A PIPE OF TOBACCO. HE wind is loud this bleak December night, THE And moans, like one forlorn, at door and panc; And as I sit and smoke, my eager soul Somewhat at times from out the Past will win, And of the Protean shapes that curling rise, Often in this dim world two boys I see, Of ruddy cheek, and open careless brow; With many a rosy tint the picture glows,- Till all melts into air. Upon my ears Sweet bells sound softly through the summer hours, And Oxford, fairest city, slow uprears Her glittering spires and towers: And here by Isis' banks, and Cherwell's stream, And now 'neath chestnut avenues we tread, And as the witching incense round me climbs, And, pausing, saw the still night drawing on, And o'er the turret-roofs, serene and clear Within their order'd spaces, one by one, The solemn stars appear. So in this odorous cloud full oft I see Sweet forms of tender beauty; and a tone Steals through the echoing halls of Memory, That these are all my own. Yea, though, dear Tom, Death's passionless cold hand And thou art lying in an alien land, Beyond the Atlantic sea. J. W. T. THE PICCADILLY PAPERS. BY A PERIPATETIC. IT THE PARLIAMENTARY CONFLICTS OF THE REIGN. T will be interesting in the present important political conjuncture, to take a rapid glance at the successive administrations of the present long reign, and those critical parliamentary divisions which have determined the fate of ministers and the character of our public policy. Mr. Disraeli has not waited for a parliamentary vote before resigning. It was manifest that he was to be checkmated, and he has preferred, without going through the dull processes of defeat, to toss up the chessmen and begin another fresh game. Nothing of the kind has ever happened before in the reign, and it is said that Mr. Disraeli has been sinning against the highest etiquette. But Mr. Disraeli is one of those who make etiquette rather than those for whom etiquette is made. He has followed his own bold originality in preferring abdication to expulsion, and in ignoring the last premier by advising the Queen to send at once for the right honourable member for Greenwich. When her gracious Majesty came to the throne, a generation ago, there existed a variety of political conditions strongly akin to those that now exist, or which may be expected to arise. There had been some years before a Reform Bill passed, the result of which had been to give the Whigs a tremendous majority, a majority counted by hundreds, and almost to annihilate the Tory, or Conservative party. That majority, however, gradually grew less and less, and after the dissolution of parliament, consequent on the demise of the king, it hardly amounted to a dozen votes. This was a majority perilously small. Under the old system, when the third George was king, if the majority had not some five or six times exceeded this, any Ministry, except under very exceptional circumstances, would have resigned. When the Queen came to the throne, her Majesty unconsciously furnished VOL. XV.-NO. LXXXV.] Lord Melbourne and his ministry with a large amount of political capital. The young Queen, hitherto brought up in strict seclusion, was now brought into sudden intimacy with many of the most brilliant and distinguished men in the country, readily giving them her fullest confidence and favour, and enlisting all her sympathies on their side against their political opponents. The Whigs surrounded the youthful sovereign with ladies of her chamber and court who were altogether devoted to their interests, and thus Her Majesty was made to appear in the unpopular light of a partisan. The Queen herself, in the 'Life of the Prince Consort,' has alluded to the perilous position in which she found herself placed. There were not wanting many persons at the time who protested against the real unkindness which placed the Queen in so unfair a position. Since that time she has fully mastered the theory of the Constitution, and is a most impartial arbitress amid the conflict of parties. The practical results of Lord Melbourne's personal policy towards the sovereign soon became apparent in the famous Bedchamber Plot. Those who fell into what Baron Bunsen speaks of as the mistake of supposing that the sovereign has no power, should see how the will of a young girl was able to thwart the almost absolute power of a statesman with a real majority of parliament and the nation at his back. The parliamentary division which produced the first ministerial crisis of the reign was on the vexed Jamaica question. This left the ministry in a minority of five. In consequence of this they resigned, and Sir Robert Peel was sent for to form an administration. It is said that almost accidentally Sir Robert Peel, on referring to the Blue Book, found how entirely the Queen was surrounded by ladies of a political character. He conceived that while this was the case he could not be F said to possess that entire confidence of her Majesty which he considered necessary for the stability of his ministry. Her Majesty declined to take the course he suggested, and which she declared to be repugnant to her feelings. A good deal of misapprehension existed on the subject of those ladies of the bedchamber. It was imagined that the Queen was called upon to part with the beloved companions of her youth, whereas those ladies had hardly been in office above a twelvemonth. Neither did Sir Robert desire to make a general revolution in the domestic department of the palace, for he only desired two alterations in that department. This was especially the era of critical parliamentary divisions. At no other period during the reign were these divisions so close, so frequent, and so exciting. The real power lay with the Opposition. They could check, and they could almost carry any measure that they chose. The majority in the upper house was altogether with them. In the lower house they were only nominally in a minority,—a minority which any day might be converted into a majority. The sympathies of the Crown were supposed to be with ministers, but this hardly helped them in the popular estimation. Still, on the resignation of Mr. Abercrombie, the Whigs carried the appointment of Mr. Shaw Lefevre as the new Speaker, in opposition to Mr. Goulburn, who was supported by Sir Robert and his friends. The Tories afterwards abundantly acquiesced in the great merits of this appointment. The following year the subject of the Queen's marriage came before the House of Commons. The ministry proposed to settle fifty thousand a-year on the Prince. Colonel Sibthorp, famous for proposing utterly abortive motions, proposed that the grant should be reduced to thirty thousand a-year. To his huge delight Sir Robert Peel supported him. At first sight it certainly looked as if Sir Robert Peel was resenting the slight passed upon him in the previous year and making his power felt in a very practical way. But Sir Robert Although the majority was so great, more than a hundred, it was not considered decisive against the ministry, inasmuch as it was chiefly effected by the support of the large Radical section who sought to reduce the national expenditure as far as possible. Before long the Ministry retrieved their position by a favourable division. Sir John Yarde Buller brought forward his motion of want of confidence. On this occasion Mr. Macaulay made his first speech in the house after his return from India, and becoming a cabinet minister. The close parliamentary divisions of the period were of the most exciting nature, and had a truly dramatic interest. On this occasion the numbers were: election. It was known that the Melbourne Ministry were in a hopeless minority, but it did not occur to them to resign until an adverse vote was challenged and accepted from the house. With a critical majority of ninety in favour of Peel, the era of close parliamentary divisions was closed for some years. Sir Robert was at the head of a strong Government, the strongest that had for many years been known. He had his difficulties; he had that special difficulty of Ireland, that rock a-head on which he made shipwreck at last; and the Opposition repeatedly measured its strength against him. But it cannot be said that there was a single division which in any degree imperilled his tenure of power. It was now known that his relations with the Queen and the Prince were of the most cordial description. His own party felt some dissatisfaction with him, and there was a section of them which would have preferred the leadership of Lord Lyndhurst. The Young England party, with its Coryphæus, Mr. Disraeli, looked upon him with dislike and suspicion. But the Minister maintained a position of unassailable strength. The augmentation of the Maynooth Grant shook his popularity, but here he was sure of the assistance of the bulk of the Liberals. Finally the convictions, slowly and painfully arrived at by Sir Robert, brought to an issue by the Irish famine, determined him to propose the repeal of the Corn Laws. It was, perhaps, unfortunate for his fame, that he remained in office to carry those measures which he had resisted in opposition. It was the story of the Catholic claims repeated over again. There was now an utter separation between the Conservative leaders and their rank and file. There was no doubt but Sir Robert, with the assistance of the Whigs, would triumphantly be able to carry the Repeal of the Corn Laws. Still there were memorable debates, in which Mr. Disraeli exhausted every weapon of scathing irony against the Premier, Sir Robert Peel. Perhaps he learned to regret that through ill advice he had neglected Mr. Disraeli's claims for office, and he could little have foreseen in him a future Prime Minister. There can be no doubt but Sir Robert's course was dictated by motives of the purest patriotism. But that course was so tortuous, that he loft behind him only a chequered and ambiguous fame. It cannot be said that the papers published by his executors, Lord Stanhope and Mr. Cardwell, have effectually cleared his name. With the amplest sympathy and allowance for him, he still remains a political enigma. From that time to this the Conservative party have never recovered that proud position of political predominance to which they had attained during the premiership of Sir Robert. A memorable division on the protection of life on the Irish Coercion Bill, in which Protectionists and Whigs coalesced, placed him in a minority of seventy-three, and ejected him from office. During the remaining years of his life, Sir Robert gave an effectual support to the Whigs. It seemed, indeed, not improbable, on one occasion, that he might yet effect a reconciliation with his former friends. This was on the debate on Lord Palmerston's foreign policy, a debate famous for three great speeches: the speech of Lord Palmerston, which was his greatest parliamentary effort; the grand speech of Mr. Cockburn, which virtually made him Chief Justice; and the speech of Sir Robert Peel, once more drawing near to his old friends, and made in the unconscious, imminent shadow of approaching death. He died; and for weary years the betrayed Conservative party, slowly electing its generals and disciplining its rank and file, continued in gallant ineffectual opposition, never able to make head directly against the Government, but with the chance of profiting by occasional combination with disaffected elements of that great Liberal party which, like the Matterhorn, is always undergoing a process of disintegration. The critical divisions of late years have been pretty uniformly effected by a junction of the Conservatives with some portion of the Liberal host. The Whigs had so far im 68 At proved their position, that on the Next year an opportunity, for the answered that they had only So we come to the year 1855. |