Ministry professing generally popular opinions, but not striving in the least to carry them out. Such a period is within our memory during the supremacy of Lord Palmerston. The incessant growth of society, the increase of its wants, the development of its ideas, render the long continuance of such a state of affairs impossible; and it may prelude, according to the conditions of the time, either some violent outbreak of a neglected and suffering people, or some manifestation of national energy in the direction of material and intellectual progress. What would have been the result in the present case if it had been left to English ideas and Englishmen to decide, we need not attempt to inquire, for we can never know; for the terrible storm of the French Revolution burst over Europe, kindling hopes or arousing terrors before which the ordinary life of nations was bent and distorted, and their ordinary thoughts and traditions were swept away. The actual legislation which was effected or attempted between 1784 and 1790, gives us little clue to the natural tendencies of the time, outside the narrow range which King and court had marked. A good deal of the time of Parliament during this period was occupied by two subjects, one of which was discussed on broad national grounds, and the other on the narrowest lines of party, or even faction. The impeachment and trial of Warren Hastings lie beyond our boundaries, except so far as they inculcated the principle of the responsibility of rulers to the people through their representatives. In the discussions which arose on the first illness of George III., as to the terms upon which the regency was to be entrusted to the Prince of Wales, great principles were indeed introduced, but they were used for palpably party objects. The opposition, in order to increase the power of their friend and patron the Prince, maintained his hereditary right to the position. The Ministry, to whom his accession would mean dismissal, were all for constitutional limitations. The contest was creditable to neither party, and it was a good thing when it ended in the recovery of the King. For the rest, the business of the country went on quietly. Pitt tried
