THE WELLINGTON ADMINISTRATION.
Chorus.— If the persons who were so sanguine as to the good effects which mould follow from a military Premier, will look back to what has been done during this probationary period, we do not know that tney will have any great reason to rejoice, though the time has not been barren in events. The re- peal of the Test and Corporation Acts is in itself sufficient to give a character to one session ; and a change has taken place in Ireland, which, if the Catholics proceed temperately and discreetly (as we hope they will), must secure the still more complete triumph of religious toleration. We can scarcely think so ill of the Premier himself as to suppose that, when it is ac- complished, he will be sorry to witness this triumph. If the partisans of the Duke of Wellington over-rated his probable power as a minister at hone, we du not know that they can console themselves by any proof of his influence abroad. The Russians have entered Turkey. If the existence of the present adminis- tration has had any effect on that event ; it can only have been to hasten it ; and the Duke (whose partisans are continually declaiming against the ambi- tion and graspingness of Russia)parades in Parliament an assurance given to him at second-hand from the Emperor Nicholas, that the dismemberment of Turkey is no object of Russian policy. The Duke of Wellington has acted, perhaps, prudently enough in pretending to attach importance to this promise, when he has no means of obtaining any other security ; and, at any rate, he has acted wisely in not involving the country in a war for the maintenance of Mahomedanism in Europe. But his conduct forms a contrast, striking enough, with the braggadocio prophecies of his indiscreet supporters.
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