s to Ireland, as to foreign affairs, as to domestic
finance? Is the Popish Church to be endowed in the sister kingdom? or is
the Protestant Establishment to be overthrown? Is repeal to be openly
patronized, or only covertly connived at? Is Lord Palmerston to be let
loose on our relations with other powers, and to embroil us, before six
months are over, in a quarrel with France and a war with America? Is our
revenue to be supported to the level of our expenditure, or is a growing
deficiency to be permitted to accumulate, till our credit is crippled,
and our character branded with almost Pensylvanian notoriety? Is the
country prepared for such enormities as these, or for the risk of their
being attempted? We hope not: we think not. We feel assured that the
very contemplation of their possibility, would make the nation rise in a
mass, and eject the imbecile impostors who have already been so
patiently tried, and so miserably found wanting.

Then, as to the corn-laws, is the new minister to adhere to his last
manifesto, or has he used it merely as a lever for opposition purposes,
to be laid aside, like some implement of housebreaking, when an entry
into the premises has been effected? That attempt will scarcely be
tolerated by his own supporters. Then how is he to carry his measure?
With the present House of Commons, he cannot hope to do so, nor can he
entertain that anticipation from any dissolution, except one carried on
under such circumstances of unprincipled agitation, _as would convulse
the country, and prove fatal to commercial credit and prosperity_.

But suppose he had the power, how would he use it? Would his measure be
such as would immediately throw any considerable portion of land out of
cultivation? That seems to be the hinging point of this corn-law
question; and it is one on which the "total and immediate" men are more
evasive, _in public discussion_, than on any other, though privately
such of them as understand the subject, are fully aware of its bearings.
If the proposed scheme would _not_ attain or involve the result of
throwing inferior soils out of culture, what good would it do to the
League and their friends? For, strange to say, when the matter is probed
to the bottom, the battle for which the League are truly fighting is
directed to _the great national end of laying waste inferior land_. It
is only by lowering rents and prices that they expect benefit, yet it is
as clear as day that rents are depen