Whigs and Parliamentary Reform

The conduct of the Whigs is extravagantly inconsistent. It originated in / the fatal error which Fox committed, in persisting, after the first three / years of the French Revolution, when every shadow of freedom in France had / vanished, in eulogizing the men and measures of that shallow-hearted / people. So he went on gradually, further and further departing from all the / principles of English policy and wisdom, till at length he became the / panegyrist, through thick and thin, of a military frenzy, under the / influence of which the very name of liberty was detested. And thus it was / that, in course of time, Fox's party became the absolute abettors of the / Buonapartean invasion of Spain, and did all in their power to thwart the / generous efforts of this country to resist it. Now, when the invasion is by / a Bourbon, and the cause of the Spanish nation neither united nor, indeed, / sound in many respects, the Whigs would precipitate this country into a / crusade to fight up the cause of a faction.

I have the honour of being slightly known to my lord Darnley. In 1808-9, I / met him accidentally, when, after a few words of salutation, he said to me, / "Are you mad, Mr. Coleridge? " -- "Not that I know, my lord," I replied; "what / have I done which argues any derangement of mind? " -- "Why, I mean," said he, / "those letters of yours in the Courier, 'On the Hopes and Fears of a People / invaded by foreign Armies. ' The Spaniards are absolutely conquered; it is / absurd to talk of their chance of resisting. " -- "Very well, my lord," I / said, "we shall see. But will your lordship permit me, in the course of a / year or two, to retort your question upon you, if I should have grounds for / so doing? " -- "Certainly! " said he; "that is fair! " Two years afterwards, / when affairs were altered in Spain, I met Lord Darnley again, and, after / some conversation, ventured to say to him, "Does your lordship recollect / giving me leave to retort a certain question upon you about the Spaniards? / Who is mad now? " -- "Very true, very true, Mr. Coleridge," cried he: "you are / right. It is very extraordinary. It was a very happy and hold guess. " Upon / which I remarked, "I think '_guess_' is hardly a fair term. For, has any / thing happened that has happened, from any other causes, or under any other / conditions, than such as I laid down Beforehand? " Lord Darnley, who was / always very courteous to me, took this with a pleasant nod of his head.