who, instead of deciding, asked his royal master for advice,
sent for the Duke of Wellington to undertake the government, a
change in the carriage of his grace was perceived by some who
had the opportunity to form an opinion on such a subject. If
one might venture to use such a word in reference to such a
man, we might remark, that the duke had been somewhat daunted
by the selection of Mr Canning. It disappointed great hopes,
it baffled great plans, and dispelled for a season the
conviction that, it is believed, had been long maturing in his
grace's mind; that he was the man of the age, that his
military career had been only a preparation for a civil course
not less illustrious; and that it was reserved for him to
control for the rest of his life undisputed the destinies of a
country, which was indebted to him in no slight degree for its
European pre-eminence. The death of Mr Canning revived, the
rout of Lord Goderich restored, these views.

Napoleon, at St Helena, speculating in conversation on the
future career of his conqueror, asked, "What will Wellington
do? After all he has done, he will not be content to be
quiet. He will change the dynasty."

Had the great exile been better acquainted with the real
character of our Venetian constitution, he would have known
that to govern England in 1820, it was not necessary to change
its dynasty. But the Emperor, though wrong in the main, was
right by the bye. It was clear that the energies that had
twice entered Paris as a conqueror, and had made kings and
mediatised princes at Vienna, would not be content to subside
into ermined insignificance. The duke commenced his political