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Please, gentle Wilson ! listen to my tale!

I found I could not deal with Palmerston.

More close was he than wax; and when I spoke,
His answer was a quibble or a gibe,

Which, aim'd at Walmsley, or such petty deer
As Pellatt, Miall, Layard, or the rest,
Might possibly have been appropriate,
But were rank insults to a chief like me.
Therefore, because I could not rise alone,
I sought THE SCION, and to him I gave
Adhesion, for the time that was to come.
Dark Hayter watch'd me; and against my name,
Which heretofore was on the Liberal list,
He set three crosses of ensanguined ink,
Betokening that my latter end was nigh!

Nay, Wilson, I adjure thee, do not nod!
I draw to the conclusion of my tale.
I voted smack against Lord Palmerston,
For divers reasons, which I need not state.
And then I saw the angry grin of Peel,
The long fix'd look of misery and woe
With which poor Lewis laid his Cocker down;
I heard old Bethel grind his wolfish teeth,
And Osborne mutter-what was not salaam !
Then all the Whigs arose, and glared on me,
And, in their ruthless eyes, I read the fate
That, like a bloodhound, tracked me to my lair!

Wilson! thou shouldst be waking at this hour!
What! dost thou sleep? Nay, then, the case is hard,
When Wilson cannot spare his friend an oath!
I came for comfort-comfort find I none :

I ask for sympathy, but none reply!
Milner is less than Potter: Gibson's name
Is faint beside the Turner's. Fare-thee-ill,
Thou wretched, wavering Cottonopolis!
I will go down to Huddersfield, and speak
With valiant Cobden; for he says, a light
Dances before his eyes, and in his ears
There ever is the tramp of armed men.
What this portends I know not; but I know
That henceforth Manchester shall bear my curse,
Nor would I give it tribute of a tear,

Though it were wrapp'd in all-devouring fire!

THE MAID OF HUDDERSFIELD.

THERE'S a rose-tree in my garden; but it hath not budded yet,
April's tears are cold and frozen, and the cheek of spring is wet.

Bud not, blossom not, my rose-tree; let thy boughs in June be bare,
Since thou canst not give a bridal garland to bedeck my hair.

Scarce a single moon hath faded since my lover walked with me,
All along the gloomy garden, and we paused beside the tree.

And I said, "Dear Billy Roller, thou hast pray'd me for a sign,
For a token of our union, of the bliss that shall be thine.

As the maids of ancient Sparta sent their lovers to the field,
Bidding them return in triumph, or be borne upon the shield;
So I set a task before thee, and I swear till it be done,
Never shall the surpliced vicar join our hands and make us one.
Lo! the land around is ringing with the wild election cry,
Cobden calls thee to the rescue-Cobden, child of liberty!

Shall a vile and fawning Whig be sent as member for our city?
Up and gird thee for the battle! be the foremost on committee!
Canvass every voter, upwards, downwards through our streets and lanes,
Win the victory for Cobden, and this hand rewards thy pains!

Then, when summer sends its blossoms, William, shalt thou cull for me
Flowers to make a bridal garland, roses from my favourite tree.
And I'll meet thee at the altar; come, my dearest, to thy side
And perhaps O bliss of blisses-Cobden may bestow the bride!
But should fate decide against us, should the venal blanketeers
Choose a Whig instead of Cobden-chair him with triumphal cheers;
Then, although my heart will quiver, and the blow be deadly sore,
William Roller, thou must never hope to see thy Sarah more!
Clad in widow's weeds I'll wander, widow-hearted, though a maid,
Uttering my lamentation in the sunshine and the shade.

Wailing ever, deeply wailing, till the light of life be dim,
And a tear for thee shall mingle with the floods I shed for him!"

All is over-William Roller, Richard Cobden, both are done!
Hie, ye clouds, across the welkin! smother up that weary sun.
Let no glimpse of glory flicker over this degraded place,
Let the darkness brood above it, emblem of its dire disgrace.
Let the woollen-staplers shudder in their drear and dingy homes,
Let their marrow inly curdle as from damps of catacombs.

Let rheumatic twinges rack them, if their consciences be mute,
May lumbago smite the muscles, and the gout assail the foot!
May they groan in bitter torture, for their infamous intrigue,
Thus discarding Richard Cobden, foremost Champion of the League!
Dastards, cravens! they have robbed me-robbed me in a single day,
Of my hero and my husband-let them perish in dismay !
Never bloom again, my rose-tree! let thy boughs be always bare,
Henceforth do not yield a blossom to perfume this tainted air;
Or, at most, let three white roses open with the waning year,
One for Richard, one for William, one to wither on my bier!

LETTERS FROM A LIGHTHOUSE.-NO. IV.

THE PRESENT STATE OF PARTIES.

MY DEAR EBONY,-The elections being now completed, it may be important, before the assembling of the new Parliament, to consider how far the returns may be likely to affect the future Ministerial policy. Blind as a bat must be the man who does not perceive that the character of the House of Commons is the main thing to which Lord Palmerston must look while preparing his political programme. This may not be in accordance with the old theories of government, nor with the letter and spirit of the constitution; nevertheless, it is of no use arguing upon illusory premises, as certainly would be the case were I, under existing circumstances, to_assume the independence of the Premier. In saying this, I make no reflection whatever upon the courage, consistency, or statesmanship of Lord Palmerston. With all his faults, I hold him to be a man less apt than were some of his predecessors to surrender his own ideas to popular clamour, or to become the mere servant of the House of Commons. But he stands in a peculiar relation to the new Parliament. He is the Frankenstein who has created it, and by that very act he has placed himself greatly in its power. Should it prove an unruly monster, he will immediately be held responsible for its freaks; so that he must tame it gradually, and avoid thwarting it at the outset.

What Lord Palmerston requires is a working majority at his back-always the great desideratum of a Minister, but, of late years, a thing which it appeared impossible to secure. It now remains to be seen whether his Lordship is in possession of a talisman which shall once more give a strong government to the country, which undoubtedly is urgently required. Pitch-and-toss may be a pretty pastime for stable-boys, but a great State like ours should not be regulated on the principles of that enticing game; and, for my own part, though Palmerston is by no means

kind of person to command my

confidence, I would rather see him firmly settled in power, and enabled to carry out a consistent policy, than submit to the uncertainty caused by the minute sections of the late House of Commons. It is too early as yet to speculate upon the tendencies of the new House. This much only is clear, that Lord Palmerston has a considerable majority of professed adherents; but whether that general majority will resolve itself into the form of a decided working majority, is rather problematical. That seems to be the universal impression of all those who make political affairs their study. From the Times down to the humblest provincial print, there are decided tokens of uncertainty as to the future, and that is easily accounted for. When parties are well defined, disciplined, and led with intelligible watchwords, clear principles, and entire reliance on the prudence and sagacity of their chiefs, it may not be very difficult to foresee what amount of support or opposition is likely to be accorded to or arrayed against any measure or proposal of serious importance to the country. But when, as was lately notoriously the case, and still is in a certain degree, parties are disorganised, undisciplined, and impatient of control when every man may assert the privilege of doing what seems good in his own eyes, without consulting others, and without listening to advice-when the strength of parties is frittered away by the formation of small cliques and guerilla companies which cannot be relied on to act in concert then indeed it is peculiarly difficult for a Minister to form anything like a precise notion of the reception which may be given to the separate items of his policy. I am by no means an unqualified eulogist of party, because party feeling may sometimes be carried beyond the bounds of reason, and blind subserviency be substituted for generous devotion to leaders; but I do not see how the government of this country can be carried on with that vigour

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and determination which its dignity and interests require, without a merging of individual opinions in the great currents of party. So long as there were only two recognised divisions in the Legislature, Whig and Tory, alternately Ministerialists or Opposition, it was comparatively plain sailing. An appeal to the country, in the shape of a dissolution of Parliament, promised a result at once intelligible and satisfactory. Ministers could then calculate, with something like precision, their strength or their weakness; the functions of government were not impeded, nor were they obliged to be ever on the alert against a coup-de-main, or an attack from an unexpected quarter. Even had there been three political divisions-had the Radicals leagued together under an accredited leader, and become a separate power, like Tories and Whigs, there would have been far less perplexity and confusion than has prevailed for the last few years. But the Whigs, though almost as much opposed through tradition, sentiment, and interest to the Radicals as were their hereditary opponents, used every possible means to impede the formation of a third independent party. They took special care to prevent any line of exact demarcation being drawn between themselves and their dubious allies; and they even went so far as to abandon their old peculiar party name, and endeavoured, by styling themselves Liberals instead of Whigs, to establish a common cause with the Radicals; or, at all events, to prevent such a separation as would have enabled the latter to mark out an evident boundary. In reality, antagonism to the Tories was the only point upon which the Whigs and Radicals cordially agreed; and that antagonism was useful and equivalent to a principle so long as the Tories were in power and the Liberals in opposition. But when, owing to the disruption of the Tory party, effected by the late Sir Robert Peel, the Liberals gained a majority in the House of Commons, and became entitled to assume the reins of government, the cheat or deception could not any longer be concealed, and it became evident to all the world that the two parties, blended in op

position, were not to be amalgamated in power. For no sooner were the doors of Downing Street open for the admission of new-comers, than the porters and keepers of the gate assumed the ancient blue-and-yellow livery; and the Radical section of the Liberal confederacy, however useful they might have been in the struggle with the Conservatives, found themselves excluded from office, the whole emoluments, patronage, and dignities of which were ruthlessly monopolised by the Whigs, as a matter of course, on the plea of hereditary right, or, at all events, of political tradition. On his accession to power, Lord John Russell displayed a grasping spirit and exclusiveness which thoroughly disgusted the Radicals; and although, at a subsequent period, attempts were made to conciliate them by admitting an occasional Radical, always a malleable doctrinaire, into the Cabinet or to some inferior office, the Liberal party was in fact as much deprived of coherence as if it had been split into twain.

Still, however, the Whigs tried to propagate and maintain the delusion that Liberalism was a vital principle

-an attempt at imposture which was in reality very damaging to their own interests, besides tending to increase the confusion which already was but too prevalent in the political world. It was especially imprudent and injudicious, because it left an opening for malcontents, plotters, and dissatisfied subordinates, to traffic and conspire with the justly-offended Radicals-a commerce which the Whig chiefs could not forbid or brand as treasonable, inasmuch as they affected to regard the latter as allies, or rather as integral parts of the same political army. And so, singularly enough, we find that the great Liberal alliance has ended in a disruption of the Whigs; a fact which, unless I err most grievously, will, before the expiry of the present year, become apparent to the meanest capacity. Most of the journalists, following the lead of the Times, state the result of the recent election as giving, in round numbers, a majority of eighty or an hundred votes in the House of Commons to the Liberals as against

the Conservatives. I see no reason to doubt the accuracy of this calculation. The term "Liberal," being capable alike of contraction and expansion, may be assumed by almost any man as a domino or opera cloak to cover his under garments; and it has been so used and paraded by many candidates on the hustings, who, if the more specific terms or party names were in use, would have hesitated before they proclaimed themselves either as Whigs or Radicals. I must say that I do not like this laxity; but since the old party names on both sides have been waived, or rather abandoned, how is it possible to blame those who avail themselves of the general license? No man, while appealing to the constituencies nowadays, calls himself Whig or Tory. They are all Liberals or Conservatives, or ConservativeLiberals, or Liberal-Conservativesdesignations out of which I defy you to extract any real meaning. And the most singular feature of the whole election record is this, that, while the Conservatives have for the most part declared that they will offer no factious opposition to Lord Palmerston's Government, but, on the contrary, will support it in so far as they can do so without the violation of principle, the Liberals in several instances have announced that they have no confidence whatever in the man! Such a declaration would be of minor significance if made by politicians of inferior note; but when we find unequivocal language to that effect employed by Sir James Graham, and acquiesced in by others of considerable standing and notoriety; when we remember that a Ministerial candidate was put forward to contest London as against Lord John Russell, so recently the pride and cynosure of the Whigs, it must be admitted that the mere assumption of the name of Liberal cannot be taken as a sign of adhesion to Palmerston. Therefore we must be very cautious of forming rapid conclusions upon such unsatisfactory data, more especially when we keep in mind the fact that nearly two hundred members of the new House of Commons are untried men, without public political antecedents.

There is still a mass of confusion to be reduced before order and cohesion can be restored, and of that Lord Palmerston and his colleagues are perfectly aware. No pains will be spared to marshal and array a Ministerial phalanx, strong, compact, and obedient; and that never can be done so effectively and well as at the commencement of a fresh Parlia ment. Members are not then haunted by the dread of indignant and jealous constituencies, ever on the watch for political peccadilloes, or deviations from extorted pledges; and they are far more ready than at a later period to form a permanent party connection, and to enlist for the whole campaign. I think, moreover, that the general result of the elections has been such as to aid Lord Palmerston materially in his organisation of a peculiar force. With the exception of the Conservatives, there is now no distinct section or nucleus of party in the field which a waverer would be tempted to join; and therefore it seems probable that, by the mere force of attraction, stray atoms will be compelled to add their quota to the bulk of the Ministerial mass. It is now quite evident that the breach between Lord John Russell and the Whigs is irreparable. He has sinned against them too often and too deeply to be forgiven; and not only is he ostracised, but he has been marked out as a proper object for all kind of vituperation. Even the Edinburgh Review, which once paraded him as a demigod, thinks it safe to insult him by its sneers; not that he is likely to sustain any great injury therefrom, but the fact is sig nificant as indicating the deadly nature of the quarrel.

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The Whigs have accepted Palmerston in lieu of Russell, who, whatever other virtues he may possess, not gifted with that of forgiveness; consequently he but lies in wait until some favourable opportunity shall occur, when he may take revenge upon his rival. And, in truth, at the commencement of the elections, there was fair ground for presuming that such an opportunity might very soon present itself. The Radical journals confidently predicted such an increase

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