness and insight into men's motives, his moral and respectable life, his sympathies with the prejudices of the country, and his genuine wish to be a good king, according to the measure of his understanding, gave him this position. If he wished to undermine or weaken his Ministers, he used this influence against them; if he wished to support and strengthen them, he used it in their favour. But it was a substantive influence, which made itself felt throughout the greater part of his reign. Mr. Fox and Lord Grenville, in their private letters, equally bear testimony to its reality. George IV., on the other hand, was always unpopular; even before he became Regent, his debts, his profligacy, his quarrel with his wife, and his general character, had

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