man, whom he had himself selected and invited, but six years back, to move a vote of want of confidence in the Whig Government, in order, against the feeling of the Court, to install Sir Robert Peel in their stead. They trooped on: all the men of mettle and large-acred squires, whose spirit he had so often quickened, and whose counsel he had so often solicited in his fine Conservative speeches in Whitehall Gardens. .

"When Prince Metternich was informed, at Dresden, with great ostentation, that the Emperor had arrived- Yes; but without his army,' was the reply. Sir Robert Peel was still First Minister of England, as Napoleon remained Emperor for a while after Moscow. Each, perhaps, for a moment had indulged in hope, it is so difficult for those who are on the pinnacle of life to realise disaster. They sometimes contemplate it in their deep and far-seeing calculations, but it is only to imagine a contingency which their resources must surely baffle; they sometimes talk of it to their friends, and oftener of it to their enemies, but it is only as an insurance of their prosperity and as an offering to propitiate their Nemesis. They never believe in it.

"The news that the Government were not only beaten, but by a majority so large as 73, began to circulate. An incredulous murmur passed it along the Treasury bench. They say we are beaten by 73!' whispered the most important member of the Cabinet, in a tone of surprise, to Sir Robert Peel. Sir Robert did not reply, or even turn his head. He looked very grave, and extended his chin, as was his habit when he was annoyed and cared not to speak. He began to comprehend his position, and that the Emperor was without his army."

The Minister's Valediction.-The speech in which Sir Robert announced the resignation of his Ministry, June 29, 1846, was concluded by the following passage: "Within a few hours, probably, that power which I have held for the period of five years will be surrendered into the hands of another—without repining, without complaint on my part-with a more lively recollection of the support and confidence I have received during several years, than of the opposition which during a recent period I have encountered. In relinquishing power, I shall leave a name, severely censured I fear by many who, on public grounds, deeply regret the severance of party ties-deeply regret that severance, not from interested or personal motives, but from the firm conviction that fidelity to party engagements-the existence and maintenance of a great party-constitutes a powerful instrument of government. I shall surrender power severely censured also by others who, from no interested motive, adhere to the principle of protection, considering the maintenance of it to be essential to the welfare and interests of the country. I shall leave a name execrated by every monopolist who, from less honourable motives, clamours for protection because it conduces to his own individual benefit. But it may be that I shall leave a name sometimes remembered with expressions of good will in the abodes of those whose lot it is to labour, and to earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow, when they shall recruit their exhausted strength with abundant and untaxed food, the sweeter because it is no longer leavened by a sense of injustice."

A Political Moral.-Mr. Cobden, in his pamphlet "The Three Panics," published in 1862, narrated the following: "On the evening of the 24th of February, 1848, whilst the House of Commons was in session, a murmur of conversation suddenly arose at the door and spread throughout the house, when was witnessed-what never occurred before or since, in the writer's experience-a suspension for a few minutes of all attention to the business of the House, whilst every member was engaged in close and earnest conversation with his neighbour. The intelligence had arrived of the abdication and flight of Louis Philippe, and of the proclamation of the Republic. The writer of these pages was sitting by the side of the late Mr. Hume when the tidings reached their bench. Sir Robert Peel was on the opposite front seat, alone, his powerful party having been broken and scattered by his great measure of Corn Law Repeal. 'I'll go and tell Sir Robert the news,' exclaimed Mr. Hume, and stepping across the floor, he seated himself by his side and communicated the startling intelligence. On returning to his place, he repeated, in the following words, the commentary of the ex-minister: This comes of trying to carry on a government by means of a mere majority of a chamber, without regard to the opinion out of doors. It is what these people (pointing with his thumb over his shoulder to the Protectionists behind him) wished me to do, but I refused.""

His Character by Guizot.-" Sir Robert Peel is the most eminent statesman who has sprung from the ranks of democracy-the most honest as well as the most able, the most congenial and faithful to democracy, at the same time as the most free from its evil tendencies. Although adopted by the aristocracy from his very entrance into public life, and although he served in their ranks, he never gave himself over to them; and far from pretending, as it is said, to the honour of belonging to their body, he was proud of his plebeian origin, and did not seek to conceal it either by his manners or by his maxims. He was dignified without elegance, and with, perhaps, more susceptibility than was consistent with his superiority, which he ought to have enjoyed with greater confidence and ease. On seeing him at court, in the drawing-rooms of Windsor, I was struck by a little constraint and stiffness in his attitude; he was evidently the most important and the most respected man there, and yet he did not look as if he were at home; his sway did not appear to be exempt from embarrassment; he governed without reigning. No one felt or expressed a deeper and more affectionate respect for the ancient institutions, the ancient manners, the whole old social order of his country; he revered and loved the past though he was not of it-and that is a certain mark of great judgment as well as of virtue; but, at the same time, he regarded aristocratic distinctions and honours with something more than indifference -it was his fixed resolve to reject them."

SIR JAMES GRAHAM.
(1792-1861.)

The Child Father of the Man.-As a boy (says Professor Pryme) Graham exhibited the future bent of his life. When other boys

were choosing what they would be, he would say, "I will be a statesman.” A stone is still shown in his native village on which the youthful politician stood and harangued his playmates.

A Contemptuous House.-Mr. Graham was first returned for Hull in 1818, at the age of twenty-six. His election cost his family 60001. His first appearances in the House were failures. Among his early displays was a speech with regard to a bill which had been introduced to prevent any person not an inhabitant or freeman of a town from taking part in its political meetings. Mr. Torrens says: "Mr. Graham wished to know if a member who sat for a borough of which he was neither an inhabitant nor freeman would come within the mischief of the Act? He paused to listen for the report of his shot; but few were attending, and nobody cried Hear.' He looked to see if it had hit, but the under-secretaries were talking to one another on the Treasury bench, and Lord Castlereagh was occupied in smelling the hot-house flower in his button-hole. Mr. Graham repeated his question in other words, but with no better effect. He felt half vexed with himself at having got up, but he was up, and must go on; so he thought he would argue the point. The case was not an imaginary one, he said, for it was his own, as he happened to sit for a borough of which he was neither a freeman nor an inhabitant, and of which he was not likely to become either, having no connection with the place. At this unlucky proffer of irrelevant information he heard, or thought he heard, something like a suppressed laugh. He felt himself getting confused, a little at first, and then very much so. For a few minutes he rambled on through commonplace and reiteration, but no timely cheer came to his rescue, and he sat down without any distinct recollection of what he had said or what he had intended to say. Mr. Henry Lascelles, who sat opposite, whispered to a mutual friend, Well, there is an end of Graham; we shall hear no more of him.""

His later Appearances.-Very tall in person (says Mr. Maddyn), "with a handsome and intellectual countenance, Sir James Graham possessed great advantages for addressing an aristocratic assembly. His manner, at first, was apparently so mild that in commencing one of his elaborate attacks, the hearer could scarcely conceive how much hoarded ammunition was about to be exploded, with the certainty of doing dreadful damage to his adversaries. When just about to make a spring upon his political foe, there was an air of drawing-room lassitude about the wily descendant of the Græmes that reminded one of his ancestors; sudden in attack, and about as merciless as sudden. Standing at the table in the calm attitude of a Mayfair fine gentleman, who could have expected so much fierceness of nature to dwell within that breast ? "

"Hats Off!"-On the 20th of June, 1837, the King died at Windsor; and on the same day both Houses met for the purpose of taking the oath of allegiance to her Majesty Queen Victoria. On the following day Lord John Russell appeared at the bar of the Commons, charged with a message from the Queen. A cry instantly arose (says Torrens) of "Hats off!" and the Speaker, forgetful for the moment of the precise usage

on such occasions, announced from the chair that "members must be uncovered." Everyone present forthwith complied, with the exception of Sir James Graham, who excited some observation by continuing to wear his hat until the first words of the message were pronounced. As nothing at the time escaped the vigilance of party criticism, a paragraph appeared the same evening in the True Sun, reflecting on the supposed indecorum. At the meeting of the House next day the right honourable baronet called attention to the fact, for the purpose of explaining that he had only complied with the older, and, as he thought, better custom, of waiting until the initiatory word "Regina," or "Rex," was uttered before uncovering; a mode of testifying respect for the Crown which was more emphatic, and which had, he thought, a better effect. The Speaker said that the honourable member for East Cumberland was correct in his observance of the practice of the House; and he accounted for his own apparent deviation therefrom by his desire to preserve order and to save time.

Opening of Letters by the Home Office.-In June, 1844, Mr. T. S. Duncombe presented petitions to the House of Commons from several gentlemen, one of whom was M. Mazzini, complaining that their letters had been delayed and opened by the Post Office authorities, and praying for a committee of inquiry on the subject. Sir James Graham, who was then Home Secretary, said that power was given to the Secretary of State by statute to open letters passing through the Post Office, and he had given his warrant in the case of one of the petitioners accordingly. Sir Robert Peel defended the action of his colleague, by saying that Fox and Grenville had exercised the same power. There was a strong feeling in the House, however, against it, and a motion which virtually amounted to want of confidence in the Ministry was defeated only by 206 against 162. Eventually the Government agreed to the appointment of secret committees of both Houses to inquire into and report upon the subject. It appeared from the reports presented that the power in question was exercised under the statute 9th Anne, cap. 10, which directs that no letters sent by post should be opened or delayed without an express warrant under the hand of one of the principal Secretaries of State; and 1st Victoria, cap. 36, which contains a similar direction. The Lords' committee reported that 182 warrants had been issued since 1822, and added that the issue of six or seven warrants annually upon a circulation of 220 millions of letters cannot be regarded as materially interfering with the sanctity of private correspondence." The Commons' committee found that "the last two warrants rested on grounds connected with the personal safety of a foreign sovereign (the Emperor of Russia) intrusted to the protection of England," and added, "It appears to your committee that under circumstances so peculiar, even a slight suspicion of danger would justify a minister in taking extraordinary measures of precaution." Information obtained from some of the opened letters, respecting an intended insurrection in Italy, was found by both committees to have been communicated to a foreign power, but "it was not (added the Commons) of a nature to compromise the safety of any individual within reach of that

power, nor was it made known to that power by what means that information had been obtained." The matter excited great commotion in the country, and for some time afterwards envelopes and seals, with such mottoes as 66 Not for Sir James Graham," were commonly exhibited for

sale.

Disposing of "Hansard."-In 1846 Sir James Graham had made up his mind to defend a Corn Law no more. Sentence after sentence and phrase upon phrase, which had fallen from him in the heat of rhetorical indiscretion in the days when he sat on the left of the Speaker's chair, were now dug up out of "Hansard," and flung at him by exasperated Protectionists, amid the angry cheers of those around him, and the loud laughter of those opposite. But he had anticipated this, and had made up his mind how to deal with it. When challenged by Mr. Stafford to say whether or not he had changed his opinion, he replied, “I freely admit that past declarations of opinions made by members of the House who have subsequently arrived at power, or who aspire to power, much more the declarations made by the First Minister of the Crown, if at all at variance with the course which he has subsequently pursued, are subjects worthy of reference, and which call for explanation. The honourable member for Northamptonshire made a direct appeal to the Government, and challenged us, if we had changed our opinions, manfully to own it. I answer that challenge. I do frankly avow my change of opinion, and by that avowal I dispose of whole volumes of 'Hansard,' and of all the charges which have been made on the ground of inconsistency.”— Torrens.

Altered Circumstances.-When addressing the House one evening on the oft-debated subject of the connection between the rate of wages and the price of food, Sir James reiterated his declaration that experience had convinced him that the former had a constant tendency to rise as the latter fell. Lord George Bentinck, who was sitting on the front Opposi tion bench below him, threw back his head, and looking round at him exclaimed, "Ah! yes; but you know you said the other thing before." A shout of laughter, in which Sir James joined, was followed by cheers and counter-cheers, and curiosity was on tip-toe for the retort. From his perch, as he used to call it, the ex-minister looked down at his noble antagonist, and said, in a tone of ineffable humour, The noble lord's taunts fall harmless upon me; I am not in office now."-Ibid.

66

Curliness and Sarcasm.-On the vote of want of confidence which defeated Lord Derby's Ministry in 1859, Mr. Disraeli referred to a speech Sir James Graham had made at Carlisle during the recent general election, while introducing a young relative as a candidate for that borough. He affected to understand Sir James's remarks, when he read them, as coming from this young candidate, and said: When I read that charge upon the Ministry, which, I was told, was to be the basis of a vote of want of confidence, and which was made without the slightest foundation, and with a bitterness which seemed to me to be perfectly gratuitous, I naturally said, 'Young men will be young men.' Youth will be, as we all know, somewhat reckless in assertion, and when we are juvenile and