orce was no longer equal to the
centripetal. To create this state of feeling had been his most cherished
desire; to feel that he had succeeded in creating it was, throughout much
obloquy and misunderstanding, his greatest support.

[Sidenote: Duty of supporting authority,]

From the earliest period of his entrance into political life he had always
had the strongest sense of the duty incumbent on every public man of
supporting, even in opposition, the authority of Government. The bitterest
reproach which he cast upon the Whigs, in his first Tory 'Letter to the
Electors of Great Britain' in 1835, was that when they found they could not
carry on the government themselves, they tried to make it impossible for
any other party to do so. Nor was he less severe, on another occasion, in
his reprehension of 'a certain high Tory clique who are always cavilling at
royalty when it is constitutional; circulating the most miserable gossip
about royal persons and royal entertainments,' &c.; busily 'engaged in
undermining the foundations on which respect for human institutions rests.'
Writing, in May 1850, to Mr. Gumming Bruce, a Tory and Protectionist, he
said--

I shall not despair for England whether Free-traders or Protectionists
be in the ascendant, unless I see that the faction out of power abet
the endeavours of those who would make the Government of the country
contemptible. Read Montalembert's speeches. They are very eloquent and
instructive. He had as full a faith in his religion, and what he
considered due to his religion, as you can have in your Corn Laws. Yet
observe how bitterly he now repents having aided those who have
undermined in the French public all respect for authority and the
powers that be.

If all that your Protectionist friends want to do is to put
themselves, or persons in whom they have greater confidence than the
present Ministry, in office, their object is, I confess, a perfectly
legitimate one. What I complain of is the system of what is termed
damaging the Government, when resorted to by those who have no such
purpose in view; or at least no honest intention of assuming
responsibilities which they are endeavouring to render intolerable to
those who are charged with them.

[Sidenote: especially in Colonies.]

But if this 'political profligacy' was, in his judgment, the bane of party
government at home, a still stronger but, perhaps,