A PREMIER.
LORD MELBOURNE is an odd compound. He says good things ; but in such a way that they seem to drop from him unconsciously— as if, like Touchstone, he were " not aware of his own wit till he broke his shins over it." And they are preceded and followed by remarks which, to speak mildly, form a strange contrast with the good sayings. " His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them, and when you have them they are not worth the search." The tit was on him on Tuesday night. Apropos of the late proceedings in the General Assembly, he broke out with a remark in which there is a good deal of truth, and which produced a piquant effect by its unexpectedness, but which ought scarcely to have been expressed by a Premier- " My noble friend says that the tyranny and domination of the Church of Scotland remind him of the Church of Rome. We all know that the Presby- terian Church is equal to the Church of Rome in presumption, any day." (Laughter. ) And this biting jest he followed up by the statesmanlike observa- tion— " But if I were to liken the present dispute in Scotland to any former one, 1 would take the contest in the time of James the First, between the Eccle- siastical and Civil Courts in this country. That contest led to much that was unseemly—to much that was unfitting. It frequently pressed heavily on par- ties and individuals : but, if I remember rightly, it was not finished by Parlia- mentary interference. It was allowed to work itself out by the conflict of the authorities themselves: and I have no doubt that this will do the same."
Does Lord MELBOURNE mean that he calmly contemplates the settlement of the ecclesiastical controversy now raging in Scotland, by (we use the language of CLARENDON) a " great rebellion " ?
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