is wrong), to enjoy over an inconsistent one, if, indeed, an inconsistent man has the right to any such association.

Mr. Grey, in his political career, was the most opposite that is possible to be conceived to Lord Grenville, they were absolutely political antipodes; and the time was, when the great aristocratic lord, then minister for foreign affairs, would gladly have seen Mr. Grey, and some dozen of his companions, sent out of the country, as men subversive of peace and good government. But time,

"Whose gentle influence makes a calf an ox,

"And brings all natural events to pass."

has at last brought this unnatural coalition, and the two noblemen stick to each other as the shirt of

Nessus did to the body of Hercules.

Lord Grey must now keep silence; for all that he has hoped, and all that he has feared, have turned out shadows. He opened his career of politics soon after the American war, with predicting the ruin of England, and hoping for a reform in parliament England is not yet ruined, and parliament is not yet reformed. The French revolution was next to spread happiness over the face of the earth; but, in place of that, it spread horror and desolation. His next prediction was, that the British armies would be

ruined in Spain, and that Buonaparte would subdue the world. The British armies have expelled the French from Spain, and the whole of Europe has risen as one man against Buonaparte. The Roman catholics of Ireland he hoped to serve, and he did them a great injury. He hoped to be believed in preference to his sovereign; but the whole world, even his own companions, knowing the honour and veracity of the sovereign, have discredited every word that the noble earl said.

The opposition have been what the French call aux abois during a long period, and now they are hors de combat: that is, in plain English, they have long been at their wits' end, and now they are totally disabled. Their last predictions have failed, and their opponents have gained over them a great, and what is worse, a permanent victory.

Lord Grey was for some time in administration; he is one of those who formed the ministry denominated "All the Talents," which was the most unlucky ministry we ever had: it miscarried in every thing, and finally was dismissed with disgrace, but not before it had done sufficient mischief to be long remembered.

It was our intention to have dwelt longer on the errors of the talents, but utility is our object; and

they are so completely sunk in public opinion, so unlikely is it that they should ever again have any political consequence, that it is not that it is not very material to dwell on their errors. They have gone to work with too much decision, and been too completely mistaken, to be any longer dangerous: as public men, therefore, we shall leave them, giving an account of Earl Grey as a member of the house of lords.

Lord Grey is a speaker of considerable ability. Although respectable and impressive in debate, his speeches have a sameness of matter and manner, sufficiently long, but seldom above mediocrity. He is free and unembarrassed in elocution, and has an imposing, but arrogant attitude. He affects much candour and fairness of discussion; but his tones of voice, and boisterous delivery, ill accord with sentiments of impartiality. Intemperate and overbearing in disposition, his various amiable qualities are often obscured in the shade; and, from an obligation conferred through such a medium, there must be a considerable deduction for the tax imposed upon one's feelings by a haughty or supercilious deportment, which wounds the bosom it was intended to relieve. He delights in the noise and bustle of debate; and, if certain of a regular supply from his

physical resources, his lordship would have no objection to extend it to twenty-four hours, or twenty-four days. From being the avowed leader of the modern whigs, he is supposed to have stept into the shoes of Mr. Fox: but he wants the good nature, as well as the sort of fascination that were remarkable in that great leader of the opposi

tion party.

Although the noble earl is not very likely again to figure as an efficient politician, yet politicians may take an excellent lesson from him. It is one of the privileges, and not one of the least of the advantages, of the living to study from the dead: and as Lord G. is politically dead, it is fair for living politicians to learn from him.

We have said, that an obstinate inflexibility was one of the greatest characteristics of the present age, and one of the greatest errors into which the pre sent race of public men are apt to run.

Inflexibility is defined by obstinacy, when in a bad cause; and firmness, when in a good one: but we do not exactly agree in the accuracy of this definition. It is not the goodness or the badness of the cause that constitutes the difference. A man may be blameably obstinate in a good cause; and

many men are termed obstinate who act upon the true principles of firmness and fortitude, mistaking a bad cause for a good one.

It is not, then, the real goodness or badness of the cause, but the appearance that it assumes to him who supports it, that constitutes the difference between firmness and obstinacy; the one of which is a good, and the other a bad quality.

Earl Grey seems to be obstinate; for the cause he supported has frequently changed its complexion, as well as its nature, but he has not been the less inflexible.

His first aim was for a reform in parliament, upon what is termed principle, proportioning the representatives to the number of constituents. This was at a time when such a scheme had not been actually attempted to be reduced to practice; but now that it has been tried and found dangerous and detestable, yet he still adheres to it as firmly

as ever.

His next great attempt was to resist Britain, when she interfered in the continental war, at the time that France wanted to enslave all the world, in the name of liberty. France has since tried to enslave all the world under quite another plea,