POPULAR OPINIONS 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, 
 
 CONSIDERED. 
 
 Sir JOHN WALSH, Bart. M.P. 
 
 FIFTH EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS, 
 AND A POSTSCRIPT TO THE BALLOT. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JAMES RIDGWAY, 109, PICCADILLY. 
 
 M.DCCC.XXXr.
 
 Tilling, rrl.'ilci, Qielsea,
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CO 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Page. 
 Introduction 1 
 
 ^ SECTION II. 
 
 cc The Sovereifftity of the People 6 
 
 re 
 
 -^ SECTION III. 
 
 Composition, and Poiuers of the House of Commons, at for- 
 mer periods of our History 18 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Review of the Practical Merits of oiir Government 24 
 
 _ SECTION V. 
 
 CO 
 
 ?2 Exaggerated Expectations of the Advantages of Reform. . 44 
 "^ SECTION VI. 
 
 CD 
 
 ^ Vote by Ballot GO 
 
 Postscript to the Third Edition 75 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 Apprehensions of a Series of Parliamentary Reforms .... »5 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 English Aristocracy 91 
 
 § SECTION IX. 
 
 Conclusion 107 
 
 30124!
 
 ON 
 
 PARLIAMEiNTARY REFORM 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The great excitement prevailing throughout the 
 nation upon the subject of Parliamentary Reform, 
 must attract the most anxious attention, in every 
 one alive to the importance of the question. 
 There can be little doubt that the public have 
 been awakened to this intense interest from a 
 recent state of comparative indifference, that very 
 lately it was not much considered, and was left to 
 those Reformers par metier, who constitute a small 
 sect, and made few proselytes. Before I attempt 
 to enter into the momentous question itself, some 
 remarks upon the nature, and temper of this sud- 
 den, and strong feeling is an important preli- 
 minary. 
 
 When any great question of national policy 
 gradually, and steadily advances in the favourable 
 opinion of the enlightened, and reflecting portion 
 of the community, when it is advocated by the
 
 wisest, and most eminent statesmen of all parties, 
 when it numbers among its converts the ablest of 
 its former opponents, when it enlists as its sup- 
 porters almost all the recruits from the rising 
 generation, when, lastly, originating among the 
 higher, and better informed ranks, it little by little 
 conciliates, or overpowers the hostile prejudices 
 of the mass, such circumstances constitute the 
 strongest presumptive evidence of its wisdom, and 
 policy that the testimony of public opinion can 
 afford. 
 
 It will be easily perceived, I think, that I am 
 not now describing the progress of the Reform 
 question ; in all these points it offers a marked 
 contrast to the progress, and triumph of the mea- 
 sure of Catholic Emancipation. There is another 
 leading difference between them worthy of ob- 
 servation. In proportion as the Catholic Question 
 was investigated, sifted, and argued, as it were, 
 in the presence of the whole nation, its scope, 
 and probable operation, became better defined ; 
 indistinct apprehensions were removed, its objects 
 became more precise, and its consequences clearer. 
 Each party knew, one what was to be obtained, 
 the other what it wished to withhold. We have 
 not reached this epoch in the history of Reform. 
 The word is a singularly vague one ; it means 
 every thing, and any thing ; it conveys no positive 
 idea whatever ; but seems to have a different ac- 
 ceptation in each different mouth, and to assume 
 as many shapes, to give birth to as many different
 
 plans, as there are parties, or distinct interests 
 in the nation. 
 
 The petitions which are presented to the House 
 of Commons, and the views which are taken by 
 the newpapers, are founded upon many asser- 
 tions, which are entirely assumed, upon princi- 
 ples, which are greatly controverted, and upon 
 expectations of future benefits, which could never 
 be realized. 
 
 1st. They build all their conclusions upon the 
 theory, that the will of the people, that is of the 
 numerical majority of the people, is, or ought to 
 be, the only legitimate source of government and 
 authority. They regard that government as the 
 best, purest, and most calculated for the general 
 good, which derives its power most directly from 
 this fountain head, and is the most faithful inter- 
 preter of this will. 
 
 2d. They believe that the present constitution 
 of the empire is an usurpation of the higher 
 classes ; that there existed at some period of our 
 history, either in the days of the Saxon Wittena 
 Gemote, or anterior to the invasion of Julius Cae- 
 sar, or at some other time not exactly specified, a 
 greater degree of freedom, and happiness, a more 
 equal representation, a House of Commons more 
 independent of the executive, and more dependent 
 on the people, than they have ever been blessed 
 with since. 
 
 3d. They take for granted that the administration 
 of the executive has constantly been, and is profli- 
 
 B 2
 
 gate and corrupt, in the highest degree; that the 
 whole modern history of our country is a series of 
 unjust and impolitic wars ; and that our internal 
 and domestic government is a grinding tyranny, 
 wringing their hard earnings from the laborious 
 classes, by iniquitous taxes, to lavish the produce 
 in sinecures, and pensions, upon venal place- 
 hunters, and upon grasping nobles. 
 
 4th. They constantly suppose, that as every po- 
 litical evil is the result of the misrule to which 
 they have been subjected, so Parliamentary Re- 
 form is the sovereign panacea which is to cure 
 them all instantaneously, that the nation is to be 
 completely relieved from every burthen, that the 
 inferior classes are to obtain an extended com- 
 mand over all the necessaries, and enjoyments of 
 life, and that a great and immediate accession of 
 national prosperity will follow this measure. 
 
 5th. Lastly, the most influential advocates of 
 Reform openly declare, that any probable con- 
 cession which may be obtained from the Legisla- 
 ture, any partial alteration in the mode of repre- 
 sentation, is only a step to another, and a more 
 extensive one. They frankly profess that it is 
 their object and aim to efl^ect, either gradually, or 
 at once, a complete change in the whole constitu- 
 tion of the government ; and that all our laws and 
 institutions are to be subjected to so entire a mo- 
 dification, as to render it impossible for the wisest 
 to calculate the effects of such extensive muta- 
 tions upon the whole frame work of existing 
 society.
 
 Such appear to me the principal arguments, and 
 propositions, which have been, at different times, 
 very ably, and ingeniously supported, which have, 
 either wholly, or in part, been adopted by the 
 friends of Reform, and upon which their views 
 and opinions have very generally been founded. 
 Such are the impressions which sometimes sepa- 
 rately, sometimes indistinctly blended together, 
 are entertained by the public, and form the basis 
 of that eager demand for Reform, which makes 
 itself so loudly heard. 
 
 I am aware, that, in stating the opinions of 
 others, I am liable to misrepresent them ; I am 
 aware, that many a partizan of Reform may justly 
 say, " You do not describe my motives or my ob- 
 jects accurately ; I am not principally influenced 
 by the reasons you have enumerated ; my conclu- 
 sions are drawn from different premises." Admit- 
 ting the full force of such remarks, admitting that 
 many arguments in favour of Parliamentary Re- 
 form cannot be classed under these heads, I still 
 am persuaded that they do comprize the majority 
 of those which have the greatest influence upon 
 the public mind at this time. I am no uncompro- 
 mising antagonist of Reform ; and those, perhaps, 
 do no disservice to the cause of practical, and ra- 
 tional reform, who, as we enter upon this vast 
 field, endeavour to trace some boundaries to its 
 extent. Nor is a determined hostility to a princi- 
 ple to be inferred, because, in a sincere and im- 
 partial search after truth, some of the arguments 
 
 b3
 
 by which it is supported appear to be doubtful, or 
 erroneous. And in a question like that of Reform, 
 which embraces a thousand others, which means 
 every thing, from the transfer of the franchise of 
 a borough to the adjoining hundred, to the assimi- 
 lation of the British Constitution with that of 
 Modern America, or of Ancient Athens, it is very 
 desirable that Reformers should be classified, and 
 that we should know how many different regi- 
 ments of opinions are enlisted under the same 
 banner.
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 In the physical world, our discoveries of the great 
 secondary causes, or laws, which govern the uni- 
 verse, have been derived from an attentive ob- 
 servation of facts, and from the inferences which 
 have been drawn from them. Wherever an uni- 
 form operation of nature has been perceived, a 
 general principle has been established, and the 
 mightiest results of science are contained in this 
 generalization of the fruits of our experience. 
 
 The most powerful minds, in quitting this sure 
 guide, and in entering upon the trackless void of 
 hypothesis and conjecture, have been speedily led 
 into error. The analogy appears perfect in the 
 moral world ; and he who would speculate upon 
 man, either in his individual, or social capacity, 
 upon other data than those with which history, 
 and experience furnish us, would soon be entan- 
 gled in a web of errors fraught with far more prac- 
 tical mischief, than the baseless theories of Pto- 
 lemy, and Descartes. 
 
 The proof of the dogma of the Sovereignty of 
 the People is the object of Rousseau's celebrated 
 treatise, '* Le Contrat Social ;' and to reconcile 
 
 B 4
 
 his theory with facts, he makes a gratuitous sup- 
 position of an implied compact originally entered 
 into between the governors, and the governed, and 
 reasons upon the imaginary conditions of this com- 
 pact, as astronomers found their calculations upon 
 the ideal lines of the Equator and the Zodiac. 
 But it appears a manifest fallacy to prove the ex- 
 istence of a principle which is at variance with 
 facts and experience, by the assumption of a purely 
 fanciful hypothesis ; and Le Contrat Social will be 
 classed by all correct reasoners as a brilliant but 
 hollow paradox. 
 
 The Sovereignty of the People cannot be estab- 
 lished as the true principle of government, simply, 
 because such a Sovereignty never has existed to 
 our knowledge since the creation of man ; because 
 the evidence of all times, and the history of all na- 
 tions, prove that while the Deity formed us as social 
 beings, he made some form, of government, and 
 the consequent relation of the governors and the 
 governed, coeval with our very existence. The 
 will of the whole people must always be more in- 
 ert, and consequently less powerful than the will 
 of some portion of that people. Wherever such a 
 maxim has been recognised, it has led to constant 
 alternations of power into the hands of different 
 persons claiming to be the interpreters of that 
 will, until, by a tacit abjuration of it, some more 
 permanent form has succeeded. The equal au- 
 thority of laws, and the enjoyment of civil and 
 personal liberty, are the offspring of no recurrence
 
 to primitive rights ; they are the last results of 
 civilization and intelligence, the consequences of a 
 long series of discipline and controul, to which 
 the popular v^^ill has been subjected, and they are 
 preserved by the maintenance of certain restraints. 
 The subjection of man to the authority of his fel- 
 low, never was an act of pure volition ; it was an 
 effect of the circumstances of his position, and of 
 the instinctive wants of his nature. We misht as 
 well call the power of a Queen Bee an usurpation, 
 and assert that the bell sheep is the mere inter- 
 preter of the will of the flock. 
 
 But although it is generally admitted by sane 
 minds that the will of the mass cannot directly 
 govern, the existence of an inherent though dor- 
 mant right is still stoutly maintained ; and it is as- 
 serted, that since the device of a representative 
 system affords an organ to the expression of that 
 will, the right revives, and that the people, through 
 these their agents, ought to possess the substantive 
 authority of the State. I can still see no valid 
 argument in this fiction of a latent right, which it 
 is acknowledged has never existed, which mankind 
 could never have exercised or possessed, and could 
 not therefore delegate. I must return to my posi- 
 tion, that there is clear evidence of the intention 
 of the Creator that mankind should be formed into 
 communities, some portion the depositaries of, and 
 the rest amenable to authority ; that we cannot at 
 once suppose a right only to be governed by their 
 own consent, and believe in such an intention
 
 10 
 
 which would necessarily cancel it, that this divi- 
 sion of our species is general, and conformable to 
 a universal law, that the representative system, 
 (however admirable as a human invention) is only 
 partially adopted among the nations of the earth, 
 and that it is absurd to suppose a common right 
 thus generally in abeyance, and only revived to so 
 limited an extent. 
 
 The Sovereignty of the People, and the divine 
 right of Kings, appear to me to be principles, equally- 
 erroneous in themselves, and equally inimical to 
 the happiness of society ; the one leading directly 
 to despotism, and the other to anarchy and confusion . 
 
 There are two grounds upon which the proposi- 
 tions are supported, that the will of the people 
 ought to be the ruling power of the State, and 
 that governments approach excellence inasmuch 
 as they most directly reflect that will. One, 
 founded upon the assumption, or inference of an 
 inherent right, the other upon the assertion that in 
 fact those governments are the best, diffuse happi- 
 ness most widely, check the abuses incident to 
 government most efficaciously, and secure the great 
 institutions of society most safely, in proportion as 
 they derive their force immediately, and renew it 
 frequently from this source. 
 
 Now, if the first of these positions be established, 
 it supersedes the discussion of the second. If a 
 positive right exists, its effects do not destroy it ; 
 if its consequences are evil, we may lament ; if 
 they are good, we may rejoice in them ; but these
 
 1] 
 
 sentiments do not affect its existence. We may 
 deplore that a man in possession of fortune, dissi- 
 pates it in gaming, or extravagance, and reduces 
 his family to beggary, but his right to dispose of 
 his own is undoubted, and we cannot interfere 
 to prevent him. 
 
 But having discussed the question of right, and 
 denied its existence, it is next incumbent upon us 
 to examine that of expediency. The first, involved 
 mixed considerations of abstract reasoning, and of 
 the deductions from facts and experience; the 
 second, is an argument from facts and experience 
 only. We have no means of judging what will be 
 for the benefit of mankind, except by observing 
 what has contributed to it. It is evident that the 
 recognition of the principle at all, is a virtual 
 adoption of a purely democratic basis of govern- 
 ment. Whatever power is bestowed by the peo- 
 ple, may be legally, and at pleasure resumed by 
 them. No authority can be compatible with such 
 a theory, except a delegated and temporary one. 
 I do not see how (whatever practical modification 
 might be introduced) we could avoid drawing this 
 conclusion, that the great end and aim of govern- 
 ment should be, upon every measure, to elicit the 
 wishes of the majority of the nation, and to fulfil 
 them. The attempt to establish this form of 
 government is no new experiment. 
 
 It has uniformly, except in one very peculiar 
 and recent instance, totally failed. While it en- 
 dured in the ancient Greek republics, in France
 
 12 
 
 during the first years of the revolution ; in every 
 other part of the world, except the United States, 
 it has constantly proved of short duration ; it has 
 torn society by frequent convulsions ; it has placed 
 the reality of power in the hands of demagogues, 
 who have ruled by the passions of the people, and 
 it has been ever ready to violate, on lighter pre- 
 texts than even despotic tyranny, the security of 
 property and person. 
 
 Wherever the will of the people, of the masses, 
 according to the current phrase of the day, has 
 been called into activity, and the powers of the 
 State rendered immediately and directly depend- 
 ent upon it, the elements of order and stability 
 have been wanting, the influence of mind, and in- 
 telligence has been suspended, national prosperity 
 and individual happiness have been injured, and 
 such a state of things has always been temporary, 
 because it was insufferable. 
 
 In the United States, a government originally 
 republican, and assuming daily a more purely 
 democratic character, has existed for nearly fifty 
 years ; a brief space in the history of nations. To 
 the high credit of that energetic, enterprising, and 
 intelligent people, this form has there, and there 
 only, been found compatible with the institutions 
 of civilized life. But I will beg my readers to 
 observe, that the experiment cannot yet be con- 
 sidered as fully tried, that the Americans inhe- 
 rited from us an admirable system of laws, and that 
 they sprung into existence as a nation, trained
 
 13 
 
 to obedience to these laws as a colony. How 
 peculiar, too, are its circumstances, a graft from 
 the most civilized nation in the world, upon a 
 boundless and an unappropriated territory. The 
 rights of property there are almost universally 
 diffused, and the collision of interests is rendered 
 less close by the wide space over which the nation 
 scatters itself. This is a very singular combina- 
 tion, and ought to be regarded as a solitary ex- 
 ception. We see that even in the Spanish Ame- 
 rican Republics, though equally favoured by posi- 
 tion, the same results have not been obtained, and 
 they may be cited as examples of the evils which 
 have always attended democracies. 
 
 There is a belief that, left to themselves, the 
 body of the people will, by a sort of instinct, by a 
 kind of moral chemistry, extracting the essence of 
 truth and reason from the mass of error and pre- 
 judice, favour those measures, and select those 
 men best adapted to advance the interests of the 
 whole. I cannot give my assent to this maxim 
 Vo.v populi, voT Dei. I can understand no process 
 by which, when a vast majority of individuals are 
 ignorant, uninformed, and prejudiced upon a sub- 
 ject, a small minority should direct them to decide 
 wisely. Truth, if left to itself, will out in time, 
 but with such materials it would be a very long- 
 time in getting out ; and as delay would not be 
 permitted, the wrong decision would most fre- 
 quently precede the right opinion. 
 
 In England, happily, public opinion means,
 
 14 
 
 and is confined to the educated and intelligent 
 members of the community ; to those who are 
 open to new impressions ; who can understand 
 and balance different arguments. Yet, with all 
 this faculty of discrimination, it is a great advan- 
 tage that our form of government does not yield 
 too pliably to every tide of public opinion ; that 
 each great and important measure is detained, as 
 it were, some time under our examination. We 
 must all be aware that public opinion is, and has 
 always been, very often quite wrong, particularly 
 at first ; that instead of being the opinion of all, 
 it is frequently the opinion of a few, and is 
 adopted by the rest, who merely echo it; and 
 that experience shows it as liable to error, mis- 
 take, and prejudice, as the opinion of any indi- 
 vidual. What is called public opinion is fre- 
 quently an opinion taken up by two or three lead- 
 ing periodicals, and imbibed for a certain number 
 of weeks by a considerable portion of the com- 
 munity with their breakfast. People sally forth 
 for the day, and naturally carve materials for con- 
 versation with their acquaintances in the street, 
 club, counting-house, or dinner table, from these 
 ingenious articles. It is much easier, upon sub- 
 jects with which they may have a limited ac- 
 quaintance, and no strong interest, to adopt and 
 retail, than to weigh, balance, and examine. A 
 certain number of watch-vvords and current senti- 
 ments, are thus passed from mouth to mouth ; a 
 general impression is created, and we are shortly
 
 15 
 
 told, that this or that question, involving, perhaps, 
 the most vital interests of the State, has made a 
 w^onderful progress, and that the public feelings 
 have undergone a marked change upon it within 
 the last two months. A new opinion is a little 
 like a new fashion in dress; the tailors and mil- 
 liners invent certain fresh modes every year ; it 
 is quite one of the arcana of their trade. Some- 
 times these modes do not take at all ; they cannot 
 get into fashion ; nobody knows why : others are 
 more successful, they have a great vogue for a long 
 season before they are laid by and forgotten. 
 Upon the whole, this constant starting of fresh 
 matter for our attention and scrutiny, is highly 
 beneficial. The intellectual faculties of the com- 
 munity are stimulated, and kept in exercise. 
 Curiosity being awakened, and directed to any 
 subject, mind is brought to bear upon it ; and the 
 question, which was first started in the columns 
 of the Newspaper or the Review, is explored, 
 developed, and finally disposed of by the pro- 
 found labours of the scholar, the political phi- 
 losopher, and the statesman. All that can be 
 objected to, is identifying this noisy and fleeting 
 echo with the calm and final judgment of the 
 reason and intellect of the country. 
 
 No one estimates more highly the value of an 
 intelligent, active, and enlightened public opinion, 
 than I do ; no one is more sensible of the whole- 
 some influence which it exercises upon the exe- 
 cutive, the legislature, and the nation ; but it has
 
 10 
 
 iiot yet established the slightest claim to infalli- 
 bility ; and from the time when it should be con- 
 verted from a vigilant observer, an attentive 
 monitor, into a controuling and dictatorial power, 
 its tendencies would be as pernicious as they are 
 now salutary. 
 
 But if such be the nature of the opinion of the 
 cultivated part of the British nation, what would 
 be that of the great body of the uneducated, or 
 half educated people? They will either be entirely 
 cyphers, or they would add to the mass of error, 
 and render it more easy for prejudice, or clamour, 
 to stifle the voice of reason. Perhaps, were Eng- 
 land polled, the majority might still be of opinion, 
 that the Sun moved round the Earth. Would 
 they be likely to entertain juster notions upon 
 politics, that most difficult and deceiving of all 
 sciences, the results of which are so frequently 
 the very opposite of those which a first view would 
 lead us to suppose ? 
 
 It has been argued, that the elective franchise 
 properly should be vested in all persons of educa- 
 tion and property. There can be no natural right 
 thus created. Such an argument must be founded 
 upon the grounds of the probable advantages and 
 benefits to the community. It cannot be a part 
 or a modification of the principle of the sovereignty 
 of the people. If there is no inherent right in the 
 whole people, still less is there an inherent right 
 in any portion of that people. The merits of a 
 practical measure, fixing any arbitrary qualifica-
 
 17 
 
 tion upon such a basis, are fair subjects of dis- 
 cussion ; but it must be upon considerations of 
 expediency, not of right. Education, like Reform, 
 is a word admitting of great latitude of interpre- 
 tation. It signifies every thing, from an attend- 
 ance upon a Sunday School, to the most brilliant 
 academical honours ; from a knowledge of reading 
 and writing, to the highest culture and the most 
 extensive acquirements of human intellect. In 
 the sense in which it is used by the popular 
 writers of the day, a very slight tincture of 
 education appears to be meant. If that degree 
 of it be intended, which would give the reason a 
 predominance over the passions and prejudices, 
 which would at all assist the judgment in forming 
 correct conclusions in politics, a much greater 
 share would be required. Nothing is so deceiving 
 as those misty perceptions of such complicated 
 subjects, which the first slender knowledge of 
 books affords. Moving in such a fog, people mis- 
 take the size, nature, and relative bearing, of all 
 the land-marks they manage dimly to descry ; 
 they soon become irretrievably puzzled. 
 
 If it be such a portion of mental cultivation as 
 may enable the possessor accurately to compre- 
 hend, for example, the arguments pro and con, of 
 any of the great questions of internal, foreign, or 
 colonial policy which divide our councils, such a 
 qualification might be a very admirable one, if 
 the line could possibly be drawn ; but it would 
 
 certainly be one of the narrowest that could be 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 selected. It would not extend beyond the gentry, 
 including members of the liberal and learned pro- 
 fessions, and of the commercial world, artists, 
 literary men by profession, and the flower of the 
 middle ranks. Whether such a limit would be 
 consonant to the views of Reformers in general, 
 may be doubted. It would certainly not give our 
 representation a more popular form than it bears 
 at present.
 
 19 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 COMPOSITION, AND POWERS OF THE HOUSE OF COM- 
 MONS, AT FORMER PERIODS OF OUR HISTORY. 
 
 Were the fact once established that the English 
 nation ever enjoyed, at any remote time, a greater 
 degree of real freedom, than they do at present, 
 such a conclusion would be one of the most pain- 
 ful to the friends of rational liberty. 
 
 Could it be proved that free institutions were 
 contemporary alone with barbarous periods, with 
 an early and rude state of society, that as men ad- 
 vanced in knowledge and civilization, if they did 
 not abjure the principles, they discarded the spirit, 
 and relinquished the possession of freedom, we 
 should be led to fear that liberty could claim no 
 natural alliance with prosperity and happiness. 
 
 Fortunately for those who believe, that, in spite 
 of a thousand errors, temporary misfortunes, par- 
 tial retrograde movements, mankind are essentially 
 progressive, who love liberal government from no 
 blind attachment to a name, but because they 
 think that a large mixture of the ingredient of 
 freedom pi'omotes the development of our highest 
 faculties, and the attainment of practical good, the 
 
 c 2
 
 20 
 
 evidence of our history establishes the direct 
 reverse. 
 
 We trace, indeed, through remote ages, the germ 
 of those principles which have since borne so ad- 
 mirable a fruit, as in the biography of some emi- 
 nent individual, v^e love to note in childhood the 
 first sparks of genius, the earliest indications of 
 future excellence. The mild and equitable prac- 
 tice of our common lavv^, the institutions of Alfred, 
 the provisions of Magna Charta, and the statutes 
 of the Edwards, are all parts of the foundations of 
 this noble edifice. We may cite them with pride, 
 as proofs of the innate love of freedom in the hearts 
 of Englishmen, and of the strong practical good 
 sense which all their national acts evince, from 
 their first existence as a people. 
 
 But when, in the twilight of tradition, we seek to 
 discover the outline of a uniform, and regular re- 
 presentation in Parliament, we find that the mira- 
 cles of Merlin the Enchanter, the adventures of 
 King Arthur, and the exploits of his Knights of 
 the Round Table, rest upon far better ground. 
 No records have been handed down to us of the 
 composition of, or manner of summoning or as- 
 sembling the Wittena Gemote of our Saxon ances- 
 tors. In this absence of all direct evidence, we are 
 at perfect liberty to make what conjectures we 
 please respecting it ; and the arguments against the 
 existence of universal sufi'rage, vote by ballot, and 
 annual Parliaments, are purely presumptive, and 
 derived from analogy. Yet upon the best consi-
 
 21 
 
 deration the materials present, antiquarians have 
 been inclined to conclude that it was similar to 
 the assemblies of elders common to the rude tribes 
 of Germany; and, compared with modern times, 
 probably bore a closer affinity to a meeting of 
 Sachems among the North American Indians, than 
 to the structure of our present Parliament. What- 
 ever may have been the merits of their system, it 
 seems too entirely lost in the night of past time to 
 admit of revival, and far too indefinite and obscure 
 to allow of any claim of right being founded upon 
 its extinct and forgotten forms. Indeed, the 
 whole argument is so groundless, unsubstantial, 
 and illusory, that it can never rank among the te- 
 nable opinions of men of letters and understanding, 
 but must be classed as one of those fraudulent ap- 
 peals to the ignorance and passions of the multi- 
 tude which are resorted to by designing dema- 
 gogues. 
 
 The warlike Monarchs of the Norman race, 
 with their mail clad Barons, their forestal rights, 
 their tenures by military service, bringing the feu- 
 dal system in all its perfection in their train, can- 
 not be regarded as the champions of popular and 
 equal rights, or their reigns as the golden era of 
 civil liberty. There ran, indeed, through the chi- 
 valrous institutions of the middle ages a certain 
 irregular, and almost indefinable love of liberty, 
 ** which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the 
 spirit of an exalted freedom;" but this sentiment, 
 however worthy of the eloquent eulogy of Burke, 
 
 c 3
 
 22 
 
 was of much too lordly and exclusive a character 
 to incline them the least to the adoption of any 
 peculiarly democratic basis of representation. 
 Our early Parliaments appear to have been en- 
 tirely composed of Nobles and dignified Clergy ; 
 and the first mixture of a more popular element in 
 its composition seems to have been an innovation 
 of Simon de Mountfort in the reign of Henry the 
 Third, to render it the instrument of his criminal 
 ambition. 
 
 It was long before it grew into importance or 
 power; and the comparatively small number of 
 members in Henry the Sixth's reign, only 300, the 
 qualification too of voters for Knights of the Shire, 
 40*., which then equalled as many pounds of our 
 times, shew how little of an extended or popular 
 character the House of Commons possessed. It 
 may, however, be justly remarked of these early 
 Parliaments, that the close boroughs, the repre- 
 sentation of places having no population or impor- 
 tance, an irregularity so much animadverted upon 
 in our days, had then no existence. That is the 
 mere effect of time, and of the decline of the for- 
 mer opulence of these towns. However, the pri- 
 vilege exercised by the Crown, of leaving out old, 
 or summoning from new boroughs, according to its 
 own good will or pleasure, would probably be con- 
 sidered as a full equivalent, and would tend to 
 throw a little too much power into the hands of 
 the executive. The sturdiest Reformer will alto- 
 gether be inclined to allow that, in the nursing of
 
 23 
 
 our young liberties, the gradual creeping of this 
 defect into our system was attended with less dan- 
 gerous consequences than the continued exercise 
 of so formidable a discretionary power by the 
 Crown. But from the great authority of the No- 
 bles, it seems certain that an influence of a very 
 despotic kind was early resorted to by them in the 
 election of burgesses. 
 
 It is not merely in the mode of its election, but 
 in the subordinate part it acted, in its utter insig- 
 nificance as a political power, that we see the 
 nature of the House of Commons in these times. 
 During the fierce struggles between the Kings and 
 Barons, the long wars of the Houses of York and 
 Lancaster, how seldom do we hear of the Parlia- 
 ment — how silent is the voice, how impotent the 
 authority of the third branch of the Legislature. 
 
 It is not under the sceptre of the Tudors, the 
 tyranny of Henry the Eighth, or the vigorous but 
 arbitrary government of Elizabeth, that we shall 
 find traces of the independence of the House of 
 Commons. It was a matter of very little impor- 
 tance how they were chosen, since it was clearly 
 a mode which did not leave them a fraction of a 
 will of their own. 
 
 From the accession of the Stuarts alone can we 
 date the rise of the power and importance of Par- 
 liament, as it now exists. All its preceding his- 
 tory does but shew a few partial indications of its 
 destined greatness. It was no creation of human 
 wisdom, no settled plan ; it grew gradually, from 
 
 c 4
 
 24 
 
 small beginnings, like an acorn thrown into the 
 ground, and was adapted, by circumstances, into 
 an organ for the assertion of the rights, and sup- 
 port of the interests of the nation. When fierce 
 Simon de Mountfort summoned the Knights of 
 Shires to aid his lawless attempts to usurp the 
 sovereign authority, he no more dreamed of a full, 
 fair, and equal representation of the people, than 
 he did of defeating Mr. Goulburn's motion on the 
 Civil List, and causing the Duke of Wellington's 
 resignation. 
 
 In the history of our country we find the most 
 natural explanation of the various irregularities in 
 the composition of the House ; we see that these 
 anomalies have not prevented it from being a 
 faithful interpreter of the spirit of each succeeding 
 age, and a useful servant in the great cause of 
 rational liberty. If mature consideration shall 
 fully establish that these imperfections are inju- 
 rious to the action of the machine, and can safely 
 be cured, no attachment to ancient forms should 
 deter us from entering upon the task. But we 
 must bring them forward as novel improvements, 
 the responsibility of their introduction must rest 
 with the present age ; we must proceed upon the 
 lights of our own times, not upon Saxon or Nor- 
 man precedents. We shall not discover models to 
 work by, in the depths of antiquarian research ; and 
 it is incumbent upon us to advance cautiously, for 
 we are pioneers in a new path, and can derive no 
 aid from the suggestions of past experience.
 
 25 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 REVIEW OF THE PRACTICAL MERITS OF OUR 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 There is no question connected with that of Re- 
 form, upon which it is more important to form 
 correct opinions than this. Whether we shall in- 
 troduce any change at all, to what extent, and in 
 what manner we shall change our present system 
 of government, depend entirely upon our know- 
 ledge of its excellencies and defects, and upon the 
 means we possess of remedying the latter, with- 
 out disproportionately subtracting from the for- 
 mer. Nothing can be more self-evident than this 
 proposition ; the only difficulty lies not in the 
 statement, but in the solution. It is more ardu- 
 ous, because there is no fixed rule to go by, no 
 settled point to depart from, no previous plan to 
 compare with, no established theory to refer to, 
 in the whole fabric of our constitution. It is 
 throughout a collection of anomalies, a blending 
 of different elements, and union of distinct prin- 
 ciples ; an amalgamation of various interests, an 
 almost fortuitous combination of its component 
 parts. It has been cemented into one vast 
 irregular whole ; it has adapted itself to the
 
 26 
 
 wants, circumstances, and national character of 
 the people, by the silent operation of time, and 
 by the insensible and reciprocal influence be- 
 tween them. Such institutions can be judged 
 only by their results ; they defy all abstract 
 reasoning, — they challenge comparison with those 
 of other countries,^ — they appeal to history and 
 experience. This large mixture of accident in 
 the composition of our Government ; this charac- 
 teristic of unexpected effects produced by its 
 combinations, as little to be anticipated as the 
 discovery of gunpowder from the union of salt- 
 petre and brimstone, has been one main cause 
 of the almost superstitious reluctance felt by 
 many able statesmen to attempt remedying its 
 most trifling defect. They reasoned, that as hu- 
 man wisdom had not created it, and could not 
 fully estimate its latent workings, or the con- 
 nexion which one part had with another, it was 
 dangerous to tamper with it, or to attempt inno- 
 vations, which, however apparently beneficial in 
 their immediate effects, might produce ultimate 
 ones of a very different description. This argu- 
 ment has been pushed too far, but it may fairly 
 operate with those who do not condemn the 
 British Constitution altogether, to the extent of 
 inducing the most extreme caution in every im- 
 portant alteration. One remark may here be 
 made, that this gradual formation of our Govern- 
 ment, and the natural influence of the people 
 upon it, and it upon the people, are strong proofs
 
 27 
 
 of the existence of that uniformity between the 
 laws and the national character, wants, and ha- 
 bits, which is in itself no trifling good. 
 
 Those determined advocates of a very extensive 
 Parliamentary Reform, whose party zeal renders 
 them little scrupulous of the means by which they 
 support their cause, and who certainly cannot 
 claim the weight which coolness, impartiality, and 
 candour, give to opinions, appear to agree with 
 me, that it is very much a practical question. 
 They take up incidentally other positions, such as 
 the Sovereignty of the People, a former pure re- 
 presentation, &c., but they principally dwell upon 
 the abuses of the present system, upon the profli- 
 gacy and extravagance of public men, upon the 
 cruel oppression of the taxes, upon the unneces- 
 sary burthens heaped upon the people, and upon 
 the remedy from all these evils to be found in 
 Parliamentary Reform. 
 
 If we look back to the history of Europe since 
 the year 1688, there are certainly none of the 
 usual proofs of a bad government ; and the annals 
 of no country, perhaps, have ever presented a 
 more uniform course of prosperity, a more steady 
 and unvarying progress of improvement, or a 
 richer harvest of well-founded and merited glory. 
 Our internal wealth, and our external influence 
 and power, have been boundlessly augmented. 
 Of the four great wars in which we have been 
 engaged, three were undertaken for a mighty 
 European object, in which our own interests were
 
 28 
 
 identified with the liberties and independence of 
 nations. They were marked by splendid achieve- 
 ments, and were conducted to a glorious and suc- 
 cessful termination. One war, indeed, was more 
 questionable in its policy, and less fortunate in its 
 issue, but in its commencement it was the error, 
 not less of the peoole than of the government ; 
 the blame is at least a divided one. During this 
 period our institutions have fixed the admiration 
 of Europe ; the greatest writers of the continent, 
 from Voltaire and Montesquieu to Madame de 
 Stael,* have celebrated their excellence, and 
 almost every people has successively endeavoured, 
 at the expense of enormous sacrifices, by the most 
 determined attempts, to introduce and copy them. 
 A long succession of great and illustrious states- 
 men have been trained to public life, by the 
 means of these institutions, which have at least 
 the merit of precluding weak and incapable men 
 from acquiring or retaining power. There is this 
 peculiar feature in our Constitution, that it has not, 
 during this whole period, practically deteriorated. 
 It has improved with the nation ; its tendency 
 has been gradually to free itself from blemishes. 
 The Parliament has constantly been correcting 
 abuses ; it has been becoming less and less in- 
 terested in its conduct. The House of Commons 
 in Pitt's time was not venal, like that of Sir 
 
 * L'Angleterre est le fanal de L'Europe. — Madame de 
 Stael.
 
 29 
 
 R. Walpole ; and that of the present day is less 
 influenced by ministerial patronage than that of 
 Mr. Pitt. If a Reform be required, it never was less 
 required than it is now, since 1688. I believe 
 that patriotism is become a very unpopular senti- 
 ment; and that in dwelling upon the greatness 
 and glory of England, upon the splendour of her 
 actions, upon the renown of her warriors and 
 statesmen, upon the excellence of her institutions, 
 and the grandeur of her intellectual pre-eminence, 
 I shall strike no sympathetic chord. Such feel- 
 ings are regarded as a weak and visionary en- 
 thusiasm — as a mockery of distress. Our notes 
 must be pitched to another key; we must de- 
 plore the growing poverty, the failing trade, the 
 general misery of the country ; we must mourn 
 over the degraded and abject state of Englishmen; 
 we must lament their condition as the climax of 
 wretchedness, to which a long course of misrule 
 has brought them. Our pity must not be for the 
 man who can travel from Dan to Beersheeba, and 
 cry, it is all barren, but for him who can so in- 
 opportunely discover the green spots in the wil- 
 derness. 
 
 The charge against the executive does not 
 appear so much for tyrannical or oppressive po- 
 licy, for mal-administration in the conduct of 
 affairs, or for incapacity, as for a want of economy, 
 for a prodigality and extravagance in the public 
 expenditure. The point at issue seems to be 
 chiefly one of finance. The first and principal
 
 30 
 
 item in the charges of the State is the national 
 debt. The greatest proportion of it was incurred 
 in the prosecution of that mighty conflict against 
 the power of France ; certainly the most arduous 
 struggle, in which, since the existence of the 
 kingdom, we were ever engaged. The first ques- 
 tion is, whether the war was forced upon us in its 
 commencement, or whether Mr. Pitt could by 
 diplomatic address, and negociation, have at once 
 restrained the other continental powers ; and di- 
 verted, or confined within its own boundaries, the 
 restless and ambitious spirit of the French Re- 
 public. Every opinion which can now be formed 
 must be purely conjectural ; and so impossible 
 is it to predict the consequences of political move- 
 ments, that could we now examine every actor on 
 that scene, from Mirabeau to Napoleon ; could 
 we summon Pitt from his stately tomb, could 
 we dive into the most secret records of every 
 cabinet in Europe, we could obtain but an ap- 
 proximation to the truth. It seems certain, that 
 the spirit of the French Republic was early a 
 hostile and aggressive one ; that it was spee- 
 dily and inevitably in a state of jealousy and 
 opposition towards the established governments of 
 Europe. Whether great forbearance and concili- 
 ation on our part might have averted the storm, 
 cannot now be known ; it is certain that the ex- 
 periment was not tried. I will only observe, 
 that the policy of so cautious a course remains 
 doubtful, even had it been practicable ; and that.
 
 31 
 
 probably, no government in England, however 
 popular in its composition, would have sought to 
 avoid war. The temper of Republics has rarely- 
 been pacific, or their annals bloodless. But what- 
 ever uncertainty may hang over this question, 
 which no subsequent investigation can ever dissi- 
 pate, every impartial mind must be convinced, 
 that once embarked in the conflict, from the com- 
 mencement of the war of the Revolution, down to 
 the battle of Waterloo, no one opportunity of- 
 fered for terminating it with honour or with safety . 
 There was neither an inclination to negociate, nor 
 a sufficient character of stability and good faith 
 to give security to treaties, under the fierce and 
 turbulent sway of the Convention and the Di- 
 rectory. And he has formed a very erroneous esti- 
 mate of the character and genius of Napoleon, who 
 can suppose that his was a temper with which 
 compromise was possible. 
 
 The state of the case appears to be, that an 
 unsolved doubt exists as to the possibility of our 
 avoiding the war, and none at all as to the neces- 
 sity of prosecuting it when once begun. As little 
 can be entertained as to its nature requiring ev^ery 
 exertion and every sacrifice ; it was a struggle 
 for all that is valuable to a nation, for honour, 
 liberty, independence, existence ; and we won it. 
 Can it be supposed that we could win without 
 paying some price ? Every other country saw the 
 horrors of war brought home to the firesides of its 
 inhabitants, horrors of which our imaginations
 
 32 
 
 form a faint and inadequate picture. We avoided 
 these miseries, but we added twenty millions to 
 the permanent charge on the revenue. It is a 
 great and a heavy burthen, it was incurred for a 
 worthy and proportionate object. With respect to 
 the conduct of the war, as a criterion of the ability 
 of Government, errors were doubtless committed, 
 some very important and unfortunate ones ; but 
 impartial posterity will, I think, pronounce upon the 
 whole, that the country was guided through the 
 trials and dangers of that memorable era with great 
 skill, and a happy combination of prudence and 
 enterprize. 
 
 The next point at issue is, admitting the war 
 to be necessary, admitting the exertions we made 
 to have been required to their utmost extent, 
 could not the same results have been obtained at 
 less cost ? Was there not an unnecessary and cul- 
 pable profusion in the expenditure ? A perfectly 
 satisfactory answer to this query could only be 
 obtained by the labours of a second Mr. Hume, 
 bestowed in a spirit of perfect impartiality upon 
 the accounts of a thousand millions, and a period 
 of twenty-five years. An opinion founded on less 
 certain data, is all that I can offer. The heads 
 of administration, I firmly believe, were free from 
 all personal stain ; they were most likely ex- 
 tremely desirous that the money should produce 
 as much as possible ; but in so vast an expendi- 
 ture the power of controul was necessarily weaker, 
 andtheopportnnities for peculation more numerous.
 
 33 
 
 Neither the nation nor the executive had the 
 same leisure to dwell upon details, afforded by 
 more tranquil times, and the field for investigation 
 was far wider. It would be a bold assertion, that, 
 in such circumstances, the most economical course 
 was uniformly adopted. But a greater degree of 
 laxity in expense seems, at similar periods, from 
 the reasons stated above, unavoidable and inherent 
 in the nature of things, and no government could 
 have entirely checked it. 
 
 If there is a passage in the history of these 
 times which we have reason to regret, it undoubt- 
 edly is the management of the negociations for the 
 celebrated treaties of 1814 and 1815. It is cer- 
 tain that, always somewhat distinct from the 
 continental nations, and having at that time been 
 so entirely separated from them, during a great 
 number of years, the country and the govern- 
 ment were completely ignorant of their temper 
 and feelings, and of the great changes in their 
 nature and opinions, wrought in that period. 
 We suffered ourselves to follow the lead of the 
 great military powers, instead of taking that pre- 
 cedence to which our actions had entitled us, and 
 which the moral influence, which we could then 
 have easily placed ourselves at the head of, and 
 which we could have directed to good, would 
 have secured to us. "We could have settled the 
 affairs of Europe upon a really permanent basis, 
 by effecting a compromise between old and new 
 institutions, between the monarchical and liberal
 
 34 
 
 parties, and an assimilation of the forms of go- 
 vernment to our own. The golden opportunity 
 was lost. At a later, and less auspicious period, 
 this wise line of policy was embraced by the 
 brilliant genius of Canning, and acted upon, du- 
 ring his enlightened administration, to consider- 
 able extent, and with eminent success. It was 
 attempted afterwards in France by the judicious 
 and eloquent Martignac, but with a less fortunate 
 result. 
 
 We now arrive at the most important part of 
 our history, with reference to the question of 
 Reform. It is the general conduct and character, 
 the actions and deeds, of the British House of 
 Commons, during the last fifteen years. Has it, 
 during that period, been a shameless, venal, pro- 
 fligate body, at the beck and controul of the 
 Ministers of the Crown ? Has it been unmindful 
 of the interests, and deaf to the voice of the 
 people ? Has it effected nothing of retrench- 
 ment, enforced no principle of economy ? Has it 
 been utterly incompetent to the great ends of its 
 existence ? Has it been shown no advocate of 
 the interests of the nation, no checking and 
 controuling power upon the acts of the executive, 
 no organ of the wants and wishes of the country ? 
 Has the public mind never derived any valuable 
 information? have its occasional errors and mis- 
 takes not been removed? Has the House of 
 Commons never been a channel for the dissemi- 
 nation of iust views, for the correction of ex-
 
 aggerated misrepresentations, for the soothing and 
 evaporation of irritated feelings? And, lastly, 
 has it become less free and independent, less 
 active and intelligent, descending in the scale, 
 and less competent to the fulfilment of its duties 
 in this lapse of time ? If so, then, indeed, is the 
 hour of Reform come ; is the necessity of Re- 
 form urgent ; is the name of a Reformer synony- 
 mous with that of a true and enlightened friend 
 of his country. But I must frankly state, that 
 these positions cannot, in my judgment, be borne 
 out by facts ; that in all these particulars, the very 
 reverse is the case. During all this time the 
 influence of the Crown and of the Ministry has 
 sensibly diminished, and a popular and liberal 
 policy has gradually acquired a complete ascen- 
 dancy. Constant examples may be adduced of 
 the administration being defeated in measures 
 against the sense of the country. In the great 
 questions of the Repeal of the Test Acts, and of 
 the Catholic disabilities, a triumph was achieved 
 gratifying to the friends of liberty ; and in re- 
 trenchment and alleviation of the burthens of the 
 taxes, much has been efi^ected. Above thirty 
 millions* of taxes have gradually been repealed 
 since the peace, and if the remaining ones have 
 become, consecjuently, more productive, that is a 
 consequence of prosperity, not a proof of distress. 
 We are sensible that all articles of general con- 
 sumption are much reduced in price. The House 
 
 * See Table at the end of this Section. 
 D 2
 
 36 
 
 is daily acquiring more exact knowledge respect- 
 ing the details of Finance, and applying itself to 
 lop off the remaining excrescences of the system. 
 The lists of places, pensions, &c., by their very 
 publicit^^, will render jobs of rare occurrence. 
 The luminous work of Sir Henry Parnell places 
 the attainment of correct general views, upon the 
 possible extent of retrenchment, within the reach 
 of every reader of ordinary capacity and educa- 
 tion. It is impossible to peruse that work, with- 
 out feeling how valuable a present was made to 
 the community in so clear and condensed an 
 arrangement of the fruits of that able gentleman's 
 extensive labours. But all are aware that he is 
 the advocate for retrenchment, carried to its ex- 
 treme limits. By comparing what he considers 
 practicable, with what has been done, we shall see 
 what can still be effected in this matter, so justly 
 interesting to the people, and we shall observe 
 how far it falls short of the extravagant expec- 
 tations they have been taught to entertain, by the 
 periodical writers of the ultra-liberal school. 
 
 Should we be blessed with a continuance of 
 internal and external peace, those who have 
 observed the current of events for some time past, 
 will be inclined to come to the conclusion, not 
 only that much has been done in the way of 
 retrenchment, but, that if no Reform should be 
 made, the present House of Commons would, in a 
 brief period, accomplish all retrenchment com- 
 patible with the maintenance of national faith 
 and national strength. Nor are its labours less
 
 37 
 
 important or less useful to the country, in the vast 
 and arduous task of legal Reform. The late 
 Home Secretary has erected a durable monu- 
 ment to his fame, in his admirable consolidation 
 of the voluminous and ill-digested Criminal Law. 
 The Report of the Commissioners of real property, 
 the Bill of Lord Brougham, for the establishment 
 of Local Courts, and those of Mr. Campbell, and 
 Lord Wynford, give promise of corresponding im- 
 provement in our civil law, a branch in which 
 they were still more wanted, and wlrere the 
 beneficial effects will be still more sensibly felt 
 by the nation. Now, this uniform course of action, 
 which has characterized the House of Commons 
 for some years past, leads us to one of two con- 
 clusions, either that the present mode of election 
 has had the merit of sending into the House a 
 majority of men, of liberal and enlarged views, 
 not blindly opposed to innovation, but bent on 
 practical amelioration, or that the best and 
 soundest sort of public opinion has had an in- 
 creasing influence upon it. Probably, both 
 opinions are, in some degree, correct. But either 
 diminish the necessity for extensive Reform — 
 either should induce the nation to view, with no 
 hostility, a body, which has added these more 
 recent ones to those ancient claims upon our 
 gratitude, which are chronicled in the brightest 
 pages of British history ; and to touch, with no 
 irreverent and hasty hand, an institution, which 
 has so singularly combined the blessing of sta- 
 
 :u} s'24 1
 
 38 
 
 bility in the form of government, with an aptitude 
 for improvement in the detail. 
 
 I am aware, that, in the wide range I have 
 taken in this section, the most general view alone 
 was practicable. I could not enter into the 
 proof of my argument by any elaborate details ; 
 I could only, like an index, point the attention 
 of well-informed readers to those passages of our 
 history, to those particular acts of our ParHament, 
 which convinced me. 
 
 First, That the English House of Commons, 
 however alloyed by the mixture of human fail- 
 ings, however defective, theoretically considered, 
 as a representative system, is yet one of the finest 
 institutions the world has seen for the preservation 
 and union of freedom with order and stability, and 
 for the advancement of rational and constitutional 
 liberty. 
 
 Second, That considered as a school of political 
 talent, it has presented to the country a succes- 
 sion of great, and eminent statesmen. 
 
 Third, That those partial irregularities, which 
 render it not wholly the creation of the body of 
 the people, give it a certain independenc^e, which 
 enables it to exercise a salutary influence over 
 public opinion. It leads, instead of tamely fol- 
 lowing it. It corrects many hasty impressions, 
 combats many prejudices, prevents many errors ; 
 it is the guardian of the interests, not the echo of 
 the will of the people. It is composed of repre- 
 sentatives, not of delegates.
 
 39 
 
 Fourth, That in the progress of time, and par- 
 ticularly of late years, the House of Commons has 
 become more free from every corrupt influence, 
 and that those imperfections, for the removal of 
 which Reform is principally demanded, are in fact 
 greatly diminished. 
 
 Fifth, That it has always represented the best 
 spirit of each succeeding age ; and if it be now 
 swept away, or undergo such extensive modifica- 
 tion, as entirely to destroy its identity, its last 
 acts will have been worthy of its long and noble 
 career, it will have escaped the decay of time, 
 and its existence will have terminated in the full 
 meridian of its vigour, and in the performance of 
 acts of great and permanent benefit to the coun- 
 try. 
 
 TAXES REPEALED 
 
 From the Year \S16, to the Year 1831. 
 
 1816. Property Tax 14,320,000 
 
 War Malt Duty 2,790,000 
 
 War Customs Tonnage, &c. 828,000 
 
 Hearths, and Windows, Ireland .... 35,00P 
 
 Malt, and Spirits 315,000 
 
 Total repealed in 1816 18,288,000 
 
 1817. Taxes diminished 280,000 
 
 1818. Assessed Taxes in Ireland partially repealed 236,000 
 
 Total repealed to 1818 18,804 000 
 
 D 4
 
 40 
 
 £. 
 Brought forward 18,804,000 
 
 1819. Taxes imposed — £ 
 
 Foreign Wool 500,000 
 
 Malt 1,400,000 
 
 British Spirits 500,000 
 
 Tobacco 500,000 
 
 Coffee, and Cocoa 130,000 
 
 Tea 130,000 
 
 Pepper 30,000 
 
 3,190,000 
 
 Deduct 3,190,000 
 
 Balance of Taxes repealed to 1819 15,614,000 
 
 1821. Agricultural House Tax repealed 480,000 
 
 1822. Malt reduced Is. per Bushel. . 1,400,000 
 
 Salt, from 15s. to 2s. per do. 1,300,000 
 
 Leather ,from 3rf.pr.lb.tol|rf. 300,000 
 
 Tonnage Duty on Shipping 
 
 repealed 100,000 
 
 Hearths, & Windows, Ire- 
 land 200,000 
 
 Total repealed 1822 3,360,000 
 
 19,454,000
 
 41 
 
 Brought forvvaid . 
 
 19,454,000 
 
 1823. 
 
 
 
 On occasional Servants. "^ 
 
 Ditto Gardeners. 
 
 Lower class of Taxed Carts. 
 
 Ponies, and Mules, under 13 
 
 ■I hands high, employed in 
 
 trade & husbandly, 3s. each. 
 
 Ground Floor Shop Windows. 
 
 Horses employed by small 
 
 (^ farmers, 3«. each. 
 
 Male Servants. 
 
 
 « ^ 
 
 -^^ 
 
 Total 
 
 reduction 
 
 >in Assessed 2,250,000 
 
 Taxes in 
 
 England. 
 
 Clerks, and Shopmen. 
 
 Four-wheeled Carriages. 
 
 Two-wheeled ditto. 
 
 High Taxed Carts. 
 j Horses for riding & drawing. 
 j Ponies under 13 hands. 
 
 BailiflFs' horses. 
 1 Butchers ditto. 
 
 Horses, and Mules, in agri- 
 I culture and trade. 
 LWindow Tax. 
 
 Assessed Taxes, Ireland, en- 
 tirely repealed 100,000 
 
 Spirits, Ireland & Scotland . . 800,000 
 
 Customs, minor branches .... 60,000 
 
 Total in 1823 
 
 1824. Rum, from lis. 7|rf. to 10s. Gd. 
 
 per Gallon 150,000 
 
 Coals, Sea-borne, to Port of 
 
 London, reduced from 9s. 4c?. 
 
 to 6s. 200,000 
 
 Law Stamps 200,000 
 
 Wool, Gd. to Id. per lb 350,000 
 
 Silk, raw, from 5s. Gd. to 3rf. "J 
 Ditto, thrown, from 14s. Qd. \ 527,000 
 to Is.Gd j 
 
 Union Duties, from 1822 300,000 
 
 Total repealed in 1824 
 
 3,200,000 
 
 1,727,000 
 24,381,000
 
 42 
 
 > Brought forward .... 
 
 £. 
 1825. Remainder of the Salt Duty. . 200,000 
 
 Hemp, from 9s. 4d. to 4s. Qd. 
 
 per Cwt 100,000 
 
 British Plantation Cocoa, and 
 
 Coffee, from Is. to 6d. per lb. 150,000 
 Wines, French, lis. 5|rf. to 6s. 
 
 the gall, other 7s. Id. to 4s. 900,000 
 
 Rum, 10s. 6d. to 8s. per gall. 1 
 
 British f Malt, 10s. 6d. to 5s. V 1,250,000 
 
 Spirits I Grain,10s. 6d.to6s. 3 
 
 Cider, 30s. to 10s. per hogsh. . . 20,000 
 
 Customs, minor branches . . 250,000 
 
 £. 
 
 24,381,000 
 
 
 ;ft^ 
 
 f Mules, carrying Coals. "^ 
 
 Four-wheeledPonyCarriages 
 Occasional Waiters&Grooms. | 
 Untenanted Houses. 
 Coachmakers' Licences. | 
 
 Car riages sold by Commission . 
 Taxed Carts, 27s. each. I 
 
 <( Husbandry Horses let to hire, y 
 035,936 Houses having less 
 
 than 7 Windows. 
 171,739 Houses assessed at 
 
 Rentals under £10. 
 Farm Houses occupied by 
 
 Labourers. 
 i^Windows in Dairies. 
 
 27G,000 
 
 Total repealed in 1825 .... 
 
 1830. Beer Duty 3,110,000 
 
 Cider ditto 29,000 
 
 Leather ditto 380,000 
 
 Total repealed in 1830 
 
 3,146,000 
 
 3,519,000 
 
 Total Amount of Taxes repealed, from 181G to 
 1830, inclusive ... 
 
 31,046,000
 
 43 
 
 1831. The Chancellor of the Exchequer pro- 
 poses in the present year to reduce the 
 
 Taxes on — 
 
 £. 
 
 
 Newspapers & Advertisements 
 
 190,000 
 
 
 Sea-borne Coals and Slates . . 
 
 830,000 
 
 
 Candles 
 
 420,000 
 
 
 Printed Cottons 
 
 500,000 
 
 
 Auctions, and Miscellaneous 
 
 140,000 
 
 £. 
 
 2,080,000 
 
 To impose fresh TaXes on — 
 
 Wine 240,000 
 
 Timber 600,000 
 
 Cotton, Raw 500,000 
 
 Coals exported 100,000 
 
 Steam 100,000 
 
 1,540,000 
 Deduct 1,540,000 
 
 Balance of reduced, 1831 540,000 
 
 By a Parliamentary Return lately furnished, it appears, that 
 the number of Offices reduced from 1821 to 1830, amounted 
 to 4050, and the Salaries upon them to £700,974. 
 
 Of these 56 were from £1000. to £3000. ; and 68 from £500. 
 to .£1000. per Annum. 
 
 Lord Althorp has signified the intention of the present 
 Government to reduce 210 more.
 
 44 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 EXAGGERATED EXPECTATIONS OF THE ADVAN- 
 TAGES OF REFORM. 
 
 No topic of popular interest ever appears to have 
 been made a more complete handle of, than this 
 quastion of Parliamentary Reform. Political zea- 
 lots and adventurers have found it the readiest 
 theme for vague and inflammatory declamation, 
 and the strongest lever of the passions of the 
 people. They have applied themselves sedulously 
 to heighten and exaggerate beyond all limits of 
 credibility the two points upon w^hich the force of 
 their argument rests, the evils of our actual condi- 
 tion, and the efficacy of their proposed remedy, 
 till people are induced to suppose that, by an easy 
 and rapid transition, the adoption of Reform vi^ill 
 transport them from the extreme of human suffer- 
 ing to a state of unexampled prosperity and happi- 
 ness. The more enlightened advocates of the 
 principle, whose expectations are confined to rea- 
 son and probability, and who are incapable of 
 entertaining views so extravagant, or of professing 
 what they do not believe, have yet negatively 
 encouraged their propagation. They perceived 
 that the cause which they warmly favoured was
 
 45 
 
 supported by these means, and their candour did 
 not go the length of inducing them to disavow 
 such allies, to explain the precise bounds of their 
 own more sober expectations, or to dispel the de- 
 lusions which created so strong a tide in their 
 favour. Such is, unhappily, an almost universal 
 characteristic of party struggles. Men, whose real 
 opinions, whose final aims and objects are wide as 
 poles asunder, are too often ready to co-operate 
 for some temporary purpose, and for the attain- 
 ment of some party end. Such coalitions are 
 rarely productive of good. Popular errors are 
 dangerous, and unmanageable auxiliaries, and are 
 apt to entangle those in their consequences who 
 tolerate, that they may use them. A union of 
 centres is generally the triumph of truth and mo- 
 deration, an alliance with extremes is always 
 hazardous. We begin with an idea that we can 
 restrain, and bend them to our purpose ; and we 
 presently find ourselves in a position, when a 
 middle course is no longer practicable, and when 
 we have no other alternative than to go along with 
 the crowd, without sharing their illusions, like the 
 poor gentleman, who got by some accident into 
 St. Luke's, and was found, by the keepers, in the 
 act of dancing a minuet, very much against his 
 will, with a madman. 
 
 The first error of these Reformers of the Utopian 
 school, is an entirely false estimate of the influ- 
 ence of government upon society. They uniformly 
 exaggerate its importance and efl"ects, great as
 
 46 
 
 they undoubtedly are. Granting their positions 
 to their fullest extent, granting that our present is 
 the very worst system of rule, and that their pro- 
 posed changes would make it the most perfect 
 that could be devised, we might still have ample 
 cause to deny great part of their conclusions, we 
 might still accuse them of encouraging unfounded 
 hopes, because they anticipate benefits, which no 
 form of government could bestow. In earlier and 
 simple stages of society this proposition is suf- 
 ficiently evident, since the relation of different 
 parts, being of a less complex character, the evils 
 which arise from misgovernment, and those which 
 spring from other sources, are more easily trace- 
 able to their respective origin. A scarcity, or a 
 plague, or the inroad of a foreign enemy, create 
 as great a sum of human suffering, as the veriest 
 tyranny that ever oppressed a nation ; but there 
 can be no confusion of causes in such cases. Our 
 own highly artificial, and intricate social machi- 
 nery, admits not of so easy an analysis. We can- 
 not so readily determine which of our ills allows 
 of alleviation, or cure, and which of them we must 
 endure with patience. As an example, take the 
 debate upon Mr. Littleton's introducing a bill for 
 preventing the truck system, in December last. 
 No reformed House of Commons, no purely 
 elected set of Representatives possible, could have 
 entered upon this discussion with a more zealous 
 and impartial desire to apply the best remedy in 
 their power to grievances affecting the working
 
 47 
 
 classes in manufacturing counties of a very serious 
 description, and the reality of which was generally 
 admitted. There was no appearance in the House 
 of any party feeling, the speakers rose from every 
 side, expressing the greatest diversity of opinions, 
 and without a possibility of being marshalled under 
 any particular banner. The only bias, the only 
 influence which could have been exercised over 
 the judgment of Members, was precisely that 
 which it would be the great object of reform to 
 strengthen, viz. the influence of opinion out of 
 doors, the fear that if they rejected the Bill, the 
 motives of their opposition might be misconstrued ; 
 that they might be supposed indifl'erent to the evils 
 of the truck system, instead of doubtful of the effi- 
 ciency or the expediency of legislative interference. 
 The motion for leave to bring in a bill was carried 
 by a large majority, indeed it would have been a 
 most ungracious proceeding towards the Honour- 
 able Mover, and towards the large population 
 whose grievances he so clearly stated, to have 
 rejected all consideration of a remedy. But those 
 who attended to the debate will incline to the per- 
 suasion, that the existence of abuses was more 
 satisfactorily made out, than the possibility of 
 effectually removing them, or the policy of attempt- 
 ing to do so. I have no disposition to digress, by 
 entering into the merits of the question, farther 
 to illustrate my position, that something more than 
 integrity of intention is required, to cure all the 
 diseases of our political condition.
 
 48 
 
 The truck system is neither the only, nor the 
 strongest instance of the existence of evils, which 
 have arisen from causes quite independent of all 
 government, or from past acts, the consequences 
 of which we cannot now readily undo. The re- 
 medies for distress and want of employment of the 
 labouring poor, the depression, at one time of the 
 agricultural, at another of the commercial and 
 manufacturing interests, the increasing burthen of 
 poor's rates, the feverish state of Ireland, and 
 various other temporary, or permanent sources of 
 anxiety and discontent, form a catalogue of poli- 
 tical problems, which no statesman or legislator 
 has yet been enabled to solve. In many of these 
 cases, no deficiency of good will, of inclination to 
 adopt measures of alleviation or cure, can be sup- 
 posed to exist ; but the mode of accomplishing the 
 object remains yet to be discovered. The various 
 interests of the country are so thoroughly inter- 
 woven with each other, that it becomes almost 
 impossible to relieve one, without injuring another, 
 or to exact sacrifices from one, without inflicting 
 a serious wound upon all. It is not that feasible 
 plans for these purposes have been suggested from 
 other quarters, and that the House has turned a 
 deaf ear to them. They do not exist any where ; 
 political science and human ingenuity are at fault ; 
 and if a reformed House of Commons is to remove 
 them, it must either be, by the adoption of some 
 such daring and reckless course, that prudence 
 and true patriotism shudders at, or by eliciting
 
 49 
 
 ?^.ome latent expedients, which have hitherto eluded 
 the search not only of the legislature, but of all the 
 intellect of the country. 
 
 It is easy to reply to such observations by vague 
 common places about waste and profusion, bound- 
 less expenditure, retrenchment, economy, and the 
 like ; but such assertions are only deserving of the 
 name of arguments, when they descend to par- 
 ticulars, and are founded upon some rational data. 
 It discredits the advocates of practicable and de- 
 finite retrenchment, to find themselves associated 
 with such extravagant and unmeaning declara- 
 tions ; and it must damp their etforts, to obtain 
 those real and solid benefits, which some re- 
 duction in the amount, and some change in the 
 mode of taxation, would confer upon the coun- 
 try, to find that all they could safely eff'ect, 
 must fall so infinitely short of these chimerical 
 hopes, which must be ever doomed to disappoint- 
 ment. 
 
 A mere change in the constitution of the House 
 of Commons, would not directly reduce either 
 expenditure or taxation. Any House of Com- 
 mons would have precisely the same materials to 
 work upon. The difference must be occasioned 
 by the manner of their going to work. We must 
 first observe, that, particularly since the year 
 1823, much has been effected in the way of re- 
 trenchment, both by the Liverpool and Canning 
 administration, and by that of the Duke of Wel- 
 lington. It is evident that those who are first in 
 
 E
 
 50 
 
 the field have a great advantage in a work of this 
 kind. Those who begin to retrench will attack 
 the most obvious abuses, will sacrifice the least 
 useful offices, will lop off" those glaring excrescen- 
 ces which stare them in the face. The next set 
 will have to examine more narrowly into more 
 concealed errors and faults ; injurious practices, 
 which elude the first observation, and lurk in the 
 hidden labyrinths of the system ; they will have 
 to strike, in many cases, a balance between ex- 
 pence and utility, and sacrifice what is unques- 
 tionably of service, because it costs too much. 
 In these doubtful cases, as in that of disbanding 
 the Yeomanry Cavalry, for example, subsequent 
 experience may give cause to regret the decision. 
 A succeeding labourer in the field would find a still 
 more scanty gleaning, a still more arduous task, 
 more toil and less fruit, and the alternative either 
 of effecting little, or of attacking what is really 
 essential, might be still more strongly forced upon 
 him. I am far from arguing that no means of re- 
 trenchment consistent with the public interest 
 remain ; I only assert, that the retrenchments 
 which have been effected, and to a very consider- 
 able extent, inevitably diminish the amount of 
 those which can still be made, and render the 
 task of curtailing expenditure more difficult. 
 
 In the next place, we must remember that the 
 interest of the national debt, which few of our 
 theorists yet openly propose to spunge out, forms 
 about one half of the public expenditure, which
 
 51 
 
 narrows the extent upon which retrenchment can 
 be practised to 27 or 28, instead of 54 or 53 mil- 
 lions. This half, having already undergone a 
 reduction since 1822; and the increasing disposi- 
 tion of Parliaments, as at present composed, and 
 particularly of the actual one, to enforce retrench- 
 ment, must be taken into account, so that the 
 question is, not what a reformed Parliament 
 would effect, but what a reformed Parliament 
 would do, which this Parliament will not. And, 
 lastly, we must not forget that there is an enor- 
 mous amount of taxation for poor's rates, nearly 
 eight millions, local rates one million and a half, 
 and tithes, over which the House of Commons has 
 no jurisdiction, perhaps about three and a half: 
 these taxes are among the most burthensome in 
 their operation, which, added to the national debt, 
 leave about f of the application of the whole taxa- 
 tion of the country to be considered as a fixed 
 charge, which could not be subjected to reduc- 
 tion. 
 
 Having gone through my argument upon this 
 head, I shall take leave to present it again to my 
 readers something in the form of an arithmetical 
 statement, leaving it to Radical Algebraists to 
 find the unknown quantity. 
 
 Given the whole amount of the taxation and 
 expenditure of the country — Deduct f of 
 that expenditure, a constant quantity. 
 
 Upon the remaining § make an allowance for 
 E 2
 
 52 
 
 the retrenchment effected within the last 
 eight years. 
 Required the amount of the difference of fur- 
 ther retrenchment between a reformed and 
 the present House of Commons. 
 
 Upon this subject I would avoid misapprehension. 
 Economy is not only a duty in a Minister, it not 
 only tends to allay popular ferment and dissatis- 
 faction, but it does produce actual, substantial 
 benefit to the country, considerably beyond the 
 positive amount of taxes remitted. Experience 
 has abundantly demonstrated that in the present 
 state of England, a judicious remission of taxes 
 has always given a considerable spur to the na- 
 tional industry, that the revenue has never pro- 
 portionably suffered, but that the loss has been 
 nearly compensated by the increased productive- 
 ness of other branches. Thus a diminution of 
 expenditure is not only an immediate relief, but 
 by the pressure it takes off the elastic resources 
 of the country, gives a future hope of the same 
 operation being again practicable. But this very 
 circumstance is a strong motive for gradual reduc- 
 tion, which enables that to be accomplished easily, 
 and with advantage to all, which, too violently 
 attempted, might fail altogether, and cause a 
 shock to credit, and great calamities. If a dif- 
 ferently constituted House of Commons retrench 
 gradually, it will do what this House has been 
 doing, and will probably continue to do. If it
 
 53 
 
 were to attempt any large and sudden reduction, 
 it would injure the public service. 
 
 The beneficial effects of remission of taxes upon 
 the revenue, and the impetus which it gives to 
 consumption and production, seem much better 
 established, than its efficiency in ameliorating the 
 state of the labouring classes. The amount of 
 taxes repealed, exceeding half the present income, 
 within the last fifteen years, has been sufficiently 
 large to produce some very sensible result, did it 
 act upon their condition, in the manner we should 
 be induced at first to hope. But observation has 
 not verified these anticipations. The distress of 
 the working classes seems increased in the agri- 
 cultural districts, occasionally severe, though not 
 constant in the manufacturing ones. The poor's 
 rates, by the late returns, have greatly aug- 
 mented ; they are a million more in our present 
 currency than they were in the depreciated one at 
 the close of the war ; and this total increase has 
 taken place in spite of great local and partial 
 reductions effected bv a more vio^ilant and frugal 
 application of them. The fluctuations in the ma- 
 nufacturing counties appear the inevitable conse- 
 quences of those variations in the market which 
 regulate the demand for labour, and are therefore 
 almost out of the controul of governments. The 
 more unvarying deterioration of the labouring 
 agricultural poor, unchecked by the far greater 
 proportionate amount of poor's rate expended 
 upon them, not perceptibly affected by the reduc-
 
 54 
 
 tion of taxes, leads us to infer that it arises from 
 entirely other causes, and to augur that future dimi- 
 nution of taxes will avail hut little to counteract 
 them, or to effect any considerable improvement. 
 
 I have sought in the preceding pages, to point 
 out the error of those who expect great and sudden 
 amelioration and benefit from a reform in Parlia- 
 ment, or from any imaginable change in the policy 
 of the Government. If such a reform can be adop- 
 ted, as, without creating any just apprehensions for 
 the safety of the existing social system, shall give a 
 new impulse to the Government in the course they 
 have already entered upon — if, without incurring the 
 fault of a dangerous precipitation, the march of legal 
 and financial improvement can be rendered firmer 
 and more rapid, important prospective advantages 
 would result to the country. But the existence of 
 any such flagrant misrule, any such intolerable abuses, 
 as would occasion by their removal an instantaneous 
 deliverance from the pressure of immediate evils, 
 cannot be supposed to exist by any sober and well 
 informed mind. The Government of this country 
 has, for years, been acting upon enlightened and 
 liberal principles, which have been sanctioned by the 
 approval of all parties, and by the testimony of ex- 
 perience. Whatever further development their prin- 
 ciples might receive, the effect would certainly be 
 gradual, and the gain to the community in the com- 
 mencement, scarcely felt. Exaggerated hopes must 
 end in disappointment, and might lead to great 
 calamities.
 
 55 
 
 But there is another branch of this subject which 
 may require some consideration, and upon which it 
 is of the highest importance .that just views should 
 be entertained by the bulk of society. It is an ex- 
 amination of the probable consequences of measures 
 which are as yet rather indirectly and covertly hinted 
 at, than openly recommended. I would meet such 
 opinions in their infancy, while they are still only 
 insinuated, not avowed ; they should never be suffered 
 to attain a dangerous maturity. I would never per- 
 mit them to instil their mistaken, guilty, fatal maxims, 
 into the public mind. I would not allow the con- 
 cealment and incognito which they now affect, and 
 are impatient for a favourable moment to throw off, 
 to shelter their fallacies from detection, or their per- 
 nicious tendencies from exposure. I speak of plans 
 of various kinds, of confiscation, of rapine, of inroads 
 upon the rights of property, of fraud upon the 
 public creditor. It is whispered, that property is in 
 the hands of too few ; that the many suffer, while 
 these few revel in enjoyment; that the public debt 
 was contracted in one currency, and is paid in ano- 
 ther ; with other of those insidious suggestions, which 
 are applied to stifle the voice of conscience in nations, 
 as in individuals, and urge them on to crime. 
 
 It is averred, that the emergency of our situation, 
 the intensity of our misery is such, that we can no 
 longer wait for the slow operation of alterative reme- 
 dies, and that we must have present relief. Abstract 
 principles, it is said, must give way to the pressure of 
 necessity, and the incubus of the monopoly of 
 
 £ 4
 
 56 
 
 wealth shaken off the oppressed nation. It is hoped 
 that a reformed House of Commons vvill be more 
 alive to this necessity, and more obedient to the 
 will of the people, who must, in the mean time, be 
 instructed to demand most energetically some of these 
 decided measures. Thus, those who admit that, by 
 the application of ordinary means, the miracles they 
 promise us cannot be performed, contend that reform 
 will accomplish them by some of these bold and ori- 
 ginal expedients. 
 
 Such dangerous and hollow doctrines are refuted 
 by those incontrovertible truths, which are common 
 to all nations and ages, that the rights of property 
 are the foundation of society, — that no necessity jus- 
 tifies their violation ; it is like resorting to assassina- 
 tion, quite proscribed even in the laxest code of poli- 
 tical morality. The rights of property benefit all, 
 though not in an equal degree ; all are interested in 
 their preservation, — all would sufier from their in- 
 fringement. But if these general axioms, however 
 established by experience, have, from their very 
 universality, from their acknowledged justice, some- 
 thing of a trite and stale sound, thev derive a new 
 force, they assume an additional character of jus- 
 tice and validity, when considered with reference to 
 the peculiar circumstances of England. To those 
 who could persuade us that hers is that particular 
 case, authorising a departure from these maxims, 
 I reply, that if they M'ere good for no other State, 
 they would be good for her alone ; that if there is a 
 nation uptjn earth, whose |)rosperity, whose existence,
 
 57 
 
 whose preservation from incalculable miseries, de- 
 pend upon her adherence to them, England is that 
 nation. 
 
 There is, first, no proof, either derived from our 
 financial state, or from a general review of our con- 
 dition, of any existing necessity offering a pretext for 
 resorting to extremes. On this point, I shall take 
 leave to quote two passages from Sir H. ParnelFs 
 work on Financial Reform, — a work no less cheering, 
 than it is just and enlightened, and which has the 
 high merit of rejecting those dark, and desponding 
 views of our actual state, which are the favourite 
 arguments of less candid and able reasoners. After 
 some forcible remarks upon a sort of national hypo- 
 chondria in politics, always leading the English to 
 look at the dark side, and imagine themselves much 
 worse off than they are, which he illustrates by some 
 curious quotations from writers of the last century, 
 he observes, " With respect to what are called our 
 *' financial difficulties, and about which so much alarm 
 " is felt, they are not so much present as prospective 
 '' difficulties. The Treasury easily finds means for 
 *' paying all demands upon it, and we may rest assured, 
 " that, whatever the difficulties may be under which 
 " the country is at present placed, they may be made 
 *' to yield to sound principles of legislation."* And 
 again, he quotes the opinion of Mr. Ricardo, sanction- 
 ing that high authority by his corroborating approval, 
 — " Notwithstanding the immense expenditure of 
 " the English Government during the last twenty years, 
 * Fiaancial Kofonu, page 13.
 
 ire can be little doubt but that the increased pro- 
 " duction on the part of the people has more than 
 " compensated for it. The national capital has not 
 ** merely been unimpaired, it has been greatly in- 
 " creased ; and the annual income of the people, even 
 " after the payment of their taxes, is, probably, greater 
 " at the present time, than in any former period of our 
 " history. For the proof of this, we might refer to 
 " the increase of population, to the extension of agri- 
 " culture, to the increase of shipping and manufac- 
 ** tures, to the opening of numerous canals, as well as to 
 " many other expensive undertakings, all denoting an 
 *' immense increase both of capital and annual pro- 
 " duction." To this Sir Henry adds, " As ten years 
 " have elapsed since Mr. Ricardo wrote this opinion, 
 " and as similar proofs can be referred to, to shew a 
 " continual increase of production, the conclusion is 
 " that the national capital and income are now much 
 " greater than they were in 1819."* 
 
 Leaving the support of this part of my argument 
 to such high authority, and such convincing state- 
 ments, I shall proceed to notice another current 
 opinion, that property in this country is in the hands 
 of too few. It is not true that property in this coun- 
 try is in the hands of a few. The principal nobility, 
 the chief commercial men, the leading manufacturers, 
 are in the possession of colossal fortunes ; but it is a 
 gross error that they monopolize all property. In 
 each of the great divisions of national wealth to which 
 they respectively belong, to which we may add the 
 
 * Financial Reform, page 17.
 
 59 
 
 liberal professions, there is a regular gradation of 
 riches, of affluence, of competence, and of indepen- 
 dence, each embracing a numerous class, and alto- 
 gether constituting a larger proportion of the popu- 
 lation in the possession of property, compared with 
 the aggregate number of the whole, than exist at this 
 time in any other country in the world, or than 
 probably ever did exist. There are more great 
 fortunes, and more small fortunes — more men of 
 £100,000. per annum, and of £20,000., and £10,000., 
 and £5,000., and £500., and £l00., and £50., than 
 could be found in any other part of the globe ; and 
 none of these classes appear to trench upon another, 
 since there is a proper and relative proportion of 
 each. If, therefore, the institution of property is 
 beneficial to society generally, to no society is it so 
 beneficial as to the English, since no where is it so 
 widely diffused. 
 
 If we examine the causes of this state of things, we 
 shall find that they are of a peculiar, and principally 
 of a moral, rather than a physical nature. Should we 
 contrast our condition with that of our great neigh- 
 bour, France, we find that she possesses a much 
 larger and more compact territory, a more central 
 European position, a greater fertility of soil, and va- 
 riety of natural productions. Her po[)ulation is far 
 more numerous. How has it arisen that the internal 
 wealth, and prosperity of England has greatly ex- 
 ceeded that of France, that she has woven a larger 
 tissue, out of a smaller raw material. Her insular 
 position, and maritime advantages, may have been
 
 60 
 
 some compensation for the other physical superiori- 
 ties of her mighty rival ; but the principal causes of 
 her greatness, have been the intelligence, and energy 
 of her people, the excellence of her institutions, the 
 honour, stability, and good faith of her government, 
 and the long immunity from internal war, whether 
 foreign or domestic, the perfect repose and security, 
 which she has enjoyed. These inestimable benefits 
 have inspired universal confidence in the nation, have 
 enabled them to extend every operation upon the 
 basis of credit, and to calculate surely and justly upon 
 the future. Now, coupled with the honest pride 
 which Englishmen may justly indulge in, while con- 
 templating these great and glorious results, in feeling 
 that we have done more with our five talents, than 
 other nations with their ten, we must carry this qua- 
 lifying circumstance, that as our prosperity is more 
 the work of human wisdom, ingenuity, and integrity, 
 and less the consequence of natural advantages, a 
 more artificial character belongs to it. It is not the 
 spontaneous creation of the fields, it is not the unva- 
 rying attribute of material force, it is a fabric of hu- 
 man structure, and its maintenance depends upon the 
 continued operation of the causes which have called it 
 into being. We do not think it less secure on this 
 account, because we believe in the permanence of 
 these moral ingredients, but its nature requires a 
 more watchful and anxious care ; and were it unhap- 
 pily destroyed, we fear the ruin would be complete 
 and irretrievable. Were we to sufi^'er our " hif>;h 
 blown" prosperity " to burst under us," we should
 
 61 
 
 fail, " like Wolsey, never to hope again." The 
 storms of revolution, and the tide of war, have rolled 
 over France, but she is still great and progressive. 
 We fear that in a similar trial, England would sus- 
 tain irreparable evil. The works of nature are more 
 pregnant with life than those of man. The corn field, 
 the vine, and the olive, still clothe the sides of Vesu- 
 vius, but Herculaneum and Pompeia arc destroyed 
 for ever. 
 
 The national debt is one of the objects, for exam- 
 ple, of these covert attacks. We will not dwell upon 
 the individual misery which any violation of faith with 
 the public creditor would scatter through the land; 
 we will not dwell upon the description of persons 
 whom any such measure would affect, the widow's 
 jointure, the younger childrens portion, the retired 
 shopkeeper's little competence, the provision against 
 age and want, saved from the earnings of a life of 
 honest and laborious servitude. Passing over these 
 private considerations, let us regard it in a purely 
 public point of view. Upon the national debt de- 
 pend all the security and solvency of the great mer- 
 cantile establishments, of the whole body of Bank- 
 ers, of the Insurance Offices of all descriptions, of 
 the Savings Banks in every part of the country. 
 The first indication of a disposition to invade its 
 sacred claims, would be the signal for a universal 
 panic, for a suspension of those commercial pulses, 
 which propel the life blood through the veins of the 
 state. 
 
 We have had one faint experience, one little ex-
 
 62 
 
 ample, on a small scale, of the tremendous conse- 
 quences of such a revulsion in credit. In 1825, we 
 all recollect that public opinion was strongly pro- 
 nounced in favour of a variety of schemes and specu- 
 lations of a very hazardous and extravagant nature. 
 Those who believe that the public opinion is not al- 
 ways infallible ; those who, committing treason against 
 the sovereignty of the people, think that it is in the 
 nature of things that some should lead, and that 
 others should follow, whether to good or to evil, 
 assert, that a portion of the public led the rest of the 
 public into a great scrape. Certain it is, that a 
 number of these schemes were unsuccessful, and that 
 they occasioned the failure of two or three London 
 houses of considerable note, though not of the very 
 first eminence, and of a great many country Banks. 
 We must all remember the disastrous consequences 
 of this shock to credit, the alarm universally spread, 
 the sudden alteration of trade and manufactures from 
 a thriving to a most disastrous state. Trifling and 
 partial as this crisis must be regarded, compared with 
 the slightest breach of the great national faith, it will 
 be long referred to as a period of great calamity, of 
 public alarm and despondency, of general and acute 
 distress. 
 
 But were illustrations required of the unavoidable 
 evils occasioned by all great changes, however abso- 
 lutely required, and however prudently and tempe- 
 rately conducted, let us turn our eyes to a more 
 recent instance, that of France, within the last six 
 months. It is worth while to premise what all per-
 
 63 
 
 sons acquainted with that country know, that the 
 transactions of trade and commerce are there con- 
 ducted on a more limited scale than with us. Credit 
 is much less extensive, paper not generally in circu- 
 lation : the whole system narrower, simpler, more 
 confined than ours, and therefore not so liable to be 
 affected by panics or reverses. Yet let us mark the 
 consequences of late events upon the trade and inter- 
 nal prosperity of that country. 
 
 If ever there were a revolution justified, and 
 rendered a duty by the conduct of the Govern- 
 ment, the Revolution of July was that one. Nor 
 was the conduct of the people less admirable 
 than their motive was justifiable. No drop of blood 
 was wantonly, or unnecessarily spilled; no cruelty 
 stained their victory; no mixture of sordid deeds, no 
 acts of rapine or robbery, corrupted the purity of 
 their cause. The authority of the laws was but a 
 moment relaxed, the new government was instantly 
 invested with the powers of the State. There was no 
 protracted struggle ; the ascendancy of good sense, 
 and moderation was every where maintained; the 
 nation seemed instantaneously to re-enter that state of 
 calmness and repose, which had been momentarily 
 disturbed. Could a change of this nature take place 
 in any country, without affecting its internal pros- 
 perity and its trade; the recent revolution in France, 
 from its short duration, from its exemplary mode- 
 ration, from the judicious and patriotic hands into 
 which the government fell, and from that absence 
 of an extended system of credit, would have entitled
 
 64 
 
 OS to hope such a result. But the consequences 
 have been less agreeable to contemplate. Evils, 
 which, however the excellent spirit of the people in- 
 titles us to hope, and believe will be of short and 
 temporary duration, have yet clouded the brightness 
 of the prospect, and introduced afflicting sufferings 
 into the land. The spirit of disorganization and 
 anarchy has been unchained ; and though compressed, 
 and checked by the firm good sense of the nation, 
 has scattered through it doubt and alarm. The ope- 
 rations of industry have been suspended, the work- 
 men have been exposed to great privations, and the 
 productive powers of the nation have been checked. 
 It must awaken the sympathy and regret of every 
 friend of liberty, that the commercial failures and 
 distresses which have taken place in Paris, have 
 reached men, whose names are known as the warm- 
 est and truest friends of freedom ; who have been 
 ever foremost in its cause, and who would have pur- 
 chased that triumph with their lives, which they 
 are doomed to see followed by the entire ruin of 
 their fortunes. Let us admire the French, but let us 
 rejoice that we are not obliged to redeem our 
 liberties at such a price ; and let us remember, that 
 the best, wisest, and justest revolution, is always a 
 calamity. 
 
 Reverting to the subject of the extreme sensitive- 
 ness of our own system, and of the disastrous conse- 
 quences of any invasion of rights, we may observe, 
 that upon the great mercantile and banking estab- 
 lishments, before enumerated, depend all the manu-
 
 G5 
 
 facturinc; and commercial interests of the country. 
 Were they to he affected, all our power looms would 
 be arrested, our steam engines would stand still, our 
 ships would rot in our harbours, the retail trade 
 would be reduced, the whole industry of the country 
 would be paralysed. Nor would the agricultural 
 interests escape better. Besides the direct loss 
 sustained by landed proprietors, through their con- 
 nexion with the Bankers, it is sufficiently proved, 
 that the demand for agricultural produce follows, at 
 no remote interval, the state of our trade and manu- 
 factures ; that one depends upon the other. Lastly, 
 let not the labouring classes be taught to suppose, 
 that such violent changes can be calculated, in the 
 remotest degree, to better their condition. The 
 property of England may be destroyed by force, but 
 it cannot be diffused ; it is like one of our machines, 
 of too delicate a texture. It is not that A obtains 
 what he attempts to take from B ; it will perish. 
 The labourer will not cultivate the field he has 
 wrested from the farmer ; it will lie fallow ; the 
 weaver will not move his shuttle the faster within 
 his own cottage, because the manufactory of his 
 master is shut up. Here again we may refer to 
 the panic of 1825. At the beginning of that year 
 every thing was Hourishing and prosperous in a high 
 degree ; at the close of it the failures took place. 
 In the spring of 1826, the weavers and manufac- 
 turers were almost universally out of employment, 
 and in a state of destitution. Alarming riots took 
 place, factories were burned, machinery destroyed, 
 
 F
 
 and soldiers called out ; lives lost at Manchester, 
 Blackburn, Wigan, &c., throughout the manufac- 
 turing districts. If that capital, which animates the 
 whole, be destroyed ; or if that system of credit, 
 which alone renders such complicated and extensive 
 operations possible, be once dissolved, the first and 
 greatest sufferers Mould be the whole vast manufac- 
 turing population, whose existence entirely depends 
 upon this mighty and artificial machinery. If they 
 are unhappily exposed now to great privations, from 
 the unavoidable fluctuations which must always occur 
 in the demand for the productions of manufacturing 
 industry, what would be their state in the event of a 
 total check to the whole process of production, an 
 entire derangement of those powers by which it is 
 impelled and set in motion ? 
 
 The poor also have their national debt, their six 
 millions and a half of rates, levied upon the annual 
 income of the State. What would be the fate of this 
 tax in the event of any national revulsion ? Would 
 the collector's be an easy task, making the circuit of 
 the parish, presenting his rapidly augmenting de- 
 mands with a smile and a bow, and receiving the 
 ready forthcoming amount into his capacious canvass 
 bag ? Would not the rate payers be constantly con- 
 verted into the rate receivers? Would not the arm of 
 the law be wearied with enforcing its numerous dis- 
 tresses on goods and chattels; an operation, which, 
 hke a fictitious and delusive sinking fund, for the 
 extinction of poverty, ruins with one hand, that it 
 may relieve with the other ? Let them be convinced,
 
 G7 
 
 that the poor's rates would not survive such a con- 
 vulsion; and that they, whose existence is a mort- 
 gage on property, are, above all others, interested 
 in its preservation. I have instanced the national 
 debt as the readiest illustration of the pernicious 
 consequences of these extreme, and subversive mea- 
 sures; but the same effects would flow from any 
 other attack', directed against the integral parts of 
 our social edifice. I would not be accused of co- 
 louring a picture with the darkest shades of an 
 " invalid imagination." I know and acknowledge, 
 that I am painting an extreme case, but I am sup- 
 posing those extreme measures which would realize 
 it. There is no fear that we should voluntarily en- 
 counter such horrible misfortunes ; since doing so, 
 would be a perfectly gratuitous act. I believe, that 
 the nation is, as it has always been, sober, discreet, 
 and wise. I merely point out the possible results 
 of an access of national delirium. 
 
 This section has led me into some length ; and 
 I hope that my readers will not have entirely lost 
 sight of the positions 1 have been derirous of 
 establishing ; — 
 
 First, That it is a great error, and \vill lead to 
 much disappointment, to suppose that any rational 
 Reform could effect such a change in the policy of the 
 executive, as materially and immediately to improve 
 the condition of the empire, or of any class of its po- 
 pulation. The advantages arising from an ameliora- 
 tion of the system would undoubtedly be of a gradual, 
 and at first, almost an imperceptible nature. They 
 
 I" 2
 
 68 
 
 would rather consist of a certain change in the toue 
 and spirit of the House of Commons, than of any 
 benefits of a substantive character. 
 
 Second, That if it be imagined that a reformed 
 House of Commons would proceed to effect its ob- 
 jects by more decisive acts, disregarding those rights 
 which have hitherto been held sacred, it would be the 
 author of the most cruel calamities. Should it be 
 clearly pointed out, should it be even reasonably 
 apprehended, that a Reform would have such a ten- 
 dency, it would become the duty, not only of every 
 one charged with the weighty responsibility of a seat 
 at this time in Parliament, but of every honest, wise, 
 and prudent man throughout the nation, to oppose 
 it, as he would avoid the deep guilt of assisting in the 
 ruin of his country.
 
 69 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 VOTE BY BALLOT. 
 
 The advantages of the system of vote by ballot, ap- 
 pear to me a very fair induction from the doctrine of 
 the Sovereignty of the People. If we admit the 
 principle of an inherent right, vested in the majority 
 of the population, or the fact of the great ends of 
 government having been uniformly best attained in 
 proportion as we have approached nearer its practical 
 application, it then only remains to consider Vote 
 by Ballot, with regard to its being well adapted, or 
 otherwise to elicit the unbiassed expression of that 
 will. And certainly it does appear, that if it be an 
 advantage to separate the actions of men, as political 
 agents, from all those influences which guide their 
 conduct as social beings, vote by ballot has the merit 
 of being a most ingenious device for the accomplish- 
 ment of that end. it will probably make as near an 
 approach to the attainment of it, as any mode which 
 could be invented for a purpose, counteracting so 
 strongly motives of action, which are a part of our 
 nature. 
 
 I am disposed to admit, that vote by ballot is as 
 good a method as could have been proposed for ob- 
 taining the pure unmixed expression of the will of 
 
 F 3
 
 70 
 
 each individual, and therefore of the majority of the 
 whole. I dispute not the efficacy of the means, 1 
 contend against the expediency of the end. Let us 
 allow that vote by ballot would destroy the influence 
 of property and station, that it would even diminish 
 that sway which intellect and energy exercise over 
 mental weakness and timid obstinacy ; I still doubt 
 the wisdom of thus insulating our political existence, 
 of sending the elector to the poll exonerated from alt 
 those motives, which influence his every other act as 
 a member of the community. It would dissolve the 
 cement which binds and unites the social system. 
 
 ■Should we succeed in excludincf the slightest external 
 bias, or feeling of personal interest, from the mind of 
 the elector, is the advantage so indisputable ? We 
 shall not have overcome these motives by moral 
 causes, by increasing the weight of higher motives of 
 action ; we shall only have eluded and evaded them 
 by a slight of hand, by a ruse ck guerre. 
 
 Are we sure that we have eradicated all the dete- 
 riorating and injurious influences within his breast ? 
 If his vote be no longer in the remotest degree dic- 
 tated by his interest, is it equally unbiassed by his 
 passions, his prejudices, or his ignorance? 
 
 Will not envy and hatred sometimes And a secure 
 vent in the concealed drawers of the ballotting box ? 
 Will virtue and talent be always his choice ? By the 
 ballot at Athens, Aristides vvas banished, because he 
 was called the just. 
 
 Vote by ballot, if coupled with an extended right 
 of suftrage, would undoubtedly destroy the ascen-
 
 n 
 
 dancy of the upper classes. I do not mean to use 
 the term in the restricted sense in which it has an 
 unpopular and invidious acceptation. 1 do not mean 
 the narrow limit of the nobility, or the landed pro- 
 prietors, or the possessors of large fortunes. I speak 
 of that great division of English society, stretching 
 from the very highest possessors of hereditary or ac- 
 quired importance, quite down to the confines of 
 what is called middle life. It includes all those who 
 either possess a competence, or who derive one from 
 the exercise of an honourable and liberal callins or 
 profession. It comprizes the tlower of the intellect, 
 and probity, and educated portion of the community. 
 However inferior in number to the next great divi- 
 sion, that of the middle classes, it is even numerically 
 important. When considered relatively to its posi- 
 tion, and its mental superiority, it is the leading in- 
 fluence in the State. Granting that vote by ballot, a 
 franchise generally extended to the great provincial 
 towns, and a low qualification in the electors, should 
 entirely destroy this influence, would the benefit to 
 the country be quite incontestable? There may be 
 those who are sceptical enough to doubt whether the 
 power thus enjoyed by the most intelligent, and most 
 virtuous part of the nation, is upon the whole a de- 
 fect. There are some Reformers who think it ought 
 rather to be increased than diminished. There is an 
 opinion that the entire population of Birmingham, or 
 of Manchester, would not, if giving their votes bv 
 ballot, free as air, as their prepossessions, or their 
 caprices, or their prejudices, or the best lights of 
 
 F 4
 
 72 
 
 their understanding might dictate, be more likely to 
 choose well, from the absence of this sort of in- 
 fluence. It would appear to resemble the improve- 
 ment which would be effected by any subtle physiolo- 
 gist, who should contrive to release the limbs and 
 members of the human body from the controul of 
 mental volition. 
 
 The advocates of vote by ballot constantly cite, as 
 an example, the recent history of France, and ex- 
 claim, with triumph, " The ballot has saved France." 
 They forget that the elective franchise in that country 
 was exercised by 84,000 electors, chosen by a quali- 
 fication, which secured their being among the richest 
 and most independent class in their population of 
 thirty-three millions. Such a mode of voting might 
 have been exceedingly useful as a defence to their li- 
 mited electoral body, against the intrigues and me- 
 naces of the plotting and arbitrary ministers of 
 Charles X. ; but the difference between the two cases 
 is this. The right of election in France was in the hands 
 precisely of that class, who, as far as two very differ- 
 ent states of society can be compared, correspond to 
 that part of the English nalion, whose influence in 
 elections I have been contending, is beneficial. It is 
 allowed on all hands that they used their franchise 
 wisely and well. It would be too much for the most 
 strenuous supporter of the ballot to assert, that all the 
 merit was due to it, and none whatever to the men. 
 ^J'herefore these events were highly favourable to the 
 character and public contluct of the [jortion of the 
 nation answering to that part of the British people,
 
 12> 
 
 whom I would wish to see continuing to possess a 
 leading voice in the choice of members. It is not 
 desired that, as in France, they should have the 
 whole elective franchise, only a considerable weight. 
 But vote by ballot in England would be a weapon 
 levelled against these very persons. It would be 
 adopted with no other view than that of extinguishing 
 them entirely, politically speaking. Vote by ballot 
 in France was a power confided to the hands of the 
 upper classes in the sense in which I have used the 
 words. In England it would be a power directed 
 against them. 
 
 It must be admitted that the practice of bribery at 
 elections would be much diminished, and rendered 
 more difficult, by the introduction of such a mode of 
 voting. This would no doubt be a considerable ad- 
 vantage attending it. It would, however, be too 
 dearly purchased, by the destruction of all those legi- 
 timate influences which are interwoven with the whole 
 frame work of civilized life, and which are the great 
 bond of its adhesion. 
 
 In pursuing the chimera of abstract rights, or the 
 phantom of an ideal independence, these political 
 visionaries lose sight of all ultimate ends. They reject 
 experience, they disregard the conclusions founded 
 upon history and human nature. They fancy that 
 they have found the summum honum of legislation, 
 the bmu ideal of civil government, because, in the 
 performance of an important social act, they have con- 
 trived a means of emancipating men from all those 
 restraints which surround them as social beings
 
 74 
 
 They think that in a systenri, the very essence 
 and beauty of which is the responsibility of all the 
 depositaries of power, and their subjection to the 
 controul of opinion, they can, in the exercise of this 
 one essential power, safely and beneficially release 
 men from all check and responsibility whatever.
 
 75 
 
 POSTSCRIPT 
 
 THIRD EDITION, 
 
 The attention with which the public has honoured 
 the preceding remarks upon the ballot, and some 
 arguments which have been brought against them 
 by gentlemen who entertain different opinions, 
 have induced me to add a farther explanation of 
 my views, and to attempt to meet the reasons that 
 have been urged against them. I am happy in 
 the opportunity of expressing my sense of the 
 great courtesy which those who dissent from me 
 have adopted in the tone of their discussion. The 
 foregoing remarks are founded entirely upon two 
 or three positions, which I perhaps rather inferred, 
 than distinctly set forth. If these positions are 
 erroneous, the whole reasoning falls to the ground. 
 If they are proved, I do not see that it can be 
 confuted. I first denied the doctrine of an in- 
 herent right to govern themselves, existing in any 
 population. In the section of the sovereignty of 
 the people, I have endeavoured to shew that this 
 theory, so prevalent, particularly on the Conti-
 
 76 
 
 nent, is a fallacy. I contended, that a general 
 principle of this kind could not be established, 
 because all history and experience proved that 
 men naturally were formed by Providence into 
 communities, consisting of governors and go- 
 verned. I asserted, that this attempt to establish 
 a general principle, upon hypothetical argument, 
 at variance with uniform experience, could not 
 be borne out. It is disproved by that process of 
 inductive reasoning from facts, upon which every 
 generallaw, whether physical, or moral, can alone be 
 founded. All that the philosophy of experience 
 teaches us on this subject, is, that government is 
 natural to man, and government supposes the re- 
 lation of rulers and ruled. That the proper end of 
 government is the prosperity of the State, and the 
 happiness of the nation, is quite another position, and 
 one to which I give my cordial assent. Now, the 
 application of the foregoing argument, to the subject 
 of Vote by Ballot, is this, that it answers all the 
 reasons put forth by those who contend for certain 
 natural rights and privileges in the body of elec- 
 tors, which this mode of voting would contribute 
 to secure. Like every other innovation, this is 
 only a question of expediency. It must be tried 
 upon the ground, not of any tendency to secure 
 theoretical rights, but of its effects upon the whole 
 body of society, and of the substantial benefits 
 which it may contribute to bestow. The repre- 
 sentative system itself is not a matter of inherent 
 right, it is a mode of government, which, having
 
 77 
 
 been found practically good, having secured to us 
 great blessings, is therefore the object of our re- 
 gard, and in which the British people have a 
 prescriptive and legal right, but not a natural one. 
 Vote by Ballot is advocated on the ground that it 
 would render the elector a perfectly free agent, 
 and that it would release him from all extraneous 
 influences, except that gentle and benign influ- 
 ence which his partialities and affections may ex- 
 ercise upon his judgment. I have not dwelt upon 
 the insufficiency of the ballot to produce this re- 
 sult. That argument has been wielded by the 
 ablest hand ; it is entitled to great weight. But 
 admitting its efficacy for this purpose, I maintain 
 that its supporters have proved but the first, and 
 least material point. It remains for them to shew 
 that this entire, this abstract freedom, would, in 
 its effects, be calculated to benefit the country ; 
 that the change it would introduce in the composi- 
 tion of the House of Commons, would be advan- 
 tageous to the community, compatible with that 
 description of government which the position of 
 England amongst the nations of Europe requires, 
 not subversive of the whole frame of our political 
 system, and of the other parts of our constitution. 
 
 This brings me to the conclusion of the first part 
 of my discussion, which is, 
 
 1st. That the question of Vote by Ballot is not 
 a theoretical one of its efficacy^ in giving to the 
 elector an entire independence, but a practical
 
 78 
 
 one, as to the effect of that independent power, 
 so exerted upon the constitution of the State. 
 
 2nd. That it is not to be argued upon the nar- 
 row basis of its removing this or that blemish from 
 our present mode of election, (imperfections which 
 I lament, and wish corrected, if by safe means,) 
 but upon the larger field of its ultimate conse- 
 quences, and whole future operation. 
 
 The remainder of this section points to the en- 
 quiry into the nature, the various kinds, and the 
 effect of influence upon the constituent body. I 
 have felt more strongly, in proportion as my 
 thoughts have been fixed upon this branch of the 
 subject, that, so far from it being possible to do it 
 justice in a short section, or chapter, of an ephe- 
 meral pamphlet, it both merits and demands' 
 much patient investigation and laborious analysis'. 
 Could I even flatter myself that I were competent 
 to the task, I can neither at present command the 
 time, nor would my limits allow me to give it its 
 full development. I cannot, however, help sug- 
 gesting to those possessed of more leisure and abi- 
 lity for it, that they will find much indistinctnesSj 
 confusion, and inaccuracy, in many current no- 
 tions upon this branch of the discussion; and I 
 must repeat, that the data upon which alone we 
 can determine the practical merits or demerits of 
 the ballot, depend upon the clearness, truth, 
 and precision of our ideas upon this point. 
 
 I have argued upon the ground that intelligence,
 
 ^9 
 
 education, and if not the endowments, the ac- 
 quirements of intellect are very unequally distri- 
 buted among the different classes of society. I 
 will add, that this distribution is inevitable. It 
 appears to me easily proved, that it is impossible 
 to diffuse the higher branches of knowledge so ge- 
 nerally among the mass of the lower orders, as to 
 remove this disproportion. Their time and their 
 attention must, in the nature of things, be chiefly 
 occupied with the care of providing, by manual 
 labour, for their subsistence. In a less degree, 
 the same causes will preclude the middle classes, 
 almost wholly occupied in the acquirement of the 
 means of independence, by a steady application 
 to the business of trade, from cultivating their 
 mental faculties so highly as those above them. 
 I know that, with respect to the middle orders 
 in this wealthy country, many do possess, and are 
 born to that degree of com.petence, which enables 
 them to dedicate a sufficient time to the acquire- 
 ment of the most liberal education. I merely ob- 
 serve, that my remarks do not applji to these ; 
 they are at the head of their own class ; they bor- 
 der upon and they share the advantages of that 
 next to them. But I speak of the majority, for 
 whom we legislate. I know, too, that great and 
 illustrious examples may be adduced, particularly 
 in a country where the barriers are none of them 
 insurmountable, of the highest class of intellect 
 forcing its road from the lowest order of society. 
 The same answer may be given. We make laws
 
 80 
 
 for the bulk of ordinary men, not for splendid and 
 rare exceptions : where they occur, they make 
 their way as it is. But their existence is no proof 
 that the general body to which they belong has 
 any greater natural capacity, or an equal share of 
 acquirements, with those to whom the attainment 
 of knowledge is more easy. 
 
 Lastly, it is no reason, because in all large bo- 
 dies of men, whether they be peers, or gentle- 
 men, or persons in middling life, much error and 
 prejudice may not be found, that therefore there 
 is an equal ignorance and mistake in all. If we 
 could find perfect wisdom and honesty any where, 
 we need not discuss Vote by Ballot, or even re- 
 presentative government, any more ; we should 
 only have to place our interests in such hands. 
 But the existence of imperfect knowledge every 
 where, does not prove that we should not rather 
 select, as the depositaries of power, those who 
 have the greatest comparative knowledge. But 
 even mind and intelligence are not the only requi- 
 sites to seek in those who confer political power. 
 It is likewise desirable that their station and stake 
 in the community should be such as to secure their 
 attachment to settled institutions, and that they 
 should not be tempted, or easily acted upon, to 
 seek change upon light grounds. I am not sure 
 that a large constituent body consisting, if it 
 could consist, of very clever and very poor men, 
 would not be found in practice a most dangerous, 
 and fatal instrument, that it would be inefficient
 
 to all the purposes of Government, and would soon 
 destroy itself. The upper classes in this country 
 seem to me to unite these requisites of intelli- 
 gence, and a sufficient guarantee for their attach- 
 ment to stable institutions, in a greater degree 
 than any others. They are numerically inferior to 
 the other classes. If we destroy the influence 
 which their property gives them, and make the 
 system of government a mere matter of arithme- 
 tic, a mere polling of heads, shall we not destroy, 
 or at least diminish, the preponderance which 
 ought to belong to that body in which the securi- 
 ties for a proper and wise use of the power exist 
 in the highest degree ? 
 
 The legal claims of a proprietor may, in a few 
 instances, have been hastily and improperly en- 
 forced ; but we are not therefore to conclude that 
 the whole operation of the influence of property, 
 which is at once far more general, and more gen- 
 tle, than is at first perceived, is pernicious. It is 
 assumed that it acts no otherwise than in the harsh 
 guise of intimidation and positive constraint. 
 Those who look more closely, will discern nume- 
 rous shades in its operation, and in a thousand 
 instances it merely amounts to an unwillingness to 
 disoblige, or refuse those to whom the voter is 
 under obligation. 
 
 I asked above, whether we were sure that in 
 destroying the motive of interest, we subdued 
 every other deteriorating influence ? I will go a 
 step farther and ask, whether we are sure that 
 
 a
 
 82 
 
 some may not be thus increased ? As in our in- 
 dividual character, we perceive that one passion, 
 or propensity restrains another, that ambition 
 counteracts avarice, that anger conquers hypocrisy 
 and the like, may not different motives of action 
 neutrahze each other in the electors mind. 
 
 Suppose that the influence of property is bad, 
 which I only admit as a mere hypothesis, since I 
 think it good ; are there not other influences not 
 only internal, but external, which would gain the 
 ascendancy and weight of which property would 
 be deprived. An artful and eloquent demagogue, 
 for example, would surely find it a more easy task 
 to pervert the judgment, and to excite the pas- 
 sions of the less educated portion of the electors, 
 to misrepresent facts, and to confuse with false rea- 
 soning, were the checking, and controuling power 
 of those persons the least likely to be imposed on 
 by his sophistries removed. Still more would the 
 same reasoning apply to the greater power of the 
 periodical press, a power so beneficial to society, 
 when exercised by men of talent and political 
 honesty, and addressed to the really educated 
 portion of the nation, so dangerous when used by 
 able, but unprincipled incendiaries to inflame the 
 passions of the ignorant, or to mislead the half- 
 informed. 
 
 Another argument which has been opposed to 
 my views, is that the degree of education and in- 
 telligence, necessary to enable a voter to judge of 
 the fitness and capacity of candidates, is greatly
 
 ^3 
 
 inferior to that required to empower them to com- 
 prehend political measures, and that the bulk of 
 the lower orders may fully possess the former, 
 though not the latter. If I understood the idea 
 correctly, it is, that a certain moral tact and in- 
 stinct would guide the voter to chuse well in be- 
 stowing his suffrage, though he might want all 
 the means of rightly estimating the course of poli- 
 tical conduct which his representative might pur- 
 sue, or the motive of his actions. I almost entirely 
 dissent from this whole doctrine. The faculties 
 which teach us to discriminate the abilities and 
 character of public men, are even of a higher, a 
 more refined description, than those which lead us 
 to estimate the bearings of different courses of 
 state policy. We must possess all the knowledge 
 necessary for the latter, and a great acquaintance 
 with mankind also : we must be near the scene 
 of action, scrutinize its springs, as well as its 
 effects. The breath of popular favour is even pro- 
 verbially capricious and uncertain. The popular 
 opinion is very frequently in error upon the merits 
 of cotemporary statesmen. Vote by Ballot would 
 probably have made John Wilkes premier, and 
 turned him out at the year's end. But I totally 
 deny, that, in point of fact, the elector would give 
 his vote to the most worthy candidate, w^ithout 
 concerning himself about measures above his com- 
 prehension. He would, on the contrary, give his 
 vote to the most pliant and flattering candidate, 
 who would pledge himself to the measures the 
 
 G 2
 
 84 
 
 voter preferred. Instead of chiising the ablest 
 representative, and reposing a full confidence, he 
 would chuse the most subservient, and hamper 
 him as much as possible. 
 
 Finally, I must always think that the influence 
 of property is one of its natural defences, that pro- 
 perty cannot dispense with its support. I must 
 believe, that the ascendancy of property and intel- 
 lect are united, and that Vote by Ballot would 
 equally assail that great and essential institution 
 upon which civihzation is founded, and that noble 
 faculty by which it is extended and improved.
 
 85 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 APPREHENSIONS OF A SERIES OF PARLIAMENTARY 
 REFORMS. 
 
 There is a numerous portion of the best informed 
 ranks of the community, perhaps the majority of 
 them, whose opinions on Reform may be thus ren- 
 dered. 
 
 We are sensible of considerable imperfections in 
 our present mode of representation. We think that 
 some of the highest and wealthiest families in the 
 State have too great and direct a power of nomi- 
 nating members. We lament that so much disor- 
 der and venality should disfigure our elections. We 
 should cordially approve of measures of Reform cal- 
 culated to soften, or to remove these blemishes. But 
 we see considerable difficulties in the accomplishment 
 of these limited objects. We venerate our Constitu- 
 tion as a whole. We admire its free spirit, its long 
 tried merits, its attainment of that difficult result, the 
 union of civil and personal liberty, with order, with 
 a good and a strong government. We totally dis- 
 sent from those accusations brought against our poli- 
 tical system, representing it as a radically bad, venal, 
 and profligate one. We cannot trace all the evils 
 with which we are afflicted, or with which we ever 
 
 G 3
 
 86 
 
 have been afflicted, to its errors and faults. We 
 think, on the contrary, that it is, taken altogether, the 
 best which has ever stood the test of a century. We 
 have experienced its advantages and its blessings. 
 We think that they far out-balance its defects. 
 Though we should be glad to cure them, we do not 
 desire to run great risk of destroying the whole in the 
 attempt. We would rather have the defects than the 
 risk. We do not feel disposed to venture all that 
 we enjoy on the desperate chances of a political 
 speculation. 
 
 Those who reason and who feel thus, and they are 
 many, must inevitably be alarmed at the prospect, 
 not of one Reform, the consequences of which they 
 can estimate, but of a long series of Reforms. They 
 perceive, that if they, like kind, yet clear sighted 
 friends, wish to amend the Constitution, there is a 
 numerous party of fierce foes, who seek only to 
 destroy it. They see that this Reform is but a first 
 step, to be followed by a number of others, which 
 lead they know not whither. Those who think that 
 great changes in governments are evils, only to be in- 
 curred for some definite and important benefit, are 
 startled to find that they are to be exposed to a suc- 
 cession of changes, intended gradually to effect a 
 complete transformation. They conceive that the 
 final aim of these successive reforms, always tending 
 to infuse an increasing portion of democracy into the 
 Constitution, could be no other than the establish- 
 ment of a pure republic. 
 
 Under such circumstances, the question of Reform
 
 ^7 
 
 presents itself in a totally different point of view. It 
 is no longer whether this or that plan of Reform is 
 good per se, but what v\ ill be the position in which 
 the different parties will stand to each other, should 
 it be adopted. We must calculate our means of re- 
 sistance, we, who do not wish to establish a Republic, 
 or to introduce into our government a principle of in- 
 definite and incessant change, must endeavour ta 
 estimate what would be the effect of this first measure 
 upon the relative strength of [)arties. 
 
 We should regard it as a final one, others would 
 consider it as a commencement : Which would be 
 right ? It seems evident that there is a party, and a 
 considerable one, whom no concession would satisfy, 
 who would look upon all they could obtain now, as a 
 means of obtaining more hereafter. There are many 
 who have declared war against the Constitution, either 
 avowedly or secretly, who assail it with every engine, 
 and with whom its friends could make no alliance. 
 There are others, who, though they do not go so far, 
 are yet exceedingly desirous of a much greater altera- 
 tion of the representative system, than it is likely will 
 now be proposed. These two parties, however they 
 may separate afterwards, will unite to a certain point. 
 They will pull together till they reach the place where 
 the latter intend to stop. Now, were it once proved 
 that the passing of any measure of Reform would 
 have the effect of strengthening these two parties, 
 and of facilitating the attainment of their ultimate ob- 
 jects, I think the moderate and temperate friends of 
 the Constitution, whose opinions I have been de- 
 
 (> 4
 
 m 
 
 scribing, vvould, to a man, unite against any Reform^ 
 We do not think our frame of Government so bad as 
 to induce us to surrender it to a succession of experi- 
 ments. We do not desire that our social system 
 should be indefinitely unsettled We dread the al- 
 terative processes of these empirics. Revolution does 
 not appear to us in a less repulsive form, because, 
 instead of an acute distemper, it is to wear us with 
 the wasting pangs of a chronic disease. 
 
 It is impossible to conceal from ourselves, how- 
 ever, that it will be exceedingly difficult to carry any 
 measure of Reform which will not have a tendency to 
 strengthen these pernicious influences. It will be 
 difficult to frame any plan so prudently, or to intro- 
 duce it so temperately, and so firmly, as not to give 
 to these extreme parties an impression of triumph, 
 and a persuasion of something extorted. They will 
 gain a certain accession of moral power, they will be 
 inspired with fresh confidence, and they will suppose 
 that they can gradually wring from the country in de- 
 tail the full extent of their objects. 
 
 I confess, it appears to me that Reform should have 
 a two-fold object; while it aims at a correction of the 
 blemishes mentioned above, it should guarantee the 
 great body of the nation, all vvho have an interest in 
 the permanence of Government, or the tranquillity 
 and repose of private life, against the perpetual re- 
 currence of this insatiable and reckless spirit of change. 
 Nothing can be clearer than that it will not stop of 
 itself. It will either go on till it completely sub- 
 verts every national institution, or it must be arrested
 
 89 
 
 by some stronger influence. The ener 
 Government is one principal agent for this 
 pose, and the moral force derived from the good 
 sense of the people the other. The species of se- 
 curity against wild innovations, which I allude to, 
 must consist in discovering in what part of the com- 
 munity this good sense exists in its purest and most 
 unalloyed force, and in so adapting Reform as to 
 strengthen its expression, and add to its weight in the 
 Legislature. 
 
 I would remark, that the innovating and revolu- 
 tionary spirit of change I hold up as dangerous, is 
 very distinct from that sober and rational desire of 
 ameliorating ancient institutions, which has already 
 produced such beneficial eifects. The latter adheres 
 to the outline of our venerable Constitution, takes it 
 as the basis, which must be preserved and strength- 
 ened, and only seeks to adapt it skilfully to the al- 
 tered circumstances and wants of the present age. 
 The former is bent on destroying it. They are as 
 different as Sir J. Wyatteville repairing and beautify- 
 ing Windsor Castle, is from Martin the incendiary, 
 who burned York Minster. 
 
 The very worst government is perhaps better than 
 the constant agitation produced by incessant changes 
 in the most essential forms ; at any rate, it is the 
 most frequent termination of them. England is so 
 entirely unsuited for a Republic, that it needs no 
 very extended political vision to foretell that the de- 
 nouement of these ultra Reformers' political drama 
 would l)e an absolute monarchy. In the meantime,
 
 90 
 
 what a wreck of national prosperity and happiness 
 would not these fierce party struggles occasion ! 
 Heaven avert the hour, when an English Minister 
 should re-echo the sentiment lately wafted to us 
 across the Irish Channel, and declare that " England 
 wants repose."
 
 91 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 ENGLISH ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 Aristocracy is a particularly sonorous and high 
 sounding word. It is also a convenient one. It 
 classes, under one general term, a variety of different 
 meanings, and throws upon the hearer the burthen of 
 decyphering the particular sense in which it is used. 
 It is likewise an expression agreeable to the feelings, 
 and flattering to the self-love of a powerful and dis- 
 tinguished class in the community. It has lately 
 been converted into a term of abuse, a rallying point, 
 a magic form of invocation of the angry and hostile 
 passions of a large portion of the population. Jn 
 this latter acceptation it has been the parent of a 
 number of titles of a similarly classic derivation ; 
 such as the ohgarchy, the squirearchy, the par- 
 sonarchy, and other compound words, containing 
 an equal proportion of Greek and English, of De- 
 mosthenes and Cobbett. It is quite intelligible, that, 
 with such recommendations, it should have been 
 received into general currency, and should have 
 become a favourite with the speakers and the writers 
 of the day. It is nevertheless certain, that in the 
 general and popular meaning in which it i? now
 
 92 
 
 used, it is a recent importation into our vocabulary. 
 It will appear too, that, like all foreign words, ap- 
 plied to the nice and peculiar characteristics of na- 
 tional manners, like all those sweeping terms, which 
 pretend to express every thing with five syllables, 
 it conveys indistinct and erroneous ideas. It is not 
 merely, that it does not show us the shades and de- 
 tails of the body of the picture, it is radically de- 
 fective in the outline, which it attempts to convey 
 to us. The images that it presents to the mind, 
 are confused, and false. I really believe, that much 
 of evil has arisen to the country from this word. It 
 has led to unfounded and invidious views, and pre- 
 tensions in one class. It has awakened morbid dis- 
 satisfaction, sullen discontent, fierce and deadly re- 
 sentment in others. It has been the apple of dis- 
 cord among us. When we speak of the Aristocracy 
 of ancient Venice, or of Berne, any one acquainted 
 with the nature of those Republics, knows exactly 
 what is meant, but nobody can annex the same 
 precise meaning to the term English Aristocracy. 
 Its vagueness has been favourable to indefinite as- 
 sumption on the one hand, and to indefinite but 
 virulent attack upon the other. In order to explain 
 myself more clearly, I would induce my readers to 
 follow me in some observations upon the nature 
 and past history of the English nobility and gentry, 
 and of their actual relations to the rest of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 We all know that the order of the peerage traces 
 its origin to the feudal times, and its earliest mem-
 
 93 
 
 bers were the proud and powerful nobles of the 
 middle ages. We know that in the wars of the 
 Roses, and under the tyranny of Henry the Eighth, 
 the power of these Barons was broken, and the 
 families of many became extinct. Their ranks were 
 recruited by Elizabeth and James from the flower 
 of the gentry, but their independent, and almost 
 princely authority, was Hnally destroyed. An in- 
 terval seems to have occurred between the reduction 
 of this species of separate dominion, and the revival 
 of their importance as a corporate political body. 
 But during this period, when they were the sub- 
 missive vassals of Henry the Eighth, or the obe- 
 dient servants of Elizabeth, there was still something 
 that preserved the prestige of their name, and a con- 
 siderable portion of their personal consequence. 
 There ran through all the monarchies of feudal 
 origin a certain sympathy between the throne and 
 the nobles. They vvere like husband and wife ; how- 
 ever they might quarrel and fight, they never could 
 resolve to carry things to the last extremity; they 
 always contrived to be reconciled in the end. No 
 usurpation of the crown by a subject was ever per- 
 manently successful; and, however Henry and 
 Elizabeth might determine to subdue, they never 
 sought to degrade their nobility. The political im- 
 portance, therefore, which they subsequently attained 
 as a separate portion of the Parliament, u as grafted 
 upon the recollections of their former greatness, and 
 upon the dignity and estimation which they still 
 preserved. It was fortified too by the consideration
 
 94 
 
 and favour of the crown, no longer jealous of their 
 distinct jurisdictions ; and it was supported by the 
 reality of great wealth, of the most solid and en- 
 during kind. When we consider, that the feudal 
 system, wherever it was established, has left the most 
 lasting traces in the habits and modes of thinking 
 of the European nations ; and when we observe, 
 how many of the more modern elements of personal 
 consequence were grafted upon these ancient recol- 
 lections, the importance of the peerage, down to our 
 days, is a matter of easy explanation. 
 
 But however this association of feudal recollec- 
 tions, with the substantial attributes of wealth and 
 political power, may have invested the peerage, as a 
 whole, with much of its lustre, we must not look to 
 find them often united in the peerage individually. 
 The peerages which survived the convulsions of the 
 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, were few in number; 
 and of these few some families became extinct in the 
 course of nature. From these periods, down to our 
 own, the peerage has been largely recruited in every 
 age from the ranks of the landed gentry, of the most 
 distinguished families, originally connected with com- 
 merce, of the highest legal functionaries, of successful 
 political intriguers, and of those who rendered im- 
 portant services to their country in the senate and 
 the field. Little of its original composition remains, 
 although its original character is preserved. We see, 
 therefore, that, however distinguished, the peerage 
 has never, in modern times, formed a body entirely 
 separated from the gentry. It has constantly been
 
 95 
 
 replenished from among them, it 1ms been connected 
 with them by marriage, it has pursued with them 
 the same objects, it has been united with them by a 
 thousand ties. 
 
 If we next ask the nature and limit of the term 
 gentry, it is less capable of an exact definition ; the 
 precise boundaries are not so clearly marked out. 
 Like the peerage, it has a feudal origin ; and as the 
 first peers were the Barons, the first gentlemen were 
 the Knights, whose name recalls all the best and 
 noblest part of those dark and turbulent times. Less 
 corrupted by the possession of uncontrouled and in- 
 ordinate power, and raised above the coarse bru- 
 tality of an unenlightened age, by the singular insti- 
 tutions and noble spirit of chivalry, this class ap- 
 pears to have been the depositaries of all the highest 
 qualities of their time. When the restraints of law 
 were weak, when each individual was surrendered so 
 much to the dominion of his own inclinations and 
 passions, it would be too much to suppose that the 
 Knights were always the representatives of the prin- 
 ciples they professed. Violence, fraud, and cruelty, 
 the vices of their age, no doubt were abundantly 
 frequent in their rank. Still there was in the spirit 
 and institutions of chivalry, a freedom from selfish- 
 ness, an elevation and delicacy of sentiment, a lofty 
 and generous sense of personal respect, which in- 
 vested them with a moral grandeur. They proscribed 
 what was mean, base, and sordid. They inculcated 
 honour, truth, fidelity, and courage. They enjoined 
 the protection of the weak, and the succcour of the
 
 9B 
 
 oppressed. Even in their tone of hyperbole, and 
 exaggeration, there is something of dignity ; it is an 
 imitation — a burlesque one if you will, of what is 
 in itself great and noble. We may find a confir- 
 mation of this in the inimitable work of Cervantes. 
 The most accomplished satire extant, attacks it in a 
 playful, not a hostile spirit. We smile at the ex- 
 travagancies of the hero, but we respect and esteem 
 his character. The author has depicted the aberra- 
 tions of an amiable and generous nature. 
 
 I have referred the origin of the gentry, like 
 that of the |)eerage, to the feudal times. From 
 those times they have inherited many of the quali- 
 ties which we usuallv annex to the idea of a sen- 
 tleman, a grace and dignity of manner, a high sense 
 of self respect, a peculiar delicacy of honour. But 
 like the peerage, even more than the peerage, have 
 they changed in the actual composition. Much of 
 the tone has been preserved, but the qualification has 
 never been in the proofs of lineal descent. The human 
 body, it has been supposed, changes every particle of 
 its frame in the course of seven years, yet the spiri- 
 tual identity remains. In the same manner many of 
 the best characteristics of ancient chivalry form the 
 foundation of, and still survive in the class of modern 
 gentry, although few of their ancestors ever went to 
 the crusades, or broke a lance in a tournament. 
 From this point, and in this class, are we to trace 
 the great difference between English manners and 
 character, and that of the continental nations. While
 
 97 
 
 the latter clung to heraldic forms, to rigid proofs of 
 descent, to artiticial distinctions, and therefore only 
 obtained from this stock of knighthood, and chivalry, 
 a withered, stunted offspring of provincial, petty, se- 
 condary noblesse, we took a totally different course. 
 The original foundation was common to all, but we 
 built upon it very differently. Retaining a certain 
 value for family and descent, we wisely rejected too 
 close an adherence to these strict rules. Our patent 
 of admission was more in the soul and spirit than in 
 the quarterings, was more a moral than an heraldic 
 qualification. The ranks of the English gentry were 
 widely and liberally opened to receive all those who 
 became distinguished by successful enterprize and 
 talent, who attained fortune by honourable means, 
 who won eminence by intellect and exertion. Ours 
 was an expansive, theirs an exclusive spirit. They 
 decreed that no man who was not ^' geutii/wmme,'^ 
 should enter the army ; we resolved that every officer 
 of the army and navy was ck facto a gentleman. 
 They condemned the learned professions of law and 
 medicine to a marked inferiority, — we paid a generous 
 respect to the high talents they require. They dis- 
 dained and rejected the least mixture of commerce, — 
 we welcomed cordially those enterprizing and en- 
 lightened men, who, in acquiring great wealth to 
 themselves, conferred great benefit on their country. 
 They preserved the narrowness, the prejudices of 
 feudality, — we caught and diffused its best spirit. 
 They copied the castes of the Hindus, — we imitated 
 
 H
 
 98 
 
 the sagacious policy of the former mistress of the 
 world, who conferred upon the incorporated nations 
 the lofty privileges of Roman citizens. 
 
 It followed, from these different courses, that 
 while the great and little noblesse of the continent be- 
 came an extremely obnoxious body, and were gra- 
 dually undermined by the increasing wealth and intel- 
 ligence of the rest of the community, the composi- 
 tion of our gentry was totally different. Their ranks 
 included not merely all that was illustrious in descent, 
 but the most affluent in fortune, respectable in sta- 
 tion, honourable in character, distinguished by pro- 
 fessional ability, pre-eminent in intellectual merit, 
 throughout the country. They blended the highest 
 acquirements of civilization with ennobling feelings, 
 derived from their chivalrous parentage. There was 
 in this distinction nothing that was invidious, nothing 
 that was oppressive, nothing that curbed or injured 
 freedom. It is a profoundly marked national line, 
 and is viewed with no national hostility by any part 
 of the people. In its most popular signification, the 
 word gentleman is never used in a bad sense, it never 
 conveys an unfavourable impression. It is so exclu- 
 sively national, that it has no corresponding term in 
 the other languages of Europe, and all the niceties of 
 expression must be resorted to, if we wish to explain 
 its meaning to a foreigner. The most violent dema- 
 gogue seldom ventures to assail it with his terms of 
 invective nnd reproach ; he knows that he should not 
 easily excite the sympathy of his hearers. The low- 
 est classes always annex to it a mixed meaning of
 
 99 
 
 character and of station. The readiest term of vul- 
 gar abuse, is, to tell a person of respectable situation 
 that he is no gentleman, meaning that he wants the 
 moral qualities which ought to accompany his rank 
 in life. They are right. An English gentleman gene- 
 rally justifies their impression of this necessary union. 
 Were I, without previous knowledge of the indivi- 
 dual, obliged to place boundless confidence in the 
 honour and integrity of another, I would select 
 through the world an English gentleman. 
 
 If I have been at all successful in describing my 
 impressions of these characteristic divisions of the 
 upper classes of English society, my objections to 
 the term aristocracy will be easily understood. A 
 nobility so mixed and blended with the gentry, can- 
 not possess that separate and exclusive quality neces- 
 sary to complete the idea of an aristocracy. In a 
 government of a purely aristocratic nature, like Mo- 
 liere's " Tout ce qui ii est pas vers est prose,'' all who 
 were not aristocrats would be democrats. But the 
 great body of the gentry is far too extended in num- 
 bers, and far too popular in its composition, to be 
 classed as an aristocracy. They are equally removed 
 from all affinity to democracy. We must therefore 
 reject the Greek derivatives, as not at all applicable 
 to the shades of our national ranks, and recur to 
 words of more familiar use. 
 
 The events of the last sixty or seventy years have 
 caused important changes in the individual composition 
 both of the Peerage, and of the gentry, but their propor- 
 tionate relations to each other, and to the rest of the 
 
 H 2
 
 100 
 
 community,' have not been substantially altered. 
 During this memorable period, the conquest of our 
 eastern empire, the vast extension of our national 
 debt, the immense increase of our commerce and ma- 
 nufactures, the various roads to distinction and prefer- 
 ment opened by the late war, all thronged the ranks 
 of the gentry with a sudden and prodigious accession 
 of numbers and wealth. The same sudden and large 
 infusion of new materials, has equally taken place in 
 the ranks of the peerage. The causes \^ ere very simi- 
 lar. The same acquisition of added importance, 
 wealth, and power, by the class immediately below 
 them, the same movement and action of the whole 
 nation, through the exciting struggles of the war. 
 Perhaps something may be ascribed to the particular 
 policy of Pitt. It may partly reconcile some of the 
 opponents to the memory of that celebrated statesman, 
 that he seems to have been peculiarly free from pre- 
 judices in favour of rank and title. His lofty pride, 
 like that of his distinguished father, appears to have 
 been of a strictly personal nature. Emerging from 
 the ranks of the private gentry, and owing his great- 
 ness to his own vast powers, and to the splendid 
 talents of his father, the dim coronet, which late, and 
 in his decline, encircled the brows of the first Earl of 
 Chatham, seems to have inspired no very lively 
 sympathy for the order in the breast of his son. It 
 is curious to mark the difference, in this respect, 
 between him and his great rival, and to note how va- 
 riously passions, feelings, and opinions, are chequered 
 in the mind of man. Pitt the idol, and the cham-
 
 lOl 
 
 pion of the Tories, in the simple austerity of his 
 manners, in his contempt for the adventitious decora- 
 tions of high station, in his ready appreciation and 
 production of talents, reminds us, in some points, 
 rather of the President of a Republic. Fox, the 
 warm and eloquent defender of popular rights, was, 
 in private life, the assiduous votary of the pleasures 
 of rank and fashion, and seems to have had always a 
 greater leaning towards the advantages of high birth 
 and connexion, than he would have cared to avow 
 even perhaps to himself. It is certain, that, in fact, 
 Pitt was the firm and liberal patron of ability, where- 
 ever he discovered it. The names of Huskisson, and 
 of Canning, will attest his discernment to posterity. 
 In the opposition of that period, eminent talent was 
 made the tool of party ; Pitt rendered it the asso- 
 ciate and heir of his power. 
 
 In his lavish distribution of the patronage of the 
 crown, by the creation of new titles, Pitt was, per- 
 haps, influenced in part by an indifference for the 
 honours he gave. Certain it is, that the composition 
 of the House of Lords was materially altered by the 
 infusion of such a vast number of new peers. 
 
 However, it must be owned, that, as a body, it 
 was rather strengthened, than injured, by the ac- 
 cession of so many recruits, generally chosen among 
 individuals of large fortune, of political influence, 
 or of eminent personal qualities. As a whole, their 
 consideration was rather augmented : on the one 
 hand, it is true, that a peer was not quite so rare a 
 phenomenon, the distinction was a less marked one 
 
 H 3
 
 102 
 
 than it had been iifty years ago ; but, on the other, 
 they had acquired the strength of numbers, and of 
 added vvealth. Their esprit ik corps too, was still 
 preserved, and they had the force of union. 
 
 From these circumstances it has arisen, that the 
 indirect influence of the peerage, in the Lower House, 
 has sensibly augmented within the last twenty years. 
 The great riches of some of their body have been 
 directed gradually to the purchase of many close 
 seats, formerly at the disposal of private gentlemen. 
 A Radical Reformer would probably observe, that 
 so long as the corruption existed, it was immaterial 
 to the people who exercised it. Practically, how- 
 ever, it is a matter of some consequence, that a great 
 transfer has taken place from one class to another. 
 The events of the same period have, I think, lessened 
 the importance of the gentry as a political body. 
 The creation of so many peers, robbed them of se- 
 veral influential members ; jealousies existed among 
 themselves ; the transfer of close boroughs to the 
 peerage closed many of their avenues to consider- 
 ation ; and the fastidiousness, and spirit of exclu- 
 siveness, which few, acquainted with our society, can 
 have failed to notice, also was a powerful agent. 
 It tended to destroy their identity as a class. The 
 most distino;uished amonji them were enrolled, and 
 
 Co ' 
 
 incorporated with the societies of the nobility ; and 
 the great mass, consisting of all those who fill the 
 nnobstrusive ranks of private life, the learned and 
 liberal professions, the majority of the army and 
 navy, perha[)s became partially divided by a spirit
 
 103 
 
 of this kind, from the more brilliant members of 
 that class, of which they are essentially a part. 
 
 Those who admire, in most of its parts, the cha- 
 racter of the higher orders in this country ; those 
 who reject with disdain the calumnies which have 
 lately been levelled against them ; those who know 
 their talents, virtues, and public spirit, may yet 
 apprehend, that they have fallen into an error in 
 cultivating a spirit of too great fastidiousness and 
 reserve. The real titles that they possess to respect, 
 and estimation render it less necessary for them to 
 hedge themselves round with these artificial de- 
 fences. Their friends fear that they have not cho- 
 sen wisely for themselves, or for the system of which 
 they are so integral a part ; when instead of en- 
 circling themselves with the moral support of the 
 most valuable portion of the nation, they have sought 
 the distinctions, and the dangers of a solitary and 
 attenuated elevation. 
 
 The most violent Reformers, and democratic 
 writers, have eagerly adopted a classification so 
 favourable to their views. Takinii advantage of 
 the added influence, obtained by the peerage in 
 the Lovver House, and making no allowance for 
 the counterpoise created by the increasing wealth, 
 power, and intelligence of the other parts of the 
 nation, they represented us as governed by a mere 
 junto of Aristocrats. They have not adverted to the 
 fact, that the influence of the great families has been 
 as much and as often exerted on the side of popular 
 rights, as of ministerial power. In their frequent 
 
 M 4
 
 104 
 
 panegyrics of the independence and intelligence 
 of the middle ranks, and in their fierce attacks 
 upon what they term the oligarchy, they either 
 inadvertently, or designedly, omit all mention 
 of that most important part of the nation, the 
 gentry. So profound a landmark in the feelings, 
 opinions, and modes of life of Englishmen, could 
 not be obliterated by their omission. Like the 
 Holy Alliance, they might trace at pleasure new 
 and capricious boundaries in the map of social 
 life, but they could not efface those moral affini- 
 ties which unite and distinguish gentlemen. It 
 may justly be complained of, that in all the dis- 
 cussions and plans which have recently been 
 broached upon the subject of Parliamentary Re- 
 form, the interests and claims of this most valua- 
 ble portion of the community should have been 
 overlooked. Placed in right, both of property 
 and intelligence, in the foremost ranks of the peo- 
 ple, supplying that demand for intellectual ability 
 by which, in all the professions, the finest opera- 
 tions of the social machinery are conducted, so 
 numerous, independent, and enlightened, as to 
 preclude the possibility of their being classed as 
 an oligarchy, or rendered the willing tools of 
 power, this body has every title to the first consi- 
 deration in any question of Reform. No reform 
 indeed could be otherwise than deeply injurious to 
 the welfare of the State, which should tend in the 
 least to displace them from their proper situation 
 in the community.
 
 105 
 
 We are sensible both of the honesty and indus- 
 try of the middle classes, and of the great ad- 
 vances they have recently made in education and 
 mental acquirement; still, any reform which 
 either intentionally, or otherwise, should have 
 the effect of transferring the borough influence 
 now possessed by individuals, to these ranks, 
 over-stepping the gentry entirely, would be a 
 complete inversion of the natural and existing 
 order of society. The practical excellence of a 
 House of Commons, depends not upon its confor- 
 mity to any theory of representation, it consists in 
 its uniting the largest portion of the intellect, in- 
 dependence, and patriotism of the country, within 
 its walls, its structure should be such as to render 
 the attainment of a seat in it of not too difficult 
 acquirement. A mode of election, securing these 
 important results, could not be pronounced radi- 
 cally bad, however it might be susceptible of im- 
 provement in the detail. 
 
 I will not disguise my impression that a very 
 considerable influence of the gentry in elections, 
 — a fair and natural influence, be it understood, is 
 essential for accomplishing this purpose ; still 
 more must I believe that it is among the body of 
 the gentry, that the members of the House of 
 Commons must be selected. I have already, I 
 hope, shewn, that I mean no narrow and exclu- 
 sive limit by this line, their ranks are ever open 
 to receive superior merit, and acquired conse- 
 quence. Within their wide circle is chiefly con-
 
 106 
 
 fined all the reality of talent, integrity, and libe- 
 ral feeling, which render them the best fitted to 
 be the depositaries of this sacred trust. 
 
 We might rejoice at a reform which should im- 
 prove our modes of election, or curtail the influence 
 of our great families. That reform would be in- 
 deed fatal to the best interests of England, by 
 which the House of Commons should cease to 
 constitute an assembly of gentlemen.
 
 107 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The most sincere friends of the great cause of 
 rational freedom may be excused for mingling 
 an almost extreme caution with the warmth of 
 their devotion. The experience of all history 
 proves, that nothing is more difficult, particularly 
 in large States, than to combine liberal institutions 
 with order, stability, and a necessary strength in 
 the executive. The past, indeed, affords us, with 
 a few brilliant exceptions, (the first and most 
 splendid of which is our own constitution,) little 
 more than a melancholy detail of a series of oscil- 
 lations between anarchy and despotism, ending, 
 for the most part, in the latter. 
 
 The path of real freedom is a strait and a nar- 
 row one ; and it must always be present to the 
 minds of its advocates, that it is beset with equal 
 and formidable dangers on botli sides. A very 
 slight deviation from its proper track, will occa- 
 sion its being lost in absolute power on one side, 
 or in disorder and confusion on the other. 
 
 The chief cause, indeed, of the difficulty expe- 
 rienced in tlie attainment of this great blessing
 
 108 
 
 is, that, both in its pursuit and preservation, a 
 degree of moderation and exemption from passion 
 is necessary, exceeding the average proportion of 
 these qualities in the breast of man. Thus, it 
 may be observed, that visionary theorists upon 
 these points, are always driven to suppose some 
 very extensive improvement in our species in 
 these particulars. They constantly assume that 
 we have become infinitely better fitted to govern 
 ourselves than we were heretofore, and that the 
 deductions of experience are not, therefore, ap- 
 plicable to our present state ; but it has uniformly 
 been found that they have been over sanguine in 
 such views. 
 
 The improvements of the human race, and they 
 have been great and real, have not extended yet 
 to give to their reason any strong additional power 
 of self-controul ; a variety of fierce and lawless 
 passions still slumber in our breasts, disciplined 
 indeed, but not destroyed by the steady hand of 
 legal government. There seems no just ground 
 to assume that less than the degree of restraint 
 which has always been necessary to deter men 
 from the commission of actions injurious to others, 
 would now suffice. 
 
 If we cast our eyes over the present state of 
 Europe, we shall see little reason to apprehend 
 immediate danger to constitutional liberty from 
 any direct attacks of absolute power. The latter 
 principle is universally on the defensive, and is, 
 perhaps, not indisposed to seek some compromise
 
 109 
 
 with its antagonist, but we have not the same 
 security against the assaults of the equally hostile 
 and dangerous spirit of anarchy. 
 
 So many quickly succeeding revolutions taking 
 place among people not yet in a high state of 
 intellectual improvement, and, perhaps, com- 
 menced, in some cases, without any elevated or 
 patriotic views, must cause extreme anxiety, not 
 merely to the partizans of absolute power, but to 
 the most sincere friends of constitutional freedom. 
 
 It is impossible to feel yet assured, that the 
 continental nations, in shaking off the arbitrary 
 sway of their ancient governments, will have the 
 good sense to replace it by institutions of a more 
 free but equally permanent and regular nature. 
 Should they deviate from this rational and mode- 
 rate course, we must be prepared to witness the 
 great body of European civilization surrendered 
 to a series of convulsions of a fearful character, 
 and unknown termination. We derive, indeed, 
 great hope from the example of France, from the 
 admirable and temperate use she has made of her 
 power, and from the great moral influence she 
 possesses over the other nations of the Continent ; 
 but as this inflence is reciprocal, there seems, 
 likewise, some risk that those elements of dis- 
 order which lurk within her own bosom, may 
 acquire an unfortunate preponderance from the 
 added momentum they may receive from without ; 
 and thus the whole state of the Continent, if not 
 one of unmixed gloom, is yet full of causes of
 
 110 
 
 great solicitude. In many places it may be clearly 
 perceived that the struggle is not less between 
 the principles of constitutional liberty and of 
 anarchy, than between the former and that of 
 absolute power. 
 
 The close sympathy which unites even ourselves 
 with the other parts of the great European Com- 
 monwealth, gives this state of things an important 
 connexion with the consideration of the question 
 of Reform. With us, indeed, the contest with 
 absolute power has been long over, and we have 
 only to watch with jealousy the encroachments of 
 the other great foes to liberty and to happiness. 
 We ought not, indeed, to reject temperate and 
 judicious ameliorations in our civil institutions ; 
 but we should bear it always in mind, that those 
 modifications are introduced in the presence of a 
 watchful enemy, as anxious to subvert as we are 
 to amend. 
 
 A strong impression of the actual existence of 
 such a state of things, has chiefly dictated the 
 preceding pages ; they have been inspired by no 
 wish to retard the progress of human improve- 
 ment, but by a fervent desire that its secure and 
 steady march should not be rashly and precipi- 
 tately compromised. I am conscious, that in the 
 irregular and heterogeneous compound of our 
 representative system, there exist considerable 
 imperfections, and much that, with a temperate 
 sagacity, may be advantageously amended ; but 
 it is a difficult and dangerous task, and appears to
 
 Ill 
 
 have been rendered more so, by the clouds of 
 error and misrepresentation with which the subject 
 has been surrounded. 
 
 Reform may be compared to one of those com- 
 plicated and delicate operations of surgical science, 
 by which some diseased portion of the human 
 frame is removed from the very midst of all those 
 beautiful organs, upon which vitality immediately 
 depends. Should such an operation be success- 
 ful, a source of irritation and uneasiness is re- 
 moved, the frame acquires additional health and 
 strength, and the result is a glorious triumph of 
 the science of man ; but it must be performed 
 upon the maturest deliberation, with a profound 
 knowledge of the anatomy of our structure. The 
 hand that directs the knife through all the intrica- 
 cies of this wonderful machine, must be firm, 
 bold, and skilful, yet cautious and tender. One 
 trivial error, one false direction of the edge, and 
 life is gone ! 
 
 In the prosecution of a task requiring the high- 
 est degree of coolness, moderation, sagacity, and 
 accurate knowledge, and in which such imminent 
 risk is incurred by the absence of these qualities, 
 it is disquieting to perceive how much the temper 
 of the public mind seems imbued with their direct 
 reverse. A state of strong and feverish excite- 
 ment, exaggerated and ill defined expectations, 
 appear, of all others, the dispositions to whose 
 guidance we should least willingly surrender our- 
 selves in such a path. They are most favourable,
 
 112 
 
 indeed, to the views of those who seek only 
 change, and would unhesitatingly sacrifice all that 
 we possess to the blind chances of a complete lot- 
 tery. But those with whom conservation is the 
 first principle, and improvement the second, na- 
 turally feel that the difficulty of blending them in 
 any course of action, is much increased by the 
 hostile influence of feelings so irritable, and expec- 
 tations so exaggerated. 
 
 Without venturing myself to attempt the detail 
 of any precise plan of reform, I have been in- 
 duced to offer to the public the remarks contained 
 in the foregoing pages, from an earnest desire to 
 allay this heated and vague excitement. I am 
 sure that the chances of a beneficial result will be 
 increased in proportion as we approach it in a 
 sober and temperate spirit. Many of my opinions 
 will differ materially from those of numbers of in- 
 dividuals : I hope that I am free from the dog- 
 matism of believing in the infallibility of my own 
 convictions ; I cannot help thinking, however, the 
 diff'erence between myself and the readers who 
 dissent from me will be diminished, if, dismissing 
 previous bias, they ask themselves candidly and 
 dispassionately the precise ideas they associate 
 with the word reform. 
 
 Let them examine with their own minds the ex- 
 tent to which they really wish change to be car- 
 ried, let them endeavour to estimate the probable 
 consequences to society of any Parliamentary Re- 
 form they might wish to introduce, and let them
 
 113 
 
 answer whether, in a question upon which they 
 feel perhaps so strongly, they see their way clearly 
 and plainly to the secure attainment of practical 
 good. When reform is entertained in this calm 
 and deliberate spirit, I have little doubt that its 
 results will be advantageous to the community. 
 It is to be feared, however, that the public mind 
 is far from considering it in such a temper, and 
 that no plan of reform can have the effect of satis- 
 fying its present hopes. We must never forget 
 that the English Constitution is an amalgamation 
 of the popular and monarchical elements of go- 
 vernment. It is no easy problem to balance these 
 as they have been balanced. The nicest discrimi- 
 nation and judgment are requisite in adding to 
 the weight of the popular scales. Give it a little 
 too much, and the transition to a Republic, of a 
 peculiarly wild and unsettled character, would be 
 inevitable. 
 
 To those whose ardour for Reform has effaced 
 all regard for that Constitution which was so long 
 the object of our pride and affection, and which 
 we so long believed to be the source of our pros- 
 perity, I would cite one high authority. To those, 
 who, in pursuit of their idol of a pure and perfect 
 representation, would unhesitatingly endanger or 
 sacrifice every other political institution in the 
 state, I would oppose one great name. To those, 
 who, like myself, think our Constitution as a 
 whole so excellent, that the spirit of improvement 
 must always remain subordinate to the principle
 
 114 
 
 of conservation, I would secure one mighty sup- 
 port. On this very subject, in the face of the 
 assembled Commons of England, in almost the 
 last display of his splendid powers upon this great 
 theatre of his eloquence and his talents, proclaim- 
 ing it with the departing tones of that voice which 
 for twenty years had exercised so powerful a sway 
 within its walls, — when he left them for a loftier, 
 but scarcely a more brilliant station, the present 
 Lord Chancellor declared, what I trust millions 
 of his countrymen will re-echo, that he would 
 infinitely rather perish beneath the ruins of the 
 Constitution, than survive to lament its destruction.
 
 WORKS, 
 
 LATELY PUBLISHED, OR IN THE PRESS, 
 
 By RIDGWAYS, PICCADILLY, 
 
 And to be had, by Order, of every Bookseller. 
 
 Mr. CANNING. A Second Edition. 
 
 Dedicated, by Author itii, to the Right Honourable WILLIAM 
 UUSklSSON, M.P. S^c. c^c. 
 
 THE SPEECHES OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 GEORGE CANNING, Corrected by Himself, with Memoirs of 
 his Life. Illustrated by a fine Portrait, Fac-similes of his hand- 
 writing, a Plate exhibitive of his mode of correcting and revising 
 his Speeches, Sec. in Two important Passages in the celebrated one 
 on Portugal. G vols. 8vo. 3/. 12s. 
 
 Extract from Mr. Unskissnn's Letter to the Editor. 
 
 " You must allow me to add, that it is to me a great gratification that you have 
 recorded tiic private tViendsiiip and political attachment which subsisted so long, 
 without interruption, between Mr. Canning and myself, in a work which is des- 
 tined to convey to posterity the remains of his splendid talents as an orator — to 
 exhibit his principles as a statesman — and to show with what energy and sucoess 
 he carried those principles into execution as a minister of the crown." 
 
 Exlriict from the Times. 
 
 " This excellent and valuable edition of Mr. Canning's Speeches, by Mr. 
 Therry, contains, among other things, a remarkable instance of the application 
 of the new process of typolithography. There is, in the first volume, a fac-simile 
 of the proofs of the celebrated Speech on the affairs of Portugal, with all the cor- 
 rections made by Mr. Canning. Every mark which lie made in the letterpress, 
 every reference, and every word written on the margin, is represented as it ap- 
 peared in his hand-writing in the proofs." 
 
 SIR JOHN WALSH, Bart. 
 In the Press, and nearly ready, a Third Edition. Ss. 
 
 POOR LAWS IN IRELAND, considered in their probable 
 cfl'ccts upon the Capital, the Prosperity, and the Progressive Im- 
 provement of that Country. By Sir John Walsh, Bart, M.P. 
 
 Contents. — Introdnctlon - Statement of Arguments adduced in favour of Poor 
 Rates in Ireland -Division of these Arguments — General Remarks — Comparison 
 of the respective Checks afforded to the Increase of Poor Rates, by the State of 
 Society in England and Ireland —Comparison continued — Effects of Poor Laws in 
 Ireland — Difficulty of administering them -Irish Absentees — Influence of Poor
 
 REFORM QUESTION. 
 
 POPULAR OPINIONS on PARLIAMENTARY REFORM 
 CONSIDERED, By Sir Johm Walsh, Bart. M.P. Fifth Edition, 
 with Additions, and a Postcript to the Ballot, 3s. 
 
 The QUESTION of REFORM CONSIDERED ; with Hints 
 for a Plan. Second Edition. 3s. 
 
 DIALOGUE on ELECTION by BALLOT. By William 
 Henry Ord, Esq. M.A. Is. 
 
 On the NECESSITY of a RADICAL REFORM. By Charles 
 BuLLER, Esq. M.P. 2s, 
 
 THOUGHTS on MODERATE REFORM in the HOUSE of 
 COMMONS. Is. 
 
 THOUGHTS on PARLIAMENTARY REFORM; with a Plan 
 for the Restoration of the Constitution. Is. 
 
 CHARLES TENNYSON, Esq. M.P. on PARLIAMENTARY 
 REFORM. Is. 
 
 T. BARBER BEAUMONT. Esq. on PARLIAMENTARY 
 REFORM, and on the DISTRESSES of the COUNTRY. Second 
 Edition. 2s. 6d. 
 
 MEASURES for the SESSION of 1831, including a PLAN of 
 PARLIAMENTARY REFORM; in aLETTERtoEARLGREY. 2s. 
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION, at the Close of 1830; its 
 Prospects from a New King and a New Ministry. By T. Potter 
 Macqueen, Esq. 2s. 
 
 The REPEAL of the UNION with IRELAND CONSIDERED. 
 Second Edition, greatly enlarged. Is. 6d. 
 
 What are the Advantages IRELAND has Gained by the UNION 
 with GREAT BRITAIN ? Is. 
 
 ON THE TAXATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 
 
 By the Right Hon. C. Poulett Thomson, M.P. 2s. 6d. 
 
 CORN and CURRENCY ; in an Address to the Landowners. By 
 the Right Hon. Sir James Graham, Bart. M.P. New Edition, 4s. 6d. 
 
 SIR HENRY PARNELL, Bart. M.P. on BANKING, CUR- 
 RENCY, &c. Second Edition. 8vo. 5s. 6d. 
 
 ENGLAND IN 1830 ; being a Letter to Earl Grey, laying before 
 him the Condition of the People, as described by themselves, in their 
 Petitions to Parliament. 3s. Gd. 
 
 The CURRENCY QUESTION FREED FROM MYSTERY. 
 
 By G. Poulett Scrope, Esq. 2s. 
 
 G. POULETT SCROPE'S TWO LETTERS to the MAGIS- 
 TRATES of the SOUTH of ENGLAND, on the Allowance System, 
 the Means for employing or disposing of the Excess of Labour, and 
 for diminishing the unequal pressure of the Poor-Rate, &c. &c. 3s. 6d, 
 
 A LETTER to the KING, on the UNJUST DISTRIBUTION 
 of CHURCH PROPERTY. By a Country Curate. Second 
 Edition. Is. 
 
 NiMROD. — Dedicated to the King, and Addressed to British Far-
 
 113 
 
 answer whether, in a question upon which they 
 feel perhaps so strongly, they see their way clearly 
 and plainly to the secure attainment of practical 
 good. When reform is entertained in this calm 
 and deliberate spirit, I have little doubt that its 
 results will be advantageous to the community. 
 It is to be feared, however, that the public mind 
 is far from considering it in such a temper, and 
 that no plan of reform can have the effect of satis- 
 fying its present hopes. We must never forget 
 that the English Constitution is an amalgamation 
 of the popular and monarchical elements of go- 
 vernment. It is no easy problem to balance these 
 as they have been balanced. The nicest discrimi- 
 nation and judgment are requisite in adding to 
 the weight of the popular scales. Give it a little 
 too much, and the transition to a Republic, of a 
 peculiarly wild and unsettled character, would be 
 inevitable. 
 
 To those whose ardour for Reform has effaced 
 all regard for that Constitution which was so long 
 the object of our pride and affection, and which 
 we so long believed to be the source of our pros- 
 perity, I would cite one high authority. To those, 
 who, in pursuit of their idol of a pure and perfect 
 representation, would unhesitatingly endanger or 
 sacrifice every other political institution in the 
 state, I would oppose one great name. To those, 
 who, like myself, think our Constitution as a 
 whole so excellent, that the spirit of improvement 
 must always remain subordinate to the principle 
 
 1
 
 114 
 
 of conservation, I would secure one mighty sup- 
 port. On this very subject, in the face of the 
 assembled Commons of England, in almost the 
 last display of his splendid powers upon this great 
 theatre of his eloquence and his talents, proclaim- 
 ing it with the departing tones of that voice which 
 for twenty years had exercised so powerful a sway 
 within its walls, — when he left them for a loftier, 
 but scarcely a more brilliant station, the present 
 Lord Chancellor declared, what I trust millions 
 of his countrymen will re-echo, that he would 
 infinitely rather perish beneath the ruins of the 
 Constitution, than survive to lament its destruction. 
 
 Tll.MNG, I'RINTEU, CHELSEA.
 
 WORKS, 
 
 LATELY PUBLISHED, OR IN THE PRESS, 
 
 By RIDGWAYS, PICCADILLY, 
 
 And to be had, by Order, of evert/ Bookseller. 
 
 Mr. CANNING. A Second Edition. 
 
 Dedicated, by Authority, to the Right Honourable WILLIAM 
 HUSKISSON, M.P. &fc. Sfc. 
 
 THE SPEECHES OF THE RIGHT HONOURAHLE 
 GEORGE CANNING, Corrected by Himself, with Memoirs of 
 his Life. Illustrated by a fiue Portrait, Fac-similes of his hand- 
 writing, a Plate exhibitive of his mode of correcting and revising 
 his Speeches, ike. in Two important Passages in the celebrated one 
 on Portugal. 6 vols. 8vo. 3/. 12s. 
 
 Extract from Mr. Ilnskisson's Letter to the Editor. 
 
 " You must allow me to add, that it is to me a great gratification that you have 
 recorded the private friendship and political attachment which subsisted so long, 
 without interruption, between Mr. Canning and myself, in a work which is des- 
 tined to convey to posterity the remains of his splendid talents as an orator— to 
 exhibit his principles as a statesman — and to show with what energy and success 
 he carried those principles into execution as a minister of the crown/' 
 
 Extract from the Times. 
 
 " This excellent and valuable edition of Mr. Canning's Speeches, by Mr. 
 Theny, contains, among other things, a remarkable instance of the application 
 of the new process of typolithograpljy. There is, in the first volume, a fac-simile 
 of the proofs of the celebrated Speech on the affairs of Portugal, with all the cor- 
 rections made by Mr. Canning. Every mark which he made in the letter-press, 
 every reference, and every word written on the margin, is represented as it ap- 
 peared in his baud-writing in the proofs." 
 
 SIR JOHN WALSH, Bart. 
 In the Press, and nearly ready, a Third Edition. 3s. 
 
 POOR LAWS IN IRELAND, considered in their probable 
 effects upon the Capital, the Prosperity, and the Progressive Ini- 
 proveraent of that Country. By Sir John Walsh, Bart, M.P. 
 
 Contents.— Introduction- Statement of Arguments adduced in favour of Poor 
 Rates in Ireland -Division of these Arguments— General Remarks — Comparison 
 of the respective Checks afforded to the Increase of Poor Rates, by the State of 
 Society in F^ngland and Ireland -Comparison continued — Effects of Poor Laws in 
 Ireland — Difficulty of administering them— Irish Absentees- Influence of Poor 
 Rates upon the Interests of Property, and upon the Progress of Improvement —
 
 REFORM QUESTION. 
 
 POPULAR OPINIONS on PARLIAMENTARY REFORM 
 CONSIDERED. % Sir Johm Walsh, Bart. M.P. Fifth Edition, 
 with Additions, and a Postcript to the Ballot. 3s. 
 
 The QUESTION of REFORM CONSIDERED ; with Hints 
 for a Plan. Second Edition. 3s. 
 
 DIALOGUE on ELECTION by BALLOT. By William 
 Henry Ord, Esq. M.A. Is. 
 
 On the NECESSITY of a RADI<:^AL REFORM. By Charles 
 
 BULLER, Esq. M.P. 2s. 
 
 THOUGHTS on MODERATE REFORM in the HOUSE of 
 COMMONS. Is. 
 
 THOUGHTS on PARLIAMENTARY REFORM; with a Plan 
 for the Restoration of the Constitution. Is. 
 
 CHARLES TENNYSON, Esq. M.P. on PARLIAMENTARY 
 REFORM. Is. 
 
 T. BARBER BEAUMONT. Esq. on PARLIAMENTARY 
 REFORM, and on the DISTRESSES of the COUNTRY. Second 
 Edition. 2s. 6d. 
 
 MEASURES for the SESSION of 1831, including a PLAN of 
 PARLIAMENTARY REFORM; in aLETTERtoEARLGREY. 2s. 
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION, at the Close of 1830; its 
 Prospects from a New King and a New Ministry. By T. Potter 
 Macqueen, Esq. 2s. 
 
 The REPEAL of the UNION with IRELAND CONSIDERED. 
 
 Second Edition, greatly enlarged. Is. Gel. 
 
 What are the Advantages IRELAND has Gained by the UNION 
 with GREAT BRITAIN ? Is. 
 
 ON THE TAXATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 
 
 By the Right Hon. C. Poulett Thomson, M.P. 2s.6rf. 
 
 CORN and CURRENCY; in an Address to the Landowners. By 
 the Right Hon. Sir James Graham, Bart. M.P. New Edition, 4s. 6d. 
 
 SIR HENRY PARNELL, Bart. M.P. on BANKING, CUR- 
 RENCY, &c. Second Edition. 8vo. 5s. 6d. 
 
 ENGLAND IN 1830 ; being a Letter to Earl Grey, laying before 
 him the Condition of the People, as described by themselves, in their 
 Petitions to Parliament. 3s. 6d. 
 
 The CURRENCY QUESTION FREED FROM MYSTERY. 
 By G. Poulett Scrope, Esq. 2s. 
 
 G. POULETT SCROPE'S TWO LETTERS to the MAGIS- 
 TRATES of the SOUTH of ENGLAND, on the Allowance System, 
 the Means for employing or disposing of the Excess of Labour, and 
 for diminishing the unequal pressure of the Poor-Rate, &c. &c. 3s. 6d, 
 
 A LETTER to the KING, on the UNJUST DISTRIBUTION 
 of CHURCH PROPERTY. By a Country Curate. Second 
 Edition. Is. 9 S '4 S I !^ 
 
 Nimrod. — Dedicated to the King, and Addressed to British Far- 
 mers. POLITICAL SUICIDE; or, THE DEATH of ENGLAND 
 BY HER OWN HANDS. By the Author of Nimrod's Letters.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
 
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