THE MINISTER OF STATE AND THE MINISTER OF SYDENHAM.
TOPICS. OF THE DAY.
THE Duke must gird up his loins for the most formidable struggle he has had to sustain for many years past ; Waterloo was nothing to it.
JOHN LITTON CROSBIE, a clergyman and an Irishman, who despises the rules of common civility as much as the rules of common English, has taken the field against him ; and we tremble for the result. Mr.
CROSBIE accuses the Duke of cowardice ! What can the victor of Assaye, the captor of Ciudad Rodrigo, the defender of Torres Vedras, say to that ? The sleeve of a cassock has wiped out the record of a hundred fields ! Mr. CROSBIE knows the Duke's objects; he has known them long, and has told the King all about them. It is in vain that the proprietor of Apsley House puts on an appearance of mystery ; the minister of Sydenham has his familiars hovering round him and watching every step he takes.
Mr. JOHN LITTON CROSBIE offers to the First Lord of the Treasury a speech cut and dried, to be pronounced Or the first day of next ses- sion of Parliament ; in which the Duke is made to thank the noble Lords at both sides for their assistance during the last session. The noble Lords who are "at both sides," must of course be those who oc- cupy the Cross Benches,—who have been at both sides ever since they quitted place : and truly both sides have been at them too ; and what is worse, another side—the outside—is at them also, and will be so until they shift their places or mend their manners. By the by, though we are sorry to insinuate any thing against the clerical champions of the departed Constitution, we must say that their conduct is rather—(we would not speak offensively)—rather poltroonish. Sir HARCOURT LEES talked some twelve months ago of leading forth fifty thousand or a hundred thousand Orangemen, who were to sweep the Catholics into the sea. Mr. LITTON CROSBIE declares that he has set his life against the Duke of WELLINGTON'S head ; a tremendous odds, no doubt. And where are the doughty pair at this momentous crisis of Ireland's fate P—Mr. CROSBIE enjoying very comfortably the good things of the parsonage at Sydenham, and little Sir HARCOURT sipping the waters at Harrowgate ! and all the valour of the one and of the other contained in a letter to the Editor of the Morning Journal, "smelling strong of gunpowder, and looking as if it would go off!" Mr. CROSBIE concludes his valiant epistle by saying—" There is not a sensible man in the kingdom who believes thejlippant and well-con- trived report, that your highness's eldest son is about to be married to the accomplished daughter of your physician. Trust me that we know your highness too well. Long, long has your highness aspired to a higher prize for the heir of Apsley House." We shall conclude by as- suring the minister of Sydenham, that he is a very ill-informed gentle- man. The Marquis of DOURO is not to marry the Princess VICTORIA. That's a vulgar error. The Duke intends to marry tke Princess him- self ! The Twelve Judges have been consulted, and they agree, that though it has been ruled that a man should have but one wife, there is nothing to prevent a Prime Minister from having two ; and to make every thing secure, a dispensation from the Pope has been solicited, through the medium of the Bishop of London, and it actually arrived in town last night by special express. We state this on authority which has never deceived us; and it gratifies us to be able to state it exclusively.
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