dmitted of a
reunion of the Whigs and the Radicals, and of the whole re-united
party being held together in opposition to a Conservative
Government, Peel would be little more secure, and not more able
to act with efficiency and independence than he was in 1835, and
this is what he never will submit to. It is also a great object
to him that the Irish questions should be settled before he comes
into office. Nothing would gladden his heart more than to have
the Government in Ireland established on a footing from the
practice of which he could not deviate, and that once effected up
to a certain point (as far as the Whigs can go) he would be
enabled to go a good deal farther; and as the man who covers in a
building has always more credit and is considered the artificer
more than he who lays the foundations, so Peel would obtain all
the credit of measures which would in fact have been rendered
easy or practicable by the long-continued toils and perseverance
of others. His interest therefore (and consequently I suppose his
design) is to restrain the impatience of his followers; to let
the Government lose ground in public estimation gently and
considerately, not violently and rancorously; to assist in
putting them in a contemptible or inefficient point of view; to
render their places as uneasy as possible; and to give them time
to crumble to pieces, so that his return to power may be more in
appearance the act of the Whig Ministry than any act of his own.
Then he may demand, and would probably obtain, as the condition
of his acceptance of office, the support of a large proportion of
the moderate of the Whig party, and the necessity of conciliating
such men and of acquiring their support could afford him an
excuse for adopting those Liberal maxims which, though far from
palatable to the Conservatives, would be indispensable to the
formation of a strong Government, as without their adoption no
Whig could with honour and consistency support him. I care not
who is Minister, but I want to see a strong Government, one which
may have a power of free action and not be obliged to pick its
steps through doubtful divisions, living from day to day, and
compelled to an incessant calculation as to the probable success
of every measure, whether of principle or detail, on which it
ventures in the House of Commons. Things are not yet ripe for
such a consummation, and before the fresh fusion of parties takes
place which is necessary to bring i