Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 028.djvu/15

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Remarks on the present Administration.

accompanied it, the inclinations of the democrat. We honour the knowledge of character exhibited in the charge, and we remind the complainants that the same, or rather a haughtier and more unbending, temperament was the especial characteristic not only of Mr. Pitt, their own idol, but of his great father,—a man than whom no other ever more dignified a country by opinions attached to freedom, and conduct tending to ensure its triumph. Honesty, we may add, is not always humble; and the intellect that is framed for command (however modest in ordinary life the possessor) is, in elevated stations, little fitted to obey. However this be, the enemies of the Premier make his ascendency in the Cabinet their favourite accusation; and as his friends are not anxious to deny the charge, so we shall consider it granted, and in speaking of the Cabinet refer to the Premier. First, then, "Is the power of the Duke of Wellington sufficiently great to make us hope that he will not fall so entirely back on either party as to govern through their principles or their infirmities?" This is an important question; for, as we have said, a useful minister must be efficient as well as honest: fortunately, the reply comes from our antagonists. "So powerful is he," cry they, "that we tremble for our freedoms. George the Fourth will be dethroned by King Arthur; and his Majesty will make a round table the second out of the benches of the House of Commons."—"We shall all be slaves!" groans the Standard—"Slaves!" echoes a voice from the Morning Journal. Well, then, if his power be thus great, whence does it come?—"His military influence, his rank, his warlike renown, his connexions." And no other source? Will any man say that three years ago, with the opinion then popularly entertained of the Duke of Wellington as a statesman, his military influence, his rank, his warlike renown, his connexions, would have enabled him to do what he has lately done, or borne him up against the clamour of the interested, when free men stated their expectations of what he would yet perform? Will any man say that the Minister does not with every day gain a higher ground, and command a wider field of public confidence? yet, while his enemies allow this, while they exclaim—"Where is our Opposition?—all England will be the Duke's!"—his rank, warlike renown, connexions, and military influence, are just what they were when he declared, in the diffidence of an untried genius, "That he should be mad to think of the place of Premier;" and the world answered, "It is true." No; the power of the Duke of Wellington has increased from another source than these, swelled as they are by the philosophical truth that all new administrations tend to increase their power as they mature. And if you inquire the main reason why he hourly augments that influence, which you acknowdedge while you denounce—why he stands at this moment separated from the whole herd of living politicians by an eminence of general trust and public hope,—we will answer you with pride. As his power has not leaned either on the Tory or the Whig, so neither has it been propped by an ultra devotion to those bodies on which ministers have hitherto relied for an additional support. He has not fawned for the favour of the aristocracy; he has not ministered to the jealousies of the priesthood; he has not spread the blandishment of a courtier's influence over his inferiors, nor breathed it in harlot whispers through the private chambers of tbe palace; but he has been