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    putting forth the haclcnied Tory pretences Tot iViero , pur anim ad versions upon these backslidings were called " attacks upon the Ministry / ' instead of attacks upon the errors which would ultimately disgrace and ruin them . When these things have advanced to a certain pitch , and public opinion recoils and m irks its displeasure with

    some rebuff to the Ministry , their former flatterers or apologists turn round upon them , and recite the long catalogue of the faults which have been cherished , instead of nipped in the bud . They then say , " It is now time to speak the truth . ' It was not time to speak the trntn when the men were first going wrong , and easily to be better guided j but it is time to speak the truth when , having been cheered on . in the wrong direction , they have fctuck in the slough /

    There is nothing surprising in this . Ministers are treated by the newspapers as they themselves treat the public . They shape their conduct to the convenience of the day , leaving the morrow to shift for itself ; and the newspapers praise or blame them by the same rule . The newspapers are a greater power than the Ministry , but are mostly as far as they are from having any lofty conception of x the dignity of their mission . They have no particular motive to warn the Ministers , until the evil hour arrives : why

    should they sail against the stream ? when the tide turns , so can they . What Ministers may expect from them is , \ o be encouraged in their faults , and never forgiven for the consequences ; flattered while each blunder is in progress , and reproached with it when it is consummated . This fair-weather friendship answers the purposes of the newspapers very well , but those of the Ministers very ill . A Ministry , however accustomed to the evolution , cannot halt and wheel round with the same rapidity as a newspaper can .

    Ministers are known men , with the public eye upon them , noting their words and actions ; all they say and do is remembered , and helps eilher fo found a reputation or to destroy it . But a , newspaper-writer nobody knows ; nobody thinks about him , or inquires who he is ; nobody remembers to-day what he wrote yesterday , nor will remember to-morrow what he may choose to write to-day . He can afford to praise a Ministry up to the last moment , and then turn round upon them . Few , indeed , are the journalists whose support contains'in itself any guarantee of permanency .

    Fortunately a journal , like a Ministry , may be very faulty and yet very useful . Judge the ' Times * or the Chronicle' by their faults only , and they would be insufferable ; yet , without the Times' and * Chronicle / what should we do ?

    Sth March , The Debate on the Corn Laws . —Jt is vain and wearisome to beat the air with never-eruling discussion of exhausted questions . Who supposes that the landlords * monopoly is standing at this day tor want of arguments to batter it down ? AH has been said on the Corn Laws : and it is now to be proved by other means than words , who is strongest . If the

    decision last night does not convince the manufacturers of this , they must be unconvincible . Argument may be overcome by argument , but will must be vanquished . by will . The time of cairn discusston is gone by , and that of agitation must commence . The people are convinced , they are now to be stimulated . Reason is satisfied ; the appeal must now be ( however little the word may be relished ) to passion . Injustice was never hurled from its throne by men who remained cool . The people must show that when they are wronged they can be indignant , and that the deliberate profession of a determined purpose to persevere in wronging them , can only be expiated by the complete loss of political influence .

    Sir James Graham—who wat selected as spokesman of the Ministry , solely , we presume * because he had written a pamphlet , and published it with his name , in which the landlords * monopoly was condemned ; — Sir Jimes Graham placed the maintenance of the monopoly on its true basis . He said openly , I bat the bread-tax must be endured , because the landlords would be ruined if it were abolished . If nrnls were to fail twentyp cent ., ( he sai <| , )

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    The Corn Laws . 243

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1834, page 243, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2632/page/11/