perusal. It is valuable, both as a record of
principles and as a model of composition. We find in it all the great
maxims which, during more than forty years, guided Lord Holland's public
conduct, and the chief reasons on which those maxims rest, condensed
into the smallest possible space, and set forth with admirable
perspicuity, dignity, and precision. To his opinions on foreign policy
we for the most part cordially assent; but now and then we are inclined
to think them imprudently generous. We could not have signed the protest
against the detention of Napoleon. The Protest respecting the course
which England pursued at the Congress of Verona, though it contains much
that is excellent, contains also positions which, we are inclined to
think, Lord Holland would, at a later period, have admitted to be
unsound. But to all his doctrines on constitutional questions we give
our hearty approbation; and we firmly believe that no British Government
has ever deviated from that line of internal policy which he has traced,
without detriment to the public.

We will give, as a specimen of this little volume, a single passage, in
which a chief article of the political creed of the Whigs is stated and
explained, with singular clearness, force, and brevity. Our readers will
remember that, in 1825, the Catholic Association raised the cry of
emancipation with most formidable effect. The Tories acted after their
kind. Instead of removing the grievance they tried to put down the
agitation, and brought in a law, apparently sharp and stringent, but in
truth utterly impotent, for restraining the right of petition. Lord
Holland's Protest on that occasion is excellent.

"We are," says he, "well aware that the privileges of the people,
the rights of free discussion, and the spirit and letter of our
popular institutions must render--and they are intended to
render--the continuance of an extensive grievance, and of the
dissatisfaction consequent thereupon, dangerous to the tranquillity
of the country, and ultimately subversive of the authority of the
state. Experience and theory alike forbid us to deny that effect of
a free constitution; a sense of justice and a love of liberty
equally deter us from lamenting it. But we have always been taught
to look for the remedy of such disorders in the redress of the
grievances which justify them, and in the removal of the
dissatisfaction from which they flow-