that no reliance could be placed on its continuing any course of policy whatever for two years together;" and the foreign measures of our days have even gone farther in political tergiversation and degradation-have equally betrayed the inherent vacillation and weakness of democratic institutions. Both were the days of French alliance and Dutch hostility, of desertion of allies, and leaguing with enemies, of democratic contests at home, and contempt and infamy abroad. Both were the days on which the enemies of England dwell with delight, which its friends contemplate with shame; and both were attended with consequences so disastrous, as have been, or will be, felt to the latest generation. What the future measures or conduct of Government will be, whether Lord Melbourne's administration will rival Earl Grey's in its disastrous effects on domestic security and external respect, it is impossible to foresee; but, without pretending to the gift of prophecy, this much may confidently be predicted, that being founded on the principle of revolutionary concession, and preceded by the overthrow of the former Government by the Great Agitator, it will sink deeper in the slough of democratic degradation, and will continue and accelerate that disastrous movement which the Reform Bill has now indelibly, it is to be feared, imprinted upon the British empire. It will be blown up in the end, in all human probability, if not sooner terminated, by the same cause which proved fatal to that of Earl Grey; "the constant and active pressure from without,' produced by the Reform Bill, will force it into measures which the few Conservative Whigs which it contains cannot go along with; they will retire, and be succeeded by more thorough-paced innovators, until at last the root-and-branch men have got a complete ascendency, and a Revolutionary Administration, with all its consequent horrors, is, amidst the transports of the Ten-Pounders, fairly installed in irresistible sovereignty. Its first step augurs but ill as to its future character or measures. Lord Melbourne has introduced the Coercion Act, without the three first clauses, in other words, without the whole strength and efficacy of the measure; without what Lord Grey himself tells us is the most important part of the Bill: although that Noble Lord, not a fortnight ago, was part of a majority in the former Cabinet which decided, that without these clauses that bill would be perfectly nugatory, and that the safety of Ireland imperatively required their re-enactment. O'Connell has defeated the Administration. The man whom the Cabinet denounced as the greatest enemy to his country at the commencement of the session, before its close has found the Government quite submissive to his demands! Earl Grey, albeit well accustomed to humiliation, revolted at such degradation. Lord Melbourne, Lord Brougham, Lord Lansdowne, are content to hold on in office, under the disgrace of such an overthrow from such a man! Not many weeks have elapsed since Marquis Wellesley wrote from Ireland, in a confidential communication to Lord Grey," These disturbances have been in every instance excited and inflamed by the agitation of the combined projects for the abolition of tithes and the destruction of the Union with Great Britain. I cannot employ words of sufficient strength to express my solicitude that his Majesty's Government should fix the deepest attention on the intimate connexion, marked by the strongest characters in all these transactions, between the system of agitation and its inevitable consequence, the system of combination, leading to violence and outrage; they are, inseparably, cause and effect; nor can I (after the most attentive consideration of the dreadful scenes passing under my view), by any effort of my understanding, separate one from the other in that unbroken chain of indissoluble connexion." And in a few weeks thereafter a Government is content to accept office on the condition of omitting the clauses which have been found most important in suppressing these outrages, and restoring the murders, conflagrations, and anarchy, which the system of agitation has invariably given rise to in that unhappy island! It steps into office on the condition of adopting a measure at the dictation of the Great Agitator, which will probably revive the atrocious and frightful crimes which his measures formerly pro duced in that country, and which the former Coercion Bill had in so surprising a manner extinguished. Vio lent outrages had declined three-fifths since the Coercion Bill was passed; in the county of Kilkenny they had declined from 1560 to 330 annually; and a Ministry accepts office on condition of dropping the most import ant parts of that necessary measure, and, it is to be feared, restoring those frightful atrocities! Wretched as was the degradation which we ever anticipated for Government from the effects of the Reform Bill, we never expected to see so speedy and lamentable a prostration. We say this without imputing any blame to the present Ministers for their abandonment of these clauses, or any wish to throw discredit on them on that account. We have no doubt they could not have carried the clauses prohibiting public meetings in the House of Commons; because the revolutionary party found such agitation necessary to carry on the attack on the Irish Church, which it is at this moment their chief object to overturn. We fully sympathize with the justice of the appeal made by Lord Melbourne to the House of Peers, when he conjured them to recollect in what a situation the country would have been, if, when the Conservatives were not prepared to take the helm, the Whigs had, from an obstinate retention of these clauses, been forced to abandon it. But the point we rest on is this-What shall we say to the Constitution, which compels Government to abandon measures of proved efficacy and admitted utility, and surrender a nation to outrage and disorder, in order to procure a respite of hostility from a revolutionary party, who aim at the subversion of a particular part of the public institutions? What to the men who, for party purposes, wielded the whole force of the prerogative, to reduce to such a pitiable state of weakness, the once firm and glorious Constitution of England? Such conduct One only circumstance affords a ray of hope amidst this unparalleled clinging to office on the part of Ministers, and woful weakness in the Executive. It is the firm and dignified conduct of the Conservatives in declining any coalition with such men, and standing aloof, when the divisions of their antagonists gave them the fairest prospect of resuming the reins of power. is worthy of the illustrious characters which they bear. To have coalesced with any part of the Melbourne Cabinet would not only have compromised their character, but ruined their usefulness, and destroyed the last hope of their country. It is by steadily resisting all revolutionary measures that political integrity can alone be preserved in troubled times such as the present;-it is by a total change of system alone that a nation afflicted with the revolutionary fever can be righted;-it is when the majority of the nation have been brought by suffering to see that such a change is necessary, that a stop can alone be put to the principles of ruin with which that malady is attended ;-it is by the men who have ever resisted its progress, that the cup of salvation can alone be administered. Noctes Ambrosianae. No. LXVII. ΧΡΗ ΔΕΝ ΣΥΜΠΟΣΙΩ ΚΥΛΙΚΩΝ ΠΕΡΙΝΙΣΣΟΜΕΝΑΩΝ [This is a distich by wise old Phocylides, An ancient who wrote crabbed Greek in no silly days; An excellent rule of the hearty old cock 'tis- C. N. ap. Ambr. SCENE- The Shepherd's Study-Altrive-The SHEPHERD seated at Dinner -Time, Six o' Clock-AMBROSE in waiting. Enter, hurriedly, NORTH and TICKLER. SHEPHERD. What for keep ye folk waitin' in this way, sirs, for denner? and it past sax! Sax is a daft-like houre for denner in the Forest, but I'm aye wullin' to humour fules that happen to be reseedin' in my ain house at hame. Whare were you-and what hae ye been about? No shavin' at least-for twa sic bairds I dinna remember haen witnessed sin' I was in Wales-towards the close o' the century-and they belanged to twa he-goats glowerin' owre at me frae the ruins o' Dolbaldron Castle. Tak your chairs-ye Jews. Moses! sit you on my richt haun-and, Aaron ! sit you on my left. [NORTH and TICKLER sit down as commanded. NORTH. 'Tis the first time in my life that I have been one moment behind the hour. SHEPHERD. I believe't. For you can regulat your stammack, like a time-piece. It gangs as true's a chronometer-and on board a ship you cou'd tell by't to a nicety when she would reach ony particular port. I daursay it's correck the noo by the sun-but I aye mak Girrzzy bate the girdle twa three minuts afore the chap o' the knock. Aye, just sae, sir-bate the girdle. I used to hae a bell hung on the bourtree at the gable-end-the auld Yarrow kirk-bell-but it got intil its dotage, its tongue had the palsy, its cheeks were crackit-and pu' the rape as you wou'd, its vice was as puir's a pan's. Then the lichtning, that maun hae had little to do that day, melted it intil the shape o' an airn icicle, and it grew perfeckly useless-sae I got a drum that aince belonged to the militia, and for some seasons it diverted the echoes that used to take it aff no amiss, whether braced or itherwise-but it too waxed auld and impotent, and you micht as weel, for ony music that was in't, hae bate the kitchendresser wi' the lint-beetle-sae I then got a gong sent owre frae India frae your freen' and mine, Dr Gray-God bless him-and for a lang, deep, hollow, trummlin', sea-like, and thunderous soun', it beat a' that ever was heard in this kintra-but it created sic a disturbance far and wide, that, sair again' my wull, I had to shut it up in the garret. Wherefore, James ? NORTH. SHEPHERD. In the first place, it was sae like thunner that folk far aff couldna tell whether it was thunner or no; and I've kent them yoke their carts in a hurry to carry in their hay afore it was dry for stacking, fearin' a plump. Ae Sunday the soun' keepit a' the folk frae the kirk, and aften they wou'dna ventur' on the fuirds, in dread o' a sudden spate frae a water-spoot. I learnt at last to bate it mair gently; but then it was sae like the soun' o' a bill afore he breaks out intil the bellow, that a' the kye in the forest grew red-wud-mad; sae then I had to tak' to batin' the girdle-an idea that was suggested to me ae day on the swarmin' o' a tap-swarm o' a skep o' bees in the garden and I fin' that on a clear day sic as this, when the atmosphere's no' clogged, that it answers as weel's either the kirk-bell, the drum, or the gong. You wou'd hear't ayont the knowe, sirs; and was na't bonny music? Beautiful exceedingly. ARCADES AMBO. SHEPHERD. If her I needna name had been at hame, there wou'd hae been a denner on the table wordier o' my twa maist esteemed and dearest freens-but I howp wi' sic as we hae-without her mair immediate yet prospective care -you will be able to mak a fenn. NORTH. Bread and cheese would be a feast with the Shepherd. SHEPHERD. Deed it wud be nae sic thing. It's easy to speak o' feastin' on cheese and breed, and butter and breed-and in our younger days they were truly a feast on the hill. But noo our pallets, if they dinna require coxin, deserve a goo; and I've seen a barer buird. Mr Aumrose, lift the lids. Bless us! [Mr Ambrose smilingly lifts the lids. NORTH AND TICKLER (in delighted wonder). SHEPHERD. That's hotch-potch-and that's cocky-leeky-the twa best soops in natur'. Broon soop's moss-water-and white soop's like scalded milk wi' worms in't. But see, sirs, hoo the ladle stauns o' itsell in the potch-and I wush Mr Tickler cou'd see himsell the noo in a glass, curlin' up his nose, wi' his een glistenin', and his mouth waterin', at sicht and smell o' the leeky. We kilt a lamb the day we got your letter, sir, and that's a hind-quarter twalpun' wecht. Ayont it's a beef-stake poy-for Geordy Scougal slaughtered a beast last market day at Innerleithen-and his meat's aye prime. Here are three fules-and that ham's nae sham, sae we sall ca' him Japhet. I needna tell ye yon's a roasted green-guse frae Crosslee-and neist it mutton-chaps-but the rest's a' ggemm. That's no cat, Tickler-but hare-as you may ken by her lugs and fud. That wee bit black beastie-I wuss she mayna be wizen'd in the rostin'-'s a water-hen; the twa aside her are peaseweeps to the east you may observe a leash o' groose-wastwards ho! some wild dyeucks-a few pints to the south a barren pair o' patricks-and due north a whaup. NORTH (helping himself to a couple of flappers). "O' a' the airts the wund can blaw I dearly loe the west, For there the bonny dyeucky lies, The dyeuck that I loe best." SHEPHERD. But you maunna be expeckin' a second and third coorse. I hate to hae denner set afore me by instalments; and, frae my no havin' the gift o' prophecy, I've kent dish after dish slip through my fingers in a succession o' coorses, till I had feenally to assuage my hunger on gratins they ca' parmesan. Sir George Warrenner will recolleck hoo I picket them aff the plate as if I had been famished, yet frae first to last there had been nae absolute want o' vittalls. I kept aye waitin for the guse; but nae guse o' an edible kind made its appearance, and I had to dine owre again at sooper in my ain hottle. That's a sawmon. AMBROSE. There is somebody at the door, sir. SHEPHERD. Let him in. (AMBROSE opens the door, and enter Clavers, Giraffe, Rover, Guile, and Fang.) It's the dowgs. Gentlemen, be seated. NORTH. "We are seven." SHEPHERD. A mystical nummer NORTH. The Pleiades. TICKLER. [The Canine take their seats. "And lend the Lyre of heaven another string." SHEPHERD. Iken, Mr Tickler, ye dinna like dowgs. But ye needna be feared, for nane o' them's got the hydrophoby-accepp it may be Fang. The cretur's been verra snappish sin' the barommator reached ninety-and bat a goslin' that began to bark-but though the goslin bat him again, he hasna yet been heard to quack ony, sae he's no muckle mad. You're no mad, Fang? Buy-wuy-wuy. FANG. SHEPHERD. His speech's rather affeckit. He used to say-bow-wow-wow. I don't much like his looks. SHEPHERD. But, dear me! I've forgotten to help you-and hae been eatin' and talkin' awa' wi' a fu' mouth and trencher, while baith o' yours is staunin wide open and empty—and I fear, being oot a' day, you maun be fent. Say grace, James. TICKLER. SHEPHERD. I said it, Timothy, afore I sat down; and though you twa wasna in, it included you, for I kent you wadna be far aff; sae it's a' richt baith in time and place. Fa' tae. TICKLER. If you have been addressing me, my dear sir, never was there more needless advice. A more delicious duckling Than Fatima I never devoured. NORTH. SHEPHERD. O, ye raubiautors! Twa wild dyeucks dune to the verra dowps! I intended to hae tasted them mysell-but the twa thegither wou'dna hae wechted wi' my whaup. You a Scotchman and no ken a whaup! Ó, you gowk! The English ca't a curly. And never in the muirs? Then ye needna read Booick. For to be a naturalist you maun begin wi' natur', and then study her wi' the help o' her chosen sons. |