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Now the sun illumes our dwelling,
Sings the bird, and buds the tree;
Nature starts as from her slumber,

But no wakening rouseth thee!
Never more for thee the morning
Shall its golden gates unfold;
Past alike are joy and sorrow,
Summer's heat and winter's cold.

Vainly would our tears restore thee-
Thou art now a thing of yore.
Waves, that lull the ear with music,
Melt for ever on the shore;
Yet at eve, when sings the tame bird,
By thy hand once duly fed,
Seem its notes not nature's wailing
Over thee, the early dead?

Softly, softly gleam'd thy ringlets,
Braided in their auburn hue
Keenly, keenly lustre darted

From thine eyes of floating blue;
Now the mould lies scatter'd o'er thee,
And, with deep and dirge-like tone,
Pipes at eve the haunting blackbird,
O'er thy mansion, low and lone.

Dark, anon, shall storms be rolling,
Through the waned autumnal sky,
Winds be raving, waves be roaring,
Sullen deep to deep reply;
Winter shall resume his sceptre
O'er the desolated earth,

But no more wilt thou, like sunlight,
Brighten up our cheerless hearth.

When around that hearth we gather,
Jocund mirth no more beguiles;
Up we gaze upon thy picture,

Which looks down on us-and smiles;
And we sigh, when, in our chambers,
On the couch our limbs we lay,
That the churchyard grass is waving,
Lonely, o'er thy silent clay!

Why our mourning? We lament not,
Even although our hearts be riven,
That in being's sunny spring-time,

Thou wert snatch'd from earth to heaven:

Life to thee was still enchantment,

And 'twas spared thy heart to know,

That the beams of mortal pleasure

Always sink in clouds of woe.

Fare-thee-well then. Time may bring us
Other friends-but none like thee,

Who, in thy peculiar beauty,

Wert, what we no more shall see:
From our ears seraphic music
In thy voice hath died away;
From our eyes a glorious vision
Pass'd, to mingle in the clay!

PARTIES.

THE effervescence caused by the change of Ministry has subsided, and much has been revealed touching the policy of both the Cabinet and the Opposition; the moment, therefore, has arrived for subjecting the state of parties to impartial discussion.

The times place before us astonishing vicissitudes and incongruities. That Tory party, which a few short years since proudly stood at the head of the country, invested with all the characteristics of invincibility, and with every foe prostrate before it, has been made by suicide a ruined minority. That Wellington Ministry, which but the other day was covered with Eastern adulation, and supported by almost every newspaper and party, has been cast from office by general contempt and hostility. That Whig Earl Grey, who, three or four years ago, pathetically lamented in Parliament, that he had scarcely a friend or party left him, and who has ever since been the object of Whig attack, has been by common consent placed at the head of the Cabinet. The Whigs have gained office in defiance of Whig newspapers and partisans, and mainly through the favour and efforts of Tories. And that immaculate press which defended the Wellington Ministry with so much zeal against Whig assailants, now defends the Whig Ministry with equal zeal against the Duke and his fallen brethren.

We regard the change with pleasure, as a step towards national salvation. It is our maxim, that, in a free state, the most powerful party ought to hold office; if its doctrines be erroneous, this is essential for opposing them with the greatest effect; if they be true, it ought in common justice to have the honour and emolument derived from giving them application. Revolution has just been in France produced by the violation of this maxim; and in England it has been prevented, for the present at least, by the practice of it. For some years the present Ministers have supplied those in office with doctrines and measures, on the one hand, and with suppressed hostility to them, on the

other; they have had the part of the community which would not follow them gagged at their feet; in reality, they have been the Ministry, to the extinction of the Opposition. By gaining office, they have lost half their power; at the worst they can make no change of policy; they can only do what they would have compelled their predecessors to do, had the official existence of the latter been spared; while therefore there can be no loss, there must be this mighty profit-they can no longer govern the Opposition in Parliament, or hold in chains the mighty mass of their opponents out of it. The change has transformed them from an odious despotism, combining in itself both the Ministry and Opposition, into a constitutional Ministry-it has restored the constitution from a state of suspended animation.

The present is called a Whig Ministry, it comprehends the leading Whigs; but yet in the professions of some of its members, and even in persons, it is more a Tory one than the last was. Reform, in the better sense of the word, will be called a Tory question, by at least the Pitt Tories. Earl Grey, Sir J. Graham, and the Duke of Richmond, make a nearer approach to the policy of Pitt, than the Duke of Wellington, Sir R. Peel, or any other member of the late Cabinet. The Toryism of Mr Goulburn and Sir G. Murray does not seem to be a whit better than that of Lord Althorpe and Lord Goderich. Even Lord Brougham is evidently as sound a Tory as Lord Lyndhurst. With regard to the Board of Trade, Lord Auckland cannot be more of a free-trader than Mr Herries is; and Mr Courtenay is a blind follower of Mr P. Thomson.

The present Ministry has a certain portion of character, but the last had none; we think it will be more sensitive to public opinion than the

last was.

We, of course, prefer the Grey Cabinet to the Wellington one; but our preference goes no farther than this-we deem the former the best of the bad, the least in the choice of evils. On several leading matters of

policy, we are equally and strongly opposed to both; and the shame will not be ours of tolerating that in Earl Grey, Lord Althorpe, and Mr P. Thomson, which we fought against in the Duke of Wellington, Mr Huskisson, and Mr Herries.

A kind of exemption from opposition is claimed for the new Ministry, on the ground that it has entered office at a season of great difficulty. What forms the difficulty? The country is distressed, convulsed, and on the brink of revolution. This supplies the best of all reasons for opposing it with the utmost vigour in bad principles and measures. In other respects, it entered office under circumstances favourable beyond example. It has the Opposition chained to its own policy; no rival party exists which could retain office; it has little ability, and no eloquence, to contend with in Parliament; and that part of the community not with it is neutral. The conduct displayed by its members towards others, before they obtained power, makes them less entitled, than any other living men, to tenderness, in regard to personal scrutiny and observation. We shall from all this speak of them without paying the least attention to the deprecatory doctrines against opposition.

Notwithstanding the many things in its favour, the existing Cabinet will, we think, soon fall. Party names have lost their charm, and become terms of reproach; the time is past in which a body of men could gain public favour merely by calling themselves Whigs or Tories. It has been observed that at the last election no candidate durst offer himself as a supporter of the Ministry; to this must be added, no one durst offer himself as an adherent of the Whig Opposition; all were compelled to stand on professions of independence of party. While, therefore, this Cabinet must rest chiefly on its merits, most of the things are to be seen in it which ruined the last, and which in our judgment must, and ought, to ruin every Cabinet in which they are found.

In the first place, it is composed of discordant and conflicting materials; if the past professions of its members are to be believed, scarcely any two of them think alike on great

state questions, and one part is fiercely opposed to the other. These must be the certain fruits: 1. It can only enjoy internal harmony through violation of principle. 2. It can adopt no comprehensive and effective measures. 3. At every material step, it must destroy its character, and divest itself of supporters. Its parts, as others have remarked before us, have been cast in the worst manner; almost every member has been placed in the office he is the most unfit for, in respect of talent and principle; the whole are so disposed of, that the best are made the instruments of the worst, and every one must, of necessity, be stripped of character, who possesses any.

It seems to be a law of nature, that a Whig must be a boaster, and the present Ministers possess, in an eminent degree, the talent for bestowing self-praise. They have lauded themselves, in an extravagant manner, on their consistency. Lord Brougham, with an intrepidity as matchless as it is disgusting, declares that consistency is a part of his nature; happy man, to be so gifted in times like these! Well, he broadly intimated to his Yorkshire constituents, that the Corn Law was a great evil to one part of the community, and no benefit to the other; he, however, takes office under a Premier who insists that the Corn Law, or something equivalent to it, shall stand; he is a free-trader, yet he embraces, as his colleague, that Duke of Richmond who laboured so strenuously to impose a duty on foreign wool. Earl Grey, a few years since, took occasion to sneer at political economy and Mr Huskisson's experiments; he has, on different occasions, professed friendship for bank notes; and in certain election speeches, his relatives, Lords Durham and Howick, condemned the destruction of the Navigation Laws; yet, in forming his Ministry, he has given the Exchequer and Board of Trade to romantic champions of a gold currency and free trade. Sir J. Graham, an advocate of small notes, takes office with their enemies; a year or two ago, he called for a party to oppose that of the "lawyers and free-traders;" and lo! he has plumped himself into the very thick of these ravenous animals, The

Duke of Richmond declared, not long since, that he would belong only to the "Country Party," to the "Conservative Party," and he has found these parties in the low Whigs and Economists; after labouring to give protection to the wool-grower, he joins in taking it from the kelp manufacturer. He insists on giving relief to the labouring classes in one quarter, and at the same moment, takes the bread from many thousands of them in another. Of course, the rest of the Ministers have acted in a similar manner.

These men may call this consistency, but if it be, Sir Robert Peel and those who acted like him on the Catholic Question, are very consistent people. We look not at party names; a Whig and Tory, if they think alike and violate no party obligation, may honourably act together; but there can be no consistency without general harmony of principle. Such conduct is alike ruinous to public men and the country. It strips them of integrity, and makes them ready to act with any colleagues, and sanction any measures for the sake of personal gain. The example thus set in the Cabinet extends to the great borough proprietors, spreads through Parliament, and is irresistible to the elector. If a Minister or Legislator sell his principles for place, why may not freeholders and burgesses sell theirs for money? It renders it impossible for the country to possess a consistent, effective Ministry. A large part of the Ministerial side, and a large part of the Opposition one, are hostile to free trade, and friendly to small notes; if both were separated from their brethren and formed into a whole, what would follow? The members of each great party would think alike in essentials, party contests would turn on the questions which divide the community, and the best principles would be practised with due effect. Consistency and integrity, moreover, would be restored amidst public men. The sordid and profligate system now in fashion does much worse than neutralize the Ministry on great questions. It blinds and deludes the country; and in every Ministry, from the Liverpool to the Grey one, including both, it has given the ascendency to the

bad side: the best side has only defended and sacrificed, while the other has attacked and gained.

The present Cabinet practises that wretched imposture on the country, which former ones practised. Here is a Ministry, forsooth! which combines men of every mode of thinking-here are old Whigs and low ones; old and liberal Tories, the Canning party, paper and metal people, restrictive men and freetraders, all blended together in happy union! How, then, can any man, no matter what may be his creed, be other than the friend of such a Ministry? This is the surface-the tale of the false impostor; let us now look at the reality.

Earl Grey, as we have said, has been for some years obnoxious to the Whig body, on the score of principle; he owes his office mainly to his dissent from the general doctrines of the low Whigs and Liberals. How is he fixed in the Cabinet? He has filled the Treasury, Exchequer, and Board of Trade offices with Liberals and free-traders, and he cannot be other than their instrument.

Sir J. Graham possesses a mas culine understanding, and much origi nality and independence of thought; his powers seem to be peculiarly adapted to financial matters. He might have made an able, practical Chancellor of the Exchequer; but he is placed in an office in which his merits, touching powers and principles, cannot be brought into action.

The Duke of Richmond is a man of plain, but solid sense; he was allowed on all hands to display much practical ability in the enquiry touching wool. He might have been of great value in an office connected with trade, but he has one assigned him which makes him a cipher.

In this manner the Ministers of one side are disposed of; letus now see how the offices are filled, they are the best fitted for.

Lord Althorpe is a pure piece of second-hand commonplace; he plods at the reviews and newspapers of his own side with incredible patience; recites their contents with marvellous accuracy; and yet never dis plays a ray of original thought, or particle of independent judgment, His powers will not permit him to

be other than a theorist, and he is a fanatical follower of the free-traders, which is far worse than if he were a head. He is the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons !

Who is Lord Auckland? asks every publication;-who is LordAuckland? echoes every member of the community; and the only reply is Lord Auckland is one of Lord Brougham's people; moreover, he is one of the M'Culloch people of the London University, and belongs to the Liberals of the Society for Diffusing Useful Knowledge; but beyond this, nothing is known of Lord Auck land! Here, then, is an individual who is totally unknown to the country-who is an utter stranger as a public man-who never opens his lips in the Legislature-whose talents and creed are involved in mystery and who has never put forward the slightest legitimate claim, to entitle him to the meanest office-placed in almost the most important office in the Ministry; that of President of the Board of Trade. What has produced this most gross and scandalous job? for that cannot be other than such a job, which, in the present state of the country, has given such an office to such a man. Are we to find its parentage in Lord Brougham's anxiety to provide for his friends, or in the learned Aristocrat's magnanimous resolve to be both Lord Chancellor and President of the Board of Trade, or in the paternal solicitude of the whole Cabinet to create a man of straw, for the benefit of Mr P. Thompson? If not, where can it be discovered?

A President of the Board of Trade like this has, as his Vice-President, Mr P. Thompson. The latter is the gentleman who, in former Parliaments, fought with such desperation in favour of the destructive changes which benefited the foreign trade he was engaged in as a merchant-stood between the petitions of the shipowners, &c., and the legislature

and defended Mr Huskisson and Mr Grant, by insulting and defaming their victims. The appointment of this person to the office he holds, excited general disgust and indignation; even the more sober friends of free trade were ashamed of it; to various important parts of the com

munity, it was a deliberate insult. This man is a servile follower of the very worst doctrines of the very worst Economists-he is publicly pledged against every iota of protec tion to either property or labourhe has always manifested a spirit which ought never to be found in an English Minister-and his parlia mentary speeches have scarcely rai sed him to the third class of politi cians: yet he is not only the VicePresident of the Board of Trade, but, according to appearances, the real President also.

Are we to be told that Sir J. Graham would not have made a more capable Chancellor of the Exchequer than Lord Althorpe-that the Duke of Richmond, who is known to the country, and in some respects tried, would not have made a better head of the Board of Trade than the unknown Lord Auckland-and that a Vice-President infinitely superior to Mr P. Thompson could not have been discovered? No; the audacity of telling us this, will not be ventured on by any person. Farther, will any one say that Lord Althorpe would not do as well at the head of the Admiralty as Sir J. Graham; and that Lord Auckland would not be as efficient in the Post-office as the Duke of Richmond? No.

Thus, then, leading offices are filled by the least competent, and by very incompetent, men, merely that one set of opinions may prevail against another-that the professed opponents of the Economists in the Cabinet may have no influence. In regard to disputed points, there is no division of power; but on the contrary, all is withheld from the one side and given to the other. In so far as there is a party in the Cabinet opposed to the free-traders and bullionists, it forms but a stalking-horse to blind and delude the country; the party it pretends to oppose, monopolize every office requisite for enabling them to give effect to their doctrines. Still the Corn Law is to be saved, For this we are devoutly thankful; but how long is it to be saved? Earl Grey, the Duke of Richmond, and Sir J. Graham, intrench themselves in this law, and surrender every thing else; they give a part to save a part; the other side is only allowed to take the fortifications at first;

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