The Press.
London, England, 1853-06-11 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Edited by the
Third Series.

call in the resources of Art to give flavour and
variety to our literary repasts. Order and me-
thod are necessary to simplify our study of
the "Annals of Party," for the complete his-
tory of which we have been lately receiving
such copious materials. To characterise the
particular merits of these contributions we
must classify them, by an arrangement founded
on historical events, and the ruling principles
of our British society.
PARTY, in a parliamentary sense, dates from
the seventeenth century. Its arelneology we
leave to the pedants, and we content ourselves
by saying that the Tories and Whigs existed
long before they were thus baptised. and, in-
stead of dating those great confederacies from
the times of Halifax and Shaftesbury, we see
their aspirations iu the thoughts and actions
of Falkland and Hyde upon the one side, of
Hampden and Pym upon the other. The Re
volution of I6ss authenticated the grand com•
mission of Party to advise the Crown, to guide
the Senate, and INSPIRE the PRori.v.. Since
King William, in laBB, acting in concert with
the Whigs and Tories, extinguished the con-
spiracy of Arbitrary Power at home with
Popery abroad, the annals of Party may be
classified under five distinct ems.
I. (From 16$$ to 1748.) The En. atilt' CHANGE
Of DYNASTV.—AII the politics of that time were
potentially affected by the great European
question, whether the Stuarts were to be sup-
ported in their pretensions to the crown of
England ? By the treaty of Aix-ht-Chapelle, in
1748, France bound herself to abandon the
Stuarts ; that fated house receiving its final
blow from a Regent Orleans, au ominous mune
in the history of dynasties! " 168$ " became
an acknowledged fact, and momentous conse-
quences upon which a world still holds de-
bate were involved. King William and Marl-
borough were the men of action of the period ;
Churchill gloriously achieved what the Prince
of Orange had gallantly designed. Walpole
was its greatest minister, Bolingbroke* its
most brilliant representative. The groat .taco
bite question being settled, a new age com-
menced.
11. The ERA of FACTION, from 1748 to the
American War.—As compared with the former
and subsequent periods, in this age politics
turned on smaller principles. Office was con•
founded with power; there was neither the
poetry of Jacobite sentiment, nor the profundity
of the dynastic question, and men did not live
for history. Ambition was stunted to a shrub-
like growth, with one splendid exception.
Like a forest-tree in a suburban garden, the
Great Commoner towered: standing under his
vast shadow, we look up and admire, but,
gazing cireumspeetively, we cry with Popo,
" Lo! what huge beeps of littleneu around !"
111. The ERA of the AMERICAN WAR, termi-
nating with the Peace of Paris in 1783.—ti cal The
colonial difficulty was started ; the prac
problem of external empire wits mooted, falla-
cious principles were applied, and the solution
was therefore unfortunate. The Crown had
not competent advisers ; Lord North, a first-
rate wit, was a second-class statesman ; the
genius of Chatham was clouded by illusions of
the mind. Still, England was only defeated,
not disgraced ; for a purer light had began to
be shed upon our politics, its Burke, the phi-
losopher of that era and the prophet of the
next, rose over our imperial horizon, at once
to dazzle and to guide.
IV. The ERA of ENtiLlsll EMPIRE, commencing
with tlw Ministry of the younger Pitt, termi-
nating with Waterbio.—ln Parliament this was
the time of Pitt and Fox ; in Empire it was
signalised by the conquest of India being se-
cured and prodigiously enlarged ; in English
politics a new school of NATIONAL. TORYISM was
founded by Pitt, Commerce went to Court, and
the trading classes, sick of Fox and the jargon
of faction, turned Tories, and cheered for
Ships, Colonies, and Connnerce"—the watch-
words of the greatest Prime Minister that the
world ever saw. Peaceful times appeared at
hand, and the reign of the Third of the English
Oeorges promised to rival the days of Anto-
lines. But a fell spirit of impassioned demo-

• When Burke, in the Itetleetionn on the Revlution," P
I•luite" Who reads ltolinglaroke now r" he is referring to id%
infidel writings. 311.101))*sirs 114 .linglooke was as aupei fiend
NS he wax profound upon polities. He was the Ant to eYetewo'
tine aud c%l'oWiti the l'hilue"PhY of party.

135

eracy, springing from the relaxed morals and
voluptuous ideas of tho eighteenth century,
was even then brooding over Europe. Mira-
bean's text, " La earriere vulvae aux Wens," was
the word of ):ranee—and that word was mis-
interpreted and exaggerated by myriads of
frenzied revolutionists.
And let Philosophy mark how the English
minister of Order, the French missionary_ of
Anarchy, issued the same watchwords. What
different works were done with these similar
mottoes!! The English word worked for social
purposes, and the aim of the labourers was to
raise. not to level ; the French mot appealed
to personal vanities and the ephemeral MO-
rations of self-love. In England the adven-
turing talent of the country is associated with
our old and free institutions. The class
which numbers the ISeymours with their far
descended glory, and all the Howard% with
their virtues, and the Stanleya with their puis-
sant spirit, and the Cavendishea with their
splendour, and the bright, courtly Villierses,
and the many famous families whose names are
blazoned in the nation's history—that dabs of
the proud peers of England is open to the
learning of lawyers who imitate a St. Leonard's,
—to heroes who will take a Harding° for a
model. Hereditary titles (and " the wreath of
laurel would not be worth the wear if it were
not evergreen") can be won by the tongue of
the orator, the toil of the senator, the sword of
the brave, and the dignified industry of great
merchants, like the llarings.
Our temple of British glory is placed on an
eminence, steep is the ascent and toilsome the
path. aria' panting mediocrity faints half way,
while merit, murmuring " Nurse) corda," gains
the " cloud cap't tower," and is welcomed by
the sweet echo that hails him who perseveres.
Against none is the gate of honour elosed in
our free monarchy, renting on its open
aristocracy. Patrician pride oilers its sparkling
twonet to untitled beauty, and a descendant
of the Crusaders requires no prouder rank in
the partner of his human than that of au
•• English Lady." The providence of English
history approvingly smiles upon our Saxon
respect for woman. It gave us Elizabeth,
the heroine of the liteformation. and the
protectress of England ; it encircled Anne
with the starry radiance of her Augustan age ;
and, in our times, how sublime is the sight, in
an age of toppling thrones, quaking republics,
and runaway Popes, to view the MAiEt4TT of
ENGLAND walk fiwth unguarded, hailed bv
peoples acclaim, as the Sun-burst in the
Heavens signalises VICTORIA'S progress, whit,'
illumining her flower-strewn path !
In that era of empire the British monarchy
reposed upon a society of freemen, animated
with the ennobling and conservative morals
that spring from " the spirit of religion and
the spirit of a gentleman." Our Constitution
stood because it had both—the French Alonarehy
fell because it had neither. Let the lesson be
graven in our hearts, for now, as then, the
democracy of Europe, unbaptised
iu
Christianity, and unchastened by historical
spirit, swelters in selfishness, and, while bawl.
ing for "the greatest happiness of the greatest
number," counts that greatest number "
number one." t In those days Freud+ demo-
cracy kindled into a blaze the boarded
discontents of Europe, and the incendiary
spirit of the time became inearnate, as the
earth travailed, when NAPOLEON—" a hero and
a calamity"
—apveared amongst mankind.
His armless, " living to fight, foudght to livent
and marched over a subjecte eontine .
The nations wondered, trembled, and bowed
down to worship him, with
tal exeeption. England never bent the knee:
with uncowering soul and 114.111..
Slone and unaided, she went forth to the tremer -
dolls encounter, while the world looked on.
It was an age of marvels, and foreino‘t
amongst them were the strangely true miracles
wrought by nu Englishman in Spain. From
the rocks of Torres Vedras, with his sword
pointed towards Paris, Arthur Wellesley bade
the surging tide -.of French invasion roll bark
its wares, Hal THE WAVES DID SIMI. HAI'S, and
on that retiring flood Souh, and Suehet, and
Massena, and many 11101 c beside, were all
swept, vea! beyond the peaks of the Pyrenees

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+sir E.lwnrd Ilulvicr ttmi's ,•..m.“1) ot