Reforming Administration, professing to abolish all existing evils, torender them annual instead of occasional, and a permanent tumour instead of a transient blemish in the constitution. The powers vested in the surveyors of houses, and the barristers, appointed by the Lord Chancellor, who are to review their judgments, is a new and unheard-of peril in the constitution. The returns of Parliament -the formation of a majority in the Lower House-will depend upon these officers. They are not to be appointed by a fixed Judge, such as the Chief Justice,-but a political officer, who stands or falls with Administration. It is easy to foresee what abuses may, in bad times, be committed under such a system; it is not difficult to prognosticate the discontent which, in periods of excitement, even the honest discharge of duty by these officers certainly will excite. And this is the system which is to correct all existing abuses, and effect a permanent settlement of the constitution!

The freemen under the existing system, are to be preserved to perpetuity in the new Bill. Those freemen constitute the existing democracy under the old constitution; and in many towns, as Liverpool, Norwich, &c., the franchise descends so low as almost to amount to universal suffrage. We have uniformly maintained, that the existence of those representatives of the working classes under the old constitution, was a very great advantage, because it gave them a voice in the legislature, and counterbalanced the nomination boroughs which constituted the representation of landed and commercial wealth. But what is now proposed? To keep up these operative electors over the whole country, at the very time that a new and wide inlet for the democracy is provided in the L.10 tenants, and when the representation of commercial, colonial, and landed opulence in the close boroughs is cut off. That is to say, we are to have on our back at once the old democracy and the new democracy, both that which is now pressing with such force on the constitution, and that which promises to overturn it in future times; and that too at the very time when the fortresses of the Con

servative Party in the nomination boroughs are to be entirely destroyed! And this is gravely held forth as the arrangement of the conflicting powers on a satisfactory basis, and which promises to restore that balance which, from the force of democratic ambition at this time, is in such danger of being subverted!

The superior weight given to manufacturing or democratic over agricultural or conservative industry, apparent in every part of the Bill, is in an especial manner conspicuous in the rise which is introduced in the qualification for county votes, compared with the fall in that for boroughs. After the termination of the existing lives, the qualification for a county vote is to be raised to a freehold of L.10 yearly value; so that in the space of twenty years the county members will be returned exclusively by that class of proprietors. The borough members are to be returned not merely by the owners, but the tenants of L.10 houses, a class of men, not at an average possessing a tenth part of the property of their brother freeholders in the county. Why is this extraordinary distinction made between the classes who are to return the members for counties and boroughs? Is it because the yeomanry of the country are so much more democratical than the householders of Manchester, Birmingham, the Tower Hamlets, or Greenwich, that it was necessary to go to a much higher class before the powers of representation could be securely vested? Is it because morality is so much more pure, life so much more innocent, passion so much more subdued, reason so much more powerful, among the ale-house keepers of St Giles, in the owners of brothels in Dublin or Glasgow, than among the statesmen of Cumberland, the freeholders of Yorkshire, or the peasantry of Scotland? Had the rule been just the reverse; had a tenpound proprietor been required in town, and a ten-pound tenant admitted in the country, the principle of the distinction would have been intelligible, because it would have been founded on the eternal distinction between the honesty of conduct and sobriety of thought in rural, compared with the profligacy of habit and vehemence of passion in

urban life. But to admit the poorer class amid the corruption, vice, and intoxication of cities, and confine the franchise to a far higher class amidst the simplicity and moderation of country life, is so utter a departure from the principles not merely of legislation, but of common sense and universal experience, that it is altogether inexplicable upon any of the known principles of human conduct. And it is to be recollected, that while only 157 members are given to the coolness and sobriety of rural industry, no less than 340 are awarded to the passions and the corruption of city population.

For these reasons, the principle and practical tendency of the new Bill is even more dangerous than that from which we have just been delivered. The Whigs should have abandoned office, rather than have consented, for the purpose of gaining the Radicals, to bring in so ruinous a project; the Conservative Party had better remain for ever in opposition, than sully their hands by any connexion with it. We rejoice therefore at the noble stand which the friends of the constitution have again made in the House of Commons, and that the eloquence of Sir R. Peel and Mr Croker has exceeded even all their previous efforts, and recalled the brightest days of British glory.

Nor have the Scotch less reason to be proud of the able and patriotic stand made by their leading nobility on this trying occasion. The Duke

of Buccleuch, who, throughout the whole contest, has acted the part of a true Patriot, has gone to London on purpose to lay the Address of the great Edinburgh Meeting before his Majesty, and it was received in a way worthy of the quarter from which it proceeded, and the hands by which it was delivered. If the other Conservative Nobility of the country have not been so conspicuous in their services, their firmness is as great, and their devotion to the public cause as unbounded. It is by such means that the Peers of Great Britain can best discharge the duty which at this crisis they owe to their country, which they have recently delivered from so great a peril.

Let them do their utmost to soften the dangerous features of the new measure, and diminish the mischief which it must occasion to the country; but let the whole responsibility of the future constitution rest upon its own authors. They have delivered into their hands a prosperous, tranquil, and powerful nation, with its empire surrounding the globe, its fleets whitening the ocean, its glory resplendent over the earth; let them beware of extinguishing so fair a fame, by mingling with the ambition, the recklessness, or the desperation which is destined, to all human appearance, to destroy so noble a fabric, and sink for ever in the waves the might and the honour of the British empire.

182

How spirit-stirring the commencement of a campaign! Our imagination travels along a shadowy succession of yet unfoughten combats of various fortune-now in victory, now in defeat, and now in drawn battle but ever fearless of the final issue, and confident that, after some total overthrow, the war will terminate in the triumph of Truth, Freedom, and Justice. Such will be the end of the great struggle now renewed between the firm force of the Conservatives, and the feeble fury of the Revolutionists. On the restoration of peace, the eyes of the patriots will be gladdened to behold the blessing for which they conquered unscathed by storm, flood, or fire, from turret to foundation stone, in all its ancient strength and state, that august and glorious edifice the British Constitution.

We have called the reformers by a name which used to excite their ire

revolutionists. Some few months ago they grew red in the face at that appropriate polysyllable; his Majesty's Ministersrose indignantly, as one man,“ to repudiate the charge," "to reprobate the idea;" but a pallor now is on their crestfallen countenances, and you hear extorted confession in many a wrathful mutter. Why so loath still are some of the would-be leading men among them to avow the truth? They cannot be such simpletons as to dream now of deluding us into a belief that they desire to restore and preserve our liberties; and can they indeed be such fools as to fancy that they may play with safety upon the knaves who have enlisted themselves in thousands and tens of thousands under their tri-color-the rascally rag which never yet was hoistedand never shall be over

sands of knaves have taught them, and will continue to teach them, another lesson; and slow and stupid as they have shewn themselves to be "at the uptake," that other lesson will in time be instilled into their sluggish souls through incessant ink-dropping, by men far honester and abler than themselves, the EDUCATED RADICALS OF ENGLAND, who, instead of denying that they are for revolution, glory in the charge, and in proclamations and manifestoes somewhat more vigorous than that ludicrous and late lament issued in his Majesty's name against Political Unions, have long kept dinning into the deafest and largest ears, that they will never rest till they have gained their ULTERIOR OBJECTS-the overthrow of all ancient and all hereditary institutions.

That my Lord John Russell and "the rest" are sick of their estates and titles, we cannot believe, not even on the authority of their own conduct. They are not sick, then, but they are silly; and seek to shelter their large estates and noble titles and insignificant selves, behind a Bill which the most formidable foes of their order are all grimly laughing to behold them bringing up like a battering-ram to demolish their own powers and privileges in the state. Aye-the Bill-though far from being perfect in all its parts, in the eyes of the educated radicals, will, nevertheless, work well-it will butt forcefully against the ramparts of aristocracy-and out from among the dusty rubbish the radicals see, in imagination, running like so many rats, the Lord Johnnys and the Lord Dickies, and in imagination they hear and can scarce retain their urine for affection," the creatures squeak.

That the rats chiefly composing

The battle and the breeze."

The thousands and tens of thou

mole-blind, did certainly at first somewhat astonish the public. As

long as they kept working under ground, it was supposed that all might be right enough; but the moment they issued into the open air and light of heaven, it was painful to see the small bleariness of their opaque optics. They cannot be so blind as they look," was the humane hint of many Christian people; but that inconsiderate suggestion gave place to a wiser judgment, "Why, the creatures are stone-blind," as they were seen treading on each other's tails, in hurry to run their snouts into the traps set for them by those rough rat-catchers-the radicals,-traps easily seen through by the merest glimmer of eyesight and absolutely unbaited with so much as a bit of cheese!

This may be thought by fastidious persons an undignified style of treating such noblemen and gentlemen as are no longer his Majesty's Opposition, but his Majesty's Ministers.

Is not Lord Grey the English Neckar ?"" And was not Neckar the French Lord Grey ?" We have written of that parallel ere now; but while Christopher North is silent, hear Napoleon Bonaparte. He is speaking to Neckar's grandson, the young De Stael. We quote from the Reply.

"Your grandfather was a fool, an ideologist, an old maniac. At sixty years of age, to think of forming plans to overthrow my constitution! States would be well governed, truly, under such theorists, who judge of men from books, and the world from the map... Your grandfather's work is that of an obstinate old man, who died abusing all governments... He calls me the indispensable man, but judging from his arguments, the best thing that could be done would be to cut my throat! Yes: I was indeed indispensable to repair the follies of your grandfather, and the mischief which he did to France. It was he who overturned the monarchy, and led Louis XVI. to the scaffold.' The young man bere interposes, and says

6

Sire, you seem to forget that my grandfather's property was confiscated, because he defended the King.'-' Defended the King! A fine defence truly! You might as well say, that if I give a man poison, and present him with an antidote when he is in the agonies of death, that I wish to save him. That is the way your grand

father defended Louis XVI. As to the confiscation you speak of, what does that prove? Nothing. Why, the property of Robespierre was confiscated; and let me tell you that Robespierre himself, Marat, and Danton, have done less mischief to France than M. Neckar. It was he who You,

brought about the revolution. Monsieur de Stael, did not see this: but I did. I witnessed all that passed in those

days of terror and public calamity. But as long as I live, these days shall never return. Your speculators trace their fine schemes upon paper: fools read and believe them all are babbling about general happiness, and presently the people have not bread to eat; then comes a revolution,

Such is usually the fruit of all these fine theories. Your grandfather was the cause

of the saturnalia which desolated France.'*

"These are the words of Napoleon Bonaparte; and lest it should seem to any one that they were not applied to the general principles of revolutionary agents, but dictated by some personal feeling towards their more moderate partisans, read one more passage. cobins of Paris had been treating with him. On hearing the price which they set upon their services, he said, 'This is too much; I shall have a chance of de

The Ja

liverance in battle, but I shall have none

with these furious blockheads. There can be nothing in common between the demagogic principles of 1793 and the monarchy; between clubs of madmen and a regular ministry; between a committee of public safety and an Emperor; between revolutionary tribunals and established laws. If fall I must, I will not bequeath France to the revolutionists, from whom I have delivered her.'t

"Now, the leader of the demagogic principles in 1793,' was Mr CHARLES ing to Napoleon, M. Neckar destroyed, GREY; and the monarchy which, accord

was that of France. The Neckar of 1831 has failed, and the monarchy of England is yet preserved; and with it Lord Grey, and the Duke of Bedford, and the Duke of Devonshire; but let us hear no more of the argument, that there is no danger of a democratic revolution, because these noblemen do not desire it."

A certain respect, it has hitherto been very generally allowed, is due to the very prejudices and bigotries of an ignorant people, from its rulers; and the more especially if that unhappy ignorance has been owing partly to its rulers, though mainly

+ Ibid. p. 298.

to the constitution under which it has been the people's wretched lot to flourish. Was any such respect, however slight, shewn to the people of Great Britain, by the Paymaster to his Majesty's forces, when he first stood up in the House of Commons, with his Bill in his small lily-white hand? The people, it is said, wished for some Reform-how much is not specified; but judging from the symptoms, which were complete composure, and an almost Pythagorean silence, not a muscle of their mouth moving, the appetite or passion of the people for political food in the shape of a Bill, was such as might have been appeased with a small portion of victual, of wet and dry. Had they been ravenous for Schedule A, they would have roared like any nightingale, but they were mute as tit-mice ere spring shews her violets. Neither had the Paymaster been previously profuse or prodigal either in promise or performance on the Feast of Reform. For many years he had been one of the prettiest and best behaved young gentlemen of all the bit-by-bit Reformers, and thereby the noble niggard escaped the sarcasms of Canning, who had otherwise "torn off his flesh." Nay, high-up in yonder nook,

Each in its narrow cell for ever laid, The First editions of his Quartos sleep;

Nor ever shall profane hand of ours again give to day the diatribes against Reform, and the panegyrics on Old Sarum which their stiff boards and pompous pages preserve in the repose of oblivion. But having eaten in his words (and how sweet is a morsel devoured in a corner well did Solomon and Jack Horner know), swallowed, inwardly digested, and outwardly expelled them, one and all, great and small," with much labour and pains, he not unnaturally, but irrationally, presumed that the people were as hungry as himself, who had just emptied his stomach in the style aforesaid; and bidding them open their mouths like barndoors, into the yawning aperture he flung his Bill. So grotesque in itself was this procedure of his understanding, and so unexpected, that the House of Commons became a convulsive series of guffaws.

"Unextinguished laughter shook the skies."

But it is grievous to know that a guffaw is in nature transitory as a groan, into which indeed it is apt to grow; and that a groan of disgustsuch is the strange constitution of our souls-is often converted into a shout of admiration, while in bad time and early, it settles down into an aimless infatuation of

"The people imagining a vain thing,"

till a whole kingdom becomes a Bedlam.

Offer a dog a pound of butter, a quartern loaf, or a shoulder of mutton, and though tolerably sharpset, he will turn away with a growl, thinking that you mean to insult him; but cajole him, by rubbing his back with the hair, and calling the buffer by his name, and by other charms potent over the canine, and the animal begins to believe that he is dying of hunger. Disregarding the bread and butter, he plays the part of a wolf on the sheep; and offer but to touch the shank now, and he will tear you to pieces. It is in vain to tell him that he has devoured his due, and that he will get the rest at another time; the bare suspicion on his part, of such a base suggestion on yours, will stiffen the upright bristles all over the surly savage, till he seems a live-dog of horrent iron, and you walk off full of " thick-coming_fancies" about canine madness. Next morning, the master shepherd (for we suppose you to be one of the Pastorals) informs you that an outlandish animal, by some supposed a dog, has swum ashore from some Norwegian wreck during the night, and slaughtered some scores of the silly people, all the braes being stained with woolly blood-clouts, and lamb, gimmer, wether, and "ewie wi' the cruickit horn" lying among the broom, and below the birch trees, with holes in their throats and their kidneys, while the Red Rover is seen lying out of musket-shot, on a knoll, licking his paws, and then crouching away into the woods, till hunger shall re-drive him to rapine.

The above is figurative or allegorical-but we can speak pretty plainly when we choose; and, therefore, begging pardon of the populace for likening them for a moment to such