It is now more than two years and a half since Sir Robert Peel, on the 10th of May, 1839, whilst giving the reasons which had compelled him, when called on by his sovereign to form an administration, to give up the task, thus addressed the speaker of the House of Commons:-" Sir, let me take that particular question on which my chief difficulty would arise. Who can conceal from himself that my difficulties were not Canada,—that my difficulties were not Jamaica,- that my difficulties were Ireland ?”

Now, when he has a working majority of ninety-one in the House of Commons, and a vast preponderating majority in the House of Lords, does the same difficulty exist which he then experienced, when called to office with a majority in the Commons of five on the Jamaica Bill against him? In other words, is the man whom the great majority of the electors of England have called to office to be still obliged to succumb to those difficulties, which more than two years ago he confessed stood in the way of his administration in Ireland? This is a question which has been not a little agitated by a party who, being thoroughly beaten here, look to the turbulence and agrarian bloodshed of Ireland, as their only hope of regaining those places to which, in violation of the true Whig principles established in 1688, they clung so pertinaciously long, obstinately callous to a constitutional recognition of public opinion. The position of the beaten Whigs at the present moment is especially degrading. As a party, they have no longer a separate existence. As a party, when in power, their only existence was that of the wick, which, whilst itself consuming, is allowed for a brief period to be surrounded with a light not its own. Hardly equal in number to the English and Irish Radicals, and outnumbered by the Conservatives, they managed, nevertheless, since the passing of the Reform-bill, to retain possession of office by pressing to their utmost limits the most despotic principles admitted by our constitution. The Queen!" "The Queen!"

was still their cry. The favour of the sovereign was to be their shield, -the bulwark of the former assertors of the wildest doctrines of the people's rights, against frequent majorities in the House of Commons, and a steady majority in the House of Lords. How has this foolish delusion passed away! The queen is at this moment causing caudle to be served to fair, though Conservative lips, with apparently as much pleasure as though my Lady Normandy were herself the distributor of the royal bounty. The dislike of the queen to Sir Robert Peel, like the spectral whiteness of a post seen by some timid schoolboy in the moonshine, appears to have vanished before the light of the rising sun of the fortunate minister. The goblin, after all, never was there; and though the Duke of Wellington may not have as much small talk, nor be as well adapted for a neat tea-party, as Lord Melbourne; though his grace may be sufficiently independent to dine occasionally at his own house, we believe him to be not the less respected, or his advice esteemed the less valuable. The cry, then, of the queen, whom the lord-mayor of Dublin caused so long since to be poisoned by the king of Hanover, seems to have unaccountably died away. But then the corn-laws remained behind; an enormous weight, which Sir Robert had only rolled back, like another Sisyphus, to a certain height, to descend on him with a more crushing impetus. 'Tis "passing strange ;" and we are a most unaccountable people, for the cornlaws appear to have been also in a great measure forgotten, save by some fond theorist of the Morning Chronicle, who occasionally gets tender still on his hobby, and some smart young writer of the Globe, who still at times prates of a noble people starving amid the plenty which they reap. Yet, somehow or other, the nation appears to think, that perhaps ruining the farmers is not the best possible means of enriching the labourer; and that a system like the present, which in times of scarcity admits foreign corn at a nominal duty, may be better

than that which applies sternly the same unchanging scale to every vicissitude of a proverbially changing climate. What then remains to the rump of the Whig party? It is evident that the queen will not be bored by the company of Sir Robert or the Duke, and people begin to grow tired of eternal discussions on the corn-laws, which they cannot understand. What remains then to the Whigs? Ireland-unhappy Ireland. On its fertile plains, in its rich and verdant valleys, must be fought the battle of the powerful parties now arrayed against each other. Like the Netherlands, whatever nations are at war, it offers always a ready battle-field. There, and there only, must the strife be now maintained between the Radical subverters of our time-honoured constitution, united to the defeated forces of Whiggery, and the still fearless and powerful band of loyal hearts and trusty hands, who have been, and ever are, ready to resist the buccaneers, who would fain wrench from the crown on which they fawn its brightest jewels; or, to accomplish their own selfish objects, trail it through the mire. The question, then, which we mean to consider, is simply, Whether Ireland does constitute a real difficulty to Sir Robert Peel?

As every prime minister must be somewhat in the condition of a general at the head of an army in a country where many of the inhabitants are his enemies-his army consisting of those who vote and shout for him, on the one hand, and those who, in the capacity of his commissioned officers, with deeper heads, direct, by their writings or their eloquence, the voters and shouters ; since such may not be considered an unapt comparison, it becomes manifest, that to the minister, as well as the general, there can be but two species of danger which either of them need dread, namely, that which has its origin with the foe outside his camp, and the more subtle, less evident, and generally more perilous danger, which arises too frequently in the centre of the lines of defence which he may have drawn around him. If, then, the present government be overthrown, it must be from either of these two causes,-inability to resist successfully assaults from

without, or control the unruly spirits within. What the lawyers also call "an act of God"—such as death, &c. &c., we do not intend to embrace in our argument, since it is just as probable that an earthquake might swallow up London and the ministry in the time of a Melbourne as that of a Peel. It is clear, likewise, that a government might be overthrown by either of the above causes, whether arising in England, Scotland, Ireland, or abroad. In England, however, the vast majority of the people are at present, and for years to come seem likely to be, perfectly content with the man whom they have themselves called to the highest station permitted to a subject to fill in this realm. As for Scotland, we shall argue the probabilities or improbabilities of Sir Robert Peel finding any very dangerous opposition there, when any one shall be kind enough to point out to us some occasion on which the " cannie" caution of our brethren north of the Tweed ever permitted them to break through their wise and plain rule of supporting the existing government for the time being, whatever might be its principles. "Tell me the prime minister, and I shall tell you my principles," seems to be the first question, that but for his natural discretion, would rise to Sawney's lips. The fact is, that the Scotch find themselves growing richer and more comfortable every day; and believing, very properly, that increased prosperity is attributable to increased industry, and more extended facilities of commercial intercourse, politics have become to them a secondary consideration; and as they are too sensible to imagine themselves the victims of an iron despotism, whilst living beneath the shadow of the English constitution, they are contented to be tolerably happy, whilst there is nothing to annoy them; and even that is no inconsiderable merit in this world. Again: Is it from abroad that the cloud is to appear which, from "the bigness of a man's hand," is gradually to spread itself over the political horizon, and emit those lightnings which are to hurl from his lofty station the man who at present guides the vessel of the state? The storm which the Whigs had raised in Ame

rica has all but subsided; and a man who would talk now about either M'Leod or Grogan would find himself in any decent club considered somewhat of a bore. Our Indian affairs are more than usually prosperous, and the nomination of Lord Ellenborough to the situation of governor-general of that immense empire has certainly not diminished the general confidence, that English interests shall not be neglected, and that firmness tempered with clemency and strict impartiality, as well as thorough knowledge of the country, shall be found amongst the many excellent qualifications of that nobleman for his exalted post. In Turkey and the Levant, the stormy pacification of Lord Palmerston is nearly over; whilst even in Spain, Espartero has recently exhibited more decision and capability than any one had formerly supposed him to possess, and has in a great measure consolidated and strengthened his power, with some prospect at least of rendering it as durable as can reasonably be expected in any Spanish government. France, to be sure, may blow up altogether some fine day; but we have, notwithstanding the gathering of armed masses on the Spanish frontier, a well-earned confidence in Louis Philippe and his able minister, Guizot; and if some infernal machine carries them both off, we cannot see that Sir Robert Peel would then have more to answer for than Lord Melbourne in a similar case. As for China, the Whigs had certainly done all they could to ruin our prospects there, by bestowing the high-salaried situations which the position of affairs entitled them to create on men whose sole recommendation was their connexion with the Whig first lord of the Admiralty, and who, having found a puddle in a storm, contrived to let in the waters of the ocean from without, till they raised a tempest which they could not lay. One of the Elliots acknowledged his incapacity in the form of a disease of the heart, and returned quietly home. The other continued to plenipotentiarise till he actually forced his government to dismiss him in disgrace; and but for the gallantry of our army and navy, the judicious arrangements of Sir Gordon Bremer,

at the beginning of the present and the end of last year; and the military talents, more lately, of Sir Hugh Gough, and the known decided character of our present plenipotentiary, Sir Henry Pottinger, matters would have become much more serious than they now appear to be. We have our own opinions concerning Chinese affairs, but shall content ourselves with observing at present, that the hopes of our final success in that quarter of the globe are now more generally diffused than they have ever been since the commencement of the opium disputes; and we are therefore entitled to consider, that it is not from thence Sir Robert looks for the danger sufficient to peril his tenure of office. What remains then? Ireland; and to Ireland we shall proceed, for the purpose of considering the difficulties which threaten the stability of the present ministry, either from the avowed hostility of open enemies, or the insubordination that prevails in their own camp.

We candidly confess, that unless our reader be very indulgent, he had better proceed no further. If not a politician by taste or necessity, our operations can have no interest for him; and even though he be a dabbler in those troubled waters, how can we hope to claim his carnest attention to our pages, with such a subject as Ireland to deter him from their perusal ? We wonder

not at the apathy with which many at this side of the water begin gradually to regard the affairs of Ireland. An Englishman naturally wonders whether matters are ever to be arranged in that singular part of the earth. Conciliation appears but to exasperate the inhabitants; and having done what he thought right to do for them-placed them on the footing of an English county- - John Bull has at last begun to grow tired of a seemingly endless pantomime, of which the first two or three acts possessed some interest, being full of jumpings hither and thither, a sprinkling of murders and great bustle; but which being prolonged beyond all patience, has at length begun, in the eyes of honest John, to degenerate into a very considerable bore. How, then, can we ask our readers to sit down to a critique on a per

formance during the actual representation of which they have already found in themselves incipient symptoms of ennui? Yet even still, if in Ireland Sir Robert Peel declares the battle must be fought, a brief review of the scene of action and the forces of the belligerent parties must command, though it may not invite, an interest.

First, then, who are the declared enemies of the present administration? There is Lord John Russell, the last shred of a once goodly garment the head of a scattered party -once the élite and the best of the land: but whose principles, as avowed in 1688, have become now by altered circumstances the creed of the Conservatives; which is, after all, nothing but a new name for the old Whigs. There is hardly a principle or a theory laid down by the great Burke to which Sir Robert Peel or Lord Stanley would not at this moment subscribe. But as the cycle of events revolved, the Whigs either mounted to Conservatism, or sunk into Radicalism; or else clinging to a name, whilst they abandoned the principles of which it had formerly been the index, alternately truckled to the agitator, who used them whilst he abused them; or with liberty on their lips, and their deputy in Ireland enforcing the precept by a pompous promenade, that bestowed impunity and pardon on incarcerated ruffians, sought to inflict a despotic statute on our West Indian colonies, whilst they fomented rebellion in our Canadian settlements; or exclaiming against the hardship of a "scorpion"-bill that would have given a vote in Ireland to none but those who, by even the Whig Reform - bill were legally entitled to one, could yet push the monarchical principles of our constitution to the extreme verge of a despotism from which even Charles I. shrank in the case of Strafford, by making for a long period the falsely represented inclination of the crown supreme over the declared wishes of the other two branches of the legislature. Of that party there still remains a few, of which Lord John is the ostensible leader. To these in this country are united such of the Scotch representatives, as having been elected during the reign of the late ministry, are ashamed as yet to change

their political creed; also the English Radicals, a far more honest party, together with all the vertebræ of Dan's many-jointed tail. These latter being well drilled, even to the proper moment for crying "Hear, hear!" and all pulling together and strongly, were able in the last House of Commons, and for some years previously, to turn the scale into which their master might fling them. With this party, amounting to about sixty steadygoing, thorough veterans, the Whigs, as represented first by Lord Grey and then by Lord John Russell, were enabled to retain the reins of power, with short intermission, from 1830 to the present year. Since the last election, however, a great change has come over the dreams of the Whig party; and this necessarily leads us to analyse the present constitution of the House of Commons preliminary to any deduction we may have to make as to the probable issue of a contest between Sir Robert Peel, supported as he now is, and the united forces of his avowed enemies both in England and Ireland.

Those hostile to Sir Robert in the last parliament, or who refused to repose confidence in any administration conducted by him, counted amongst them a band of seventy Irish members, of whom more than fifty were but the echoes of O'Connell's voice, and the shadows of his every motion. No dozen of our proud and wealthy aristocracy ever wielded such a power by means of their pocket boroughs, as was headed and conducted by one man in the last Honse of Commons. On him, and on him alone, depended the fate of the late ministry. We by no means belong to that sect who exclaim with virulence against the honesty or the propriety of any body of men intrusting themselves to the supreme will of an individual like O'Connell. Every one under this constitution has a

perfect right to choose whom he pleases for his leader, and to pay him also, should he wish, a share of the wretched and hard-earned pittance that some would perhaps be callous enough to devote to the support of their wives and families. These are not matters for us to discuss. Every man knows his own business best, and has generally a right to do what no law forbids. Without entering,

therefore, at present into the policy of such immense numbers intrusting their political destinies wholly to one mau, whom they have made their agent and representative here, we feel bound to acknowledge that the power of millions was literally wielded by that individual. We go farther, and allow that such power, backed by real grievances, was enormous; and if not sufficient to overthrow, yet adequate to perplex even the most firm and cemented cabinet, supported by the electors and people of England. When, however, an object, which united by its popularity and necessity even millions to obtain it, has at last been gained, those who never originally looked beyond it rest satisfied with that which formerly bounded their ambition, and are content to leave the arena of politics in possession of those who have been led to believe there is some part of the pantomime—and, of course, the most amusing-still to be performed. The great bond of union, however, amongst an assailing party is destroyed, when their victory is gained; like the old Highland armies that used to assemble for a foray into the low and fertile country of their neighbours, whom, as soon as the plunder, the hopes of which had led them to take arms was gained, neither threats nor entreaties on the part of the leaders could prevent from disbanding. And thus it has been, and will be even more fully proved to be the case with that numerous and half-clad soldiery, whom the agitator has so long commanded. Call it victory, call it concession, what matters it? It is but a name; yet all must at least confess that the objects for which they had assembled have been obtained. They have one by one obtained the abolition of the penal laws-next the elective franchisethen the right of being elected-next reform-alteration and extension of their representation poor-laws whilst, to crown all, the municipal privileges of their opponents have been made over to them, and they have the satisfaction of beholding their general arrayed in the civic garments of the chief magistrate, lolling in a gilded coach, gaining admission for his tailor to the levée,

The

and pocketing the salary so long received by Tory hands and buried in Tory coffers. In a word, the great excitement is over, for the booty has been got; or rather all the booty and advantage reasonably to be expected from mere political changes. We need not therefore be surprised to find, that at the last election in Ireland thirteen of the thick-and-thin supporters of the hitherto successful general were defeated, and but one of the Conservative candidates. peasant who had braved his landlord at the bidding of his priest, and yet found that he had to pay the same rent still, began to think, no doubt, that he had in all conscience done enough. He saw his captain in the receipt of many thousands a-year of "rint" and about to become that finest of fine things, a lord-mayor. In vain the latter shook from his shoulders the load of years, and descended from the hills of Derrynane on a tour of agitation through the several provinces of Ireland. Paddy shouted, to be sure, for shouting is a cheap compliment; but when it came to the actual voting, thirteen of the general's aides-de-camp were defeated at the poll-booths. In vain did he run from town to town, and county to county, with a wonderful effort at ubiquity; in vain did they hear from him that Sir Robert Peel detested them, that Lord Stanley was a scorpion; and in vain did their priests excommunicate, and threaten to refuse them masses when dead; the lever of emancipation, reform, poor-laws, and close corporations, had been removed; no sufficiently exciting probe had been discovered in their place; there was no great raw to tickle, that they might take the last trot out of them; and though from habit and old prejudices great exertions were made, the result was the loss of twelve seats to the Whig and Radical party in Ireland. And when old prejudices under a just and fair government shall have had time to die away, and men learn to extend to one another the hand of good fellowship, and to wonder why they fought before, we shall find even O'Connell urging in vain those whom he had formerly drilled, to rush to the capture of some other position, the storming of which may raise him from the Right IIon. the Lord Mayor,