presentation. How loudly are generous sentiments applauded; how enthusiastic is the ardour produced by patriotic emotion; how strongly does the very air of the theatre seem impregnated with the most generous and patriotic sentiments! How many inexperienced observers have been led to imagine, when witnessing these bursts of lofty enthusiasm, and seeing how uniformly they commence with the humblest classes of society-how many have been led to conclude that human nature is at bottom virtuous and pure; that selfishness and vice are the growth only of riches and palaces; and that ample security for a pure and salutary administration of affairs, is to be found in the admission of the masses of mankind into the uncontrolled direction of public affairs! Follow out the assembled multitude who have been swayed by such generous emotions in the theatre, and see who they are, and what they do when exposed to the separate influence of the sins which most easily beset them. Among the so-recently generous and elevated crowd, will be found the profligate husband and the faithless wife-the hard-hearted creditor and the fraudulent debtor the reckless prodigal and the depraved libertine-the besotted drunkard and the abandoned sensualist the cruel enemy and the perfidious friend-the hard-hearted egotist and the rancorous Among the many who, but the evening before, seemed animated only with the most pure and generous sentiments, will be found every form and variety of human wickedness, and by them will be practised every deed by which man can inflict misery on man. Such, and so different is man, when judging of others according to his reason and his feelings, and man, when acting for himself under the influence of his reason, his feelings, and his passions. Hence it is, that during the worst periods of the French Revolution, the sanguinary mob who had been entranced in the evening by the noble and elevated sentiments of Racine or Corneille, arose in the morning with fresh vigour, to pursue their career of selfishness and the work of blood; and hence it is, that the enthusiastic masses, whose sentiments appeared so pure, and their feelings so exalted, in the commencement of the French Re

foe.

volution, when declaiming against the corruptions of power, that their hearts might be thought to have opened within them the springs of heaven, became so utterly selfish, corrupt, and cruel, when exposed themselves to its temptations, that they appeared to have been steeped in hell.

This observation forms the true explanation of the facts which have been so clearly evinced, and which have excited such unbounded astonishment since the commencement of democratic ascendency in this country; viz. that the Liberal party, not only have themselves fallen into the very vices which they complained of in their predecessors, but pushed corruption in every department of the state to an unheard of excess, and perverted the whole influence and power of Government to the promotion of the interests of their own party adherents, and the whole powers of legislation to the prosecution of party ambition. If we compare the language of the Whigs before they came into office, ten years ago, with their actions since that time, the difference will appear so enormous, that it would seem as if we had passed, in a few years, from the most virtuous to the most corrupt stage of society. Only reflect on what they have done. In Opposition, they declaimed incessantly upon the sufferings of the poor, and bewailed, in pathetic terms, the hardships and the miseries of the humbler classes of society, upon whose exertions the whole fabric of national greatness is rested; and no sooner were they fairly seated in office, than they directed the whole influence of Government to force through a measure which deprived the poor of England of their best inheritance-which punished poverty with the pains of guilt which burdened female innocence with the consequences of libertine depravity; and separated from each other, in the last stage of existence, those of whom it had been said at the altar, "Those whom God hath joined, let no man put asunder." In Opposition, they held up nothing so strongly and universally to public abhorrence, as the baseness of a party which should maintain itself in office by Court favour, and loudly proclaimed the constitutional principle that no crime could be so great, because none was so obviously subversive of

public freedom, as the admittance of back-stairs influence into the direction of public affairs; or the maintenance of the reins of power by a party who had ceased to retain the confidence of the House of Commons. When in office themselves, however, they acted in a very different manner. For more than two years after they had themselves admitted they had lost the confidence of the House of Commons, and had actually resigned office in consequence, they returned to office, and retained it, not because they possessed the confidence of the Crown, but because they possessed the disinterested support of the ladies of the bedchamber. In Opposition, their incessant theme was the necessity of economy in every department of the state, and they denounced nothing so much in their political opponents as their alleged lavish profusion in the administration of the exchequer, and the regulation of the public expenditure. How have their deeds kept pace with these professions? Why, they have increased the public expenditure during the ten years of their tenure of

office, by a sum not less than two millions a-year. They contended, when in Opposition, for nothing so strongly as the remission of taxation, the preservation of public credit, and the maintenance of a surplus revenue by economical reduction, to the gradual liquidation on sure principles of the national debt, and they have, while in office, contrived not merely to destroy altogether the surplus revenue of £2,667,000 a-year, which the Duke of Wellington's government left them, but converted it into a steady deficit, which has now reached the enormous amount of £2,450,000 annually,† aud which has amounted, in the last five years, to no less than £7,500,000. In Opposition, they incessantly declaimed about the enormous magnitude of the public debt, the insupportable load which it imposed upon the industry of the nation, and the enormous profligacy of the preceding governments, under whose auspices it had been constituted. But, alas! how are the mighty fallen! From the details given in the preceding and following notes, all of which are founded ou

official returns laid before Parliament, it appears that while the Tories, from 1820 to 1830, had paid off £47,000,000 of the national debt, and reduced its interest by £3,450,000, the Whigs, in the next ten years, have not only not paid off one shilling, but, on the contrary, have made such large additions to the public debt, that its annual charges are no less than £110,000.*

In Opposition, the Whigs declaimed incessantly upon the ruinous effects of former warfare upon the best interests of the state; and, while in office, they have combined reduction in the national defences with arrogance in national diplomatic relations to such a degree, that our national character was lowered, and our national honour tarnished in every quarter of the globe, and war has been forced upon us in China, Affghanistan, and Canada, from the wretched fatuity with which our national ascendency in these quarters of the globe has been lost; and we were brought to the very verge of a desperate war with France, in consequence of the necessary effects of

our former discreditable submission to Russia. The Whigs constantly asserted while in Opposition, that the great increase of crime which has taken place during the last half century in the British isles, and particularly in Ireland, was the result of Tory misgovernment, and the neglect of the moral cultivation of the great body of the people; and the result of their ten years' government has been to raise up crime in England from 18,675 committals a-year in 1829, to 24,443 in 1839; in Scotland, from 2,063 in 1829, to 3,409 in 1839; and in Ireland, from 15,271 in 1829, to 26,392 in 1839.† And of the crime in Ireland it appears, from the official returns, that in 1839, after nine years of the blessings of Romish ascendency and Whig conciliation, the number of capital and atrocious crimes has increased in a degree at once fearful and alarming, and demonstrating, in the most decisive manner, both the savage character which the Romish priesthood have retained in that unhappy people, and the total inadequacy of Whig le

gislation or Romish ascendency, either to ameliorate it or prevent its steady increase.*

The Whigs repeatedly told us, when in Opposition, that the navy was the true strength of England-that the wooden walls were alone not formidable to freedom-and that the Ministry deserved to lose their heads who should let down that great and important element of national defence; and, nevertheless, they have starved the fleet so disgracefully, in order to provide funds for the extension of their Ministerial corruption at home, that whereas Great Britain, in 1792, when its colonial empire and national resources were little more than a third of what they are now, had 154 ships of the line in commission, or in the royal dockyards-she now, including those building, has only ninety! The Whigs, in Opposition, were loud in their declamation against the needless multiplication of offices, and the creation of commissions, or other jobs, to favour the purposes of Ministerial corruption; and they themselves have carried that engine of abuse to an unheard of extent, and overspread the land for ten years with a host of commissions, which have served little other purpose but that of accumulating a vast mass of prejudiced or ex parte evidence, and spending among the younger scions of the Whig aristocracy about

a million and a half of the public money.

We have said, and we say it advisedly, that falsehood reiterated in every possible shape, and clothed in every possible form, has from first to last constituted the constant system of Whig Government; and that but for the way in which they have contrived to delude the public mind by the constant exhibition of fallacious promises, or erroneous theories, they never could have maintained themselves more than a few months in power. Experience has now completely demonstrated the fallacious nature of almost all these promises and speculations, and proved that the deepest wounds have been inflicted upon the best interests of the empire by the adoption of the theories for which they so strenuously contended. the Liberals are not a whit discou raged by the demonstrated failure of all their schemes; but, calculating largely, and, it would appear, not without success, upon the ignorance and credulity of their democratic followers, they incessantly bring forward new projects and devices, in the confident hope that, as fast as one is proved to be fallacious, the public may be deluded and beguiled by another. It may justly be asserted, that their political existence has been nothing else but an endeavour to keep

But

themselves afloat by the sending up one bubble into the air after another. True, these bubbles are not long of bursting, and the intelligent and really educated classes of society are now almost unanimously convinced of the utter hollowness of their professions and fallacy of their princi ples. But what then? Another bubble is sent up, and another, and another; and although every rational independent man in the country is now utterly disgusted with this ministerial system of trickery and delusion, yet their interested followers in every rank give it their most strenuous and effective support; and their mob followers in the cities, half interested half deluded, make the air resound with acclamations at every new bubble that is sent up to dazzle the eyes of the multitude by glittering for a few seconds in the sun.

The first grand Whig bubble which was thrown up was the Reform Bill. This great healing measure, we were told, was to put an effectual end to all the disorders and miseries of society; was to spread a healthful and purifying influence over every department of government; and, by bringing the legislature into harmony with the masses of the community, was to render the armed force unnecessary, and establish a perfect unity of feeling, interests, and desires between the different classes of society. What has been the result of the great healing measure? Has it been to restore concord and unanimity to the empire; to extinguish all feuds which had formerly arrayed class against class, and interest against interest; and to establish universally that concord and unanimity of feeling between government and the working classes, which unquestionably forms so important an element of public prosperity? The result has notoriously and avowedly been the reverse. Instead of producing unanimity and concord among all the ranks of society, it has induced nothing but strife and variance; instead of calming the passions and soothing the discontent of the working classes, it has arrayed them in fierce hostility or sullen indignation against the government; instead of establishing concord and unanimity between the legislature and the masses, it has thrown the apple of eternal discord between them; instead of calm

ing the passions and diverting the ambition of the people, it has filled them with painful heart-burnings, general discontent, and fruitless aspirations after ideal and long proInised perfection. A change which, it was confidently predicted by its promoters was to establish peace and harmony throughout the land, and enable government to dispense with the expense, so far as internal affairs are concerned, of a standing army, has been followed by an unavoidable augmentation of its forces from ninetyone thousand in 1830, to one hundred and twenty-eight thousand in 1841; Bristol and Nottingham have been consigned to the flames; Birmingham and Newport with difficulty rescued from pillage and conflagration, and more property has been destroyed and blood shed during the last ten years of Whig conciliation, indulgence, and concession, than during the preceding century of constitutional or conservative government.

The next bubble which the Whigs threw up, and which, like an unsound paper currency, was attended with marvellous strength in the outset, and woeful weakness in the end, was that of negro emancipation. Availing themselves of the humane and benevolent spirit of the British people, the Liberal leaders blew into an absolute flame the amiable but delusive passion for negro emancipation. Free labour, it was said, is, in the end, infinitely cheaper than that of slaves; industry, prosperity, and peace, may be anticipated from the immediate abolition of the fetters of slavery throughout the whole British dominions, and the supply of sugar for the British islands be rendered both more steady and more abundant by the blessed substitution of the voluntary labour of freemen for the compulsory toil of the slave. The argument was pleasing; the principles to which it appealed were benevolent; and the conclusion, to those acquainted only in the superficial way with human affairs, appeared irresistible. But the result has now completely demonstrated both the utter fallacy of the views on which this grand delusion was founded, and the total hypocrisy of the humane and philanthropic views with which the Whigs announced it to the people.

Such has been the effect of the diminution of the produce of West