utterance to his opinions. In a house of 77 members 25 voted with Mr. Ewart
On the 24th of August, parliament was prorogued. Ministers were obviously waiting the chapter of accidents. There might be a good harvest—that is, such a harvest as would neither make prices so low as to add to the discontent of the agriculturists, nor so high as to add to the discontent of the industrial classes; there might be such & division in Ireland of federalists and repapers as to lessen the fears of a general revolutionary movement; there might be such divisions in the Free Church of Scotland as to restore the tory administration to its lost place in that part of the kingdom; there might be some such revival of trade as to make the operations of the League less effective; there might arise some such unforeseen demand for iron as would give employment to the almost despairing people of Bilston and Dudley, Gartsherrie and Dundyvan; the Welsh farmers might tire of knocking down toll gates; there might, should all those things happen, be such a consumption of spirits, wines, malt, sugar, coffee, and tea, as to supply the deficiencies of the exchequer;-in short, the fire might go out of itself without the use of Sir Abel Handy Peel's patent engine—the patient might recover without the use of his patent pill. In such hope, the "strong government" prorogued parliament, utterly regardless of the distressed condition of the country-prepared, however, as the Duke of Wellington said, to meet energetically any movement that might arise out of the universal discontent, to meet with steel the demand for bread! The members of the late whig administration had also their reliance on the chapter of accidents. If the fire did not go out of itself they might be called in to put it out. If Sir Robert's pill was found useless, Lord John's might effect it cure. If the machinery of government stood still the whigs might be called in to put it in motion again. They were waiting the favourable occasion for making their
