why did he suppose that any change had taken place? And if a change had been communicated to him, how could he have been ignorant of what sentiments were entertained? Setting out with this unfortunate phrase, the marquis gave the Catholics a great deal of very proper advice to make much of the duke, to avoid provoking him or any body else by personalities, to trust to the legislature, and never to think of using brute force.*

The following is the Marquis's letter, dated 23rd December.

"Most Reverend Sir,-I hasten to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22nd, covering that which you received from the duke of Wellington, of the 11th instant, together with a copy of your answer to it.-I thank you for the confidence you have reposed in me. -Your letter gives me information upon a subject of the highest interest. I did not know the precise sentiments of the duke of Wellington upon the present state of the Catholic question.

"Knowing it, I shall venture to offer my opinion upon the course that it be hoves the Catholics to pursue.

Perfectly coninced that the final and cordial settlement of this great question can alone give peace, harmony, and prosperity to all classes of his Majesty's subjects in this kingdom, I must acknowledge my disappointment on learning that there is no prospect of its being effected during the ensuing Session of Parliament. I, however, derive some consolation from observing, that bis Grace is not wholly adverse to the measure; for if he can be induced to promote it, he, of all men, will have the greatest facility in carrying it into effect.

"If I am correct in this opinion, it is obviously most important that the duke of Wellington should be propitiated; that no obstacle that can by possibility be avoided should be thrown in his way; that all personal and offensive insinuations should be suppressed; and that ample allowance should be made for the difficulties of his situation.

"Difficult it certainly is, for he has to overcome the very strong prejudices, and the interested motives of many persons of the highest influence, as well as to

"But," said he, "I differ from the opinion of the duke, that an attempt should be made to 'bury in oblivion' the question for a short

allay the real alarms of many of the more ignorant Protestants.

"I differ from the opinion of the duke, that an attempt should be made to bury in oblivion' the question for a short time. First, because the thing is utterly impossible; and next, if the thing were possible, I fear that advantage might be taken of the pause, by representing it as a panic achieved by the late violent reaction, and by proclaiming, that if the government at once and peremptorily decided against concession, the Catholics would cease to agitate, and then all the miseries of the last years of Ireland will be to be re-acted.

"What I do recommend is, that the measure should not be for a moment lost sight of-that anxiety should continue to be manifested--that all constitutional (in contradistinction to merely legal) means should be resorted to, to forward the cause; but that, at the same time, the most patient forbearance-the most submissive obedience to the laws, should be inculcated; that no personal and offensive language should be held towards those who oppose the claims.

"Personality offers no advantage-it effects no good; on the contrary, it offends, and confirms predisposed aversion. Let the Catholic trust to the justice of his cause-to the growing li berality of mankind. Unfortunately, he has lost some friends, and fortified his enemies, within the last six months, by unmeasured and unnecessary violence. He will soonest recover from the present stagnation of his fortunes by showing more temper, and by trusting to the legislature for redress.

"Brute force, he should be assured, can effect nothing. It is the legislature that must decide this great question; and my greatest anxiety is, that it should be met by the Parliament under the most favourable circumstances, and that the opposers of Catholic emancipation shall be disarmed by the patient forbearance, as well as by the unwearied perseverance of its advocates.

"My warm anxiety to promote the general interests of this country is the motive that has induced me to give an opinion, and to offer advice."

time. First, because the thing is utterly impossible; and next, if the thing were possible, I fear that advantage might be taken of the pause, by representing it as a panic achieved by the late violent reaction, and by proclaiming, that, if the government at once and peremptorily decided against concession, the Catholics would cease to agitate, and then all the miseries of the last years of Ireland will be to be reacted." Who would not imagine, on reading this, that he was reading a speech of Mr. O'Connell, or some other confidential adviser of the Catholic body? The advice may be sound, politic advice, for furthering the views of a party; but are not the words the words of a privy counsellor of the Catholic Association, rather than of a privy counsellor of the king of Great Britain? Setting aside altogether the opposition, in which the Lord-lieutenant thus placed himself, to the declared wishes and sentiments of the head of the government, was it consistent with his duty, or with the dignity of his office, to point out to any body of men, the system of party tactics which they ought to adopt?

It was bad enough that the head of the Irish government should have given such advice to the Catholic primate even privately; but it is difficult to imagine, that any man, writing to Dr. Curtis on Catholic politics, with the fate of the duke of Wellington's letter fresh before his eyes, could write under the belief that his communications were not to be made public. The marquis of Anglesea's letter was immediately carried to the Association. There it was hailed as another triumph of their irre

sistible power, and as a new motive to do what they were already resolved to do, "not to lose sight of the question for a moment"-to continue to agitate. Resolutions were unanimously adopted, extolling "the manliness and political sagacity" of the Lord-lieutenant in terms as extravagantly adulatory, as the language, in which the very same men had denounced him as an object of execration but three years before, had been brutal and unsparing. The incense of partyflattery diffused its fumes round the marquis of Anglesea ;--and the next wind that blew from England brought the mandate which deprived him of his office, and recalled him from Ireland. He quitted Dublin in the following January, and was succeeded by the duke of Northumberland.

His recal furnished him with an excellent example of the value set on the advice which he had tendered to the Catholics, to avoid all personal abuse, and, most especially, not to insult and vilify the duke of Wellington. The Association had resolved, that it could not better testify its high sense of his virtues and merits "than by following his advice." Therefore, at the first meeting after his recall was known, O'Connell exclaimed, "In my own knowledge of Irish history, and I believe I know Ireland's history well, I never heard any thing so monstrously absurd, as the recall of this gallant and high-minded man. The duke of Wellington said, he would be worse than mad, if he became Premier. He is, therefore, a selfconvicted madman; and yet, gracious heaven, he continues the insane pilot who directs our almost tottering state."

submitted to them only as a necessary evil. M. Roy, the minister of finance, and president of the council, had been originally an advocate, but had acquired by other pursuits an immense fortune. From the commencement of his political career he had displayed very considerable financial talent. He had occupied the place of M. de Villèle immediately before the formation of the late cabinet-had distinguished himself by a strenuous and effectual resistance to M. de Villèle's plan of the three per cents and had professed principles, both in office and opposition, which were not calculated to inspire any alarm respecting the course which he might now pursue. M. de Ferronnays, to whom were entrusted the seals of the foreign office, had been, for a long time, the Fread French ambassador in Russia, and had passed the greatest part of his youth abroad, following, in the capacity of Gentleman of the Chamber, the various fortunes of the duke de Berry. He was a person of popular appearance and address, and of undoubted probity, and was generally thought to be attached to liberal and constitutional principles. M. de Martignac, the new minister of the interior, the son of a celebrated advocate of Bordeaux, had begun to make himself known, before that city had acquired its extraordinary claims on the gratitude of the reigning family by its conduct on the 12th of March, 1814. He had been successively a Deputy to the Chamber, the King's Commissioner in Spain, Grand Cross of the Order of Charles 3rd, Minister of State, and Director General of the Customs. He possessed considerable talents, was distinguished for elegance and amiable manners in society, and

displayed in the Chamber a clear and copious eloquence. His conduct; however, during the last session, in which he had adhered to M. de Villèle through good and through bad report, compared with the station to which he was now called in a ministry formed on the ruin of M. Villèle's principles, did not evince much steadiness of conduct; and the liberals would have been better pleased to have seen his office filled by a man who had been less intimate with the ultra politics of the late cabinet. To Peyronnet, who, as Keeper of the Seals, had rendered himself more hated than any other member of the dissolved cabinet, succeeded M. Portalis, a peer, and one of the Presidents of the court of Cassation. Enjoying an hereditary claim to consideration from the talents and virtues of his father, he had gained public confidence by his enmity to the Jesuits, and by his report, in the previous session, on the petition which count Montlosier had addressed to the Chamber of Peers against these religionists. Being a man of enlightened mind and liberal principles, his aversion to the Jesuits was not likely to compromise the impartiality of his administration; while the excellence of his private character, and the respectability of his family, formed a striking contrast with the morals and connexions of his predecessor. At the head of the department of commerce, a branch of administration, which was now established for the first time, was placed M. de Saint Cricq. He had been, for several years, Director General of the Customs, had displayed a respectable degree of acquaintance with the details and interests of French trade in the reports, which, in that capacity, he had annually

presented to the Chambers; and, although not suspected of any profound acquaintance with the true principles of economics, he was held to be favourable upon the whole to the more liberal maxims of the modern code, and to be no obstinate or prejudiced admirer of prohibitions and protections.

The new ministers were thus far removed from being the representatives of ultra-liberalism, and they retained amongst them a much greater quantity of the material of the old ministry than was agreeable to the party who had raised them to power. The king had yielded to public opinion no farther than necessity compelled him. M. de Chabrol, who was generally believed to have constructed the new ministry, retained his office as Minister of Marine. He had been unwilling to separate himself from his former colleagues; but his probity and talents for business induced the king to refuse his resignation, though repeatedly tendered, and to command the continuance of his services. It was thought that he would find himself better placed in a cabinet formed at his own recommendation, than among his former associates, with several of whom he could not sympathise. Frayssinous, too, who, under the former ministry, had been a steady friend of the Jesuits, in an office which gave him peculiar means of favouring their narrow schemes, still remained at the head of ecclesiastical affairs. His influence, however, was diminished by the department of Public Instruction being now severed from his office, and placed under the superintendence of an independent functionary. The newly-created office, along with that of Grand Master of the Univer

sity, was given to M. de Vatismenil, one of the six Advocates General of the court of Cassation, where his great accomplishments as a lawyer had recommended him to the notice of M. de Portalis. His appointment, however, gave great offence to the liberals; for M. de Vatismenil had supported the laws against sacrilege, and the liberty of the press; he was believed to be an ultra in his religious tenets, a serf of the Jesuits, a member of that congregation, the faintest shadow of which threatened, in their eyes, darkness and desolation to the liberties of France. But their fears or their prejudices were soon dispelled. The new Grand Master of the University, immediately after his nomination, addressed a circular letter, a sort of pastoral charge, to the rectors of all colleges and academies in the kingdom, unfolding to them his general views on the subject of education, which instantly turned the tide in his favour, and drew forth the applauses of the irritable liberals themselves.* It was free

The following is a copy of this document:Circular of the Grand Master of the University to the Rectors of Colleges or Academies.

"Sir,-The office, which the king has deigned to confer upon me, must establish between you and me important relations. In announcing to you how much I congratulate myself upon it, I seize the opportunity to lay before you my notions on the principles which ought to direct the teaching body.

Religion and morality are the first portance that this truth should be conbases of all good education. It is of imstantly present to the minds of men employed in public instruction. It is of importance likewise, that, in their conduct towards those of their pupils who profess a religion different from theirs, they should never forget what the charter, the laws of the kingdom, and the