another said, but to change its actual structure as all admitted, might be right or it might be wrong; might be necessary for the peace of the country, or might be the beginning of inextricable confusion; but at any rate statesmen were called upon to decide so grave a question upon its own merits-a question by far the most momentous of any that statesmen were in this world ever summoned to discuss in the peaceful deliberations of council, or senators to decide by the weapons of argument alone-a question which, in any other age, perhaps in any other country, must have been deterinined, not by deliberations of politicians or arguments of orators, but by the swords and the spears of armed combatants. Yet this question has more than once, and by more than one party, been made the subject of compromise, at one time taken up, at another laid down, as suited the convenience rather than the duty of statesmen. Of a certainty, those men have no right to blame Lord North for remaining in office, though disapproving the American war, rather than break up the government and open the doors of Downing Street to the Opposition. In one respect, indeed, Lord North has been by far outdone by them. No exigency of party affairs ever drove him back to the side of the American controversy which he had escaped. But the "Reformers of the Eleventh Hour," having made all the use of their new creed which they well could, took the opportunity of the new reign to cast it off, and, fancying they could now do without it, returned into the bosom of their own church, becoming once more faithful supporters of things as they are, and sworn enemies of reform,

A new and perhaps unexpected vindication of Lord North has been recently presented by the Canadian policy of liberal governments, as far as mistakes by inferior artists can extenuate the failings of their more eminent predecessors. When the senseless folly was stated of clinging by colonies wholly useless and

nerely expensive, which all admit must sooner or later assert their independence and be severed from the mother country, none of all this was denied, nor indeed could it; but the answer was, that no government whatever could give up any part of its dominions without being compelled by force, and that history afforded no example of such a surrender without an obstinate struggle. What more did Lord North, and the other authors of the disgraceful contest with America, than act upon this bad principle?

But a general disposition exists in the present day to adopt a similar course to the one which we have been reprobating in him, and that upon questions of the highest importance. It seems to be demanded by one part of the community, and almost conceded by some portion of our rulers in our days, that it is the duty of statesmen when in office to abdicate the functions of Government. We allude to the unworthy, the preposterous, the disgraceful doctrine of what are called "open questions." Its infamy and its audacity has surely no parallel. Enough was it that the Catholic Emancipation should have been taken up in this fashion, from a supposed necessity and under the pressure of fancied, nay fictitious difficulties. No one till now ever had the assurance to put forward, as a general principle, so profligate a rule of conduct; amounting indeed to this, that, when any set of politicians find their avowed and recorded opinions inconsistent with the holding by office they may lay them aside, and abdicate the duty of Government while they retain its emoluments and its powers. Mark well, too, that this is not done upon some trivial question, which all men who would act together in one body for the attainment of great and useful objects may and oftentimes must waive, or settle by mutual cessions-nothing of the kind; it is upon the greatest and most useful of all objects that the abdication is demanded, and is supposed to be made. Whether

con

say more.

Reform shall be final or progressive-whether the Elective Franchise shall be extended or not-whether voting shall be by Ballot or open-whether the Corn Laws shall be repealed or not-such are the points upon which the ministers of the Crown are expected to have exactly no opinion; alone of the whole community to stand mute and inactive, neither thinking, neither stirring—and to do just precisely neither more nor less than nothing. It is surely unnecessary to "The word abdicate," on which men debated so long one hundred and fifty years ago, is the only word in the dictionary which can suit the case. Can any one thing be more clear than this, that there are questions upon which it is wholly impossible that a Government should not have some opinion, and equally necessary that, in order to deserve the name of a Government, its members should agree? Why are one set of men in office rather than another, but because they agree among themselves, and differ with their adversaries upon such great questions as these? The code of political morality recognizes the idem sentire de republica as a legitimate bond of virtuous union among honest men; the idem velle atque idem nolle is also a well-known principle of action; but among the associates of Catiline, and by the confession of their profligate leader. Can it be doubted for a moment of time, that when a Government has said, "We cannot agree on these the only important points of practical policy," the time is come for so reconstructing and changing it, as that an agreement imperiously demanded by the best interests of the state may be secured? They are questions upon which an opinion must be formed by every man, be he statesman or individual, ruler or subject. Each of the great measures in question is either expedient or it is hurtful. The people have an indisputable right to the help of the Government in furthering it if beneficial, in resisting it if pernicious; and to proclaim that, on

VOL. III.

these subjects, the governors of the country alone must stand neuter, and leave the questions to their fate, is merely to say that, whensoever it is most necessary to have a Government, we have no Government at all: and why? Because they in whose hands the administration of affairs is vested are resolved rather to keep their places than to do their duty.

A similar view is sometimes put forward and even acted upon, but of so vulgar, so incomparably base a kind, that we hardly know if we should deign to mention it. The partizans of a ministry are wont to say for their patrons, that, unless the country call for certain measures, it shall not have them. What! Is this the duty of rulers? Are men in such stations to give all that may be asked, and only to give because of the asking, without regarding whether it be a boon or a bane? Is the motto of them that hold the citadel to be "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you?"Assuredly such men as these do not rise even to the mean rank of those disgraced spirits elsewhere, who while in life

-visser senza infamia e senza lodo;

but of them we may at least say as of these,

Non ragionam di lor ma guarda e passa.*

While Lord North led the House of Commons, he had extremely little help from any merely political men of his party. No ministers joined him in defending the measures of his Government. His reliance was upon professional supporters; and Gibbon has described him as slumbering between the great legal Pillars of his administration, his Attorney and Solicitor General, who indeed composed his whole strength, until Mr. Dundas, also a professional supporter, being Lord Advocate of Scotland, became a new and very valuable accession to his forces.

* DANTE, Inf.

APPENDIX.

LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO LORD NORTH.

"23rd Feb. 1768.

"NOTHING can be more honourable to Admn than the Division when not expected. Mr. Dowdeswell will not get credit by so weak a manœuvre."

"25 April, 1768.

"Though entirely confiding in your attachment to my Person, as well as in y' hatred of ev3 lawless proceeding, yet I think it highly proper to apprize you, that the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes appears to be very essential and must be effected. The case of Mr. Ward, in the reign of my great-grandfather, seems to point out the proper method of proceeding. If any man were capable of forgetting his criminal writings, his speech in Court last Wedy wa be reason enough, for he declared 45 a Paper that the Author might glory in, and the blasphemous Poem a mere ludicrous Production."

"28 Jany 1769.

I

"Great pleasure at y great majority last night.* attribute it principally to the ability shewn by you, both in planning the measure and executing it."

"3d Feb 1769.

"Honourable conclusion of debate this morning,† and promises a proper end of this irksome affair. Inconsistency of those who opposed to-day what they supported yesterday."

* This refers to the Debate upon the Resolutions and address to the King respecting the Disturbances in America, after a very long debate in which Lord North, Mr. Dowdeswell, Mr. Burke, Mr. George Grenville, the Attorney and Solicitor General, Alderman Beckford, and Col. Barré took part; the House divided at three in the morning. For the address 155; against it 89. † On Lord Barrington's motion for the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes, which was carried by 219 against 137: the resolution moved by the Attorney General de Grey, of censure on Mr. Wilkes for a seditious Libel, having been carried the day before by 239 against 136.