gion as by law established. On
the next day parliament was dissolved by proclamation, and writs were
ordered to be issued for the election of a new one, returnable on the
14th of September.

STATE OF PARTIES.

The session just closed had broken up the alliance which enabled
ministers to retain office; and as this alliance, whilst it lasted,
seemed to widen the breach between them and their ancient friends,
they were destined, in the ensuing elections, to meet with a formidable
opposition. To oust the ministry was the avowed object of the Whigs, and
whoever professed the same object was their friend. The hostility of the
Tories rested on different grounds from that of the Whigs, but it was
equally formidable. The ministry, therefore, was forced to an election
in face of the combined opposition of the two parties--by playing off
one of which against the other it had flattered itself with being able
to retain its power. Yet the opposition was not stated on any special
ground. The manifestoes of the Whigs attacked it on the ground of
incapacity; but in what they were incapable was not shown. The Duke of
Wellington was said by them to be a domineering soldier, unfitted to
conduct alone the government of the nation, yet determined to surround
himself with men of mean capacity and dependent spirit, who would act as
the unreflecting instruments of his will. Such were the views put forth
by the Whigs, and though the offended Tories did not deliberately act
in union with them, yet their influence operated in the same
direction--namely, to overthrow the ministry. This general spirit of
opposition suddenly gained an addition of strength by a revolution in
France. The ministers of Charles X., discovering that the new elections
increased the number of their opponents, broke through the fences of the
constitution, with a determination to establish a species of Prussian
government, in which the material interests of the people should
dominate over those that are intellectual and political. A royal
ordinance abolished the liberty of the press; cancelled the existing
system of representation; and fashioned for the kingdom a new system of
election, which would produce a chamber of deputies more subservient to
the royal will. Paris rose in arms against these decrees, and the rabble
overcame the troops. Charles X. and his descendants were then excluded
from the throne by the deputies then in Paris, and the French crown
was presented