pplicable to popular corporations. Lord
Stanley lent his great name and his able advocacy to the support of the
amendment; it was opposed by the free-trade lords and the ministry, and
defeated. In the commons, a similar amendment to the address was moved
by Sir J. Trollope, and seconded by Colonel Chatterton. After a debate
of two nights, the amendment was rejected by an overwhelming majority.

AFFAIRS OF GREECE.

The political campaign of the session might be said to have opened
on the 4th of February, when Lord Stanley demanded explanations
from ministers in reference to the affairs of Greece. The Marquis of
Lansdowne gave a clear, temperate, and just exposition of the facts, and
of the policy of the government. Lord Aberdeen animadverted upon that
policy in a manner that was deficient in all those qualities which
characterized the speech of the ministerial leader. It was neither
clear, temperate, nor just.

In the commons, Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Milner Gibson, both addressed
demands for explanation, Mr. Disraeli in the interest of the tory
opposition, and Mr. Gibson in the interest of the "Peace at all price"
party, as a certain knot of gentlemen in the house was designated. The
answers of Lord Palmerston were lucid and statesman-like; his opponents
were no more than children in his hands. He had neither the eloquence of
Disraeli, nor the assurance, which ignorance alone can supply, possessed
by Mr. Milner Gibson, who, whatever his merits, was innocent of all
knowledge, for good or evil, on subjects of foreign policy; but his
lordship showed his perfect cognizance of all the bearings of the
dispute, of international law, and of the policy which his country
could alone pursue, with honour to herself, and justice to her injured
subjects.

So long as the Greek question remained open both these sections of
opponents tormented the ministry, and when, on the 15th of May, the
French ambassador suddenly left London, a perfect storm of hostility
fell upon the cabinet. Lord Palmerston defended the policy of the
foreign office throughout with candour, courtesy, and yet with a
satirical wit, which keenly annoyed the opposition, while no excuse
was left them to impeach the veteran minister's politeness, or
constitutional respect for the house. The ministry were not apprised
that the French ambassador had been withdrawn from any dissatisfaction
with England, but the explanations given in the French Assembly soon
left no d