THE KING IN COUNCIL. lTo TEM EDITOR 01 THE "
BEROTATOR."1
would like to draw attention to the last lines of Dr. Gneist's History of the English Constitution. They run as follows, and are interesting as bearing on the present situation here :—
" As, further, a regular formation in two parties cannot he kept up, a splitting up into ' fractions' as in the Parliaments of the Continent will ensue, and the change of Ministry will modify itself accordingly, so that the Crown will no longer be able to commit the helm of the State in simple alternation to the leader of one or the other majority. And then a time may recur in which the King in Council may have to undertake the actual leadership. Since it is ordained by Divine Providence that the life of nations, like the life of individuals, shall undergo such trials ; yet drawing our predictions from the past, we have no reason to despair of the issue. The thousand years of English history which lie behind us justify our confidence that this nation will rise triumphant out of the struggles before it, and, like the German nation, will find in its own past the best materials for the regeneration of its political system."
If we have not yet arrived at the government of the "King in Council," we have got very near it, and we must hope that we may justify Dr. Gneist's confidence "that this nation will rise triumphant out of the struggles before it."—I am, Sir, &a., H. S. S.
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