LETTER

FROM

THE EARL OF GREY

TO

J. GN, Esq. AGENT OF WHIGGISM.

DEAR GN,

THIS prorogation of Parliament was well nigh deranging all our plans, and giving a death-blow to our hopes. Such an opportunity of increasing and taking advantage of the ferment and confusion in the country never previously occurred in the history of our party. Who would have thought that, after it was announced that a message was to come* down from the Queen, and that Tierney, Denman, Wilson, Bennet, and Hume were all prepared, little Van. and Sid. would have ventured on so spirited a step?

* Even the noble Earl seems to have adopted the language of the new reign.

To sit, to be sure,, by order of the Queen, could hardly have been done; but we did think that, by dint of bullying and storming, we might have frightened them into keeping Parliament sitting, and then, beyond all doubt, by dint of whigs and radicals, the uproar would have been such, that OUR success would have been certain.

But that thorn in the side of whiggism-whom God confound!-Canning, arrived in time to give them spunk. But though the game is changed, this is our time. After what we have done during the trial of this Queen, we are sunk for ever if we do not turn out the ministers. If we allow it to appear that the yell of the radicals is not, as we have said, the sense of the people, our arts, and the weakness of our party, will be exposed; and, alas! between ourselves, it is a fearful truth, that except in some of the upper ranks, our friends are all radicals. If we continue outs, we must give up the game altogether, or become radicals. There is no middle course. We have so leagued ourselves with the leaders of this new party in the country, under the belief that the ministry must fall, that we cannot now draw back. We have retailed all their violence, and echoed all their absurdities: the right hand of fellowship was pledged in an evil hour, from the anticipation of success, and from the ungovernable rashness of Lord D. and my Hotspur son-inlaw, with those who hate us. Had we at first succeeded, of course we could at once have shook them But they will blow us out of the water if we do

off.

not adhere to our present line, and to the plans which we have sanctioned or connived at.

But the great danger now is, that the turmoil will subside, and that the radicals will be left to work with their common materials,-in which case we are ruined if we join them, and the ministry prodigiously strengthened whether we join the radicals or keep aloof from both,-coquetting only enough with the latter to prevent a rumpus.

Something then must be done, and that speedily. No common effort will now do. We must change the ministers immediately, and by some signal blow, or else our party, in this generation at least, is irrecoverably knocked in the head. And the next struggle that will ensue will be that of the levellers and the radicals.

To trust to the House of Commons will never do. We have not there even the natural strength of our aristocracy. Our close boroughs, and a few counties, which are rapidly deserting us, are the only source of our strength; and how small that is, Tierney's unfortunate motion last year, even supported by the radicals, fatally demonstrated.

The plan of the radicals, i. e. of Wooler (who in fact guides the whole of that tremendous party) is to follow up the same game that we have been playing during the last six months-to turn all this tumult and excitement at once to a change of ministers (the only object to which we indeed ever wished to direct it), before people have time to reflect, and before the defection of those, who either were excited by

clamour on this question from their usual neutrality, or of those who, during the row, were afraid to oppose us. What Wooler says, and he always speaks without mincing matters, is-" You cannot hope at present "to accomplish a change of ministers by any com"mon means, or by your own strength. That you "well know; and, accordingly, for some time past, you have in fact chiefly been shewing your teeth, "for you knew that you had no chance. Indeed, "after Tierney's failure, you would be fools to risk "such another discomfiture. Now is your time; "and though we differ from you, yet we like you "better than our common enemies, and we will join you in unseating them.

66

"We have shewn our mode of attack, and we have

gained. To be sure you aided us. But we should "have done fully as well without your aid out of "doors. We have bullied the House of Lords for "the Queen and for Radicalism: for though the time "came rather soon, yet the occasion for attacking

66

King, Church, and State, and stabbing to the "heart, was too good to be omitted. Now, if you "will accept our aid, and not stick to the ordinary "engines of your party, we will bully Parliament,

ay, Lords, and Commons for you, as part of this "same question of the Queen, and make the imme"diate dismissal of the ministers the consequence "of the triumph which we have gained over the "House of Lords. If you choose to take this aid, "we will fight the battle now for you; but depend upon it, on no other occasion shall you ever get the

66

6

"least support from us, and you know that without us you could do nothing. Beware how you tempt "us to try our strength elsewhere with you, as "we did by starting Hobhouse against Lamb. It "suits our purpose as well as yours to follow up "the game now, because (as reserve is needless "where we both understand each other) we shall gain by the continuance of the license given to the

press, and in various other ways. But we will not "assist you on some paltry matter of a Scotch “baron, or the facings and helmets of the horse

66

guards. So take your choice-war or peace.

This is no doubt desperate game for us. But the man spoke us fair, and the truth of what he says, that we never shall have the means of working by such an engine, is indisputable. Notwithstanding all his threats, we do not believe that they ever mean more than just that excitement which gives them bread, and that notoriety and popular influence which was the object of our ambition; but which, from the state of the public mind, must now be gained by coarser and hardier spirits (thanks to our unfortunate and indiscriminate violence), than when we, dear Gn, entered life. They must now talk the language of revolution openly, to acquire the name which we once earned by using the same sentiments (I would hope), but in more measured and balanced language. And moreover, who can doubt that we should be much stronger than the Cabinet, whom whigs and radicals have so long attacked; and if we had the power, when in office, you