, he loses his place, though through all blunders the king keeps
his; the judgment of the man naturally very discerning is sharpened by
a heavy penalty, from which the judgment of the man by nature much less
intelligent is exempt. Parliament, too, is for the most part a sound,
careful and practical body of men. Principle shows that the power of
dismissing a Government with which Parliament is satisfied, and of
dissolving that Parliament upon an appeal to the people, is not a power
which a common hereditary monarch will in the long run be able
beneficially to exercise.

Accordingly this power has almost, if not quite, dropped out of the
reality of our Constitution. Nothing, perhaps, would more surprise the
English people than if the Queen by a coup d'etat and on a sudden
destroyed a Ministry firm in the allegiance and secure of a majority in
Parliament. That power, indisputably, in theory, belongs to her; but it
has passed so far away from the minds of men that it would terrify
them, if she used it, like a volcanic eruption from Primrose Hill. The
last analogy to it is not one to be coveted as a precedent. In 1835
William IV. dismissed an administration which, though disorganised by
the loss of its leader in the Commons, was an existing Government, had
a Premier in the Lords ready to go on, and a leader in the Commons
willing to begin. The king fancied that public opinion was leaving the
Whigs and going over to the Tories, and he thought he should accelerate
the transition by ejecting the former. But the event showed that he
misjudged. His PERCEPTION indeed was right; the English people were
wavering in their allegiance to the Whigs, who had no leader that
touched the popular heart, none in whom Liberalism could personify
itself and become a passion--who besides were a body long used to
opposition, and therefore making blunders in office--who were borne to
power by a popular impulse which they only half comprehended, and
perhaps less than half shared. But the king's POLICY was wrong; he
impeded the reaction instead of aiding it. He forced on a premature
Tory Government, which was as unsuccessful as all wise people perceived
that it must be. The popular distaste to the Whigs was as yet but
incipient, inefficient; and the intervention of the Crown was
advantageous to them, because it looked inconsistent with the liberties
of the people. And in so far as William IV. was right in detecting an
incipient change of opinion, he