no doubt, renew his efforts hereafter. Although I presume not to expect, that he will give any weight to observations or warnings of mine, yet on this, probably the last opportunity which I shall have of raising my voice on the question of parliamentary reform, while I conjure the House to pause before it consents to adopt the proposition of the noble lord, I cannot help conjuring the noble lord himself, to pause before he again presses it on the country. If, however, he should persevere, and if his perseverance shall be successful, and if the results of that success shall be such as I cannot help apprehending; his be the triumph to have precipitated these results-be mine the consolation, that, to the utmost of my power, I have opposed them." The only part Mr. Peel took in the debate, was to explain a former declaration, that he would not be an agent in the liberation of Hunt, even if the House of Commons presented an address in his favour.

At a later period of the session, Mr. Brougham again brought parliamentary reform under the consideration of the House, by presenting a resolution against the influence of the crown. On this occasion, Mr. Peel vindicated the University of Oxford, which had been very irreverently assailed by Mr. Brougham; and for this service, he received the thanks of that learned body.

On the whole, the session of 1822 was favourable to the Liverpool cabinet: it had acquired parliamentary strength by the junction of the Grenvilles, and its character, in one department at least, was greatly raised by the acquisition of Peel. His habits of business, his punctuality, and his attention to all the details of office, were appreciated by all parties; and his adoption of a liberal and conciliatory tone, even when advocating harsh and coercive measures, went far to disarm the hostility of political opponents. More than one leader of the liberal party was ready to address him in the words of the Edinburgh Review: "Quoniam talis sis, utinam

noster esses!" It was the general expectation of the country, that he would become premier at the next modification of the ministry. It is true, that old Chancellor Eldon viewed him with some suspicion, but he was still ready to support him, as necessary to the exclusion of Canning: it is also true, that he was far from being a personal favourite with George IV., who frequently complained that Peel was deficient in courtly manners. He had, however, the confidence of the highchurch party, without being obnoxious to the dissenters; he was a favourite with the money'd interest; and his reputation for regularity recommended him to the confidence and support of the commercial classes. Still Canning was a greater favourite with the House of Commons, and with the country generally; but his chances were supposed to have been destroyed by the part he had taken on the queen's trial; and his appointment to the high office of Governor-General of India, was regarded as a kind of honourable exile. If hope sided with Canning, expectation was decidedly in favour of Peel it was almost universally believed, that an interval of a few months only, separated him from the object of his highest ambition—the post of prime minister: the ministerial benches approved, the ranks of opposition acquiesced, in the probability of his elevation. When parliament rose, in 1822, it was even supposed, that the Home Secretary might be placed at the head of the Treasury before the next session; and the only speculation rife, regarded his choice of colleagues. But an event was at hand which baffled all the calculations of politicians, producing a series of unexpected changes, as wondrous and whimsical as those of a pantomime; deferring for years the reward which Peel had reasonably expected in about the same number of months, and involving him in a series of intrigues and changes, injurious to his personal peace, and far from being advantageous to his reputation.

CHAPTER XI.

PEEL AND CANNING, AS COLLEAGUES.

On the 10th of August, George IV. embarked at Greenwich, on board the royal yacht, to visit his Scottish dominions. When he landed at Leith, he received the astounding and melancholy intelligence of the death of the Marquis of Londonderry, who had committed suicide, at his residence, at Foot's Cray, on the morning of the 12th of August. Falsely accused of an infamous crime by infamous people, he had reason to fear that the plot against him had been so well contrived, and the subornation of evidence so craftily managed, that he could not shelter his character from the horrid imputation likely to be affixed to it; and he saw no means of escape, but in the grave. His remains were interred in Westminster Abbey, and, as they descended to their last abode, a disgraceful shout of joy from the assembled multitude, testified their hatred of the most unpopular statesman that England had witnessed for more than a century. As Minister for Foreign Affairs, he had allowed England to become too closely identified with the despotic principles of the Holy Alliance; and he suffered himself to be complimented out of the British trade with the East Indian Archipelago, by the interested civilities of the sovereigns assembled at Vienna. He had just been appointed to represent England at a new congress, about to be assembled at Verona; and it was probably equally fortunate for his own reputation and the honour of the country, that death prevented him

from sullying both, by unworthy compliances with the will of the assembled despots.

Public opinion pointed to Mr. Canning as the proper successor of the Marquis of Londonderry in the Foreign Office, and Lord Liverpool was eager to have him as a colleague. The king and the chancellor, however, were equally opposed to the arrangement, and the office remained vacant during a season of intrigues, which have not yet been fully developed. The Marchioness of Conyngham, who was united by very tender ties to George IV., and possessed great influence over her royal admirer, successfully exerted herself to overcome the king's repugnance, and was rewarded by the appointment of her son to office in the bureau of Foreign Affairs. Lord Eldon, who was always asseverating his anxiety to retire, while he adhered to office with the tenacity of a leech, found that his waning influence was not sufficient to exclude an obnoxious colleague, and was left to overcome his repugnance, and digest his indignation, as best he could. Peel was a silent, but not an uninterested, spectator of these intrigues: he saw, that Canning remaining at home, and resuming office, would greatly diminish the chances on which he had so confidently calculated; but, at the same time, he felt that Canning's accession was a political necessity to the Liverpool cabinet. The mortified feelings of his colleagues were no secret to the new Foreign Secretary, and he took very little pains to soothe their irritated feelings. Confiding in his own mental resources, and relying on the support of Lord Liverpool, he resolved to develop a new and brilliant scheme of foreign policy, by which England, dissevered from the bonds of the Holy Alliance, should assume, amid the European states, the proud and independent attitude of a mediator between the encroachments of republicanism, and the sanguinary reprisals of despotism. It was a dazzling project,

and it is not wonderful that Mr. Canning sacrificed much to effect its realization. He came into the cabinet with a brand of favouritism, which, however disregarded in the court of Louis XV., was not like to pass unnoticed in England; he was joined with colleagues whom he equally disliked and despised; but, above all, he compromised the question of Catholic emancipation, with which his name and fame ought to have been permanently associated.

The increase of strength to the liberal portion of the cabinet was not confined to the introduction of Mr. Canning; the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, feebly and imperfectly filled by Mr. Vansittart, was conferred on Mr. F. Robinson (afterwards Earl of Ripon); Mr. Huskisson was appointed President of the Board of Trade; and Mr. Arbuthnot succeeded him as First Commissioner of the Land Revenue. In Ireland, the Marquis of Wellesley steadily pursued his course of conciliatory policy towards the Catholics, in spite of the vehement resistance which he encountered from the Orange faction. There is in Dublin a statue of William III., which the Orangemen of that city were accustomed to disfigure, annually, by dressing it out with gilt paper, tinfoil, and other frippery, on the anniversaries of the battle of the Boyne, and gunpowder plot. To put a stop to this unmeaning ceremony, which was only important because it was regarded as a mortification to the Catholics, Lord Wellesley placed a guard of police round the statue on the 5th of November, 1822; and thus the decoration—or, rather, desecration of the statue was prevented. This gave the Orangemen such offence, that, when the Lord-Lieutenant went, soon after, in state, to the theatre, they packed the house, insulted him in the grossest terms, and even flung dangerous missiles at his person. Some of the rioters were arrested, but the grand jury ignored the bills: Plunkett, the