And yet,perhaps,England has by means so settled it.Quit the clubs and coteries,you do hear two rational men speak long together upon politics,without pointing their inquiries towards this man.A Minister that will attack the Augeas Stable of Downing Street,and begin producing a real Management,longer an imaginary one,of our affairs;he ,or else in few years Chartist Parliament and the Deluge come:that seems the alternative.As I read the omens,there was man in my time more authentically called to a post of difficulty,of danger,and of ho than this man.The enterprise is ready for him,if he is ready for it.He has but to lift his finger in this enterprise,and whatsoever is wise and manful in England will rally round him.If the faculty and heart for it be in him,he,strangely and almost tragically if we look upon his history,is to have leave to try it;he ,at the eleventh hour,has the opportunity for such a feat in reform as has ,in these late generations,been attempted by all our reformers put together.
As for Protectionist jargon,who in these earnest days would occupy many moments of his time with that?"A Costermonger in this street,"says Crabbe,"finding lately that his rope of onions,which he hoped would have brought a shilling,was to go for only sevenpence henceforth,burst forth into lamentation,execration and the most pathetic tears.Throwing up the window,I perceived the other costermongers preparing impatiently to pack this one out of their company as a disgrace to it,if he would hold his peace and take the market-rate for his onions.Ilooked better at this Costermonger.To my astonished imagination,a star-and-garter dawned upon the dim figure of the man;and I perceived that here was Costermonger to be expelled with iginy,but a sublime goddess-born Ducal Individual,whom I forbear to name at this moment!What an omen;--nay to my astonished imagination,there dawned still fataler omens.
Surely,of all human trades ever heard of,the trade of Owning Land in England ought to bully us for drink--money just !""Hansard's Debates,"continues Crabbe farther on,"present many inconsistencies of speech;lamentable unveracities uttered in Parliament,by one and indeed by all;in which sad list Sir Robert Peel stands for his share among others.Unveracities a few were spoken in Parliament:in fact,to one with a sense of what is called God's truth,it seemed all one unveracity,a talking from the teeth outward,as the convictions but as the expediencies and inward astucities directed;and,in the sense of God's truth ,I have heard true word uttered in Parliament at all.Most lamentable unveracities continually spoken in Parliament,by almost every one that had to open his mouth there.But the largest veracity ever done in Parliament in our time,as we all k,was of this man's doing;--and that,you will find,is a very considerable item in the calculation!"Yes,and I believe England in her dumb way remembers that too.
And "the Traitor Peel"can very well afford to let innumerable Ducal Costermongers,parliamentary Adventurers,and lineal representatives of the Impenitent Thief,say all their say about him,and do all their do.With a virtual England at his back,and an actual eternal sky above him,there is much in the total net-amount of that.When the master of the horse rides abroad,many dogs in the village bark;but he pursues his journey all the same.