s an
opponent of the Ministry; he to attack and I to defend the Address. It
gives me pleasure, I confess, to retrace and repeat today, the ideas and
arguments by which I supported it at the time. "Under what auspices," I
asked the Chamber, "and in the name of what principles and interests has
the present Ministry been formed? In the name of power menaced, of the
Royal prerogative compromised, of the interests of the Crown ill
understood and sustained by their predecessors. This is the banner under
which they have entered the lists, the cause they have promised to make
triumphant. We had a right to expect from their entrance on office that
authority should be exercised with vigour, the Royal prerogative in
active operation, the principles of power not only proclaimed but
practised, perhaps at the expense of the public liberty, but at least
for the advantage of that power itself. Gentlemen, has this happened?
Has power strengthened itself within the last seven months? Has it been
exercised with activity, energy, confidence, and efficacy? Either I
grossly deceive myself, or during these seven months power has suffered
in confidence and energy, to the full extent of what the public have
lost in security."

"But power has lost more than this. It is not entirely comprised in the
positive acts it commits or the materials it employs; it does not always
end in decrees and circulars. The authority over minds, the moral
ascendency, that ascendency so suitable to free countries, for it
directs without controlling public will,--in this is comprised an
important component of power, perhaps the first of all in efficiency.
But beyond all question, it is the re-establishment of this moral
ascendency which is at this moment the most essential need of our
country. We have known power extremely active and strong, capable of
great and difficult undertakings; but whether from the inherent vice of
its nature, or by the evil of its position, moral ascendency, that easy,
regular, and imperceptible empire, has been almost entirely wanting. The
King's government, more than any other, is called upon to possess this.
It does not extract its right from force. We have not witnessed its
birth; we have not contracted towards it those familiar associations,
some of which always remain attached to the authorities at the infancy
of which those who obey them were present. What has the actual Ministry
done with that moral ascendency which belongs naturally,