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 535 
 
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 1837 
 
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 WHAT NEXT: OR, THE PEERSJ 
 rtND THE THIRD TIME OF 
 ASKING
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 WHAT NEXT? 
 
 on 
 
 THE PEERS 
 
 AND THE 
 
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 " Where two are to ride on the same horse, one must needs ride behind. 
 
 Old Proverb. 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JAMES RIDGWAY AND SONS, PICCADILLY. 
 
 MDCCCXXXVII.
 
 /737 
 WHAT NEXT? 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE PEERS AND THE THIRD TIME OF ASKING. 
 
 THE second session of Sir Robert Peel's Parlia- 
 ment has passed, and the third is approaching. How 
 is it to be met by the Government ? What mea- 
 sures are to be brought forward ? Which will be 
 carried ? And how ? 
 
 These are anxious questions, which it is impossi- 
 ble to answer without bearing in mind the past and 
 present state of parties. The present state of par- 
 ties may broadly be said to consist of those who 
 seek to perfect the machinery, and to carry out the 
 working of the Reform Bill, and of those who wish 
 to obstruct or prevent both. The great fulcrum 
 of the obstructives is in the House of Lords, 
 where they command, and where they render each 
 reform measure as little mischievous as is consistent 
 with a certain show of conformity ; and where 
 every Government measure is treated in such a 
 manner as to make it as difficult as possible for the 
 Ministers of the Crown to conduct the affairs of the 
 country. The old names of Whig and Tory are 
 merging into Liberal and Conservative. The Con-
 
 servatives arrogantly assert, and some few others 
 have thoughtlessly admitted, that the rank, wealth, 
 and intelligence of the country are Conservative ; 
 but it may be as confidently asserted, and with in- 
 finitely more reason, that the direct converse is the 
 truth. No doubt, a large majority of the modern 
 peerages, of the minor gentry, of the Clergy of 
 the Established Church, and of those families that 
 have grown to wealth and station under the form 
 of bishops, judges, governors, magistrates, con- 
 tractors, pensioners, and sinecurists, during the 
 extravagant wars and administrations of the last 
 half century are Tory or Conservative. They are 
 a stirring, worldly, experienced race, that act to- 
 gether with a compact zeal, which augments their 
 strength, and exaggerates their numbers, while, 
 with a diffidence peculiar to themselves, they arro- 
 gate an exclusive wisdom and sanctity which im- 
 pose on the credulous. These are their claims to 
 a monopoly of the rank, wealth, and intelligence 
 of the country ; but a very cursory analysis will 
 expose the flimsiness of such pretensions. For 
 even in the House of Lords, the majority of the 
 really great historic and territorial Peers are liberal ; 
 so, also, are the great landed gentry.* Nearly the 
 
 * We cite at hazard the three premier Dukes of the three 
 kingdoms Norfolk, Hamilton, and Leinster; and if we take the 
 senior peer of each of the ranks of the peerage, we shall find that 
 of the thirteen who have seats in the Lords, no less than nine 
 support the liberal government; and to these may be added, 
 all the Howards, Russells, Cavendishes, and Ponsonbys ; the
 
 entire manufacturing interest (full one-fifth of the 
 property of the whole country) is liberal, as well 
 as nearly the whole of the Dissenting persuasions, 
 comprising a fair one-half of our populations. The 
 learned professions (save and except the theolo- 
 gians of Oxford and Cambridge) and the mercan- 
 tile class are, at least, equally divided, while the 
 vast body of the great trading community, which 
 embodies the substantial middle ranks of life, the 
 sinews of the State, are confessedly liberal. Now, 
 there are few reflecting Tories who in their own 
 closets can deny that this is the array, stretching 
 from the Duke of Norfolk to the smallest municipal 
 corporation, in which the larger masses of the essen- 
 tial rank, wealth, and intelligence of the country 
 really reside. Indeed, the plain fact stares them 
 in the face, that this is the power, or party which 
 now governs the State. Gross miscalculations of 
 its strength often arise, in consequence of those 
 principles of toleration and independence which it 
 professes, and which necessarily often render it dis- 
 cordant in views, and disunited in action, until 
 urgent occasions call forth its energies, and rally 
 and re-unite its scattered elements ; and then, when 
 too late, the Tories are amazed at the latent strength 
 
 Earls of Shrewsbury, Derby, Spencer, Scarborough, Fitzwilliam ; 
 the Marquesses of Lansdown, Westminster, and Breadalbane ; the 
 Dukes 1 of Cleveland and Sutherland ; Mr Coke, of Norfolk, Mr. 
 Chandos Leigh, Sir Richard Sutton, Sir John Ramsden, with other 
 such like paupers, and men of no repute, raggamuffin reformers, 
 without rank, wealth, or intelligence ! !
 
 they have provoked. This was eminently exempli- 
 fied by the Reform Bill ; it was felt when the 
 Catholics were emancipated, and the Test Act re- 
 pealed, in defiance of the so-styled powerful Con- 
 servatives ; and it was more than tacitly recognised 
 by the Tory ministry, when they affected to take 
 office on conforming principles. But this liberal 
 strength is subdivided into Whigs and Radicals, 
 and it is the occasional disunion, real or expected, 
 of these two sections, that gives an artificial impor- 
 tance to the Tory minority. The battle of the Re- 
 form Bill united, as its victory separated them, and 
 in 1834, when this separation was widest, the Tories 
 rushed in, and seized on the government. They 
 dissolved the Reform Parliament, and, by dint of 
 the greatest exertions of purse, promise, influence, 
 and intimidation, succeeded in reducing, in their 
 own Parliament, the old Whig and Tory num- 
 bers nearly to a balance. The turning of the 
 scale rested with the Radicals, who naturally 
 gave it to their companions the Whigs ; and the 
 two sections of Whig and Radical, profiting by ex- 
 perience, became thenceforth more closely united.* 
 Parliament met, the Tories were overthrown, 
 and a mixed government was formed, whose 
 rule of action appears to be to bring forward 
 
 * An angry and silly indignation has been affected by the Tories 
 at this union, which is in the natural course of things; for it is dif- 
 ficult to say where Whig ends and Radical begins ; but Tory is as 
 distinct from them both as Gatton from Leeds.
 
 measures, according to their supposed fitness, and 
 the exigency of the times, without reference to mere 
 popularity on the one hand, or deference to the 
 known Tory character of the Lords on the other, 
 to discuss and justify them in the face of the coun- 
 try ; and finally, to accept and pass such as are 
 not changed in spirit. In other words, to work 
 out and establish the Reform Bill according to the 
 wants of the country and the support they receive. 
 
 This, then, is the present ministry, and this the as- 
 pect of parties. Affairs went on tolerably well for the 
 first session. Bills were sent up to the Lords for the 
 settlement of the Irish tithes, and for the reform of the 
 corrupt English municipal corporations. The Lords 
 changed the spirit of the Irish, and only mutilated 
 the English bill ; wherefore the Ministers, in accord- 
 ance with the rule just stated, dropt the one bill, and 
 passed the other. There was much regret at the 
 wanton rejection of the Irish Tithe bill by the Lords, 
 and loud remonstrances and menaces were applied to 
 the Ministers, for submiting to the mutilations of 
 the Corporation Bill. But all this is now forgotten 
 in the successful working of the so mutilated Eng- 
 lish Corporation bill : for, instead of the bold affir- 
 mation, that both sections (Whigs and Radicals) 
 were satisfied in 1835, it would be nearer the truth 
 to say, they are now satisfied with what was then 
 done. 
 
 Both parties were also satisfied with the pro- 
 gramme, or promise of last year's proceedings ; but
 
 6 
 
 at the close of the session, a cry was raised that 
 nothing had been done. " Your promises were, 
 " as you then were, mighty ; but your performances, 
 " as you now are, nothing," exclaimed Lord Lynd- 
 hurst to the Ministers, exulting in his destructive 
 Conservatism, at the close of the Session. 'Tis 
 no sin that a man should labour in his vocation, 
 and the boast and the sarcasm were natural in 
 his Lordship. His object, too, was plain enough 
 out of disappointment to breed dissension. And 
 he succeeded, for a few hasty Liberals did take up 
 the cuckoo note on this Tory key ; but it is surpris- 
 ing that so shrewd an organ of many sober and stout 
 Reformers as the Spectator, should have allowed 
 itself to be so easily caught as thus to repeat: 
 " During a whole session, the Whig performance of 
 " promises to the Radicals has been nothing. All 
 " turns upon that word. The new policy of the To- 
 " ries has consisted in reducing to nothing, the con- 
 " sideration for which the Radicals consented to sup- 
 " port a Ministry opposed to all organic change." 
 Reasoning from this assumed fact, it goes on to de- 
 clare, that " the Whig ministry had no longer the 
 " slightest claim to liberal support; and so far," 
 it adds, " Lord Lyndhurst's plan was eminently 
 " successful." We will reply to this by and bye; but, 
 in the mean while, what is meant by this nothing ? 
 Were the following acts which were passed during 
 last Session nothing? Let us run over a few of 
 them.
 
 TITHE COMMUTATION ACT. 
 
 The re-settlement of English tithes, which for 
 years had perplexed and embarrassed successive 
 Ministers, Committees, and Parliaments, was 
 finally and satisfactorily accomplished. It is 
 true Lord Wharncliffe has had the modesty at 
 Wakefield to claim this measure as the legiti- 
 mate child of Sir Robert Peel ; but the slightest 
 comparison of Lord John Russell's and Sir Robert 
 Peel's Tithe Bills, will shew that they resemble 
 only in a common subject. The source of Lord 
 John's bill derives from the original bill intro- 
 duced by Lord Spencer ; but Sir Robert Peel's 
 measure, even in its amended form, was only per- 
 missive. It merely allowed the tithe owner and 
 tithe payer to make agreements, and thus shrinking 
 from all the difficulties of commutation, sacrificed 
 nearly all its advantages. Now what is the resem- 
 blance between this half measure and Lord John 
 Russell's act; under which, in Jive years time, not 
 an acre of English land will be subject to tithe. But 
 this is one of the many specimens which may be 
 adduced of Tory tactics which seek to oppose or 
 undermine all reforms when in progress, and then 
 relying on the country's forgetfulness, to claim 
 credit for their operation when they succeed. 
 
 MARRIAGE ACT. 
 
 An act was passed for the due celebration of 
 marriage. Before Lord Hardwicke's act in 1753,
 
 8 
 
 marriage in England was (as it has continued in 
 religious Scotland), a civil contract, in so far as the 
 state was concerned, and all were permitted to par- 
 ticipate in its benefits. But Lord Hardwicke's 
 bill in effect, enacted that none but Jews, Quakers, 
 and members of the Church of England should 
 marry. For by that act, no marriage was 
 valid which was not solemnized by a clergyman 
 of the Church of England, according to the 
 forms prescribed by that act Jews and Quakers 
 excepted. But the Marriage Act of last Session 
 reformed this compulsory conformity to the Church 
 of England, and provides that any persons may 
 be married in their own chapels, (if first duly 
 registered for the purpose), by their own ministers, 
 according to the form which they recognize, care 
 being taken to introduce contracting words into the 
 ceremony, and to provide a witness of it. The 
 civil rights of succession are thus carefully guarded, 
 and the clergy of the Church of England are re- 
 lieved from the painful duty of enforcing their mar- 
 riage service on those who dissent from it, while all 
 are encouraged to fulfil their religious duties con- 
 cerning matrimony according to their own persua- 
 sions and their own consciences. That is to say, 
 the same toleration which has hitherto, in spite of 
 bigots, left all Dissenters at liberty to offer up their 
 prayers, and to receive their sacraments in their 
 own chapels without first qualifying by a compulsory 
 attendance on the service of the Church of England,
 
 9 
 
 is consistently extended to the religious ceremonies 
 of marriage. 
 
 And yet this act thus leaving marriage open to 
 the due operation of law and religion, has been de- 
 liberately misrepresented and denounced from the 
 altar, " as a measure which a few years ago hardly 
 " a sane person would have had the hardihood to 
 " propose,* as a degrading and corrupting law, a 
 " desecration of the holy ordinance of matrimony," 
 and " an outrage on an institution which has 
 " always hitherto been designated as sacred." J" 
 These Balaam curses were delivered to his Clergy, 
 and have since been printed by a Bishop of Exeter, 
 who from what experience we know not, seems to 
 think mankind, and more especially the people of 
 England, have not sufficient religion within their 
 own breasts to invoke its influences on their mar- 
 riages, unless compelled thereto by Act of Parlia- 
 ment. Here is another specimen of Tory misrepre- 
 sentation, and of the bigotry, real or assumed, be- 
 neath which it seeks to wound. 
 
 REGISTRATION ACT. 
 
 In connection with the last measure, an act 
 was passed for the registration of all births, mar- 
 riages, and deaths. Before this act no register 
 of births was kept, but a register of baptisms only, 
 by a minister of the Established Church, in fact 
 a register of the performance of certain ceremonies 
 
 * Bishop of Exeter's charge, p. 14. f Jbid. p. 16.
 
 10 
 
 of the Church of England. Births, deaths, and 
 marriages, as such, were disregarded. A neglect 
 confined, as respects Europe, to Spain, Portugal, 
 Turkey, and the British Islands. For all those 
 who strongly objected to the Church of England 
 form of baptism, and the Baptists who admit no 
 infant baptism at all, were deprived of the advan- 
 tages of this baptismal registration ; and all that is 
 known of deaths has been confined to persons 
 buried in the Church of England cemeteries, being 
 about one-half of the amount of deaths, all beyond 
 was mere guess. But the act of last session has re- 
 medied this offence and defect. 
 
 ORANGE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The Orange Association, was put down and 
 this alone were worth a session's labours. Let 
 us simply recal what this was. Under forty 
 years of Tory patronage it had grown to be an 
 organized confederacy, by which between 3 and 
 400,000 men in Ireland, in England, in our colo- 
 nies, and in the army, under badges of party and 
 religious distinctions, convened secret or public 
 meetings, to the encouragement of riotous assem- 
 blages and demonstrations of force, to the amount, 
 in a recent instance, of 75,000 men, contrary to, 
 and in defiance of, the law. 
 
 IRISH CONSTABULARY FORCE. 
 
 A bill for the reformation of the Irish con- 
 stabulary force, though mutilated by the jealousy
 
 11 
 
 of the Lords, was still kept sufficiently effective to 
 be allowed to pass. 
 
 PRISONERS' COUNSEL ACT. 
 
 A bill, too, was passed, which humanely gave to 
 the bewildered and ignorant prisoner, in criminal 
 cases, the assistance of counsel. 
 
 STAMPS ON NEWSPAPERS. 
 
 Taxes yielding more than 700,000 were taken 
 off, including the reduction of nearly three-fourths 
 of the stamp duty on newspapers, whereby free dis- 
 cussion was encouraged and promoted throughout 
 the country. As a proof of the immediate beneficial 
 effects of this reduction, so opposed by the Tories 
 and their press, we may state, that last year, when 
 the high duties were in force, there were thousands 
 of unstamped publications circulating in defiance 
 of the stamp acts, and for the breach of which end- 
 less prosecutions were then pending. Now there 
 are neither unstamped publications nor prosecu- 
 tions ; and although the first loss to the revenue 
 amounts to some 300,000, yet there is every rea- 
 son to expect the greater part of this sum will be 
 replaced by the lower rate of duties on the increas- 
 ing number of stamps and advertisements, as well 
 as on the increasing consumption of paper. 
 
 CHURCH REFORM. 
 
 A more convenient and equable division of 
 the dioceses and revenues of the several English
 
 12 
 
 bishoprics was also effected, and the wedge of 
 practical reform thus introduced into the body of 
 the Church. 
 
 These measures are eight solid answers to the 
 mere nothings of the Spectator. They are of 
 sufficient importance and utility (and the list 
 might be increased) to awaken regret on the part 
 of Lord Lyndhurst, and real satisfaction amongst 
 all true Reformers. 
 
 On the other hand, the Lords, with the speed 
 of railroad legislation, kicked out all the bills 
 for the reform of the Law and of the Court of 
 Chancery, they left the unfortunate prisoners for 
 debt to rot in prison, and their creditors to go 
 without satisfaction for another year, they scouted 
 in a few hours the fifty years' labours of three 
 generations of reformers of the Post Office, 
 they scoffed also at the petitions of the Jews, 
 defended the corrupt burgesses of Stafford, and 
 told the independent Scotch they should neither 
 have cheap justice in their Court of Session, nor 
 equal poor rates in their capital. 
 
 But these, and several other autocratic rejec- 
 tions by the Lords, though sufficiently mischievous, 
 might be pleaded as special exceptions to the general 
 rule of reform, rather than as an absolute denial 
 of the rule itself. But with regard to Ireland their 
 conduct was totally different. They denounced the 
 very principles on which the reforms devised for 
 it rested ; and accordingly extirpated them, root
 
 13 
 
 and branch, from the Irish Municipal Corporation 
 and Irish Tithe bills. The Ministers, of course, 
 accepted this treatment as tantamount to peremp- 
 tory rejection, and the Lords must have so in- 
 tended it, for a majority in the Commons, varying 
 from 61 to 86, had firmly and repeatedly declared 
 the organization of a system of corporate govern- 
 ment to be the vital principle of the Irish Municipal 
 Corporation Reform Bill, as it had been of the 
 English and Scotch. Indeed, it is a mere mockery 
 of terms to suppose, that a bill for the regulation 
 of corporate government, means the abolition of 
 all corporations. As well might the Parliamentary 
 Reform Bill have been treated as a measure for 
 the abolition of the House of Commons. And the 
 importance of the special clauses of the Irish Tithe 
 Bill were painfully well known to many of the 
 Tory ex-officials. 
 
 Thus, therefore, matters now stand, some 
 reforms have been squeezed, and others may be 
 expected, with increased difficulty, to be squeezed 
 through the Lords respecting England ; but for Ire- 
 land, in whatever regards the civil co-equality of 
 religious sects, they are inexorable. This civil co- 
 equality flows, indeed, directly from the Catholic 
 Emancipation Bill, so long and vigorously resisted 
 by their Lordships, and so suddenly and vigorously 
 thrust down their throats by the Duke of Wellington. 
 But he and they are now deaf to the reasons which 
 convinced them then. They seem to think, that the
 
 14 
 
 inequality in the numbers of the two sects should be 
 compensated by an inverse inequality in the laws 
 which govern them. At all events they are in- 
 exorable, and their majority insurmountable. On 
 the other hand the King's government, and the 
 House of Commons, even of the late Ministers, 
 stand pledged in honour and by repeated votes, 
 to assert this civil co-equality as the key-stone of 
 our union with Ireland. 
 
 Now what is to be done ? Affairs cannot go 
 on much longer in Ireland, in their present 
 state. Writs of rebellion Rathcormac an un- 
 paid, or eleemosynary clergy millions of tithes, 
 (that slippery property) under a Penelopean legisla- 
 tion convicted and condemned corporators, still 
 filling corporations and administering justice an 
 organized association, the natural child of discon- 
 tent, peaceably and gradually assuming the control 
 of the country all these, with other attendant cir- 
 cumstances and contingent accidents, cry aloud for 
 decision. What, then, is to be done ? Which party 
 is to yield ? Is there no door open for compromise ? 
 Apparently none. Yet one or the other party must 
 ultimately give way. Which ought which must ? 
 As in most cases the weakest. But which is the 
 weakest? That which has the nation against it. 
 And how is this ascertained ? By a dissolution of 
 Parliament. But this appeal to the nation has already 
 been made, and by the advice and under the influence 
 of a Government favourable to the opinions of the
 
 15 
 
 Lords : yet the result was hostile to those opinions, 
 and so decidedly so that the Government gave up 
 the contest, declaring in Sir Robert Peel's words, 
 that the power of the Lords must not be strained 
 too far. 
 
 Yet still the Tory Lords hold out. They con- 
 tend that their opinions are gaining ground, and a 
 reaction taking place, because there is a smaller 
 majority in the present than in the late Parliament. 
 Are they right, or are they wrong ? This question 
 leads straight to a second dissolution. But is it neces- 
 sary and constitutional that a series of dissolutions 
 should take place, for the satisfaction of the prolong- 
 ed doubts of the Lords? And would another dissolu- 
 tion solve those doubts? In fact, would their 
 Lordships bow to the decision of a majority of that 
 paulo post futurum Parliament ? Would they not 
 again, as now, cavil at its greater or less amount ; 
 analyze and pick holes in its election, construction, 
 and the relative number of English, Irish, and Scotch 
 members of its Whig and something more, and 
 Radical and (perhaps then) Radical and something 
 more composition ? Should we not hear of excite- 
 ment, delusion, intimidation, government influence? 
 In short, what guarantee have we that the Tory 
 Lords would acknowledge the voice of the nation 
 in the votes of its representatives ? They will not 
 do so now why should they then ? 
 
 But it is said, they would listen to reason, then, 
 for there would be a greater majority against them.
 
 But what deference have they ever shewn to great 
 and overpowering majorities ? The House of 
 Commons, which passed the Reform Act, carried its 
 first bill by a majority of 1 13. What did the Lords 
 do ? They threw it out. The next session, another 
 bill, less energetic in its provisions, but backed by 
 another majority of 116 went to the Lords. How 
 were this second majority and the accompanying 
 spirit of concession met ? Ask the events of May, 
 1832. Lord Lyndhurst, then, as now, the great 
 champion of the unyielding infallibility of the 
 Lords, commenced mutilating the bill, taking it 
 (precisely as he did the bills of last session) out of 
 the hands of the Government. But Lord Grey and 
 Lord Brougham arrested the learned judge in his 
 factious career. They went to Windsor. What did 
 they there ? What did Lord Grey, the supposed 
 great champion of the Peerage, but the known and 
 approved great assertor of the people's rights and 
 of public tranquillity ? He feared not the Lords, 
 for he asked for authority to create no less than 
 fifty peers, in one day. His Majesty hesitated, the 
 Reform Ministry resigned, where was the Reform 
 Bill then ? The Duke of Wellington was in : 
 was he to carry it? No, indeed. How, then, 
 was it carried ? By the people. The Peers ba- 
 lanced their irresponsible powers against the 
 weight of the people, and they went to the beam, 
 as chaff. There is no use in denying a plain matter 
 of fact. It was the stern aspect of the country,
 
 17 
 
 from one end to the other; and the accounts of 
 the myriad assemblages of Manchester, Birming- 
 ham, Glasgow, and other large towns, which kept 
 hourly pouring in, that daunted the Tory courage 
 of the Peers, and rendered it impossible for the 
 Duke of Wellington to form a ministry. He went 
 to the King, and told him so : he came down 
 to the Lords, and acknowledged it. And then 
 the Tory Peers, being urged by certain letters 
 demissory slunk from their benches, and so the bill 
 passed. Is this process to be repeated ? Is it so 
 constitutional ? Will the House of Lords, as now 
 constituted, work only by convulsions ? 
 
 This digression affords a sample of the practical 
 spirit of concession and constitutional respect on 
 the part of the Lords for large, unquestionable and 
 successive majorities in the Commons. Majorities 
 too, such as it is neither probable nor desirable that 
 the Liberals should again muster. Is it therefore 
 probable that a bare second dissolution would win 
 over, convince, or coerce the Lords now, when they 
 are infinitely more enterprizing than at the time of 
 the Reform Bill ? Both reason and experience 
 answer No. 
 
 But what will constrain them ? That which 
 constrained them before the force of opinion, and 
 the fear of a reform in their own House. 
 
 Now the force of opinion is difficult to measure, 
 it is a loose term, and a variable quantity. A 
 government conciliates it by a prosperous state 
 of affairs, by a reduction of taxation, and reform of
 
 18 
 
 abuses, by the unanimity of its members, and by 
 carrying, or by sincere and manly endeavours to 
 carry, beneficial and popular measures, and finally 
 it is excited and rendered active by opposition. 
 
 In 1832 it was strongly in favour of the Liberals, 
 but the overweening majorities and consequent 
 dissensions and contradictory measures of the first 
 Reform Parliament rapidly dispersed it. It ebbed 
 towards the Conservatives towards the Radicals 
 it was every where no where. But the sudden 
 breaking up of the Reform administration, the 
 glaring inconsistencies of the Tory conforming 
 Ministry, the frank bearing of the present Govern- 
 ment, the independent union of all Reformers, and 
 the obstructive diligence of the Lords, have suc- 
 cessively re-collected and turned the tide, and it is 
 now flowing steadily in favour of Lord Melbourne 
 and the Liberals. This assertion is best measured 
 by facts. If we refer to the registrations for the 
 last years, we shall find : 
 
 Registration in 1834. 1836. 
 
 England } County, 393,895} fi7fiR1R $ County, 438,412 
 
 & Wales, S Borough, 288,721 S I Borough, 300,S34 
 
 843,997 916,118 
 
 The numbers cannot yet be exactly ascertained for 
 this year ; but from those obtained, there is reason 
 to believe they will exceed a million. This is most 
 
 * This is taken low, and in round numbers, for all the return s 
 tre not complete.
 
 19 
 
 satisfactory, for all Liberals must rejoice to see the 
 constituencies annually encreasing in sound mem- 
 bers, while those pets of the Tories, the freemen, and 
 potwallopers, gradually disappear. In Bristol, for 
 instance, which returned Sir Richard Vivyan on 
 the freemen's interest, there were registered in 1834, 
 5388 freemen, and 4689 householders ; but now 
 there are on the register 6085 householders, and 
 only 4337 freemen ; being a difference of 2447 in 
 favour of substantial voters. But, without descend- 
 ing to particulars, or to any analysis, which, 
 however curious, must be necessarily full of 
 errors, we rest our faith on the broad fact, that a 
 government and party leaning to the popular side 
 of politics, will and must always profit by an en- 
 crease of popular constituents. The Tories got the 
 start in watching the registrations, and placed 
 numbers of their adherents on the lists in 1833 ; 
 and to this early rallying of their forces before the 
 revising barristers, coupled with the temporary 
 possession of government, they owe their strength 
 in the present Parliament. This casual success 
 has naturally deceived many ; but now that the 
 Reformers have had time to pay a similar attention 
 to their registrations, even those who formerly 
 shouted reaction recoil from a trial of strength. 
 In England and Wales, where the greatest reform 
 losses were sustained, the Liberals would recoverfrom 
 thirty to forty members : in Scotland, where the 
 liberal members already are as two to one, there 
 would be a further encrease of four or five members; 
 
 c2
 
 20 
 
 and in Ireland, (thanks to Lord Lyndhurst's alien 
 speeches, and the noble army of tithe proctors.) 
 there would be a gain of from fifteen to twenty 
 members. The late Longford election illustrates 
 this assertion. For, in 1835, the Tory candidate 
 was at the head of the poll, beating Mr. Luke 
 White by 801 to 428 ; but now the tide is turned, 
 and Mr. White has beaten the Tory by a majority 
 of 93. A favourable election might thus remove 
 from fifty to seventy members from the Tory to the 
 liberal side of the House, and so raise the liberal 
 majorities to above one hundred and fifty. 
 
 If further confirmation of these opinions be 
 required, it may be found in the state of the 
 elective corporations. We do not cite the Scotch 
 municipal corporations, for there is only one district 
 of Scotch boroughs that returns a Tory member ; 
 and the Irish corporations are, in obedience to the 
 will of the House of Lords, left alone in the glory 
 of their admitted corruption ; but in England the 
 political state of the corporations is easily ascer- 
 tained, and is as follows : 
 
 1835. 1836. 
 
 Corporations whose Members are all Liberals 30 30 
 
 Corporations where the majority are Liberals . 71 71 
 
 Corporations where they are all Tories . . 5 5 
 
 Corporations where the majority are Tories . 25 26 
 
 Corporations neutral .... 2 2 
 
 Corporations doubtful .... 3 2 
 
 Total 136 J36
 
 1835. 1836. 
 
 These 136 Corporations were f Liberals, 2,487 2,500 
 composed of ^Tories, 1,033 1,035 
 
 Here are no signs of re-action. It might have 
 been expected that there would have been a strong 
 but transitory run in favour of the Liberals in 
 1835, when the elections were first opened; but 
 the above returns shew that this liberal disposition 
 has been fully sustained in 1836. In fact, the 
 Tories themselves confess the weight of numbers to 
 be against them, for they declare that our corpo- 
 rations " are filled from the meanest and most 
 corrupt of the people." This in Tory euphuism, 
 best taught by the Bishop of Exeter, means 
 opponents. 
 
 These strong and cheering testimonies of the 
 siate of public feeling render double credit to the 
 ministers who resist the temptation they expose for 
 a dissolution, and offer an honourable contrast to 
 the Tories, who, in 1834, threw the whole country 
 into the angry agitation of contested elections, for 
 the selfish purpose of snatching at office. No 
 doubt, a greater number of liberal members would 
 be convenient for lazy attenders and for careless 
 ministers, but there are enough now to do their 
 country's work, and it looks well when ministers 
 have the manliness to rely on the goodness of their 
 measures, rather than on the number of their sup- 
 porters. By those measures they must ultimately 
 stand or fall ; and if they continue as they have 
 begun, steadily to bombard the House of Lords 
 with good measures, they will, ere long, force them to
 
 22 
 
 surrender. For each reform once passed lengthens 
 and strengthens the lever by which consequent re- 
 forms may be wrenched out, while every rejection 
 of a good measure stimulates the force of public opi- 
 nion. The country, too, though proverbially slow to 
 act, is not, and has not been unobservant of the 
 struggle which is going on, and in due time and if 
 need be, it may speak out and act as it did on 
 Parliamentary Reform. We all remember how 
 many sapient Tories assured themselves the coun- 
 try then was indifferent, or re-acting. But they 
 deceived themselves, as they may do again ; and 
 perhaps ere very long some little bill inadver- 
 tently thrown out when the vessel is full may be 
 the last drop the East Retford of the Lords. 
 
 Few wish to see matters suddenly brought to 
 this pass, and therefore they desire that the Lords 
 should for their own sakes have the grace to yield 
 in time ; and to join frankly in the wholesome 
 progress of national reform. Indeed there are 
 signs, if not hopes, of this consummation, for 
 one of their approved organs has made the dis- 
 covery, invisible to Tory eyes in Tory days, 
 " That there are innumerable topics for measures 
 " to remedy existing and practical evils, and 
 " alleviate the sufferings of the poor," and there- 
 fore recommends their Lordships to prepare and 
 bring " into their own House, and mature by full 
 " arid anxious debate during the whole session, a 
 ' ' great variety of bills, having a practically bene- 
 " ficial character." The pleasure of seeing the
 
 23 
 
 Peers turn reformers may make us forget for a while 
 the slight incongruity of their thus taking the cares 
 of legislation out of the hands of Government. 
 But not content with these lessons, the same reform- 
 ing teacher now tells them, " that all great and 
 " durable changes in a free country must begin 
 " with the middle classes." Whereupon we find 
 their Lordships dining and speechifying, with a 
 most edifying industry, frequenting public meet- 
 ings, coquetting with trades' unions, and courting 
 the 10. householders and smaller tradesmen whom 
 they so bitterly contemned during the debates on 
 the qualification clauses in the Parliamentary and 
 Municipal Corporation Reform Bills. What does 
 all this mean ? Has some democrat in disguise 
 counselled them to play upon the credulity, and 
 bid for the confidence of the reforming masses 
 with the conservative intention of turning it against 
 them? 
 
 Be this as it may, few will deny that their 
 power and their seats, some of which are even 
 now elective, some hereditary, and others for 
 life, have been confided to their judgment only 
 for the benefit of the nation ; and as they have 
 already often been modified for that benefit, real 
 or imaginary, so they may be again. The two 
 last important changes in their House, intro- 
 duced the one, twenty-eight Irish elective Peers 
 for life (besides four bishops), of whom twenty-five 
 are Tories, and the other, sixteen Scotch elec-
 
 24 
 
 tive Peers, of whom the whole sixteen are Tory !* 
 We have said real or imaginary benefit, for right or 
 wrong the Lords have neither real nor constitutional 
 power to continue to resist that which the country 
 continues to require. They have lately attempted 
 to deny this plain first principle of our limited mo- 
 narchy. The independence of the Lords, carried 
 to the height of their conservative notions, would 
 produce anarchy, or constitute an oligarchy, or old 
 Venetian tyranny, but in no degree the mixed 
 government of England which has hitherto boasted 
 of a balance of powers. If the Lords lay claim to 
 independence, so also may the Crown in the exer- 
 cise of its veto, and the Commons in their control 
 of the public purse. But the retaliatory exercise 
 of these rival pretensions would at once stop the 
 whole machine of government, and produce anar- 
 chy. Wisely, therefore, the responsibility of Mi- 
 
 * The experience of 130 and of 36 years has shewn that the con- 
 stituencies of these 44 Peers are eminently defective in one great 
 advantage of elective bodies in the returning representatives of all 
 shades of opinions. This experience should point the finger-post 
 to their reform. The contrast also between the opinions of the 
 Peers and of the people of Ireland and Scotland is remarkable, and 
 another election will make it more so. 
 
 Tories. Liberals. 
 25 3 
 
 42 63 
 
 i J Peers, 16 > 16 
 
 Scotland, j n ,.- ( ,_ oc 
 
 t Commons, . 53 J 17 36 
 
 SIXTY-THREE to THREE, and THIRTY-SIX to NONE ! What pro- 
 portions ! what harmony ! 
 
 T , , ( Peers, 28> 
 
 ""' I Commons, 105$
 
 25 
 
 nisters, and the privilege of dissolution, check this 
 licence in two estates of the realm, and a sound 
 discretion has hitherto preserved the Lords from 
 the application of some practical curb to their 
 technical independence. But now the conservative 
 Peers seem resolved to invoke this tangible re- 
 straint, for they may rest assured the nation has no 
 intention of allowing the Crown and the Commons 
 to become mere cyphers in the hands of a compact 
 and permanent majority of the Lords, For many 
 years there was an approach to this state of 
 things, for the real authority of the State had been 
 merging in the Lords, who ruled the country by 
 their nominees in the Commons, and, by the same 
 power, constrained the Crown in the choice of its 
 ministers. The Reform Act abated this encroach- 
 ment, and re-adjusted the balance of the constitution. 
 The Lords see this fact, but cannot reconcile them- 
 selves to its operation, and are, therefore, still con- 
 tending secretly, and in some instances, perhaps, 
 unconsciously, for the nomination of the ministers, 
 and for a working influence in the Commons, This 
 is at the bottom of their opposition to many of the 
 measures, and more especially to the men of the 
 present administration, who are, from circum- 
 stances, essentially the men of the Commons. The 
 Lords, then, are struggling for their lost ascen- 
 dancy. They pertinaciously tried their strength, 
 even against the Reform Bill itself; and, although 
 severely checked, they are in no degree reclaimed,
 
 26 
 
 but only made cautious ; for choosing a more covert 
 battle-field, and appealing to the prejudices of their 
 countrymen, they now look for success under the 
 mask of a No-Popery Church-in-danger cry. This 
 is the key to their resistance on the Irish questions, 
 beneath which they are in reality fighting for their 
 own proud and profitable, but departed interests ; 
 but the people of England are not blind to this 
 artifice, and in the mean while the Irish are weary 
 of being treated as subjects for the Lords' expe- 
 riments in re-action. 
 
 Unless we are much deceived, the King and the 
 People, that is the King's Government and the Peo- 
 ple's representatives, will, ere long, declare that Ire- 
 land must not, and shall not remain as it is. That 
 the holdings of its Church shall no longer be 
 daily loosened, and its Protestant Clergy hallooed 
 on to an unseemly contest for temporalities, till 
 there be none left to contend for ; while the whole 
 country is kept quivering on the verge of separation 
 or revolt. If this be so, then it will be for the 
 Lords to decide whether their House shall remain 
 as it is, or be reformed. For they must either 
 acquiesce in reconciling Ireland, or upset the 
 Ministers and take the Government themselves. 
 But they cannot undertake the Government with- 
 out the Commons, and the Commons they cannot 
 get. Therefore they must acquiesce or be reformed. 
 Now there is small hope that they will acquiesce 
 with a good grace ; and it has been shewn that a
 
 27 
 
 bare dissolution would fail to convince them, there- 
 fore their Reform real or imminent is the only re- 
 maining expedient. 
 
 This reform might be effected by subjecting their 
 irresponsibility to an elective process ; but the ma- 
 chinery is difficult to invent, and how is the mea- 
 sure to be passed, and when ? 
 
 Their obstructiveness might be reduced by 
 placing a veto on their third rejection of any mea- 
 sure passed by a given majority of two distinct par- 
 liaments. But the question recurs of how and when 
 will such a reform pass their Lordships' House? 
 
 Their political discordance with the country 
 might be harmonized by the creation of such a 
 number of hereditary Peers, as would neutralize 
 the present Tory majority, and this might be 
 effected without their Lordships' consent. But 
 where, without exhausting the House of Com- 
 mons, and extinguishing the landed gentry of the 
 country, are some 100 gentlemen to be found with 
 sufficient estates to support the hereditary rank of a 
 p eer ? How long would it be before these 100 
 new Peers, hereditary and irresponsible, forgot 
 their principles in favour of a love and defence of 
 their order ? and what signs are there that public 
 opinion would countenance such an addition to 
 the already ponderous hereditary wisdom of the 
 country ? 
 
 The last alternative is the creation of Peers for 
 life, or a joint creation of hereditary and life Peers. 
 There are many men whose health, fortune, or
 
 28 
 
 habits, forbid their mounting the hustings of a 
 popular election, or taking part in the long and 
 stormy debates of a popular assembly, yet whose 
 talents and experience might be of great service to 
 their country. We refer to the retired Governors, 
 or Administrators of our various and far-spread 
 Colonies and dependencies, to our great Generals 
 and Admirals, retired Diplomatists, official men, 
 great merchants, persons of high legal or scien- 
 tific attainments, and others of general repute. 
 We well know that the greater number of these 
 persons having been selected and employed by 
 Tory governments, are of Tory persuasion. Yet 
 still we could point out several who are not, and 
 there is a vast floating fund of intelligence and 
 integrity in the country, from whence Life Peers 
 might be selected. The above classes were named, 
 more for the sake of designating the future stock, 
 from whence the life peerage might be replenished, 
 and it would be difficult to say, that the House 
 of Lords would not gain in real honour, character, 
 stability, influence, and utility, by large and suc- 
 cessive infusions from them. The House of Lords, 
 to use a German phrase, is now too one-sided ; 
 its interests and its experience are nearly exclu- 
 sively territorial, for even its legal, military, and 
 episcopal adjuncts, all equally rise from or merge 
 in land loaves and fishes, corn and tithes. 
 
 It may be added, that this method of acting on 
 the House of Lords, is perfectly independent of their 
 Lordships' consent; is in accordance with the
 
 29 
 
 growing public opinion,which revolts from a House 
 of Lords entirely beyond control or responsibility; 
 and that it would leave the old Peers still un- 
 touched in their hereditary seats and undoubted 
 honours. It might be necessary to limitthe number 
 of life Peers, and to protect them from the tempta- 
 tion of accepting hereditary Peerages. And the cor- 
 rective of a qualification for the hereditary Peers, 
 by initiation in the Commons, or by amount of 
 property, and which they themselves are so urgent 
 in affixing to all other franchises, might not unuse- 
 fully be applied to their own. 
 
 The power of summoning Peers to Parliament 
 for life, or even for a session, is one of the oldest 
 prerogatives of the Crown, and life Peerages are 
 as recent as the reign of George the Second. If 
 we go farther back, we shall find that all the old 
 Peers of England, the Barons of Magna Charta, 
 were hereditary, not in their persons, but by their 
 fiefs and estates. The hides of land, not the parch- 
 ment patent, then constituted the Peer. 
 
 These suggestions are thrown out to shew that 
 a Reform of the Lords is neither without precedents 
 nor so very impracticable, and the change once 
 over, men might congratulate one another upon the 
 ease with which it had been accomplished, and the 
 benefits which it promised : yet, still we frankly own, 
 it would be an experiment, and prefer, therefore, 
 that the Lords should have the good sense and 
 good feeling to allow matters to pass quietly off, 
 and not force on a resort to it, as a choice of evils.
 
 30 
 
 Thus much for the Lords : we now take a sur- 
 vey of the present state of the country, and will 
 cast back a few glances to its comparative prosperity 
 under the Tories. 
 
 The Liberal party have now been in power for 
 these last six years, with the exception of the four 
 months Tory intrusion in 1834. During that time 
 they have taken off ABOVE EIGHT MILLIONS of taxes, 
 they have thrown open the trade of China and of 
 India, and extended other channels for commerce ; 
 they have also relaxed the old restrictive system 
 which, under a mistaken notion of protection, 
 cramped or misdirected our industry. As a 
 comment on this policy, the country for the last 
 six years has enjoyed a course of unexampled pros- 
 perity. Every branch, and all the details of trade, 
 manufacture, and commerce have put forth strong 
 and fruit-bearing shoots. And we earnestly refer 
 those who doubt these assertions, to the Tables of 
 Trade and Commerce which are now annually 
 prepared by the Board of Trade, and by which it 
 will appear as clear as that two and two make 
 four, how little progressive in improvement the 
 country was, in any one branch, during the good 
 old Conservative times, and how steadily, yet ra- 
 pidly, it has advanced in every one branch since it 
 has fallen under the mismanagement of the ignorant 
 and destructive Liberals. We may state generally 
 that our imports and our exports which averaged 
 under the Tories thirty-four and fifty -five mil- 
 lions respectively, and which increased but little
 
 31 
 
 from the peace in 1814 till the relaxation of their 
 so-called protecting system under Mr. Huskisson, 
 have since that change gradually risen, till they 
 reached in 1835 the enormous amount of forty-eight 
 and ninety-one millions. 
 
 This is an undeniable proof of the general and 
 progressive improvement of the wealth and pros- 
 perity of the country. But for the satisfaction 
 of the more curious of those who may not have 
 access to the Statistic Tables or to the official re- 
 turns to the Houses of Parliament, we will cite 
 some few of the many striking instances of the 
 happy results of the reduction of the swaddling 
 taxation of the Tories, and of the liberal com- 
 mercial policy pursued by the Whig Governments 
 of 1830 and 1834. The declared value of 
 
 BRITISH PRODUCE AND MANUFACTURES EXPORTED. 
 
 In 1829, or the last year of the Tories 36,150,379 
 1835, Whig period 41,350,000 
 
 1836 Ditto 46,926,370 
 
 Being an increase of 33 per cent, in six years. And 
 if we descend to particulars, we shall find the results 
 equally striking ; for instance, in the exports. 
 
 LINEN MANUFACTURES. 
 
 1829, or Tory period - 1,885,831 
 
 1834 Whig do. > 2,579,000 
 
 1835 Ditto - 3,226,000 
 
 WOOLLEN. 
 
 1829 Tory period -. 4,556,809 
 
 1834 Whig do. 5,975,000 
 
 1835 Ditto -'.' 7,145,826
 
 COTTON. 
 
 1829 Tory period - 17,140,114 
 
 1834 Whig do. 20,513,586 
 
 1835 Ditto 22,128,384 
 
 IRON AND STEEL, average exported. 
 
 5 Tory years, from 1825 to 1829, 87,237 tons. 
 5 Whig years, from 1 830 to 1 834, 1 42,07 1 
 
 The imports tell even a still more striking tale; 
 for instance, take the Glove Trade, in which com- 
 plaints have been made of the mischievous effects 
 of admitting foreign competition, yet the importa- 
 tion of the raw material for the supply of the home 
 manufacture has not the less increased. 
 
 DRESSED AND UNDRESSED KID SKINS IMPORTED. 
 
 1829 Tory period - 698,604 skins. 
 
 1834 Whig do. 798,000 
 
 1835 Ditto - 1,044,000 
 
 Thesame observations and results apply to our Silk 
 manufactures, and more especially those of Spital- 
 fields, which languished under the Tory protections, 
 from which they were no sooner delivered than they 
 took a spring, and are actually increasing in their 
 exports, notwithstanding the great home consump- 
 tion, shewn by the following table. 
 
 SILK (raw, waste and thrown), imported. 
 
 1829 Tory period 2,892,201 Ibs. 
 
 1834 Whig do. 4,450,000 
 
 1835 Ditto - 5,787,000
 
 33 
 
 SILK (manufactured) exported. 
 1829 Tory period 255,871 
 
 1834 Whig do. 636,419 
 
 1835 Ditto 973,786 
 
 Or, if we look to the consumption of articles ne- 
 cessary to the comfort and well-being of the poorer 
 classes, and upon which, therefore, the Liberals 
 have reduced the oppressive Tory duties, we shall 
 find the same cheering results. Take SEA-BORNE 
 COALS, on which the unjust and mischievous duty 
 was repealed in 1830, and of which the following 
 amount has entered London and the other ports of 
 the kingdom. 
 
 1829 Tory period 4,270,557 tons. 
 
 1834 Whig do. 7,901,346 
 
 1835 Do. 8,416,805 
 
 Or COCOA, the duty on which was reduced from 
 6d. to 2d. in 1832, and of which the following is 
 the home consumption. 
 
 1829 Tory period 393,847 Ibs. 
 
 1834 Whig do. 1,073,795 
 
 1835 Do. 1,084,170 
 
 Or TEA, the monopoly of which was abated in 
 
 1833. 
 
 1829 Tory period 29,495, 190 Ibs. 
 
 1834 Whig do. 34,969,651 
 
 1835 Do. 36,574,004 
 
 Or SOAP, the duty upon which was reduced one- 
 half in 1833. 
 
 1 829 Tory period 1 1 8, 1 34,863 Ibs. 
 
 1834 Whig do. 154,746,334 
 
 1835 Do. 160,909,316 
 
 D
 
 34 
 
 Or CURRANTS and RAISINS, (duty reduced one-half 
 in 1834). 
 
 1829 Tory period 235,813 cwt. 
 
 1834 Whig do. 310,980 
 
 1835 Do. 354,413 
 
 A still more striking instance is offered by 
 Printed Cottons, on which the entire vexatious 
 duty was repealed in 1831, and on which the ex- 
 tent of the increased home consumption cannot 
 therefore be ascertained, but it may be measured 
 by the exportation, which in 
 
 1829 or Tory period . . . 130,075,858 yards. 
 1835 Whig ditto . . . 279,811,176 
 
 Or if we take a wider range, it will appear that the 
 average consumption of Cotton Wool for our manu- 
 factures 
 
 10 years (Tory full ascendancy,) 
 
 from 1816 to 1825 - - - 138,1 20,000 Ibs. 
 
 10 years (their decline and fall,) 
 
 from 1826 to 1835 - - : 255,975,000 Ibs. 
 
 Being an increase of no less than 85 per cent. ! 
 
 These are instances sufficient to satisfy the most 
 sceptical, that the country is not quite ruined by 
 the ignorant mismanagement of the destructive Whigs, 
 or that they neglect the interest of the industrious. 
 Indeed a further and most satisfactory proof of the 
 augmented comforts and prudence of the labouring 
 population may be found in the increasing number
 
 35 
 
 and amount of their deposits in the Savings' 
 Banks. 
 
 Depositors, Amount. Average Deposit. 
 
 1829 Tory period - 409,945 - 14,434,921 - 35 4 
 
 1834 Whig ditto - 499,207 - 15,369,844 - 30 16 
 
 1835 Ditto - - 537,517 - 16,456,104 - 30 12 
 
 But if it still be objected that this prosperous 
 aspect of affairs is unsound, and caused merely by 
 an intemperate spirit of speculation, we may appeal 
 to the steadily decreasing number of bankruptcies. 
 
 INSOLVENTS. 
 
 1832 4648 
 
 1833 4583 
 
 1834 4275 
 
 1835 3890 
 
 Are we therefore mistaken in assuming that these 
 plain matters of fact, authenticated by plain figures, 
 are satisfactory answers to those rhetorical figures 
 of complaint and vituperation in which disap- 
 pointed Tories indulge ? And we specially point 
 out that these returns are on articles upon which 
 Whig legislation has acted, and that they shew not 
 only an excess over the Tory period, but a growing 
 increase over the preceding and other years. 
 
 But the loyal Tories exultmgly reply agriculture 
 is depressed. Now it is quite true the profits of 
 agriculture have not kept pace with this march, but 
 they have been greater than during the Tory epoch ; 
 and if the farmers have found it difficult always to 
 pay their rents, they should remember that these are 
 agreements binding between themselves and their 
 landlords, and with which no government can inter- 
 fere. So long as they will not see the stability and 
 
 D 2
 
 36 
 
 advantages which they would obtain by a more open 
 trade in corn, they must make the best shift they can 
 with their fluctuating home-markets. Meanwhile 
 the Government has not been inattentive to their in- 
 terests. For the largest portion of the relief from 
 taxation has been taken from off their shoulders, 
 and the poor-rates, which pressed heaviest on land, 
 have, by the amended Poor-laws, been reduced to 
 the extent of 3,800,000. And that the agricul- 
 tural interest has not been in so depressed and 
 profitless a state, as Lord Chandos and other rent 
 agitators would make farmers believe, may be 
 shown by an unanswerable appeal to the thousands 
 of acres that have been enclosed since the Peace, 
 and are yearly now being enclosed. It is notorious, 
 too, that during the war we received a large por- 
 tion of our supply of corn from abroad. Since 
 then we have added three millions to our popula- 
 tion, and yet for the last four years not a quarter 
 of corn has been imported for home consumption. 
 Can there be a stronger proof of the increased 
 productiveness of our English agriculture, than 
 that instead of partially feeding twelve millions of 
 people, it now completely feeds fifteen millions ? 
 
 Such then is the continued national prosperity 
 that has hitherto attended the Liberal Government. 
 Let any one look to the right or to the left, to the 
 south or to the north, in towns or in fields, and he 
 will every where see prosperity rearing its indus- 
 trious head firmly and progressively around him. 
 The march of wealth has indeed outstripped all
 
 37 
 
 other marches, and latterly has taken to rail-road 
 paces. But latterly there have been signs of a 
 check, which seem now, happily, to be fading 
 away. A bad harvest, particularly in the North, 
 raised the prices of the necessaries of life, while a 
 heavy pressure on the money market slackened 
 the spirit of enterprize. This pressure arose, 
 partly from the state of our foreign exchanges, 
 which were depressed by a demand for capital 
 to defray the vast rail-road, and other under- 
 takings, (not producing an immediate return) 
 which are carrying on throughout the Continent, 
 and still more in America, our greatest customer. 
 America is also establishing a metallic currency, 
 and by a Mint regulation, which attempts to fix 
 the relation of gold to silver at a rate differing 
 from the commercial par, she has made gold instead 
 of silver the currency of the Union, and thereby 
 seriously affected the value of gold in England. 
 The loans too for Portugal, Spain, Holland, Bel- 
 gium, and other states, which, within the last five 
 years, have been chiefly raised in this country, 
 have drained off much capital. But the greater 
 force of the pressure came from the tardy fears 
 of the Bank of England, and of other great capital- 
 ists, who, after large issues, called in and re- 
 stricted many of their money transactions, from 
 a dread of the consequences of the rash and unin- 
 structed issues of money of the Joint-stock Banks, 
 in favour of the thousand bubble speculations 
 which were springing up, till these Joint-stock
 
 Banks, becoming alarmed, called in their credits 
 as incautiously as they opened them. There was 
 also a gradual and general rise of prices since 
 Easter, which the bad harvest further enhanced, 
 while a real, or caution-caused, want of money, 
 by narrowing credit and speculation, checked 
 trade, manufacture, and general industry. 
 
 These causes produced a prudential alarm in 
 November, which shewed signs of degenerating 
 into a prudential panic, but which, though it may 
 have caused some local distress, will probably 
 stave off the real misery of a real panic. This es- 
 cape is partly due to the experience so dearly bought 
 during the panic of 1825 : but it is much more to 
 be attributed to the really sound state of the vast 
 majority of our present mercantile transactions, 
 and which the tables to which we have been re- 
 ferring amply verify. And not a little credit should 
 be given to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, 
 in his admirable speech on the Budget, in May, 
 1836, after clearly proving the remarkable pros- 
 perity of the country, most distinctly warned and 
 entreated "the public riot to be led away, by a 
 knowledge of our prosperity, to embark recklessly 
 in inconsiderate schemes and wild speculation." 
 
 But these observations regard only the financial 
 part of the subject, and there is another consideration 
 of higherimportance, the labouringand the pauper 
 classes ; who, by the rise of prices and the restric- 
 tions on speculation, are straitened both in their 
 means and their sources of subsistence. This leads
 
 39 
 
 to an anxious regard to the working of the amended 
 Poor Laws, and the strain which a winter of dis- 
 tress may bring on their yet imperfect machinery. 
 
 THE POOR LAW REFORM was introduced with the 
 unanimous approbation of all the most eminent 
 men of every shade of political opinion. It was 
 supported in the Commons by Radicals, Tories, 
 and Whigs ; and when Cobbett, the great manager 
 of the opposition, ventured on a division, Mr. 
 Hume, Mr. Roebuck, and Sir R. Peel were seen 
 by the sides of Lord Althorp and Lord John Rus- 
 sell. In the Lords, the Duke of Wellington, then 
 the leader of his party, Lord Wharncliffe, Lord 
 Winchilsea, and Lord Liverpool, fought in the 
 same ranks with Lord Lansdowne and Lord 
 Brougham. The Duke of Wellington, Lord Ellen- 
 borough, and Lord Salisbury themselves drew 
 many of the clauses of the Bill, and sought to add 
 materially to the powers of the Commissioners. 
 During the two years and a half which have passed 
 since the Bill became law, the landed gentry, 
 whether Tories, Whigs, or Radicals, have been 
 among; the most zealous and the most effectual 
 
 o 
 
 administrators of its provisions. They have been 
 the chairmen and vice-presidents of its Boards of 
 Guardians, and its defenders against the ignorance 
 and dishonesty, or the prejudices of its assailants. 
 Such has been the conduct of those to whom edu- 
 cation, knowledge, and wealth give station and 
 weight in the country. But at the same period, 
 too many of the humbler retainers of faction, the
 
 40 
 
 Tory daily and weekly press, almost without ex- 
 ception, together with some of the organs of ex- 
 treme radicalism, the Times, the Herald, the Stan- 
 dard, the John Bull, the Weekly Dispatch, the 
 Poor Man's Guardian, and the unstamped metro- 
 politan journals have been, and continue to be, 
 scurrilous and violent in opposition to the prin- 
 ciples and measures which the heads of their own 
 parties approve and assist. It is curious to see, 
 that almost the only measure which the enlight- 
 ened and eminent men of all parties agree to sup- 
 port, is the only measure which the prejudiced or 
 malicious of all parties agree to vilify. With the 
 advantage of such friends and such enemies, the 
 measure could not but prosper ; but we believe 
 that both the one and the other are equally sur- 
 prised at the degree and rapidity of its success. 
 
 Every one must recollect the sneers with which 
 Lord Althorp was met when he stated that his 
 measure for agricultural relief was to be found in 
 the Poor Law Amendment Bill. Admitting, as 
 every member of the House, except Cobbett's small 
 piebald minority, admitted, the general excellence 
 of the Bill, still it was said, it is no measure of 
 immediate relief. Thousands, it was said, will be 
 spent on the machinery of the Board, with its com- 
 missioners and assistant commissioners, and clerks 
 and retained local officers. Thousands more on 
 the erection of workhouses and workhouse relief 
 to whole families will, for a considerable time, be 
 more expensive than the partial assistance which
 
 41 
 
 can be afforded to the labourer in his own cottage : 
 -and what is the result ? 
 
 We have the Commissioners to tell it. 
 
 " We have given in the Appendix two Tables, 
 " containing the abstracts of the expenditure for the 
 " parochial years 1835 and 1836. From these 
 " Tables it will be seen that the decrease of ' money 
 ' * ' expended for the relief of the poor,' was, in the 
 " year 1835, as compared with the year 1834, 
 " 790,838 ; that in 1836, as compared with 1834, 
 " the decrease of the expenditure under this head 
 " was 1,599,625 ; that the reduction in the ex- 
 " pense of suits of law in 1835, as compared with 
 " 1834, was 56,077; that the reduction on the 
 " same head of expenditure in 1836, as compared 
 "with 1834, was 86,173, or nearly double the 
 " annual expenses of the Commission; that the 
 " decrease on the expenditure, effected by the same 
 " management for other miscellaneous purposes in 
 " the year 1836, as compared with 1835, was 
 " 112,149. We have no means of ascertaining 
 " the state of this head of expenditure in 1834, to 
 " compare it with 1835. 
 
 " If, upon the evidence of the frequent occur- 
 " rence of parishes as favourably situated as others 
 " in general circumstances, but where no reduc- 
 ' ' tion of the rates has taken place, and where they 
 *' have even increased during the two last years, 
 " the principles of the new administration not 
 " having been adopted in those parishes, it may be 
 *' assumed that, but for the general promulgation
 
 42 
 
 11 and adoption of those principles and the new 
 " measures, the expenditure would have remained 
 " stationary at the amount at which it was in the 
 " year 1833 ; then, the total reduction or saving 
 " effected upon the rates levied for the relief of the 
 " poor by a change of management since that year 
 " is 3,809,489. If the total amount of parochial 
 " rates be considered for the last three years 
 " (during the first of which the expenditure for the 
 " county rates was not distinguished in the Re- 
 " turns), then the gross saving is the sum of 
 " 4,145,368, or in round numbers a gross sum of 
 " 4,000,000, saved from an expenditure which 
 " chiefly operated as a bounty on indolence and 
 " improvidence ; but which is now applicable, and 
 " of much of it there is distinct evidence that it is 
 " actually applied, in the shape of wages, to remu- 
 " nerate productive industry." Poor Law Report 
 for 1836, p. 38. 
 
 If this has been the saving within two years, 
 during which the act has been brought into active 
 operation over only about one-third of England, 
 and as to the greater part of that one-third for less 
 than a year, and after meeting the expenses of 
 building and outfit, what may not be expected to 
 be the effects when the whole country has been 
 subjected to the intelligent administration of 
 Boards of Guardians, after all the expenditure 
 attending the beginnings of a vast experiment has 
 been defrayed, and the whole system works with 
 ease and regularity ? We firmly believe that two
 
 43 
 
 years hence the poor rate, from the heaviest, will 
 have become one of the lightest of the burthens 
 upon land. 
 
 The statements of the Commissioners, however, 
 have been objected to by some as ex parte evidence. 
 As they rest on documents open to inspection, it 
 is not easy to see how they can be erroneous ; but 
 for the sake of those Tories who will not believe 
 even in figures, unless the addition and substrac- 
 tion are made by their own friends, we extract 
 from the same volume the following letter of Lord 
 Hardwicke respecting the Caxton Union, contain- 
 ing a population of 9000 persons, relieved, under 
 the old system, at an annual expenditure of 6000/. 
 
 " Wimpole, July '29, 1836. 
 
 " I have looked at our expenditure, and have 
 " taken two periods for comparison, viz. from the 
 " 2d of September, 1835 (the day the Guardians 
 " first met), to Christmas of the same year. This 
 " period, compared with the same of the pre- 
 " vious year, gives a reduction of expenditure of 
 " 628. 8s. 6d. 
 
 " The second period I have taken is three 
 " months ending at Lady-day 1836. This, com- 
 " pared with the like period in 1835, gives a re- 
 " duction of expenditure in the Union of 75 1 . 10s. 8d. 
 " This will give a reduction in the first year of 
 " about 2,600. 
 
 " With regard to the condition of the labouring 
 " classes, I should say that a visible alteration has
 
 44 
 
 " taken place in their manners ; all farmers that I 
 " have conversed with say, that they are more 
 " respectful and civil in their behaviour, and more 
 " regular to their time of work. The parishes in 
 " the Union have never been so free from crime. 
 " The cases brought before the magistrates at the 
 " Petty Sessions are much reduced. 
 
 " In the parish of Gamlingay the saving has 
 " been enormous, and the able-bodied were during 
 " the winter employed generally, never having 
 " above from 17 to 20 out of work at any time ; 
 " whereas the previous winters, for years past, 
 " have seen 100 men, on an average, receiving 
 " parochial relief. 
 
 " Such is a very short statement of the condition 
 " and effect of the union of 26 parishes in this part 
 " of Cambridgeshire ; and I have no doubt, that 
 " by a steady and just administration of the law, 
 " taking each case on its own merits, we shall next 
 " year be able to give you a report that will show 
 " a great saving, together with a large improve- 
 " ment in the moral state of the community. 
 
 " I have, &c. 
 
 " HARDWICKE." 
 " A. Power, Esq. Poor Law Office" 
 
 We have dwelt on the reduction caused by the 
 Poor Law Act in expenditure, because it is the 
 portion of its results most easily stated, and veri- 
 fied. But its effects on the morals of the labour- 
 ing classes, effects on which Lord Hardwicke
 
 45 
 
 dwells, as he might be expected to do, are of 
 course more important than any pecuniary gain, 
 however great. We cannot resist the temptation 
 of extracting from Mr. Adey's Report on Bedford- 
 shire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Hamp- 
 shire, four of the most pauperized districts, the fol- 
 lowing statement as to the degree of moral im- 
 provement in those counties, and of the mode in 
 which it has been effected. 
 
 " The improvement in the general condition 
 " and habits of the labouring classes is, from its 
 " nature, incapable of equal proofs with the pecu- 
 " niary results ; but if full and general employment 
 " of all who are able to work, proved by the almost 
 " complete cessation of applications for relief from 
 " this class of paupers (isolated cases only appear- 
 " ing during the last winter on the books of the se- 
 " veral Unions), if indolence changed to activity, 
 " rudeness to civility, if the concurrent testimony 
 " of the different Boards of Guardians to this 
 " alteration is a proof of improvement in the la- 
 " bourer, if the knowledge that the great bulk of 
 " the labouring class have been regularly em- 
 " ployed throughout the winter, and in their own 
 " neighbourhood, is a proof that it was the system 
 " that created this kind of pauperism, then I hesi- 
 " tate not to assert, that the alteration of the 
 " system has effected immense good ; for these are 
 " unquestionable facts throughout the district 
 " under my superintendence, &c. 
 
 " The labourer, aroused in an effectual manner
 
 46 
 
 " from his former state of torpid dependence, in a 
 " degree inconceivable to those who have not the 
 " opportunity of watching the progress of the 
 " change, has thrown off his idle habits, and be- 
 " come steady, respectful, and industrious. The 
 " exertion of the body seems to have brought with 
 " it a corresponding exertion of the mind ; while 
 " the very effort that has thrown off bodily inac- 
 " tivity, appears to have called into being, or 
 " roused to action, a principle of moral control, 
 " which had so long lain dormant, as hardly to be 
 " known to exist. The knots of idle and boon 
 " companions at the beer-shop, or the village- 
 " green, have gradually lessened till wholly di- 
 " vided. For thus aroused to work, it followed 
 " that permanent employ became also desirable ; 
 " to obtain this, punctuality in their hours, dili- 
 " gence in their labour, civility to their employers, 
 " and regularity in their conduct was necessary ; 
 " these again work greatly in favour of moral im- 
 " provement, while constant employment begets 
 " good feeling between master and man." Ib.299. 
 We refer also to the address to Lord John Rus- 
 sell which appeared in the London papers on the 
 28th December by the Guardians of the Poor of 
 the Cosford Union in Suffolk. This Union consists 
 of twenty-eight parishes, and the Guardians state, 
 that " throughout the spring of 1835, the evils 
 " arising out of the old system of relief had grown 
 "up to an alarming height. The incorporated 
 " workhouse was then tenanted by many able-
 
 4? 
 
 " bodied paupers, who refused to do any kind of 
 " work, and defied, by turbulent insubordination, 
 " both the rules of the house and the power of 
 " the magistrates." The paupers without, partici- 
 pated in this disposition, " and it was quite evident 
 " there was a design to demolish the workhouse, 
 " in order that thenceforward parochial relief 
 " might entirely cease to be measured by the ne- 
 " cessity of the poor, but be yielded to lawless 
 " intimidation." In this state of things, the acting 
 directors and guardians, as well as the magistrates 
 of the hundred, applied to the Poor Law Comis- 
 missioners, and they inform us with what success, 
 for they state, *' That fifteen months have trans- 
 " pired since the new measures came into opera- 
 " tion, and that the workhouse is now conducted 
 " with regularity and decorum. Profligacy, and 
 " idleness, and insolence amongst the poor have 
 '' been replaced by sobriety, industry, and civility. 
 " Not only the paupers themselves, but the labourers 
 " above that class., and persons still further removed 
 " from want, have become in a marked degree 
 " more frugal and prudent permanent employ - 
 " merit has become general and the rate and sum 
 " total of wages have greatly increased and though 
 " the poor-rates have been diminished more than 
 " 54 per cent, (from 19,223 per annum to 8, 823), 
 " we have it in evidence that the general condition of 
 ' ' the labouring population is improved in their means 
 " of subsistence and domestic comfort."
 
 48 
 
 They substantiate these assertions by referring 
 to the " increased demand for such articles of food 
 " and clothing as are consumed by the poor" by 
 the introduction and increase of medical and bene- 
 fit clubs by the more punctual payment of cottage 
 rents and by " the increasing number of small de- 
 " positors into Savings Banks." 
 
 A fitting comment on the motives of the oppo- 
 nents of the amended poor law, and of the passions 
 which their allies in the public press address, is 
 afforded by the further statement, " that almost 
 " the only interests which suffer are those which 
 " formerly profited at the expense of the moral 
 " habits and domestic comforts of the poor such 
 " as those of brewers, publicans, keepers of beer- 
 " shops, and some small tradesmen whose profits 
 " depended mainly on the abuses of the old system/' 
 
 We leave these facts and statements to speak 
 for themselves. No railing of the interested, 
 the prejudiced, the malicious, or the ignorant can 
 upset them. They are the precursors of a moral 
 and permanent regeneration, which shall re-unite 
 the rich and poor, the high and low. 
 
 We now come to consideration of the measures 
 which it is probable will be brought forward next 
 Session. Of course we shall see the rejected mea- 
 sures of last year : the chief of these were Bills 
 
 For the Reform of the IRISH MUNICIPAL COR- 
 PORATIONS ; 
 
 For the SETTLEMENT OF IRISH TITHES ;
 
 49 
 
 For the REFORM OF THE POST OFFICE ; and 
 For the ABOLITION OF IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. 
 
 These will pass rapidly through the Commons, 
 for they will probably resemble, in all essentials, 
 the bills of last year ; and it is of importance that 
 they should reach the Lords before Easter. Full 
 time will thus be allowed for their Lordships' 
 most mature deliberation, and the fate of the 
 bills will be decided when the House of Commons 
 is in full vigour of attendance, and before the 
 annual money bills have passed ; a time when 
 addresses and remonstrances are of the greatest 
 weight. 
 
 Amongst the new measures we may expect to 
 find Bills 
 
 Forthe Settlement of the ENGLISH CHURCH RATES ; 
 
 For the Establishment of an ENGLISH CONSTA- 
 BULARY FORCE ; 
 
 For the application of POOR LAWS TO IRELAND ; 
 
 For the REFORM OF THE LAW, more especially 
 in Chancery ; and 
 
 For various CHURCH REFORMS. 
 
 
 
 The question of ENGLISH CHURCH RATES presses 
 for settlement. Half the parishes throughout the 
 country are split by constantly recurring angry dis- 
 cussions respecting these rates. In several cases 
 they are refused, in many they are rigorously 
 ut down, in others they cannot be efficiently 
 collected, and in some few the churchwardens
 
 50 
 
 dare not attempt to call for them at all.* In 
 some parishes the rates are applied solely to the 
 repairs of the church, in others they furnish 
 organs and organists, or improvements and deco- 
 rations, and occasionally pay for churchwardens' 
 dinners, and other lay recreations. These anoma- 
 lies confessedly require reform : but the Dissenters 
 go further, and desire to be relieved altogether 
 from the penal burthen of church rates. They ap- 
 peal to the fact, that the tithes and estates of the 
 church were formerly responsible for the purposes 
 to which these rates are now applied, and that the 
 rates themselves constitute an unequal and variable 
 tax, levied on a whole parish, at the discretion, 
 and for the sole benefit of, at best, only a majority 
 of the parishioners; that they are a virtual fine 
 upon dissent, and so feed religious contention. 
 They say, also, that as the Government approved 
 itself a substantial supporter of the Church of Eng- 
 land, in all its just rights, by placing the tithes 
 upon a satisfactory and permanent footing ; so it 
 should also be equally just to the Dissenters, by 
 redressing an innovation which time may have 
 
 * Within our own knowledge there is a parish in Essex, where, 
 for the last 50 years, the successive Bishops and Archdeacons have 
 (notwithstanding those laborious and important duties on which the 
 Bishop of Exeter so boldly declaims) allowed the church to fall to 
 ruin, and the service is now performed in a malting barn. The church- 
 wardens say there is no hope of getting a rate, for the Dissenters are 
 much more numerous than the Churchmen.
 
 legalized but not sanctioned. This subject may 
 cause some sharp debates, but the fact of Lord 
 Stanley having transferred the payment of the rates 
 of the Irish Church from the laity to the church 
 fund, will afford a precedent which his Lordship 
 will find it difficult to evade, and which, perhaps, 
 his new friends, the Tories, may, out of compliment 
 to him, adopt. At all events Ministers will un- 
 doubtedly satisfy the reasouable complaints of the 
 Dissenters, and protect the Church by removing 
 from it an irritating cause of offence. 
 
 Indeed, unless the Liberals do step forth and 
 protect the Church from its professing friends, 
 there is much fear that they will pull it about their 
 ears. All see how they and their allies in the 
 Lords are sapping tithes in Ireland ; while, heated 
 with strife, they are not behind hand in mischief at 
 home. Oxford, their head-quarters, gave pain to 
 every religious mind last year when it exhibited 
 the persecuting and misquoting bigotry which was 
 exercised against Dr. Hampden, and which a reve- 
 rend principal of Brazen-nose College, has lately 
 sought to revive. We have already given some 
 specimens of the spirit which animates that Bishop, 
 who, in his labour of love to conciliate the Catho- 
 lics, calls, in his Christian charge, all those mem- 
 bers of the House of Commons of that persuasion 
 who vote on Church reform questions, " a perfidious 
 " faction, who could not have acquired the powers 
 " of mischief which unhappily they possess and 
 
 E 2
 
 52 
 
 " exercise ;" but by what in all gentleness and 
 charity that thinketh no evil, this saint in lawn de- 
 nounces " as treachery aggravated by perjury."* 
 Archbishop Laud himself could not have laid claim 
 to more high priestly authority, and might have 
 hesitated to tell his Protestant clergy that they pos- 
 sessed the gift of pronouncing as " full and free 
 " absolution from all their sins," to the people, 
 " even as the Apostles. "f 
 
 But this Bishop of the Duke of Wellington's 
 creation is excelled in religious mischief by the 
 Quarterly Review, the great mouth-piece of Sir 
 Robert Peel and the conforming Tories. In an 
 article on Church Rates in its last number, after 
 ostentatiously pointing out the clergy as the great 
 almoners and benefactors of all their parishioners, 
 "however much some of them may have strayed 
 from the fold," it proceeds under the supposition 
 that Government intend to relieve these stray sheep 
 from the payment of church rates, to advise them to 
 " forbear" from all charitable, nay, "promiscuous 
 intercourse," with the hope that " the Dissenters 
 " would feel the change both in the amount the par- 
 " sonage contributes, and in the example it sets." 
 p. 369. Having thus shut the [parsonage door 
 upon the Dissenters, it proceeds to open the 
 workhouse gates for them. For, passing from 
 the assumption that the great mass of buyers are 
 of the Church of England, and of the retail 
 
 * Charge of the Bispop of Exeter, p. 13. f Ibid. p. 45.
 
 53 
 
 dealers or sellers are Dissenters, it says, " As 
 " matters have stood in times past, Churchmen 
 " have made no distinction in their dealings ; they 
 " have resorted to the shop of the Churchman and 
 " Dissenter alike, only having respect to the ho- 
 " nesty of the party and the quality of his mer- 
 " chandize. Indeed so long as the Dissenter was 
 " content with his condition in the State, which 
 " was that of complete toleration, and did not seek 
 " to disturb the Establishment, his scruples were 
 " respected ; which were the rather supposed to be 
 " conscientious, because they subjected him to 
 " some additional charge a small one it is true, 
 "but some additional charge in supporting a 
 " place of worship of his own ; and a friendly feel- 
 " ing was accordingly entertained towards him. 
 " But once exempt him from church rates, and the 
 " case will be altered. The Churchman will then 
 " naturally do his best to uphold the man who up- 
 " holds the church ; it would be exceedingly un- 
 " reasonable to suppose that he should do other- 
 " wise to do so would give just cause of complaint 
 " to his own allies. We have no manner of doubt 
 " the abolition of church rates would be a signal 
 " of separation between the Churchman and Dis- 
 " senter, complete as soon as present engagements 
 " or connexions should cease to operate. Now we 
 " submit that the Dissenter would not have cause 
 " to rejoice in this result." p. 371. 
 
 In other words, pay for my church and your own
 
 54 
 
 too, and I will deal with you, more especially 
 if I can drive a good bargain ; if not go starve. 
 This is the sum and substance, to say nothing of 
 the Christian spirit of the high church argument, 
 which finally entrenching itself within the palisa- 
 does of the Thirty-nine Articles, fulminates "the 
 " sin of schism " right and left with the spirit of a 
 Philpots or an Hildebrand, and winds up by 
 designating the Church of England, " as the 
 " single accredited agent through which all reli- 
 " gious operations both at home and abroad were 
 " to be conducted, so that the household was to be 
 " visited, the congregation to be taught, the colony 
 "to be quickened, the heathen to be converted, 
 " but still through her" p. 372. 
 
 This is the spirit and these are the doctrines 
 which are working amongst the bishops, the pro- 
 fessors, and statesmen of our High Church party ; 
 and we leave it to the plain sense of considerate 
 men to say, whether civil society, religion, and the 
 state are likely to profit by the advocacy or rule of 
 persons so heated and intolerant. 
 
 Judging from the tone of their speeches and their 
 press, the Tories must be desperate, and reckless 
 even of public opinion. Else wherefore would 
 they have sanctioned one of their leading evening 
 papers (Standard) putting forth on the 12th No- 
 vember, when there was much reason to fear a 
 commercial and money market panic, the following 
 notice, placed most conspicuously before its leading 
 article.
 
 55 
 
 " (From a City Correspondent.) 
 " I understand an Order in Council will be issued 
 " this evening, to stop payments in gold at the 
 "Bank." 
 
 Having thrown this fire-ball, there was added 
 below as a salvo, "We do not believe it." Then 
 why insert, and so very prominently, a report which 
 if believed might have ruined thousands ; and 
 which, being false, could serve no purpose of news 
 or instruction. But it seems the conservative watch- 
 word now is, " Hurrah ! any thing for a row." 
 
 And in this spirit they are beating up for a po- 
 pular clamour against the establishment of an effec- 
 tive civil force for the preservation of the property 
 and peace of the country. For their dauntless 
 organ, the Standard, on the very same day that 
 it put forth the above feeler for a commercial panic, 
 followed it up by calling on all classes, but " more 
 " especially the aristocracy and populace (remark- 
 " able association !) to unite in opposition to the 
 " atrocious scheme of covering England with 
 " centralized espionage and a prerogative gen- 
 " darmerie." Proud of this bugbear, it proceeds 
 to denounce " that fallacy, the omnipotence of 
 " King, Lords, and Commons,'' which it is pleased 
 to call "cant;" and then, in the following loyal 
 tone, addressing the joint propensities of " a popu- 
 lace," and a disappointed and factious "aristocracy," 
 it says: " King, Lords, and Commons may, if 
 " they determine to do so, establish a rural police,
 
 56 
 
 " by act of Parliament. They have power to dis- 
 " arm the nation ; and if the starvation process 
 " appears too slow a mode of getting rid of them, 
 " to hang up the poor of the kingdom, and sell 
 " their bodies to the best bidders, de facto, King, 
 " Lords, and Commons have this power, de jure, 
 " they have not." Whereupon, the people are sum- 
 moned to an obstinate legal resistance till this 
 " tyranny be over-past." And what is all this 
 premature rant about ? Simply against the issuing 
 of "a commission for inquiring as to the best 
 " means of establishing an efficient Constabulary 
 " Force in the several counties of England and 
 " Wales." In other words, to substitute for the 
 present decayed beadles and worn-out watchmen, 
 an active body of efficient constables, who, being 
 placed under proper control may serve to prevent 
 crime, preserve peace, and, above all, protect the 
 property of the lone farmer and peasant from rob- 
 bery and incendiarism. It is against the organiza- 
 tion of such a force that Conservatives, under the 
 mask of liberalism, think they may with party 
 profit declaim, while Swing and the Bristol rioters 
 join chorus, and light bonfires. 
 
 We now come to the question of IRISH POOR 
 LAWS. It is impossible to exaggerate the difficulties 
 with which the relief of the poor of Ireland is beset. 
 A selfish government, satisfied with removing, as far 
 as their knowledge, and courage, and power went, 
 the existing obstructions to the increase of wealth
 
 57 
 
 in that country, would attempt no active measures 
 either to promote the progress of improvement, or 
 to remedy the existing distress of the mass of the 
 people. They who shrunk from the difficulties of 
 the English Poor Laws, would be appalled at the 
 obstacles presented to their application to Ireland. 
 They would leave all to time and chance, idly hoping 
 that in three or four generations distress might 
 gradually disappear. Sucli would, at the very best, 
 be the conduct of the Tories. But such a conduct 
 does not suit the temper of the times, nor does it 
 suit a reforming ministry, whose maxim is, to allow 
 no evil to continue which any exertion of theirs 
 can terminate, or diminish. The present admi- 
 nistration are pledged not to permit the existing 
 generation of Irishmen to suffer and perish in the 
 hope that their great-grandchildren may be better 
 off. But, we repeat, the difficulties of applying a 
 remedy cannot be exaggerated. 
 
 To transplant, at once, into Ireland the English 
 Poor Law system, to give to every one of its eight 
 millions an immediate right to comfortable support 
 at the public expense, would be to abandon the 
 whole country to pauperism. All the abuses which 
 it took centuries to introduce into England would 
 sprout up in Ireland within as many years perhaps 
 in as many months. And yet, short of this, what 
 is to be done ? This question we do not pretend to 
 answer : but we know that the Government is pre- 
 pared to answer it ; and a short statement of their
 
 58 
 
 conduct, with respect to the matter, will shew that 
 they are likely to answer it well. About three 
 years ago, it became evident that the question of 
 Irish Poor Laws must be practically dealt with. 
 Vain and vague schemes were proposed, and there 
 was every reason to fear that some one of the many 
 dangerous suggestions afloat would be forced on the 
 legislature. According to their usual practice, (a 
 practice which their opponents ridiculed, until ex- 
 perience forced even Tories to confess its wisdom,) 
 the Whig Government issued a commission to col- 
 lect information. At the head of it were placed the 
 Protestant and Catholic Archbishops of Dublin, 
 assisted by commissioners chosen from the best in- 
 formed classes in England and Ireland. Two years 
 were employed by the commission in collecting a 
 body of evidence, as to the condition of the Irish 
 people, such as never was before obtained, or con- 
 ceived to be obtainable. 
 
 To this evidence was annexed a report containing 
 many valuable suggestions, but proposing an ex- 
 tent of interference with the natural state of things 
 which few persons think safe, or even practicable. 
 It is well known, that ever since this report was 
 presented, the Government have been anxiously 
 and laboriously engaged in considering which of 
 its proposals can be adopted to any, and what ex- 
 tent ; and what measures are to be substituted for 
 those schemes which are rejected. We believe that 
 their deliberations are now nearly terminated. We
 
 59 
 
 believe that a plan has been, in all its essential parts, 
 matured, from which Ireland may derive the 
 greatest amount of good, and be exposed to the 
 least amount of danger, that is consistent with the 
 essence of the experiment. Of this at least we are 
 certain, that no administration not combining cou- 
 rage and caution, no administration of which the 
 prevailing motive was not public spirit, and a real 
 wish for the welfare of the country, and above all 
 no administration not possessing the confidence of the 
 Irish people, could be safely trusted with the plan- 
 ning of an Irish Poor law, or could successfully 
 execute any plan which it had adopted. 
 
 The glorious uncertainty of THE LAW has long 
 been the boast and the bread of lawyers, weak 
 and haughty minds believe mankind are best go- 
 verned by exhibitions of force, and therefore up- 
 hold severity;* and the cunning and unjust will 
 
 * It is with heartfelt satisfaction that we hail a decrease in that 
 stigma on our humanity, the number of our executions. 
 
 From 1820 to 1824, or during the Tory ascen- 
 dancy, there were executed no less than 362 
 persons, being on an average - '. '- ." . 90 per ann. 
 
 From 182 4 to 1828, or during the Tory decline, 
 
 the numbers fell to 229, or . . . .50 per ann. 
 
 It continued at the same rate till their expulsion 
 from office. But during an equal period of Whig 
 rule, from 1832 to 1836, it has fallen to 155, or 
 less than one-half, being only . . . 38 per ann. 
 
 Or if we take London and Middlesex, we shall 
 find that the Tory government caused to be 
 executed during 1827, 28, and 29 . . . x . . 63 persons.
 
 60 
 
 ever delight and find their profit or escape in cob- 
 web intricacies. It belongs, therefore, to human 
 nature that many should exclaim or sneer against 
 cheap and well-defined laws, frequent and acces- 
 sible courts, and a humane penal code. Their op- 
 position is as unceasing as it is natural, and when 
 aided by experience and technical knowledge, be- 
 comes extremely difficult to overcome. But the 
 same Reformers who have surmounted prejudices 
 and selfish interests in other institutions, will ulti- 
 mately win for the people the cheap administra- 
 tion of clear and humane laws. In this en- 
 deavour they are aided by some of the highest 
 and most enlightened legal authorities of the pre- 
 sent day, who are proud to follow in the path of 
 Romilly. During the next session, it is most pro- 
 bable, the state of our Criminal Law, the dispen- 
 sation of Equity in the Court of Chancery, and 
 the establishment of Local Courts, will, with other 
 legal matters, be brought before Parliament. 
 
 THE CHURCH REFORMS will probably provide for 
 the improved discipline of the church, the aboli- 
 tion of sinecures, the proportioning emolument 
 
 The Whigs in 1830, 1, and 2, only . . .16 
 In 1833, but '.'' . .'V'. 1 '*' .... 2 
 
 1834 . . . r.U . . . none. 
 
 1835 ..- -n /*n< . ' . ,.' . . . none. 
 And yet, notwithstanding, or may we not say in consequence of this 
 merciful abstinence from blood, the number of offences in which 
 violence has been used, has decreased?
 
 61 
 
 to duty, and the prohibition of pluralities. Without 
 entering into what may be the extent of these re- 
 forms, we beg to observe that no form of religion 
 appears to have held or retained its hold on the con- 
 formity or affections of a people in the government 
 or ministry, of which they themselves have not 
 participated. The converse of this has been the 
 great support of persecuted sects, when common 
 danger and the pressure of opposing power have 
 brought both high and low together. It is strongly 
 exemplified in the rigid firmness with which the 
 Presbyterian adheres to his creed and his own 
 church ; and amongst the Roman Catholics, where 
 much of the effective ministry has always been 
 in the hands of what are called the lower classes, 
 and where mendicant monks and their fellow- 
 orders have frequently aided or restrained Popes 
 and Cardinals. But in the Church of England, 
 since the day of its birth under the Robber Re- 
 former, who declared himself its sole head, the 
 Government has been absolute in all respects, and 
 the ministry gradually removing from the hands 
 of the people to the higher ranks, who now hold 
 it almost exclusively, or absorb those who are in- 
 troduced into it. Is it, therefore, that it has been 
 less distinguished for its zeal and coherence than 
 almost any other sect ? We know not neither do 
 we know any authority in Scripture, in reason, or 
 in worthy example for its absolute government and 
 over-refined ministry, that shuts out the middle and 
 lower orders of social life.
 
 62 
 
 These observations are thrown out for those who 
 are commencing the reform of our Church, and 
 with a firm hope, that as they have recognised and 
 acted on the wisdom and justice of popularizing the 
 civil institutions of the country, so they will, in 
 like manner, bring more home to the exercise and 
 affections of the people, the government and dis- 
 cipline of their Church. 
 
 These appear to be the principal measures which 
 will be submitted to Parliament next session, 
 and which will follow in the train of the rejected 
 bills of last year ; but if the Lords should 
 unhappily again reject all these, if they throw 
 down the glove of defiance for a third time, then 
 the King and the Commons, however reluctantly, 
 must pick it up. We have already speculated 
 upon the different modes of proceeding which 
 may be adopted. No doubt Lord Melbourne 
 and his colleagues have already deeply meditated 
 upon the course they shall follow, and are now 
 steadfastly watching time and circumstance for its 
 application. We may have an earnest of their 
 conduct from their speeches of last year. For on 
 the 27th June, Lord Melbourne, during the debate 
 in the Lords on the consideration of the Commons' 
 Amendments to the Irish Municipal Corporation 
 Bill, after ably pointing out the progressively in- 
 creasing majorities of the Commons from seven 
 to ten to thirteen to forty-five and finally to 
 eighty-six against the measures and opinions of the
 
 63 
 
 Tory Lords, energetically continued, " I ask you 
 " to consider whether this is not owing to your 
 " own imprudence, whether it is not owing to 
 " your o\vn misconduct, whether it is not owing 
 " to your own blindness, whether it is not owing 
 " to the manner in which you seek to separate 
 *' yourselves from the whole body of the people, 
 " to the manner in which you have tried to do 
 " everything that is unpopular, and have abstained 
 " from doing any thing that has in it the elements 
 "of generosity and popularity?" And having 
 pointed out to them the error of their course, he 
 thus calls on them to desist. " My Lords, I implore 
 " you not to be led away by the undisputed sway 
 " you possess in this House, and to mistake your 
 " situation with the other House of Parliament." 
 
 And in the Commons, Lord John Russell, on the 
 30th June, during the debate on the Lord's rejec- 
 tion of the Irish Municipal Corporation Bill, said, 
 " I do think, I do retain the hope and I anxiously 
 " cherish that hope that the time may come, per- 
 " haps within a few months, when the settlement of 
 " this question may be effected, and when the pre- 
 " valence of the reasons given by the House of 
 " Lords for disagreeing to the present measure, 
 " may yield to the general opinion of the House of 
 " Commons and the people. I am sure if I did not 
 " entertain that hope, I should despair of the further 
 " maintenance of the British Constitution. I can 
 " suppose no Constitution more inconvenient than
 
 64 
 
 " one in which the House of Commons and the 
 " people whom they represent being of one opinion, 
 " the other House of Parliament shall determin- 
 " edly, perseveringly, and unyieldingly maintain 
 " the contrary opinion." 
 
 Lord Lansdowne, also, has given the weight of 
 his important authority to these opinions, and Lord 
 Holland, and the other ministers of the Crown have 
 equally spoken out. Theirs have not been mere 
 idle words, and therefore when the time comes, 
 they will no doubt respectfully submit to his Ma- 
 jesty their plans and propositions for bringing the 
 Lords so far into harmony with their fellow sub- 
 jects, as to allow the machinery of an independent 
 Government to go on. But should these be re- 
 jected, should they be denied all means of asserting 
 the requisite dignity of a Ministry, and of passing 
 bills demanded as well by the voice as for the peace 
 of the country, then it will be their bound en duty 
 to tender their resignation : and who will under- 
 take the Government ? 
 
 Let them resign, and leave the Tories, if they 
 dare, to take the responsibility upon themselves of 
 driving Ireland on to insurrection to a repeal 
 of the Union and the destruction of its Protestant 
 Church. Let them shake if they will in their reck- 
 lessness, the House of Lords to its foundations, and 
 make the arbitrary experiment of ruling this free 
 country by the novel means of a constant minority 
 in the Commons.
 
 65 
 
 These are the only terms upon which the Tories 
 could take the government in the face of the 
 present united liberal party. The strong nerves 
 of the Duke of Wellington would shrink from the 
 experiment ; once or twice indeed he has already 
 attempted to over-rule the House of Commons, and 
 failed miserably ; we do not think he will try it a 
 third time. At all events, Sir Robert Peel is not the 
 man to second, much less to lead on such an assault : 
 he will not go to Rome this spring, and while 
 here, neither the hunger nor the passionate preju- 
 dices of his party-coloured followers will thrust 
 him into a ministry which could exist only by a 
 series of coups d'etat. For by what constitutional 
 means could he carry on the tithe- war in Ireland,* 
 or the Church-rate blockade in England ? Would 
 
 * Some may smile when they hear of a tithe war, but their in- 
 credulity will be staggered when they learn from a return to the 
 House of Commons, which has been admirably commented on in 
 the Examiner, that within less than six months that is, from 
 January to June, 1 836 
 
 nearly 400 declarations have been filed in the Courts of Law 
 
 respecting tithes. 
 
 286 writs of rebellion issued from the Irish Court of Ex- 
 chequer against some 4000 individuals. 
 1552 bills filed in the same Court, and in some cases against 
 
 more than 200 persons in each bill. 
 
 In short, that above 15,000 persons have been brought into court 
 concerning tithe questions, which it has pleased the House of Lords 
 to keep open and festering for these last three years. If such be the 
 unsettled state of tithe property now, what would it be under the 
 Tories.
 
 66 
 
 the House of Commons grant him additional 
 supplies for twenty thousand more men, under 
 Lord Kenyon and'the Duke of Newcastle, tore-con- 
 quer Ireland? would he raise a loan? or would 
 the Carlton Club find him in men and money ? 
 How would he ward off votes of censure and 
 addresses to the throne? Would he dissolve his 
 own Parliament and call another which might 
 call him to an account ? Sir Robert Peel is not 
 the man for these vigorous freaks. He knows too 
 well his own advantageous position, and we give 
 him credit for respecting too highly the consti- 
 tutional authority of the country to embark in such 
 an adventure. But would Lord Stanley ? Alas, for 
 the empty Dilly ! But, Lord Lyndhurst, Lord 
 Ashburton, and Lord Abinger, might not they form 
 a government ? No one may foretell the spiral 
 course of these ambidexterous politicians ; all that is 
 known is, that they are shrewd persons, and that 
 the first, after getting the Duke of Wellington into 
 his Anti-House of Commons scrape in May, 1832, 
 left him in the lurch. 
 
 But it is a mere waste of time to -speculate on 
 what any given set of Tories might do ; for so 
 long as the Reformers continue united, it is just 
 as impossible for them to form a government as 
 to make a minority out-vote a majority. The 
 sustaining this majority is the corner-stone of the 
 government, arid this can be done only by keep- 
 ing even with public opinion (neither running in
 
 advance nor lagging behind), and by mutual for- 
 bearance and concession. But some of the more 
 impatient of the Liberals and Radicals than whom 
 more honest and independent members do not 
 exist, have exclaimed, " This is mighty well, but 
 the concession is all on our side ;* why are we 
 to sacrifice and postpone our ballot our triennial 
 parliaments, our extension of the suffrage, and our 
 Peerage Reform, in favour of your Municipal Cor- 
 poration Reform your settlement of the Irish tithe 
 and English Church-rate questions and your Law 
 and Church reforms/' But the answer to this re- 
 monstrance is simply that on these latter questions 
 of reform all are united, while on the former, many 
 are divided ; and, therefore, independent of other 
 reasons, there is a sound expectation of carrying the 
 one series, and no immediate prospect of forcing 
 through the other. This may be deplored, but it 
 cannot be denied, nor can it be denied that the best 
 prospect of ultimately carrying the strong series 
 consists in first establishing the milder. He there- 
 fore must be a very inconsistent and impracticable 
 reformer, who would separate from his party and 
 
 * This is a mistake, for the Radicals forget there are other sup- 
 porters of the government besides themselves, or they would see 
 that there is just as much concession on the more moderate side as 
 on the Liberal ; the one by stretching, the other by restraining their 
 opinions. It is between these two parties that the common object 
 of supporting the present government produces an alliance, which 
 is sustained by corresponding repression and concession. 
 
 F 2
 
 68 
 
 thereby diminish their power of carrying those 
 practicable reforms which he himself desires, 
 merely because they will not divide their strength by 
 striving also for other questions which he is obliged 
 to confess, are utterly unattainable at present. 
 
 There is the danger also of out-running public 
 opinion. Even last session, some of the measures 
 proposed by government went quite as far as, if not 
 beyond this opinion, as was shewn by the striking 
 difference in the majorities on some of the more 
 important questions. One step further and the 
 absence or desertion of some of the more moderate 
 party might have opened a gap for the entrance of 
 the Tories, and then where would have been not 
 ballot and triennial parliaments, &c., but the Irish 
 Municipal Corporations, and the Church-rates; the 
 first of which the Tories would forthwith utterly 
 destroy, and saddle the consolidated fund with the 
 payment of the other. It is for an error such as this, 
 and not for a forcible seizure of the government, 
 that Sir Robert Peel and the more wise and wily of 
 his party are waiting. 
 
 In 1827 the Whigs were situated with respect to 
 Mr. Canning, much as the Radicals now are with 
 Lord Melbourne, and a vast majority of them sup- 
 ported the government : and why ? not because his 
 measures fulfilled all their expectations, but be- 
 cause they saw as the Radicals now see, they were 
 not able to form a government themselves, and that 
 Mr. Canning's was the most liberal thestate of public
 
 69 
 
 opinion could then bear and what was the conse- 
 quence ? Public opinion became more and more 
 liberal till it enabled the Whigs to carry the Re- 
 form Bill. 
 
 But there are other Liberals who, in their honest 
 impatience at the delays and obstructions, or muti- 
 lations and rejections, which so many of the liberal 
 measures have met with in the Lords, exclaim, 
 " These Whigs are powerless or insincere ; we shall 
 get on better with the Tories, for we shall be able 
 to drive and bully them into good measures in the 
 Commons, which they will cajole their allies in the 
 Lords into passing." This is the very bait with 
 which Sir Robert Peel fished for rats in 1834 I- 
 Again other ultra and more ambitious Liberals say, 
 " Let the Tories come into office again ; their pre- 
 sence there will soon produce a liberal reaction 
 which will drive them from their places, and carry 
 us on its waves over the heads of the Whigs into 
 Downing Street, when and where we shall be able 
 to carry all our organic reforms into execution." 
 
 These two suppositions are, to say the least, nearly 
 akin to what is called reckoning without one's host. 
 For let us ask, whence is to be drawn the force which 
 shall wring more liberal measures from the Peel and 
 Stanley government, than the present liberal Mi- 
 nisters not only propose, but carry ? And where 
 shall be agitated that stormy wave which shall 
 whelm Peel and Stanley, and carry the Radicals into 
 port. Mrs. Malaprop says, that in marriage it is
 
 70 
 
 well to begin with a little aversion ; but the world 
 has not yet seen the joint success of political mea- 
 sures begun and founded on disunion. Undoubt- 
 edly, that which united the Liberals of all degrees 
 in 1834 was the abrupt overthrow of the Govern- 
 ment by the Crown, but it would be an utter dis- 
 tortion of reason to say, that the overthrow of a 
 Liberal Government in 1837, by a section of the 
 Liberals themselves, would produce a like effect. 
 We know very well that we have just stated the 
 difficulties, nay impossibilities, that would defeat 
 the Tories, if they took the Government in defiance 
 of the Liberals when united and carrying the coun- 
 try with them. But if a split took place amongst 
 the Liberals, then the consequences would be very 
 different, for it would alarm and disgust the coun- 
 try, and unless we are much deceived, the imme- 
 diate result of such a manoeuvre would be, that a 
 large portion, (and powerful by their character, 
 property, and constituencies), of Lord Melbourne's 
 present supporters would, in utter hopelessness of 
 acting with their late allies, go over to and support 
 Sir Robert Peel and Lord Stanley. It is well 
 known that even now there are several liberal 
 members who, in their desire for union, and to up- 
 hold a liberal government, are in the habit of 
 voting beyond rather than within their own in- 
 dividual opinions. Where would these members 
 be on the first division ? And where would those 
 members be who dread a dissolution ? Certainly
 
 71 
 
 not on the side of the Radicals, whose practical 
 illustration of the " Stavo bene, per star meglio, 
 sto qui " epitaph, would, inevitably, give Peel 
 and Stanley a sufficient majority in the present 
 House of Commons to carry on the government. 
 And during the four or five remaining years of 
 this Parliament's life, where would be the latent 
 force to coerce the Tory ministers, or the spirits 
 from the vasty deep to whelm them ? And what 
 would be the state of unhappy Ireland, when they 
 who should, and who could have saved her, shall 
 be split and quarrelling for theories amongst them- 
 selves ? 
 
 As to speculating on the temper of the con- 
 stituencies when the dissolution should at last 
 come, we need only reply that five years in the 
 present times is an eternity. Five, or much fewer 
 years would enable the Tories to renew all their 
 old official connections now interrupted or dissolved, 
 and would furnish them with fresh and active re- 
 cruits. We should see all the strongholds of power 
 replenished with a vigorous relief of Tory judges, 
 Tory bishops, Tory lord-lieutenants, magistrates, 
 governors, and subordinates, all re-marshalled far 
 and wide. There is not an old Tory of any princi- 
 ple who would not make it a point of honour to die 
 and make room for some able-bodied Tory succes- 
 sor during this Conservative millenium : and the 
 mischief would not end here. Sir Robert Peel 
 would then have an opportunity " of fighting that
 
 72 
 
 battle of the constitution" which he unveiled to the 
 hopes of Anti-reformers at the Goldsmith's Hall 
 dinner on his former accession to power, for he 
 would have that majority, for the achievement of 
 which, Blackwood, his great organ, says, no later 
 than November, " No sacrifices of money or time, no 
 expenditure of vigour or talent, can be deemed too 
 great." But what would this expensive majority, and 
 these puppets of the Radicals do ? Repeal the Reform 
 Act? No,no; such is not Sir Robert's method of going 
 to work; but gradually and plausibly a different cur- 
 rent and spirit would be infused into all the measures 
 of government, and five years of Conservative har- 
 mony between the Lords and Commons would go 
 far to introduce so many undermining clauses, so 
 many side-wind instructions to revising barristers, 
 and to open so many sluices of corruption and inti- 
 midation, that when the dissolution did come, the 
 Tories might find their amended and explained 
 Reform Act no such bad thing after all. And then 
 the Liberals would have their work to do all over 
 again, and with the stigma of a first failure. 
 
 But we have no fear of such a suicidal and Tory 
 outbreak on the part of the Radicals. They know 
 full well their own strength and their weakness. 
 They know that by their concurrence with the 
 present Government many useful reforms are ori- 
 ginated or liberalized, and that they themselves 
 are gradually winning their way with the country, 
 and accustoming its ear to the discussions of
 
 73 
 
 subjects from which it would formerly have turned 
 deafly or indignantly away. We know no more 
 upright gentlemen, or more useful members of 
 Parliament, than Mr. Warburton, Mr. Grote, Mr. 
 Hume, Mr. Bannerman, Sir William Molesworth, 
 and many other equally honourable members who 
 act with them. They represent a large, honest, 
 and independent section of public opinion, and 
 have, therefore, most deservedly great weight with 
 a liberal government ; but it would be a gross im- 
 peachment of their sober judgment, and they 
 would so consider it, were they to be accused of 
 meditating the construction of a ministry amongst 
 themselves. None know better than they that the 
 country is not ripe for such a move ; none know 
 better than they that both in a selfish and a pa- 
 triotic view, their post is at the right hand of the 
 present Government, where they may be sponsors 
 for its liberality, or the avengers of its timidity. 
 This is their present duty, and their constituents ex- 
 pect it from them. 
 
 Mr. O'Connell clearly understands this position. 
 He frankly declares, that his views go beyond 
 those of the Government ; but he as frankly con- 
 fesses, that hs sees no immediate means of carrying 
 them into effect ; and therefore he adopts and gives 
 his most strenuous support to that administration 
 which assures the largest prospect of attainable 
 reform. His late resolutions, carried at the Ge- 
 neral Reform Association in Dublin, after recording
 
 74 
 
 the necessity for carrying not only the Tithe and 
 Municipal Corporation Reform Bills, but ulti- 
 mately, and at large, the application of the prin- 
 ciples on which they rest, go on to declare, 
 " That the present Administration enjoys the full 
 " confidence of the people of Ireland, and that we 
 " know no language sufficiently strong to express 
 " our admiration of, and gratitude for, the just, 
 " firm, manly, and impartial government of Lord 
 " Mulgrave." 
 
 " That, under these circumstances, we deem it the 
 " sacred duty of the representatives of the Irish 
 " people in Parliament, to give their zealous sup- 
 " port to his Majesty's Ministers upon all occasions 
 " that do not involve, if any such should be, a 
 " direct violation of political principles." 
 
 This leads to the subject of OPEN QUESTIONS, 
 which has lately been so ably advocated by Mr. 
 Henry Bulwer. There are many precedents. Par- 
 liamentary Reform was an open question between 
 Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke, under Lord Rockingham's 
 administration, as it was subsequently under Mr. 
 Pitt's, between himself and Mr. Dundas. We all 
 remember Catholic Emancipation ; and the Corn 
 Laws are now an open question. It is desirable, no 
 doubt, that every latitude, compatible with the con- 
 sistent march of an administration, should be allowed 
 to its members ; but, on the other hand, it is equally 
 clear, that some limit must be fixed. No active 
 avowal of fundamental principles, which contradict
 
 75 
 
 those of the Government, or differences upon ques- 
 tions strictly executive, can safely be permitted. 
 In fact, all open questions, quo ad hoc, weaken an 
 administration, which is necessarily supposed to be 
 unanimous. So, if the Ballot now were made an 
 open question and we do not say that it ought 
 not to be so yet, if different members of the Ca- 
 binet took opposite sides, the moral force of the 
 Government would be weakened. But, on the 
 other hand, this mischief might be more than coun- 
 terbalanced by the increased strength and cor- 
 diality gained to the Government by widening the 
 circle within which its members might be chosen, 
 and by the additional weight which each indivi- 
 dual opinion would then carry from its unquestion- 
 able sincerity. Practically, it is a choice of evils ; 
 and if in this, or other cases, it be found, that the 
 inconveniences or dangers exceed the advantages, 
 great as they specially may appear, then there 
 can be no true Reformer, who, in the present state 
 of affairs, ought not readily to postpone the open 
 discussion of his own cherished measure, in favour 
 of the general security of all reforms. A rigid obsti- 
 nacy might expose him to suspicion, for it could 
 not carry his own, and might overthrow all other 
 liberal measures. And, after all, that march of 
 Reform, which leaves the smallest practicable dis- 
 tance between the hindmost and the foremost 
 ranks, though not the most rapid, will last longest 
 go furthest.
 
 76 
 
 Thus, then, we have no doubt, that when the 
 session opens, it will be found, that mutual conces- 
 sions have been made ; and the more impatient of 
 the Liberals, reconsidering the peculiar difficulties 
 which surround the present Government, and re- 
 coiling from the applauses of the Tories, will be 
 found at their post, actively defending the com- 
 mon cause of Reform. They should well know 
 that their opponents are not to be beaten by fits 
 and starts, but it is by patient co-operation and 
 forbearance, that step by step, measure by measure, 
 and office by office, in short, by time, the great 
 Reformer, that the Liberals must gradually and so 
 best reduce the great Tory ascendancy, which a 
 domination of sixty years has so deeply rooted in 
 their own and their followers opinions, that a Li- 
 beral ministry seems to them a robbery or an usur- 
 pation. No wonder, then, that they rave and rant. 
 But they may call church and state in danger till 
 they are hoarse, they may encourage insurrec- 
 tion amongst the poor, and a run upon the Bank 
 in one and the same day of panic, they may hire 
 renegade forging priests to preach up religious bit- 
 terness, they may instruct the Times to tell Oxford 
 that the Dissenters have no religion, and the Quar- 
 terly Review to threaten them with no customers 
 they may leer on the Lyndhurst side of their face, to 
 the Orangemen, and, on the Peel side, put on 
 conformity smiles, they may hurrah Sir James 
 Graham and Mr. Recorder Shaw in their Joanna
 
 77 
 
 Southcottisms, but all will fail, so long as the 
 Reformers stand fast together and forbear. Lord 
 Lyndhurst, the ablest, the wiliest, and the best 
 performer of the party, tried his destructive plan 
 last year and failed. He strove, to the very 
 utmost, by his alien speeches, and kicking out ex- 
 ploits, by sarcasm in word and deed, to provoke 
 Ministers from the even tenor of their way. But 
 Lord Melbourne was not so easily caught. He 
 firmly and temperately rebuked the man duri 
 frontis et perditce audadce, who led on a tribe of 
 silly Lords to the edge of a dangerous precipice ; 
 but he allowed no threats of his opponents, or 
 complaints of his friends, to draw him from his 
 defensive position. He well knows, that they who 
 in civil struggles strike first or too soon, seldom 
 strike last. 
 
 And now, before concluding, let us run over 
 some of the more prominent acts of the Liberals 
 and the Tories during the last ten or twenty years. 
 They afford a far safer mode of judging than plau- 
 sible professions. 
 
 In 1817, the Tories suspend- The Liberals, under Sir S. 
 
 ed the Habeas Corpus Act. Romilly, advocated the mitiga- 
 
 In 1817, the Tories passed tion of the penal code, 
 their six celebrated gagging bills. 
 
 In 1 820, the Tories persecut- The Whigs rescued her. 
 ed the unfortunate Queen Caro- 
 line.
 
 78 
 
 In 1821, they opposed all re- 
 ductions, more especially of the 
 supernumerary Lords of the Ad- 
 miralty. 
 
 In 1827, Sir Robert Peel, the 
 Duke of Wellington, and the 
 Tories, broke with Mr. Canning 
 on the grounds of his favouring 
 Catholic emancipation. 
 
 In 1828, the Duke of Wel- 
 lington, and Sir Robert Peel, and 
 Tories, being in power, opposed 
 to the last the repeal of the Test 
 and Corporation Acts. 
 
 In 1 829, the same government 
 and party refused to transfer the 
 right of returning a Member of 
 Parliament from the convicted 
 rotten borough of East Retford to 
 Leeds or Birmingham. 
 
 In 1830, the Duke of Wel- 
 lington declared the old rotten 
 borough system the perfection of 
 human wisdom. 
 
 In 1832, the Duke of Wel- 
 lington and the Tory Peers pro- 
 tested against it as revolution- 
 ary, and subversive of our in- 
 stitutions, &c. 
 
 The Tories always upheld 
 it. 
 
 The Tories, during their whole 
 tenure of office, did nothing, 
 
 In 1821, Lord Mulgrave (then 
 Lord Normanby) carried these 
 reductions. 
 
 In 1 829, the Liberals forced 
 or enabled the same Sir Robert 
 Peel, Duke of Wellington, and 
 Tories, to admit and carry the 
 Catholic emancipation. 
 
 In 1829, Lord John Russell 
 and the Liberals carried this re- 
 peal in despite of the Ministry. 
 
 In 1833 and 1832, the Li- 
 berals being in power disfran- 
 chised all the rotten boroughs, 
 and raised the constituency of 
 the three kingdoms to nearly a 
 million. 
 
 In 1832, they carried the RE- 
 FORM BILL. 
 
 In 1833, they ABOLISHED 
 
 SLAVERY. 
 
 They opened the trade of India 
 and of China. 
 
 They amended the POOR 
 LAWS, by which above three
 
 79 
 
 leaving their abuses untouched 
 and their burdens increasing iu 
 amount. 
 
 The Tories defended, and 
 fought for them to the very last 
 vote in the Lords. 
 
 The Tories opposed all 
 Church Reform. 
 
 The Tories called it a mutila- 
 tion of the Word of God, out 
 of office, and adopted it when 
 in. 
 
 The Tories kicked out both 
 bills. 
 
 The Tories revelled from 1 792 
 to 1814, iu all the glories and 
 profits of war, imposing incal- 
 culable millions of taxes, and 
 increasing the national debt 
 by the feather weight of 
 573,228,595, whereby they 
 have burthened the country with 
 anothe r feather weight payment 
 of 21 Millions per annum. 
 
 After the peace, they retained 
 in the public offices no less than 
 27,365 persons, at an annual 
 expense of 3, 763,300!! 
 
 millions sterling have already 
 been saved. 
 
 They REFORMED THE COR- 
 
 RUPF CORPORATIONS OP SCOT- 
 LAND AND OF ENGLAND. 
 
 They reformed the Irish 
 Church by increasing the smaller 
 livings, and reducing 24 bishops 
 to 12. 
 
 They passed an act for pro- 
 moting general education in 
 Ireland. 
 
 1 836, they passed the English 
 Tithe Act, 
 
 And would have settled the Irish 
 tithe question, And have re- 
 formed the corrupt Irish corpora- 
 tions. 
 
 In 6 years they have taken oft' 
 above 8 millions of taxes, abolish- 
 ed immediately or in prospective 
 all the old Tory sinecures, or 
 places of non-effective work, re- 
 duced public expenditure from 
 a gross 54,223,414 to 
 48.787,538, effecting thereby 
 a saving of FIVE MILLIONS AND 
 A HALF on 20 millions, for the 
 remainder is made up of interest 
 for debt or dead weight. 
 
 In 1835, the Whigs, beginning 
 by a reduction of their own 
 salaries, had reduced this army 
 of officials by 3797 persons, at a 
 saving to the public of 967,000 
 per annum.
 
 80 
 
 In 1822, still incorrigible they In 1835, the Whigs had re- 
 employed 6788 persons, at sa- duced this Tory excess by 1979 
 laries amounting to 726,572, persons, at a saving of 167,928 
 to collect the revenue, being at a year, collecting the revenue at 
 the rate of 10 15s. Id. per the rate of only 5 17s. 3d., 
 cent. being little more than one-half 
 
 of the Tory charge. 
 
 These are the principal deeds of the two parties. 
 Verily, by their fruits you shall know them. But, 
 hear their opinions 
 
 " The House of Lords was the true representative 
 of the people," gravely stated Lord Wharncliffe, 
 at Halifax, himself an ex-cabinet minister. " Away 
 with the aliens, away with them !" shouts in spirit 
 Lord Lyndhurst, an ex-Lord Chancellor, from his 
 seat in the House of Lords, against the whole Irish 
 nation. " Extend the pure faith amongst the infidel 
 faction of perjured idolaters," ejaculates in the same 
 tone the meek Bishop of Exeter, a Tory pillar of 
 the Church. "Put your trust in God, and keep 
 your powder dry," respond the smouldering Orange- 
 men of Ireland. " All Reformers are knaves, vaga- 
 bonds, or atheists," says the Tory Lord Lieutenant 
 of Norfolk, at a public meeting in his county. 
 " Public meetings are a farce," escapes from the 
 Duke of Wellington, in his place in the Lords. 
 " The Reform Bill is subversive of our institutions," 
 solemnly protests the same ex-Minister. " I must 
 resign rather than consent to the appropriation 
 clause," murmured Sir R. Peel, to his disconsolate 
 whippers-in, having equally opposed, and having 
 been more than equally converted, on the Currency 
 question, the repeal of the Test Acts, and Catholic
 
 81 
 
 tent Conservatives, and these are the men, and this 
 the party, to form a popular government, reconcile 
 Ireland, and promote Reform ! ! ! 
 
 And now, people of England, men of Ireland 
 and of Scotland, remember these deeds, and, re- 
 flecting on these things, say, which will you have ? 
 which do you prefer ? Shall your affairs be con- 
 ducted by statesmen who have given an onward 
 march to our country, in the straightforward line of 
 its old free institutions, who, notwithstanding the 
 clamours of their opponents, have taken off eight 
 millions of taxes, and denounced all sinecures, 
 and ineffective offices, and have raised the trade 
 and commerce of the country above 30 per 
 cent, in six years, will you have men who 
 extinguished that last legacy of the Tories incen- 
 diary fires, and an insurrectionary peasantry in 
 England, and who have maintained Ireland in 
 tranquillity by equal government, and by the ex- 
 pectation of equal laws and institutions who have 
 kept us at peace, though the Tories declared, six 
 years ago, that nothing short of a miracle could stave 
 off a general war for six months. Say, shall these 
 men,the old and constant friends of civil and religious 
 liberty, the tried and experienced Reformers, per- 
 fect and work out the reforms they have begun, or 
 shall a remnant of Tory-radicals, with hot impa- 
 tience, overthrow all stable liberal government, in 
 favour of an ultra-liberal scheme of commencing 
 upon a fresh series of reforms, -before the first is 
 
 G
 
 82 
 
 completed and established ? Or will you trust in 
 the constant opponents, either open or concealed, 
 of all reforms whatever, whether in finance, 
 church, law, state, colonies, or trade ; and who, 
 when reforms are carried, adopt or conform to 
 them, with the avowed object of thereby gaining 
 strength enough to weaken or pervert them ? 
 
 If you will have these men, instruct your repre- 
 sentatives to join chorus in the hypocritical or 
 fanatic cry of " Church and State in danger," 
 " Spoliation," " Revolution," " Independence 
 of the Lords," or any other hubble-bubble bye- 
 word they may pick up. But if, on the other 
 hand, you think reforms can be best conducted by 
 Reformers, instruct your representatives to be firm 
 and united, to carry and make good what they 
 can carry, and to bide their time for the rest. 
 Warn them, in their pursuit of, perhaps, useful 
 theories, not to imitate the unwise dog in the fable, 
 who lost the substance in snatching at the shadow ; 
 and, above all, keep your eyes on those high-flying 
 Patriots, who, in the excess of their love of Re- 
 form, are seeking to promote Reform by upsetting 
 a Reform Government in order to make room for 
 those most approved reformers the Tories ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
 NORMAN AND SKEEN, PRINTERS, MAIDEN LANE, CO VENT GARDEN.
 
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