of August, 1841, gave the Conservatives a majority of ninetyone votes. On the 30th of August, the Whig Cabinet resigned, and Sir Robert Peel took into his hands the government of his country.

He came into power under the most brilliant yet precarious auspices, with a splendid array of strength, but also with hidden sources of weakness. His triumph was no less legitimate than it was complete. The Whig Cabinet had given way before no accident or manoeuvre; it had slowly been worn out, in the open daylight of debate, and had retired before the positive and well-considered vote of Parliament. The Cabinet just formed by Sir Robert Peel numbered in its ranks men illustrious by their renown, their rank, their capacity, and by the general esteem of the public: in the House of Lords, the Duke of Wellington, who had no special office; Lord Lyndhurst, equally skilled in political discussion and in the administration of justice; Lord Aberdeen, a man of conciliating disposition and clear-sighted intelligence, prudent, patient, just, and better than any other person acquainted with the diplomatic interests and traditions of Europe; and Lord Ellenborough, the most brilliant of Tory orators: in the House of Commons, Lord Stanley, concerning whom the noble ex-leader of the Whigs, Lord Grey, said, in 1840, that he considered him the direct descendant of the great oratorical school of Pitt and Fox; Sir James Graham, eminent for administrative talent, a fertile and animated reasoner, full of resources in debate; and around them a group of men still young, already highly distinguished, laborious, enlightened, sincere, and devoted, - Mr. Gladstone, Lord Lincoln, Mr. Sidney Herbert, Sir William Follett. Behind this political staff stood a strong majority, trained by ten years of conflict, rejoicing and proud in their new triumph. Finally, at the head of this powerful party and this strong ministry was Sir Robert Peel, the unquestioned and experienced

leader, accepted by all, enjoying the esteem of the public, invested with the authority of character, talent, experience, and victory. Never perhaps had a prime minister united, at his accession to power, so many elements and guarantees of a safe and strong government.

But he was called to perform the most difficult of tasks, — a task in its very nature incoherent and contradictory. He was obliged to be at once a conservative and a reformer, and to carry with him in this double path a majority, itself badly cohering and ruled by interests, prejudices, and passions, which could neither be removed nor conciliated. Unity was lacking in his policy and union in his army. His position and the work which lay before him were alike complicated and embarrassed; he was a commoner, charged with the duty of subjecting to severe reforms a powerful and proud aristocracy; he was a Liberal, reasonable and moderate, but truly a Liberal, drawing after him the old Tories and the ultra Protestants. And this commoner, now become so great, was a man of reserved and unsympathetic character, of cold and ungraceful manners, able in guiding and ruling a public assembly, but ill suited to act upon men's minds by the charm of intimacy, of conversation, of frank and free interchange of sentiments, rather a tactician than a propagandist, more powerful to convince than to persuade, more formidable to his adversaries than agreeable to his friends.

Better than himself, probably, his adversaries perceived, with the sagacity of party spirit, the difficulties which awaited him, and took no pains to remove them. Still in power upon the re-assembling of Parliament, and called upon to prepare, as their last will and testament, the speech from the throne, the Whigs were very careful to define therein the double task which they themselves had not been able to accomplish, but which they imposed upon their successors. They said to the

two Houses: "The extraordinary expenses which the events in Canada, China, and the Mediterranean have occasioned, and the necessity of maintaining a force adequate to the protection of our extensive possessions, have made it necessary to consider the means of increasing the public revenue. Her Majesty is anxious that this object should be effected in the manner least burdensome to her people; and it has appeared to her Majesty, after full deliberation, that you may at this juncture properly direct your attention to the revision of duties affecting the productions of foreign countries. It will be for you to consider whether some of those duties are not so trifling in amount as to be unproductive to the revenue, while they are vexatious to commerce. You may further examine whether the principle of protection, upon which others of those duties are founded, be not carried to an extent injurious alike to the income of the state and the interests of the people. Her Majesty is desirous, also, that you should consider the laws which regulate the trade in corn. It will be for you to determine whether these laws do not aggravate the natural fluctuations of the supply; whether they do not embarrass trade, derange the currency, and by their operation diminish the comfort and increase the privations of the great body of the community."

Retiring thus with all possible advantages, the Whigs laid upon Sir Robert Peel the task of repairing their faults and making good their promises. He was required to re-establish authority and to reform the laws; to supply deficits and to lighten the burdens of the people.

For five months, Sir Robert Peel studied the great questions. which it was his duty to solve. Eager to resume the always easy rôle of an opposition, the Whigs reproached him for his dilatoriness. "What has been your neglect of duty," he retorted, "in permitting five years to elapse without bringing

forward on the part of a united government, a proposition for I do wish that the

the remedy of these abuses!

noble lord had taken the sense of the House of Commons elected under his advice and under his auspices with respect to the reasonableness and justice of the demand which I make its confidence, and had thus enabled me to judge whether the House of Commons approves or disapproves of the course which I mean to pursue."

upon

Parliament was, however, prorogued before Sir Robert Peel had stated his plans. It met again on the 3d of February, 1842, with unusual interest and enthusiasm. The Queen had recently given birth to the Prince of Wales, and a strong monarchical feeling animated both the nation and the Houses: addresses of affectionate congratulation were voted both to the Queen and to Prince Albert.

Fortuitous and fleeting though they are, ebullitions of public joy are always serviceable to the administration which is in power at the moment. Addresses in reply to the Queen's speech were voted in both Houses with entire unanimity. They announced that measures would be at once proposed for the restoration of an equilibrium between the expenses of the State and its revenues, for the revision of the tariff and of the corn-laws, for the amendment of the bankrupt law, for the registration of voters, for regulating the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts, and for affording to the distress of certain manufacturing districts all the relief that legislation could apply. All hesitation and all slowness now ceased in the action of the Cabinet; it immediately set the Houses at work, and for more than six months, Sir Robert Peel was constantly in the breach, either to explain and defend his plans in respect to the great questions under discussion, or to meet the attacks of the opposition, and all the other incidents of government.

The means which he adopted to restore the balance in the

finances of the State was the re-establishment of the income tax, a tax on all incomes above £150 a year, a measure originally carried by Mr. Pitt in 1798. The tax which Mr. Pitt had proposed and obtained was, however, at the rate of ten per cent., while Sir Robert Peel desired but three per cent. He insisted unflinchingly upon his demand; it was, in his eyes, a question of national honor as well as of administrative prudence.

"We live," he said, "in an important era of human affairs. There may be a natural tendency to overrate the magnitude of the crisis in which we live or those particular events with which we are ourselves conversant; but I think it impossible to deny that the period in which our lot and the lot of our fathers has been cast the period that has elapsed since the outbreak of the first French Revolution, has been one of the most memorable periods that the history of the world will afford. The course which England has pursued during that period will attract for ages to come the contemplation, and, I trust, the admiration of posterity. That period may be divided into two parts of almost equal duration; a period of twenty-five years of continued conflict, the most momentous which ever engaged the energies of a nation, and twenty-five years, in which most of us have lived, of profound European peace, produced by the sacrifices made during the years of war. My confident hope and belief is, that, following the example of those who preceded you, you will look your difficulties in the face, and not refuse to make similar sacrifices to those which your fathers made, for the purpose of upholding the public credit. You will bear in mind that this is no casual and occasional difficulty; you will bear in mind that there are indications amongst all the upper classes of society of increased comfort and enjoyment — of increased prosperity and wealth; and that, concurrently with these indications, there exists a mighty evil, which has been growing up for the last seven years, and which you are now