erly performance, suitable to the occasion, and effective. He
endeavoured to establish these points: first, that the Duke of
Wellington had continually opposed all Reform measures and been
the enemy of all Reform principles; secondly, that they (the late
Government) had done a great deal, without doing too much; and
thirdly, that there really had occurred no circumstances in the
Cabinet, or with the King, sufficient to account for their summary
dismissal. There is no denying that his first position is
incontrovertible, that he makes out a very fair case for his
second, and his argument on the third throws great doubt upon the
matter in my mind, having previously had no doubt that the King
had a good case to show to the world. It is not so much the Duke's
opposition to this or that particular measure, but the whole tenor
of his conduct and opinions, which it puts one in despair to look
at. There would be no gross inconsistency in his maintaining our
foreign relations in their present state, notwithstanding his
repeated attacks upon Palmerston's policy. He need not refuse to
suffer any legislative interference with the Church, English or
Irish, merely because he opposed the Tithe Bill last year (great,
by the way, as I always thought that blunder was, and as events
will prove it to have been), but in his opposition to the one or
the other we look in vain for some saving declaration to prove
that it is to the specific measure he is hostile, and not to the
principles from which it emanates. If he now comes into office
with a resolution to carry on the investigations that have been
set on foot, and to propose various measures of reform in
consequence of them, however wisely he may act in bending to
circumstances, there is no escaping from the fact that his conduct
in opposition and in office is as different as light from
darkness, and that he adopts when in office those principles in
the gross which he utterly repudiates and opposes with all his
might when he is out. I should like much to have a conversation
with the Duke, and (if it were possible to speak so freely to him)
to set before him all the _apparent_ inconsistencies of his
conduct, to trace his political career step by step, and tell him
concisely all that he may have read scattered through a hundred
newspapers, and then hear what he would say, what his notions are
of political honour and consistency, and how he reconciles his
general conduct with these maxims. I