too loosely to be always the best authority as to the exact words he may have used in the hurry of debate; we shall therefore quote the reports given in three of the morning papers of the 17th May, of what passed on that occasion; and we select from one paper that is opposed to Lord Brougham, from another that is supposed to be particularly attached to him, and from a third which is generally neuter, the Morning Post, the Times, and the Morning Herald :

MORNING POST.- The Lord Chancellor then stated that he had two bills to lay on their Lordships' table, which it would be unnecessary for him to describe at any length. He brought them forward with the full concurrence of his colleagues,' &c.

TIMES. He had now to present to their Lordships two bills, which had received the sanction of Government,' &c.

MORNING HERALD. He should seize the present opportunity to introduce to their Lordships' notice two bills, which had been prepared with the approbation and aid of his Majesty's Government,' &c.

But we have evidence still more conclusive to this point. Lords Bute and Radnor happened to remain in the House, and they both, in reference to the Chancellor's statement, expressed their satisfaction that the GOVERNMENT had brought in these measures,' and the Lord Chancellor did not contradict or correct them! It is therefore no matter of surprise to us, though it is of additional curiosity and interest, that-during the whole of this conflict, in which the Lord Chancellor appears to have been attacked by eight different Peers, and to have made ten or a dozen speeches in reply-NOT ONE of his colleagues is stated to have said one word in support of him. A silence so extraordinary-so little like the usual generosity of political friendswe can only explain by supposing that the other Cabinet Peers were as much surprised as the rest of the House by the proceedings of their noble and learned colleague.

We sincerely hope that such may turn out to have been the case, and that the Cabinet, as such, has been no party either to the proceedings of the Chancellor or to all the provisions of his, bills. But we are in the dark on this point: probably before these lines meet the eyes of our readers, Mr. Ward's motion for the confiscation of Church property in Ireland will have brought to a crisis the dissensions in the Cabinet, and exposed some of these mysteries to public view; we shall therefore hazard no conjectures on that subject-but shall close this topic by observing, that, however the differences of the Cabinet may terminate, enough has transpired to show that the interests of the Church are in a crisis of the most alarming difficulty and the most imminent danger.

Such have been the plans, projects, and power of the present— perhaps

perhaps we should say the late-executive government of the country;-fallen from a popularity earned by bad means, and endeavouring to retrieve it by worse- despised and abhorred ' (we use the expressions of its own organs) by those whose favour they had meanly courted, and only enabled to carry on even the routine of government by the assistance of that disinterested and patriotic party which they take every occasion to weaken, to vilify, and to insult.

The people of England, so long accustomed to the blind violence of a Whig Opposition, whose sole thought was how they might thwart and embarrass the government of the day, are surprised to see a Tory Opposition helping a Whig Ministry in all its difficulties, and giving it whatever of power and consistency possesses. Mr. Whittle Harvey is reported to have said that 'Lord Althorp, and those who sat around him, were the government of the Crown; but the real government of the country was in the hands of Sir Robert Peel.'

it

God forbid that Sir Robert Peel, and those to whom the country turns its longing but almost despairing eyes, were to be responsible for what is misnamed the government of the country: but it is perfectly true that the influence of his talents in the Househis following in the country-the wisdom of his advice-the high integrity of his motives-have mainly contributed to enable the present ministers to carry on the current business of the state-to maintain, in the few instances in which they have had the courage to attempt it, the institutions of the country-and to show, with a force of which they were not capable, the mixed absurdity and danger of the various mischievous propositions with which we are assailed. If it had not been for the moral power of the Conservative party, the ministers would have been long since driven from places which they occupy, but cannot fill; and the Revolution would have made still more rapid and irremediable progress.

These circumstances give us hopes-faint, indeed, but drowning men will catch at straws-that now, at the eleventh hour, if the ministers, weak masters though they be,' had the courage to act independently, to exert their own judgment—that even now, the crisis might be postponed. If the majority of the Cabinet-who are not, we hope, for a Revolution-would honestly and resolutely say to the Dissenters, or rather their factious leaders, We have offered all that was practicable, and more than was reasonable or safe; we have reformed the 'Church of Ireland-we have abolished tithes in that portion ' of the realm-we have insulted the clergy-we have disgusted ⚫ the Protestants-we have even risked the integrity of the Bri'tish empire:-in England we have offered you a marriage acta tithe

" a tithe bill-a church-rate bill; we have countenanced your pe⚫tition for a charter for a university of your own, and have voted a simultaneous measure for your admission into ours. We have 'offered as many distinct sacrifices as you proposed grievances. You have rejected them all with contumely; you have at last, by 'the utter prostration of our concession, been obliged to take your 'real ground and to avow your real object-you do not stand on 'the insufficiency or inefficiency of the details of our propositions, but, contrary to all our advice, warnings, and entreaties, you have boldly hoisted the black flag of separation between Church ' and State-you have declared that to be your first, your last, your only object, and you have done so after we had declared to you that neither as ministers nor as men could we sanction so monstrous a proposition; you have broken all engagements with 'us-you have defied and exasperated all the good sense of the country-you have set up claims so monstrous, so progressively increasing with every attempt to satisfy them, that we can go no 'further, without a violation of our principles-a breach of our 'duty-a sacrifice of our honour, our policy, and our conscience! You have avowed, by the rejection of all our efforts in your 'behalf, that your grievances were a mere pretextthat your ultimate, and now undisguised, object, is a Revolution in Church and State. We take you at your word, and reply, we 'will not have a Revolution!-we retract all the concessions which you call illusory-we retrace all the steps that you call 'insulting-like negotiators, who, offering what is reasonable ' and finding it unavailing, are justified in resuming their original position, we renounce your alliance, we abjure your doctrines, we repudiate your connexion; we resume our natural station of mi'nisters of the Crown, and servants, not of a faction, but of the public '—we are resolved to maintain, without further change, the consti'tution of England; and we appeal to God-the King—our consciences, and our country, for support against a democratical and 'dissenting dictatorship!' Such is the language which the Cabinet would be justified in using. Such a reply-(would that we could believe that they had the sense, the courage, and the patriotism to make it!)—would rally round the ministry a vast accession of power; the Dissenters would find that they are-however busy and loquacious-inferior to the Church in numbers, wealth, education, and abilities; and the country-even if we should still have to undergo, as no doubt we should, serious trials-would obtain at least an interval of repose, would have time to consult its moral feelings and political interest, and to consolidate its strength for the awful struggle-if it be inevitable-between the monarchical constitution of England and the reveries of madmen

6

enforced

enforced by the extravagance of demagogues. If such a course be not taken-if ministers will persist in a system which disturbs everything, conciliates nobody, and settles nothing-væ victis !— our career of happiness and glory is run. The degraded, and plundered, and dismembered nation will weep, in tears of blood, its forfeited prosperity and its extinguished glories! For the unhappy and infatuated ministers themselves, we reluctantly predict the fame of Sunderland and the fate of Jeffreys!-Te miror, quorum facta imitere, eorum exitus non perhorrescere!

*** We read, while the preceding article was passing through the press, a report of the King's address to the prelates of England and Ireland on his Majesty's birth-day, the 28th of May; which report, though the high character of the newspaper that published it, THE STANDARD, ought to have satisfied all men of its accuracy, has since been impugned or sneered at in various quarters. We having now ASCERTAINED that the report is not only substantially, but literally correct, think it proper to reprint the words of our sovereign on this important occasion IN REI MEMORIAM; and the words marked by italics and capitals are so distinguished because they were pronounced with particular emphasis by the royal speaker. His Majesty said:-

My Lords, you have a right to require of me to be resolute in defence of the Church. I have been, by the circumstances of my life, and by conviction, led to support toleration to the utmost extent of which it is justly capable; but toleration must not be suffered to go into licentiousness: it has its bounds, which it is my duty and which I am resolved to maintain. I am, from the deepest conviction, attached to the pure Protestant faith, which this Church, of which I am the temporal head, is the human means of diffusing and preserving in this land.

'I cannot forget what was the course of events which placed my family on the throne which I now fill: those events were consummated in a revolution which was rendered necessary, and was effected, not, as has sometimes been most erroneously stated, merely for the sake of the temporal liberties of the people, but for the preservation of their religion. It was for the defence of the religion of the country, that was made the settlement of the Crown, which has placed me in the situation that I now fill; and that religion, and the Church of England AND IRELAND, the Prelates of which are now before me, it is my fixed purpose, determination, and resolution, to MAINTAIN.

'The

The present Bishops, I am quite satisfied, (and I am rejoiced to hear from them, and from all, the same of the Clergy in general, under their governance,) have never been excelled, at any period of the history of our Church, by any of their predecessors, in learning, piety, or zeal in the discharge of their high duties. If there are any of the inferior arrangements in the discipline of the Church (WHICH, HOWEVER, I GREATLY DOUBT,) that require amendment, I have no distrust of the readiness or ability of the Prelates now before me to correct such things; and to you I trust they will be left to correct, with your authority UNIMPAIRED and UNSHACKLED.

I trust it will not be supposed that I am speaking to you a speech which I have got by heart. No, I am declaring to you my real and genuine sentiments. I have almost completed my sixty-ninth year, and though blessed by God with a very rare measure of health, not having known what sickness is for some years, yet I do not blind. myself to the plain and evident truth, that increase of years must tell largely upon me when sickness shall come: I cannot therefore expect that I shall be very long in this world. It is under this impression that I tell you, that while I know that the law of the land considers it impossible that I should do wrong-that while I know there is no earthly power which can call me to account-this only make me the more deeply sensible of the responsibility under which I stand to that Almighty Being before whom we must all one day appear. When that day shall come, you will know whether I am sincere in the declaration which I now make, of MY FIRM ATTACHMENT to the Church, and RESOLUTION TO MAINTAIN IT.

I have spoken more strongly than usual, because of unhappy circumstances that have forced themselves upon the observation of all. The threats of those who are enemies of the Church make it the more necessary for those who feel their duty to that Church TO SPEAK OUT. The words which you hear from me are indeed spoken by my mouth, but they flow from my heart.'

INDEX.