302

LIFE OF CQOBDEN.

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1846. with a nation ready and waiting to be called to your rescue
Few persons have more opportunities forced upon them gh?
myself of being acquainted with the relative forces of publi
opinion. I will not speak of the populace, which to & wat
is with you; but of the active and intelligent middle -
with whom" you have engrossed a sympathy and interés
greater than was ever before possessed by a minister. The
period of the Reform Bill witnessed a greater enthusiast
but it was less rational and less enduring. It was directed
towards half. a dozen popular objects—Grey, Russell
Brougham, ete.. Now, the whole interest centres in yourself
You represent the Ines of the age, and it has no other
representative amongst statesmen. You could be returned
to Parliament with acclamation by any one of the most
numerous and wealthy constituencies of the kingdom. Fox
once said that ¢ Middlesex and Yorkshire together make al
Bugland’ You may add Lancashire, and call them yoo
own. Are you justified towards the Queen, the people, and
the great question of our generation, in abandoning this
grand and glorious position? Will you yourself stand
the test of an impartial historian ?
“You will perceive that I point to a dissolution as the golu-Sion
 of your difficulties in Parliament. I anticipate your objec
bons. You will say,—¢If I had had the grounds for a disso?”
tion whilst the Corn Bill was pending, I should have secured
a majority for that measure ; but now I have no such exclusive
call upon the country, by which to set aside old party dustinctions,”
 There are no substantial lines of demarcatio?
now in the country betwixt the Peelites and the so-called
Whig or Liberal party. The Chiefs are still keeping OP #
show of hostility in the House ; but their troops out of doors
have piled their arms, and are mingling and fraternisiod
together. This fusion must sooner or later take place ™
the House. The independent men, nearly all who do not