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Appearance in the House of Commons, Our First,.

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House of Commons, Our First Appearance in the,.........................................................

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Sandford, Sir D. K., On the Memory of,.......................................

Scotch Divinity Students as they are, and as they should be,............188
Scott, On the Moral and Religious Character of,........

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It is a well-known and often quoted proverb, that "Unity is Strength," and, unless this fall to be included in the category of "vulgar errors," it must be equally true, that disunion is weakness. But, to the universal application of this latter truth, an apparent difficulty presents itself in that anomalous and almost indefinable system, called Whig-Radicalism. It is composed of the most discordant elements. Its adherents present to the eye of even the most superficial observer, every possible variety of character and sentiment. They are divided and sub-divided into a thousand clanships, each with its distinctive chief, who rules his followers with all the tyranny of a proud, irresponsible monarch, while he talks of liberty, and boasts himself the advocate of universal freedom. Filled with the pride of a self-fancied infallibility, they strut their little stages, as though they alone were qualified to rule the world, and look with ill-disguised contempt upon all besides. In fact, so great is the disunion which pervades the general body, and so confident is each section of the exclusive value of its distinctive tenets, that were the country abandoned to them, and were they to attempt a re-modelling of the whole system of Government, they would destroy one another ere the

work were well begun. And yet, with all this disunion, they cannot properly be regarded as a weak body. Are we then to give up the sentiments which, even from our boyhood, we have been accustomed to quote as axiomatic truths? Must we abandon the idea that disunion is necessarily weakness? or is the difficulty more apparent than real? Such, we suspect, is the true state of the case. Indeed, their strength is altogether of a peculiar character. It is the strength of the leech which clings to its victim with a tenacity truly surprising, till its craving appetite is entirely satiated. But it is only in this tenacity that the analogy holds good, for, unlike that of the leech, the appetite of the party in question is absolutely insatiable, and, instead of confering benefit upon the body to which they cling, they only increase the distemper, and diffuse poison through the veins. There exists but one word in the whole vacabulary of the English language by which Lord Melbourne can, in any degree, allay the animosities which pervade the ranks of his professed supporters, and that word is-place. Let him raise the alarm-cry that Wellington and Peel have placed their feet upon the threshold of the Council Chamber. Let him announce to his hungry followers that patronage is slipping from his hands. Let him remind them that, with the return of Peel to office, all their hopes of plunder must vanish, and instantly, as by the agency of some unseen power, the sounds of discord are hushed and, for a time at least, peace and harmony prevail.

But, while they disagree upon almost every subject but the advantages of place and patronage, there are certain characteristics which mark the whole body, so that from Lord Melbourne down to the most ignorant, but wide-mouthed orator of the most degraded Liberal Association, there is not one who does not stamp the impress of his party upon every act which he performs. If a principle is made a stepping-stone to office and then coolly abandoned; if insults to the British flag are allowed to pass unresented; if naval officers, who have never performed a single action worthy of record, are raised to situations designed only for the honoured and the brave; if the royal prerogative of mercy is degraded by being made the means of acquiring mob-popularity; if public money is squandered to promote the interests of a party; if traitors are punished in our Colonies, but encouraged

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