EARL OF LIVERPOOL.

His lordship, who is the first person in the present administration, has had singular advantages that fit him well for that high office.

He had two of the best statesmen of the age for his instruction and example, with whom he acted after having been bred under them.

The late Lord Liverpool was a man of great learning and abilities, at the same time that he was a profound statesman, and a man of upright, honourable principles, without any of those indirect and crooked views that often distort the character of the ablest politicians.

Mr. Pitt was the other personage with whom his lordship was nearly connected, and day after day shews more and more the wisdom of that great minister. Never did any minister withstand so impetuous a torrent, the force of which, both moral and physical, was directed against the government of his country; and never did any minister render so important a service to the world.

We talk of the dark ages that succeeded the fall

of the Roman empire, and we may speak equally truly of the dark and dismal period that succeeded the fall of the throne of France, when the whole of the civilized world was at first threatened with the most destructive anarchy, and next with the most dreadful despotism.

Mr. Pitt resisted this storm when the rest of the world was in despair, and when, even amongst ourselves, a very great portion of the well-informed, as well as of the ignorant, thought that his labours were in vain. The great confidence that all had in Mr. Pitt's unimpeachable integrity, and great abilities, procured him support when there was but scarcely a ray of hope; and though that great and good man did not live to see the glorious end of his labours, he lived to secure it; and to the policy he adopted it is, that, under heaven, we owe the salvation of our country.

The first danger arose from the progress of a mistaken, but a very specious, deceitful, and dangerous political system. The second arose from the immense power that France had acquired; the force of her arms, and the subjugation of the continent.

Those dangers were resisted and repulsed, when the timid and the hopeless would have sealed the

doom of the world, by the acquiescence of Great Britain in the aggrandisement of France, until the ambition of the ruler of France became so great, that resistance on the part of Britain was absolutely unavoidable. Britain had no choice but tame submission, or continuing the contest; and after the death of Mr. Pitt the contest was maintained from necessity which had till then been maintained by his policy.

His immediate successors tried to change the plan. They did all that men could do to ruin Britain; and we certainly owe its preservation to the ambition, obstinacy, and folly of our enemy.

After a year of blunders, and of humiliating attempts, (to be permitted) to sink in the rank of nations, that ruinous administration was dismissed with disgrace, and the former coadjutors of Mr. Pitt succeeded, when there were no longer any mean or inefficient offers to humble ourselves before a haughty enemy. Britain again assumed the proper attitude, and in defiance of all the attempts to persuade the nation that the contest was hopeless, we have seen a greater change of fortune than the most sanguine could expect. Infatuation has seized our enemy. The heart of Pharaoh has been hardened,

and he has been overwhelmed by the misfortunes his folly has brought upon him.

No minister of this country ever lived at so prosperous a period as Lord Liverpool, and it appears that our moderation in success will be equal to our firmness in the hour of danger and dismay.

Lord Liverpool succeeded Mr. Perceval, and the business of the nation goes on with much less bustle than before*, when Mr. Perceval appeared

When Mr. Pitt died, his coadjutors lost courage, and resigned. They thought themselves unequal to the task of governing their country: but when the Talents were dismissed, the same men came in, and succeeded very well. A second time they lost courage, on the death of Mr. Perceval; till, finding a new administration could not be formed, they resumed their courage, and things have gone on better than ever. Not that we mean to say that it is to the present men altogether that the success is owing, for the tide of events has turned; but we must allow that all the affairs, internal and external, that depend on them, go on fully as well. There is as much firmness, and less inflexibility, than in the time of Mr. Perceval, and there is much less parade. No reflection is meant on a good man, who lost his life in a most lamentable manner: but truth obliges us to say, that things go on more smoothly, and the machine of state makes less noise than it did in his time.

personally to do every thing, and when the nation resounded with discussions in parliament, and the difficulties that were constantly assailing

the ministers.

His lordship is an acute and accurate reasoner, has a dignified delivery, and an easy flow of eloquence, without any thing of that supercilious air that arises from the possession of power, or consciousness of superior talents. Actuated by the same spirit that guided Mr. Pitt, he is as correct in his conduct, more accommodating, and less inflexible; and we believe he has more knowledge of mankind, and an equal regard for the welfare of his country.