gentleman taunted with his aristocratic demeanour. I rather think I should hear fewer debates upon that score if he were a less powerful opponent in debate." In 1834, Mr. Stanley withdrew from the Whig party; their measures going much further than he could conscientiously approve. It will be seen, from what has been already said, what the political principles of the present Earl are: if not, the public have ample means of forming their own judgment from numerous other sources. Whether they agree or disagree with his Lordship, (and on many points we ourselves differ from him in his early parlia mentary career,) yet his honesty and integrity of purpose are beyond all question. It is almost needless to make the observation, for we believe it has never been doubted. In the same year he made an excellent speech against the appropriation of the Irish Church revenues to other purposes than those of the Church. At the present moment the subject is so appropriate, that we venture to transcribe so much of this speech as is given in the volume before us. With perfect integrity and great force he then warned the nation of the dangerous, the hazardous, step they contemplated.

before you

"Let me call upon you to pause," he exclaimed, assent to a resolution which you cannot, which you ought not, which the people of England will not let you, carry into effect. I did not think I should ever live to hear a minister of the Crown propose such a resolution: I do not think that I shall yet live to see a legislature which will pass it; and I am not certain that I know the sovereign who will give his assent to it even if it be passed. I have honestly and conscientiously gone the full length to which I am prepared to go in reforming the abuses of the Church,-I say the abuses of the Church, for I admit there are questions regarding pluralities, regarding non-residence, regarding the internal discipline of the Church, regarding its purification and amendment, regarding the increased respectability of its ministers, and regarding the better distribution of its revenues for Church purposes, to which we are bound to give immediate attention; but the question of the appropriation of the property of the Church to any other but Church purposes involves principles to which I, for one, can never give my assent. In concert with no man save those noble and honourable individuals who have acted upon the principles which I have just explained to the House, pursuing the course which my own sense of honour and public duty points out to me; desirous of cautioning the House not to assent to an abstract resolution of this nature, without knowing at what time, by what means, and by what men it is to be carried into effect; prepared on my own behalf to put a decided negative upon it, yet prevented from doing so by the reasons which I have already stated; anxious not to draw down upon myself, and upon those who have on this occasion acted with me, the responsibility of endangering, by taking a different course than that marked out by the Government, the passing of that amendment

which all parties in the House seem equally to deprecate; desirous, I repeat, of not seeing this resolution carried into effect; confident that, without danger to both countries, it cannot be carried into effect, I am compelled to agree to the amendment of my noble friend, the previous question."

Mr. O'Connell, one of his strongest opponents, shortly afterwards addressed the House in favour of the Bill which Mr. Stanley had opposed, and, speaking of him, used the following emphatic language:-"I see in him an inflexible integrity of purpose; I behold him faithful and true to his principles, bold and manly in the avowal of his opinions, able and eloquent in the vindication of them, high in his sense of honour, and firm, indeed, and disinterested in the assertion of that which he thinks to be the sacred duty of conscience."

There are expressions in this speech of Lord Derby's of greatest import at the present crisis, which deserve deep consideration, and no slight admiration :-"I did not think," he said, "that I should ever live to hear a minister of the Crown propose such a resolution." With his strong sense of honour and rectitude, what can he think now, at the lapse of thirty-four years, of an ex-Prime Minister who can support such a Bill! What moreover, we would ask, can the nation think of a man who bas held the highest office in the State, asking his sovereign to break, in the face of her people, and probably against her own conscience, a most solemn engagement-in fact, a most solemn oath! Then he adds, "I do not think I shall yet live to see a legislature which will pass it; and I am not certain that I know the sovereign who will give his assent to it even if it be passed." We trust his Lordship's wishes may be realized, and that neither he nor ourselves may witness the day.

To some of our readers the opposition of Mr. Stanley to Sir Robert Peel may, at first sight, appear strange, if not inexplicable; but Sir Robert was then a Protectionist, although, subsequently to 1845, he became convinced of the benefits of Free Trade, and supported Liberal measures, especially in regard to the Corn Laws. While, on the other hand, Lord Derby had begun to feel that he could not conscientiously support many of the measures of the party whose cause he had espoused in early parliamentary life; more especially so, as their views were rapidly tending to excessive Liberal, if not Radical, measures. He therefore withdrew from his party, and Sir Robert Peel did the same.

In 1851, on the death of his father, Mr. Stanley succeeded to the Earldom. He had already twice been offered the Premiership, and had each time declined it. The following year, 1852, his Lordship was, for the third time, solicited to form an administration, when he accepted the task; and having completed

his arrangements and formed his government, he made his first ministerial statement in the House of Lords on the 27th of February, concluding in the following eloquent and characteristic terms:-"Be the period of my administration longer or shorter, not only shall I have attained the highest object of my ambition, but I shall have fulfilled one of the highest ends of human being, if, in the course of that administration, I can in the slightest degree advance the great object of peace on earth and good-will among men; if I can advance the social, moral, and religious improvement of my country, and at the same time contribute to the safety, honour, and welfare of our sovereign and her dominions." Mr. Pollard thus describes Lord Derby's parliamentary career up to the year 1858; and the part which his Lordship has taken in the government of the country since then, is too well known to require comment.

"The majority of the House of Commons, at the time of Lord Derby's advent to office, was decidedly hostile to a Conservative government, and, therefore, little beyond routine business took place during the following spring and summer, the Premier having determined to dissolve the Parliament, and test the feeling of the country. The dissolution took place on the 1st of July, and the result of the general election was adverse to the Government, which was shortly afterwards shewn on the assembling of the new Parliament. On the 16th of December in the same year, the Ministry was defeated on their budget, after four nights' discussion, by a majority of nineteen, on which Lord Derby instantly placed his resignation in the hands of her Majesty, which was at once accepted.

"On the resignation of the Earl of Derby, the Earl of Aberdeen, at the head of the 'ministry of all talents,' as it was somewhat satirically called, succeeded to office; but breaking down in the following year, 1853, the Earl of Derby was a fourth time sent for by her Majesty, but declined to resume office on the very reasonable plea that the majority of the House of Commons was antagonistic to him. Lord Palmerston then succeeded to the Premiership, which he retained until 1858, when he was defeated by an adverse vote of nineteen, on the Conspiracy Bill and his policy towards France. It is a most remarkable circumstance, and altogether without a parallel, that three governments in succession should have been defeated by the same numerical majority, and two of them on the same day and month of the year. Lord John Russell's government was beaten on the 20th of February, 1852, by a majority of nineteen; the Earl of Derby's first ministry was defeated, on the 16th of December in the same year, by a majority of nineteen; and on the 20th of February, 1858, Lord Palmerston's government was overthrown on his French policy, by the ominous majority of nineteen; a conjunction of events which, as we have already stated, is unparalleled in history."

It is rather remarkable that both Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli, two of the staunchest Conservatives we have, should each have entered upon political life as Whigs. Lord Macaulay, speak

ing of the Earl's skill in parliamentary defence and attack, says," It resembles rather an instinct than an acquisition; and he alone, among all our great senatorial reputations, seems to have made himself, upon the instant as it were, master of the art, instead of effecting this, as in other instances, slowly, and 'at the expense of an audience.'"

As to his oratorical powers, Sir Archibald Alison bears the following testimony:

666

"He is, beyond all doubt, and by the admission of all parties, the most perfect orator of his day. His style of speaking differs essentially from that of the great statesmen of his own or the preceding age. His leading feature is neither the vehement declamation of Fox, nor the lucid narrative of Pitt, nor the classical fancy of Canning, nor the varied energy of Brougham. Capable, when he chooses, of rivalling any of these, illustrious in the line in which they excelled, the native bent of his mind leads him rather to a combination of their varied excellencies, but which combine, in a surprising manner, to form a graceful and attractive whole. At once playful and serious, eloquent and instructive, amusing and pathetic, his thoughts seem to flow from his lips in an unpremeditated stream, which at once delights and fascinates his hearers. None was ever tired while his speech lasted; no one ever saw him come to a conclusion without regret. He is capable at times of rising to the highest flights of oratory, is always thoroughly master of the subject on which he speaks, and never fails to place his views in the clearest and most favourable light.' And the Times, in speaking of the late Lord Aberdeen, says :- Not only had Lord Aberdeen seen Fox and Pitt stand as Byron has described them-the two mountains, Athos and Ida, with a dashing sea of eloquence between'-he had listened with awe to the rolling thunders of Burke, he had witnessed the brilliant but harmless thunders of Sheridan, he had heard Granville and Grey in their prime. Whitebread and Wyndham he had heard volleying forth their clamours by the hour; and with all the inclination of an old man to depreciate the present and to laud the past, he has declared of these giants, of whom it is supposed that we are never more to see the like, that not one of them, as a speaker, is to be compared with our own Lord Derby, when Lord Derby is at his best."

The services which Lord Derby has rendered the State and the nation are vast; and it is much to be lamented that his failing health and strength precludes his taking the direction of the Government during the present critical state of the country. Want of space compels us now to close our paper; but in our next number we hope to review the life of Lord Brougham, comparing the relative actions of each of these eminent men on many points of the greatest interest and importance.

RYCHARDE ROLLE THE HERMYTE OF HAMPOLE.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

SIR,-Hoping that some of your readers have felt interested in the story and meditations of our good Hermit, and that, having listened to his musings on "the Bee," they may be inclined to hear them on some of the birds or fowls of the air, let us follow him from the Apiary to the Aviary, where, with his Aristotle still in his hand, he marks some of their habits that may serve as useful examples to the Christian.

As, however, this meditation, being the conclusion of the former, is but short, it may be acceptable to give also some of his thoughts on "The Vertus of the Haly Name of Ihesu," to whom, he says, the upward flight of the bird is a continual admonition to us to ascend.

The Hermit's Meditation on some of the Birds or Fowls

of the Air.

"Arystotill sais pat some fowheles are of gude flyghyng, pat passes fra a land to a-nothire. Some are of ill flyghyng for heuynes of body and for paire nest es noghte ferre fra pe erthe. Thus es it of thaym pat turnes pam to Godes seruys. Some are of gude flyeghynge, for thay flye fra erthe to heuene, and rystes thaym there in thoghte, and are fedde in delite of Goddes lufe, and has thoghte of na lufe of pe worlde. Some are pat kan noghte flye fra pis lande, bot in pe waye late theyre herte ryste, and delyttes paym in sere (several, various) lufes of mene and womene, als (as) pay come and goa, nowe ane and nowe a-nothire. And in Ihesu Criste pay kan fynde na swettnes, or if pay any tyme fele oghte it es swa lyttill and swa schorte, for othire thoghtes pat are in thaym, pat it brynges thaym till na stabylnes: or pay are lyke till a fowle pat es callede strucys or storke, pat has wenges and it may noghte flye for charge of body. Swa pay hafe undirstandynge, and fastes and wakes and semes haly to mens syghte, bot thay may noghte flye to lufe and contemplacyone of God pay are so chargede wyth othyre affeccyons and othire vanytes."

Adopting the plan in the former paper, your readers are offered a rendering of the Hermit's thoughts in simple verse :—

Philosopher and Hermit both,

As from the Bee, so from the Bird,
Moral examples gather'd he,

And made the voice of Wisdom heard.

Bright happy creature is the Bird,

Now to spring high in air and light,
And when the wing is tir'd and droops,
In shady groves to rest from flight.
But mark the difference in fowl:

Some with swift wing can cleave the sky,

Their agile body borne between,

While thus from land to land they fly.