Coningsby; Or, The New GenerationDisraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield
General
Coningsby; Or, The New Generation
Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield
Great Britain -- Fiction; Political fiction; Politicians -- Fiction
The accession of Mr. Canning to the cabinet, in a position, too, of
surpassing influence, soon led to a further weeding of the Mediocrities,
and, among other introductions, to the memorable entrance of Mr.
Huskisson. In this wise did that cabinet, once notable only for the
absence of all those qualities which authorise the possession of power,
come to be generally esteemed as a body of men, who, for parliamentary
eloquence, official practice, political information, sagacity in
council, and a due understanding of their epoch, were inferior to none
that had directed the policy of the empire since the Revolution.
If we survey the tenor of the policy of the Liverpool Cabinet during the
latter moiety of its continuance, we shall find its characteristic to be
a partial recurrence to those frank principles of government which
Mr. Pitt had revived during the latter part of the last century from
precedents that had been set us, either in practice or in dogma, during
its earlier period, by statesmen who then not only bore the title,
but professed the opinions, of Tories. Exclusive principles in the
constitution, and restrictive principles in commerce, have grown up
together; and have really nothing in common with the ancient character
of our political settlement, or the manners and customs of the English
people. Confidence in the loyalty of the nation, testified by munificent
grants of rights and franchises, and favour to an expansive system of
traffic, were distinctive qualities of the English sovereignty, until
the House of Commons usurped the better portion of its prerogatives. A
widening of our electoral scheme, great facilities to commerce, and the
rescue of our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects from the Puritanic yoke,
from fetters which have been fastened on them by English Parliaments in
spite of the protests and exertions of English Sovereigns; these were
the three great elements and fundamental truths of the real Pitt system,
a system founded on the traditions of our monarchy, and caught from the
writings, the speeches, the councils of those who, for the sake of these
and analogous benefits, had ever been anxious that the Sovereign of
England should never be degraded into the position of a Venetian Doge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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