596 LIF
1363. to all the bad measures of a Whig Government, the Whigs
~~ ¢¢, are rendered quite useless as an Opposition ; and we hav®
Bow arrived at that point that whether on the right or left
hand side of the Speaker’s chair, the Liberal party headed
by the Whigs are incapable of doing any good for the
country. But before you and I (men of peace as we 47°)
find fault with the Whig chiefs, lot us ask ourselves candidly
whether the country at large is in favour of any other policy
than that which has been pursued by the aristocracy, Whig
and Tory, for the last century and a half? The man Who
impersonated that policy more than any other was the Duke
of Wellington ; and I had the daily opportunity of witnessing
at the Great Exhibition last year that all other objects of
interest sank to insignificance even in that collection of &
world’s wonders when he made his entry in the Cry stal
Palace. The frenzy of admiration and enthusiasm which
took possession of a hundred thousand people of all classes
at the very announcement of his name, was one of the most
impressive lessons I ever had of the real tendencies of the
English character. . . . . The recent demonstration ab the
death of the Duke was in keeping with what I have described:
Now what does all this imply but a war-spirit in the popula”
tion? As for the claims of the old warrior to popularity 8s 8
statesman, they amount to this, that he resisted two reforms
Catholic Emancipation and the Reform Bill, until we were 01
the verge of rebellion, and yielded at last avowedly only ©
avoid civil war; and in a third case {repeal of the Corn Law)
he gave in his acquiescence to Peel after his old policy had
plunged one-half the kingdom into the horrors of plagues
pestilence, and famine. No, depend upon it, the world never
yet knew so warlike and aggressive a people as the British.
“I wish to see a map on Mercator’s projection published,
with a red spot to mark the places on sea and land where
bloody battles have been fought by Englishmen, It would

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