with the most able statesmen of the period, and of all parties.  Even with average ability it is impossible not to perceive that such a sovereign must soon attain a great mass of political information and political experience.  Information and experience, gentlemen, whether they are possessed by a sovereign or by the humblest of his subjects, are irresistible in life.  No man with the vast responsibility that devolves upon an English minister can afford to treat with indifference a suggestion that has not occurred to him, or information with which he had not been previously supplied.  But, gentlemen, pursue this view of the subject.  The longer the reign, the influence of that sovereign must proportionately increase.  All the illustrious statesmen who served his youth disappear.  A new generation of public servants rises up, there is a critical conjunction in affairs—­a moment of perplexity and peril.  Then it is that the sovereign can appeal to a similar state of affairs that occurred perhaps thirty years before.  When all are in doubt among his servants, he can quote the advice that was given by the illustrious men of his early years, and, though he may maintain himself within the strictest limits of the constitution, who can suppose, when such information and such suggestions are made by the most exalted person in the country, that they can be without effect?  No, gentlemen; a minister who could venture to treat such influence with indifference would not be a constitutional minister, but an arrogant idiot.

Gentlemen, the influence of the crown is not confined merely to political affairs.  England is a domestic country.  Here the home is revered and the hearth is sacred.  The nation is represented by a family—­the royal family; and if that family is educated with a sense of responsibility and a sentiment of public duty, it is difficult to exaggerate the salutary influence they may exercise over a nation.  It is not merely an influence upon manners; it is not merely that they are a model for refinement and for good taste—­ they affect the heart as well as the intelligence of the people; and in the hour of public adversity, or in the anxious conjuncture of public affairs, the nation rallies round the family and the throne, and its spirit is animated and sustained by the expression of public affection.  Gentlemen, there is yet one other remark that I would make upon our monarchy, though had it not been for recent circumstances, I should have refrained from doing so.  An attack has recently been made upon the throne on account of the costliness of the institution.  Gentlemen, I shall not dwell upon the fact that if the people of England appreciate the monarchy, as I believe they do, it would be painful to them that their royal and representative family should not be maintained with becoming dignity, or fill in the public eye a position inferior to some of the nobles of the land.  Nor will I insist upon what is unquestionably the fact,