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man. Great as it is, sir, this is not the only pleasure I have received in these latter days. I have seen, within these few weeks, a degree of wisdom in our mercantile law, such superiority to vulgar prejudice, views so just and so profound, that it seemed to me as if I was reading the works of a speculative economist, rather than the improvement of a practical politician, agreed to by a legislative assembly, and upon the eve of being carried into execution, for the benefit of a great people. Let who will be their master, I honour and praise the ministers who have learnt such a lesson. I rejoice that I have lived to see such an improvement in English affairs-that the stubborn resistance to all improvement-the contempt of all scientific reasoning, and the rigid adhesion to every stupid error which so long characterized the proceedings of this country, are fast giving way to better things, under better men, placed in better circumstances.

I confess it is not without severe pain that, in the midst of all this expansion and improvement, I perceive that in our profession we are still calling for the same exclusion-still asking that the same fetters may be riveted on our fellow-creatures-still mistaking what constitutes the weakness and misfortune of the church, for that which contributes to its glory, its dignity, and its strength. Sir, there are two petitions at this moment in this house, against two of the wisest and best measures which ever came into the British parliament, against the impending corn law and against the Catholic emancipation-the one bill intended to increase the comforts, and the other to allay the bad passions of man.-Sir, I am not in a situation of life to do much good, but I will take care that I will not willingly do any evil. The wealth of the riding should not tempt me to petition against either of those bills. With the corn bill, I have nothing to do at this time. Of the Catholic emancipation bill, I shall say, that it will be the foundation stone of a lasting religious peace; that it will give to Ireland not all that it wants, but what it most wants, and without which no other boon will be of any avail.

When this bill passes, it will be a signal to all the religious sects of that unhappy country to lay aside their mutual hatred, and to live in peace, as equal men should live under equal law-when this bill passes, the Orange flag will fall-when this bill passes, the Green flag of the rebel will fall-when this bill passes, no other flag will fly in the land of Erin than that flag which blends the lion with the harp-that flag which, wherever it does fly, is the sign of freedom and of joy-the only banner in Europe which floats over a limited king and a free people.

SPEECH AT THE TAUNTON REFORM

MEETING.*

MR. BAILIFF, This is the greatest measure which has ever been before Parliament in my time, and the

* I was a sincere friend to reform; I am so still. It was a great deal too violent-but the only justification is, that you cannot reform as you wish, by degrees; you must avail yourself of the few opportunities that present themselves. The reform carried, it became the business of every honest man to turn it to good, and to see that the people (drunk with their new power) did not ruin our ancient institutions. We have been in considerable danger, and that danger is not over. What alarms me most is the large price paid by both parties for popular favour. The yeomanry were put down: nothing could be more grossly absurd-the people were rising up against the poor laws, and such an excellent and permanent force was abolished because they were not deemed a proper force to deal with popular insurrections. You may just as well object to put out a fire with pond water because pump water is better for the purpose: I say, put out the fire with the first water yon can get; but the truth is, radicals don't like armed yeomen: they have an ugly homicide appearance. Again, a million of revenue is given up in the nonsensical penny-post scheme, to please my old, excellent, and universally dissentient friend, Noah Warburton. I admire the whig ministry, and think they have done more good things than all the ministers since the Revolution; but these concessions are sad and unworthy marks of weakness, and fill reasonable men with just alarm. All this folly has taken place since they

most pregnant with good or evil to the country; and though I seldom meddle with political meetings, I could not reconcile it to my conscience to be absent from this.

Some

Every year, for this half century, the question of reform has been pressing upon us, till it has swelled up at last into this great and awful combination; so that almost every city and every borough in England are at this moment assembled for the same purpose, and are doing the same thing we are doing. It damps the ostentation of argument and mitigates the pain of doubt, to believe (as I believe) that the measure is inevitable; the consequences may be good or bad; but done it must be; I defy the most determined enemy of popular influence, either now or a little time from now, to prevent a reform in Parliament. years ago, by timely concession, it might have been prevented. If members had been granted to Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, and other great towns, as opportunities occurred, a spirit of conciliation would have been evinced, and the people might have been satisfied with a reform, which though remote would have been gradual; but with the customary blindness and insolence of human beings, the day of adversity was forgotten, the rapid improvement of the people was not noticed; the object of a certain class of poli ticians was to please the court and to gratify their own arrogance by treating every attempt to expand the representation, and to increase the popular influence, with every species of contempt and obloquy: the golden opportunity was lost; and now proud lips must swallow bitter potions.

The arguments and practices (as I remember to have heard Mr. Huskisson say), which did very well twenty years ago, will not do now. The people read too much, think too much, see too many newspapers, hear too many speeches, have their eyes too intensely fixed upon political events But if it was possible to put off parliamentary reformi a week ago, is it possible now? When a monarch (whose amiable and popular manners have, I verily believe, saved us from a revo luion) approves the measure-when a minister of exalted character plans and fashions it-when a cabinet of such varied talent and disposition protects it-when such a body of the aristocracy vote for it-when the hundred-horse power of the press is labouring for it ;— who does not know, after this, (whatever be the deci sion of the present Parliament), that the measure is virtually carried-and that all the struggle between such annunciation of such a plan, and its completion, is tumult, disorder, disaffection, and (it may be) political rum?

An honourable member of the honourable house, much connected with this town, and once its representative, seems to be amazingly surprised, and equally dissatisfied, at this combination of king, ministers, no bles, and people, against his opinion ;—like the gentleman who came home from serving on a jury very much disconcerted, and complaining, he had met with eleven of the most obstinate people he had ever seen in his life, whom he found it absolutely impossible by the strongest arguments to bring over to his way of thinking.

They tell you gentlemen that you have grown rich and powerful with these rotten boroughs, and that it would be madness to part with them, or to alter a constitution which had produced such happy effects. There happens, gentlemen, to live near my parsonage a labouring man, of very superior character and understanding to his fellow labourers; and who has made such good use of that superiority, that he has saved what is (for his station in life) a very considerable sum of money, and if his existence is extended to the common period, he will die rich. It happens, however that he is (and long has been) troubled with violent stomachic pains, for which he has hitherto obtained no relief, and which really are the bane and torment of his life. Now if my excellent labourer were to send have become ministers upon principles of chivalry and gallantry; and the tories, too, for fear of the people, have been much too quiet. There is only one principle of public conduct Do what you think right, and take place and power as an accident. Upon any other plan, office is shabbiness, labour, and sorrow.

would destroy the trade of the smuggler; their functions would be carried on faintly, and with little profit; you would soon feel that your position was stable, solid, and safe.

for a physician, and to consult him respecting this malady, would it not be very singular language if our doctor were to say to him, 'My good friend, you surely will not be so rash as to attempt to get rid of these pains in your stomach. Have you not grown All would be well, it is urged, if they would but let rich with these pains in your stomach? have you not the people alone. But what chance is there, I demand, risen under them from poverty to prosperity? has not of these wise politicians, that the people will ever be your situation, since you were first attacked, been im- let alone; that the orator will lay down his craft, and proving every year? You surely will not be so foolish the demagogue forget his cunning? If many things and so indiscreet as to part with the pains in your sto- were let alone, which never will be let alone, the asmach ?'-Why, what would be the answer of the rus-pect of human affairs would be a little varied. If the tic to this nonsensical monition? 'Monster of rhu- winds would let the waves alone, there would be no barb (he would say) I am not rich in consequence storms. If gentlemen would let ladies alone, there of the pains in my stomach, but in spite of the pains would he no unhappy marriages, and deserted damin my stomach; and I should have been ten times sels. If persons who can reason no better than this, richer, and fifty times happier, if I had never had any would leave speaking alone, the school of eloquence pains in my stomach at all.' Gentlemen, these rotten might be improved. I have little hopes, however, of boroughs are your pains in the stomach-and you witnessing any of these acts of forbearance, particuwould have been a much richer and greater people if larly the last, and so we must (however foolish it may you had never had them at all. Your wealth and your appear), proceed to make laws for a people who, we power have been owing, not to the debased and cor- are sure, will not be let alone. rupted parts of the House of Commons, but to the many independent and honourable members whom it has always contained within its walls. If there had been a few more of these very valuable members for close boroughs, we should, I verily believe, have been by this time about as free as Denmark, Sweden, or the Germanized states of Italy.

The

We might really imagine, from the objections made to the plan of reform, that the great mass of Englishmen were madmen, robbers, and murderers. kingly power is to be destroyed, the House of Lords is to be annihilated, the church is to be ruined, estates are to be confiscated. I am quite at a loss to find in these perpetrators of crimes-in this mass of pillagers and lunatics-the steady and respectable tradesmen and farmers, who will have votes to confer, and the steady and respectable country gentlemen, who will probably have votes to receive—it may be true of the tradesmen of Mauritania, it may be just of the country gentlemen of Fez-it is any thing but true of the English people. The English are a tranquil, phlegmatic, money-loving, money-getting people, who want to be quiet-and would be quiet if they were not surrounded by evils of such magnitude, that it would be baseness and pusillanimity not to oppose to them the strongest constitutional resistance.

They tell you of the few men of name and character who have sat for boroughs; but nothing is said of those mean and menial men who are sent down every day by their aristocratic masters to continue unjust and unnecessary wars, to prevent inquiring into profligate expenditure, to take money out of your pockets, or to do any other bad or base thing which the minister of the day may require at their unclean hands. What mischief, it is asked, have these boroughs done? I believe there is not a day of your lives in which you are not suffering in all the taxed commodities of life from the accumulation of bad votes of bad men. But, Mr. Bailiff, if this were otherwise; if it really were a Then it is said that there is to be a lack of talent in great political invention, that cities of 100,000 men the new Parliament: it is to be composed of ordinary should have no representatives, because those repre- and inferior persons, who will bring the government of sentatives were wanted for political ditches, political the country into contempt. But the best of all talents, walls, and political parks; that the people should be gentlemen, is to conduct our affairs honestly, diligentbought and sold like any other commodity; that a re-ly, and economically-and this talent will, I am sure, tired merchant should be able to go into the market and abound as much in the new Parliament as in many prebuy ten shares in the government of twenty millions vious parliaments. Parliament is not a school for rheof his fellow subjects; yet can such asseverations be toric and declamation, where a stranger would go to made openly before the people? Wise men, men con- hear a speech, as he would go to the opera to hear a versant with human affairs, may whisper such theo- song; but if it were otherwise-if eloquence be a neries to each other in retirement; but can the people cessary ornament of, and an indispensable adjunct to, ever be taught that it is right they should be bought popular assemblies-can it ever be absent from popuand sold? Can the vehemence of eloquent democrats lar assemblies? I have always found that all things be met with such arguments and theories? Can the moral or physical grow in the soil best suited for them. doubts of honest and limited men be met by such argu- Show me a deep and tenacious earth-and I am sure ments and theories? The moment such a government the oak will spring up in it. In a low and damp soil I is looked at by all the people it is lost. It is impossible am equally certain of the alder and the willow. to explain, defend, and recommend it to the mass of tlemen, the free Parliament of a free people is the namankind. And true enough it is, that as often as mis- tive soil of eloquence-and in that soil will it ever fortune threatens us at home, or imitation excites us flourish and abound-there it will produce those intelfrom abroad, political reform is clamoured for by the lectual effects which drive before them whole tribes people there it stands, and ever will stand, in the and nations of the human race, and settle the destinies apprehension of the multitude-reform, the cure of of man. And, gentlemen, if a few persons of a less elevery evil-corruption, the source of every misfortune egant and aristocratic description were to become --famine, defeat, decayed trade, depressed agriculture, members of the House of Commons, where would be will all lapse into the question of reform. Till that the evil? They would probably understand the comquestion is set at rest (and it may be set at rest), all mon people a great deal better, and in this way the will be disaffection, tumult, and perhaps (which God feelings and interests of all classes of people would be avert!) destruction. better represented. The House of Commons, thus organized, will express more faithfully the opinions of the people.

Gen

But democrats and agitators (and democrats and agitators there are in the world,) will not be contented with this reform. Perhaps not, sir; I never hope The people are sometimes, it is urged, grossly misto content men whose game is never to be contented-taken; but are kings never mistaken? Are the higher but if they are not contented, I am sure their discon-orders never mistaken?-never wilfully corrupted by tent will then comparatively be of little importance. their own interests? The people have at least this suI am afraid of them now; I have no arguments to an-periority, that they always intend to do what is right. swer them: but I shall not be afraid of them after this The argument of fear is very easily disposed of: he bill, and would tell them boldly in the middle of their mobs, that there was no longer cause for agitation and excitement, and that they were intending wickedly to the people. You may depend upon it such a measure would destroy their trade, as the repeal of duties

who is afraid of a knock on the head or a cut on the cheek is a coward; he who is afraid of entailing greater evils on the country by refusing the remedy than by applying it, and who acts in pursuance of that convic tion, is a wise and prudent man-nothing can be more

different than personal and political fear; it is the artifice of our opponents to confound them together. The right of disfranchisement, gentlemen, must exist somewhere, and where but in Parliament? If not, how was the Scoich union, how was the Irish union, effected? The Duke of Wellington's administration disfranchised at one blow 200,000 Irish voters-for no ault of theirs, and for no other reason than the best of all reasons, that public expediency required it. These very same politicians are now looking in an agony of terror at the disfranchisement of corporations containing twenty or thirty persons, sold to their representatives, who are themselves perhaps sold to the government and to put an end to these enormous abuses is called corporation robbery, and there are some persons wild enough to talk of compensation. This principle of compensation you will consider perhaps in the following instance to have been carried as far as sound discretion permits. When I was a young man, the place in England I remember as most notorious for highwaymen and their exploits was Finchley Common, near the metropolis; but Finchley Common, gentlemen, in the progress of improvement, came to be enclosed, and the highwaymen lost by these means the opportunity of exercising their gallant vocation. I remember a friend of mine proposed to draw up for them a petition to the House of Commons for compensation, which ran in this manner- We, your loyal highwaymen of Finchley Common, and its neighbourhood, having, at great expense, laid in a stock of blunderbusses, pistols, and other instruments for plundering the public, and finding ourselves impeded in the exercise of our calling by the said enclosure of the said Common of Finchley, humbly petition your honourable house will be pleased to assign to us such compensation as your honourable house in its wisdom and justice may think fit.' Gentlemen, I must leave the application to you.

land.

change of system. I did not understand the joy which it occasioned. I did not feel it, and I did not counterfeit what I did not feel.

I think very differently of the accession of his present majesty. I believe I see in that accession a great probability of serious improvement, and a great increase of public happiness. The evils which have been long complained of by bold and intelligent men are now universally admitted. The public feeling. which has been so long appealed to, is now intensely excited The remedies which have been so often called for are now at last vigorously, wisely, and faithfully applied. I admire, gentlemen, in the present king, his love of peace-I admire in him his disposi tion to economy-and I admire in him, above all, his faithful and honourable conduct to those who happen to be his ministers. He was, I believe, quite as faithful to the Duke of Wellington as to Lord Grey, and would, I have no doubt, be quite as faithful to the political enemies of Lord Grey (if he thought fit to employ them) as he is to Lord Grey himself. There is, in this reign, no secret influence, no double ministry-on whomsoever he confers the office, to him he gives that confidence without which the office cannot be holden with honour, nor executed with effect. He is not only a peaceful king, and an economical king, but he is an honest king. So far, I believe, every individual of this company will go with me. There is another topic of eulogium, on which, before I sit down, I should like to say a few words-I mean the willingness of our present king to investigate abuses and to reform them. If this subject is not unpleasant, I will offer upon it a very few observations-a few, because the subject is exhausted, and because, if it were not, I have no right, from my standing or my situation in this country, to detain you long upon that or any other subject.

Men

In criticising this great question of reform, I think An honourable baronet says, if Parliament is dissol- there is some injustice done to its authors. ved, I will go to my borough with the bill in my hand, seem to suppose that a minister can sit down and and will say, 'I know of no crime you have commit- make a plan of reform with as much ease and as much ted, I found nothing proved against you: I voted exactness, and with as complete a gratification of his against the bill, and am come to fling myself upon own will, as an architect can do in a building or your kindness, with the hope that my conduct will be altering a house. But a minister of state (it should be approved, and that you will return me again to Parlia- in justice observed), works in the hands of hatred, ment.' That honourable baronet may, perhaps, re- injustice, violence, and the worst of human passionsceive from his borough an answer he little expects—his works are not the works of calm and unembarrass'We are above being bribed by such a childish and ed wisdom-they are not the best that a dreamer of unworthy artifice; we do not choose to consult our dreams can imagine. It is enough if they are the best own interest at the expense of the general peace and plans which the parties, passions, and prejudices of happiness of the country; we are thoroughly convinc- the times in which he acts will permit. In passing a ed a reform ought to take place; we are very willing reform bill, the minister overthrows the long and deep to sacrifice a privilege we ought never to have possess- interest which powerful men have in existing abuses ed to the good of the community, and we will return -he subjects himself to the deepest hatred, and enno one to Parliament who is not deeply impressed with counters the bitterest opposition. Auxiliaries he must the same feeling.' This I hope is the answer that have, and auxiliaries he can only find among the peogentleman will receive, and this, I hope, will be the ple-not the mob-but the great mass of those who noble and generous feeling of every borough in Eng- have opinions worth hearing, and property worth defending-a greater mass, I am happy to say, in this country than exists in any other country on the face of the earth. Now, before the middling orders will come forward with one great impulse, they must see that something is offered them worth the price of contention; they must see that the object is great, and the gain serious. If you call them in at all, it must not be to displace one faction at the expense of another, but to put down all factions-to substitute purity and principle for corruption-to give to the many that political power which the few have unjustly taken to themselves-to get rid of evils so ancient and so vast that any other arm than the public arm would be lifted up against them in vain. This, then, I say, is one of the reasons why ministers have been compelled to make their measures a little more vigorous and decisive than a speculative philosopher, sitting in his closet, might approve of. They had a mass of opposition to contend with, which could be encountered only by a general exertion of public spirit-they had a long-suffering and an often deceived public to appeal to, who were determined to suffer no longer, and to be deceived no more. The alternative was to continue the ancient abuses, or to do what they have done and most firmly do I believe that you and I, and the latest posterity of

The greater part of human improvements, gentlemen, I am sorry to say, are made after war, tumult, bloodshed, and civil commotion: mankind seem to object to every species of gratuitous happiness, and to consider every advantage as too cheap, which is not purchased by some calamity. I shall esteem it as a singular act of God's providence, if this great nation, guided by these warnings of history, not waiting till tumult for reform, nor trusting reform to the rude hands of the lowest of the people, shall amend their decayed institutions at a period when they are ruled by a popular monarch, guided by an upright minister, and blest with profound peace.

SPEECH AT TAUNTON

MR. CHAIRMAN,-I am particularly happy to assist on this occasion, because I think that the accession of the present king is a marked and important era in English history. Another coronation has taken place since I have been in the world, but I never assisted at its celebration. I saw in it a change of masters, not a

us all, will rejoice in the decision they have made. lieve that the English people will return to their Gradation has been called for in reform: we might, it ancient degradation-that they will hold out their is said, have taken thirty or forty years to have accom-repentant hands for those manacles which at this moplished what we have done in one year. It is not soment lay broken into links at their feet.

much the magnitude of what you are doing we object to, as the suddenness.' But was not gradation tendered? Was it not said by the friends of reform'Give us Birmingham and Manchester, and we will be satisfied?' and what was the answer? No Manches

SPEECH AT TAUNTON.

(From the Taunton Courier' of October 12th, 1831.)

ter, no Birmingham, no reform in any degree-all abuses as they are-all perversions as we have found THE REVEREND SIDNEY SMITH rose and said: Mr. them-the corruptions which our fathers bequeathed Bailiff, I have spoken so often on this subject, that I us we will hand down unimpaired and unpurified to our am sure both you and the gentlemen here present will children.' But I would say to the graduate philoso-be obliged to me for saying but little, and that favour sopher, How often does a reforming minister occur?' I am as willing to confer, as you can be to receive it. I and if such are so common that you can command feel most deeply the event which has taken place, bethem when you please, how often does a reforming cause, by putting the two houses of Parliament in col monarch occur? and how often does the conjunction lision with each other, it will impede the public busiof both occur? Are you sure that a people, bursting ness, and diminish the public prosperity. I feel it as into new knowledge, and speculating on every public a churchman, because I cannot but blush to see so event, will wait for your protracted reform? Strike many dignitaries of the church arrayed against the while the iron is hot-up with the arm and down with wishes and happiness of the people I feel it more the hammer, and up again with the arm, and down than all, because I believe it will sow the seeds of again with the hammer. The iron is hot-the oppor- deadly hatred between the aristocracy and the great tunity exists now-if you neglect it, it may not return mass of the people. The loss of the bill I do not feel, for an hundred years to come. and for the best of all possible reasons-because I have not the slightest idea that it is lost. I have no more doubt, before the expiration of the winter, that this bill will pass, than I have that the annual tax bill will pass, and greater certainty than this no man can have, for Franklin tells us, there are but two things certain in this world-death and taxes. As for the possibility of the House of Lords preventing ere long a reform of Parliament, I hold it to be the most absurd notion that ever entered into human imagination. I do not mean to be disrespectful, but the attempt of the lords to stop the progress of reform, reminds me very forcibly of the great storm of Sidmouth, and of the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington on that occasion. In the winter of 1824, there set in a great flood upon that town-the tide rose to an incredible height-the waves rushed in upon the houses, and every thing was threatened with destruction. In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm, Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused. Mrs. Partington's spirit was up; but I need not tell you that the contest was unequal. The Atlan tic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent at a slop, or a puddle, but she could not have meddled with a tempest. Gentlemen, be at your ease-be quiet and steady. You will beat Mrs. Partington.

There is an argument I have often heard, and that is this-Are we to be afraid?-is this measure to be carried by intimidation?-is the House of Lords to be overawed? But this style of argument proceeds from confounding together two sets of feelings which are entirely distinct-personal fear and political fear. If I am afraid of voting against this bill, because a mob may gather about the House of Lords-because stones may be flung at my head-because my house may be attacked by a mob, I am a paltroon, and unfit to meddle with public affairs; but I may rationally be afraid of producing great public agitation-I may be honourably afraid of flinging people into secret clubs and conspiracies-I may be wisely afraid of making the aristocracy hateful to the great body of the people. This surely has no more to do with fear than a loose identity of name; it is in fact prudence of the highest order; the deliberate reflection of a wise man who does not like what he is going to do, but likes still less the consequence of not doing it, and who, of two evils, chooses the least.

There are some men much afaid of what is to happen: my lively hope of good is, I confess, mingled with very little apprehension: but of one thing I must be candid enough to say I am much afraid, and that is of the opinion now increasing, that the people are becoming indifferent to reform; and of that opinion I am afraid, because I believe in an evil hour it may lead some misguided members of the upper house of They tell you, gentlemen, in the debates by which Parliament to vote against the bill. As for the opi- we have been lately occupied, that the bill is not jus nion itself, I hold it in the utmost contempt. The tified by experience. I do not think this true, but if it people are waiting in virtuous patience for the com- were true, nations are sometimes compelled to act pletion of the bill, because they know it is in the hands without experience for their guide, and to trust to of men who do not mean to deceive them. I do not their own sagacity for the anticipation of consequenbelieve they have given up one atom of reform-I do ces. The instances where this country has been comnot believe that a great people were ever before so pelled thus to act have been so eminently successfirmly bent upon any one measure. I put it to any ful, that I see no cause for fear, even if we were acting man of common sense, whether he believes it possi- in the manner imputed to us by our enemies. What ble, after the king and Parliament have acted as they precedents and what experience were there at the Re. have done, that the people will ever be contented with formation, when the country, with one unanimous much less than the present bill contains. If a contra- effort, pushed out the pope, and his grasping and amry principle is acted upon, and the bill attempted to be bitious clergy? What experience, when, at the Revogot rid of altogether, I confess I tremble for the con-lution, we drove away our ancient race of kings, and sequences, which I believe will be of the worst and most painful description; and this I say deliberately, after the most diligent and extensive inquiry. Upon that diligent inquiry I repeat again my firm conviction, that the desire of reform has increased, not diminished; that the present repose is not indifference, but the calmness of victory, and the tranquillity of success. When I see all the wishes and appetites of created beings changed,-when I see an eagle, that, after long confinement, has escaped into the air, come back to his cage and his chain, when I see the emancipated negro asking again for the hoe which has broken down his strength, and the lash which has tortured his body,-I will then, and not till then, be

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chose another family more congenial to our free principles? And yet to those two events, contrary to expericnce, and unguided by precedents, we owe all our domestic happiness, and civil and religious freedomand having got rid of corrupt priests and despotic kings, by our sense and our courage, are we now to be intimidated by the awful danger of extinguishing boroughmongers, and shaking from our necks the ignominious yoke which their baseness has imposed upon us? Go on, they say, as you have done for these hun. dred years last past. I answer, it is impossible-five hundred people now write and read, where one hundred wrote and read fifty years ago. The iniquities and enormities of the borough system are now known

to the meanest of the people. You have a different | what right has this lord, or that marquis, to buy ten sort of men to deal with-you must change, because the beings whom you govern are changed. After all, and to be short, I must say that it has always appeared to me to be the most absolute nonsense that we cannot be a great, or a rich and happy nation, without suffering ourselves to be bought and sold every five years like a pack of negro slaves. I hope I am not a very rash man, but I would launch boldly into this experiment without any fear of consequences, and I believe there is not a man here present who would not cheerfully embark with me. Ás to the enemies of the bill, who pretend to be reformers, I know them, I believe, better than you do, and I earnestly caution you against them. You will have no more of reformn than they are compelled to grant; you will have no reform at all, if they can avoid it-you will be hurried into a war to turn your attention from reform. They do not understand you; they will not believe in the improvement you have made; they think the English of the present day are as the English of the times of Queen Anne or George the First. They know no more of the present state of their own country, than of the state of the Esquimaux Indians. Gentlemen, I view the ignorance of the present state of the country with the most serious concern, and I believe they will one day or another waken into conviction with horror and dismay. I will omit no means of rousing them to a sense of their danger: for this object I cheerfully sign the petition proposed by Dr. Kinglake, which I consider to be the wisest and most moderate of the

two.

SPEECH BY THE REV. SIDNEY SMITH.

STICK to the bill-it is your Magna Charta and your Runnymede. King John made a present to the barons. King William has made a similar present to you. Never mind, common qualities good in common times. If a man does not vote for the bill, he is unclean, the plaguespot is upon him; push him into the lazaretto of the last century, with Wetherell and Sadler; purify the air before you approach him; bathe your hands in chloride of lime, if you have been contaminated by his

touch.

seats in Parliament, in the shape of boroughs, and then to make laws to govern me? And how are these masses of power re-distributed? The eldest son of my lord is just come from Eton-he knows a good deal about Eneas and Dido, Apollo and Daphneand that is all; and to this boy, his father gives a six-hundredth part of the power of making laws, as he would give him a horse, or a double-barrelled gun. Then Vellum, the steward, is put in—an admirable man ;-he has raised the estates-watched the progress of the family road, and canal bills-and Vellum shall help to rule over the people of Israel. A neighbouring country gentleman, Mr. Plumpkin, hunts with my lord-opens him a gate or two, while the hounds are running-dines with my lord-agrees with my lord-wishes he could rival the Southdown sheep of my lord-and upon Plumpkin is conferred a portion of the government. Then there is a distant relation of the same name, in the county militia, with white teeth, who calls up the carriage at the opera, and is always wishing O'Connell was hanged, drawn, and quartered-then a barrister, who has written an article in the Quarterly, and is very likely to speak, and refute M'Culloch; and these five people, in whose nomination I have no more agency than I have in the nomination of the toll keepers of the Bosphorus, are to make laws for me and my family-to put their hands in my purse, and to sway the future destinies of this country; and when the neighbours step in, and beg permission to say a few words before these persons are chosen, there is an universal cry of ruin, confusion, and destruction ;-we have become a great people under Vellum and Plumpkin-under Vellum and Plumpkin our armies have secured the strength of the hills to turn out Vellum and Plumpkin is not reform, but revolution.

Was there ever such a ministry? Was there ever before a real ministry of the people? Look at the condition of the country when it was placed in their hands: the state of the house when the incoming tenant took possession: windows broken, chimneys on fire, mobs round the house threatening to pull it down, roof tumbling, rain pouring in. It was courage to occupy it; it was a miracle to save it; it will be make it the eternal palace of wise and temperate the glory of glories to enlarge and expand it, and to freedom.

So far from its being a merely theoretical improve ment, I put it to any man, who is himself embarked in a profession, or has sons in the same situation, if Proper examples have been made among the unthe unfair influence of boroughmongers has not per- happy and misguided disciples of Swing: a rope has petually thwarted him in his lawful career of ambition, been carried round O'Connell's legs, and a ring inand professional emolument? I have been in three serted in Cobbett's nose. Then the game laws!!! general engagements at sea,' said an old sailor-Was ever conduct so shabby as that of the two or have been twice wounded; I commanded the boats when the French frigate, the ASTROLABE, was cut out so gallantly.' Then you are made a post captain?' No. I was very near it; but-Lieutenant Thomson cut me out, as I cut out the French frigate; his father is town clerk of the borough for which Lord F

is member, and there my chance' was finished.' In the same manner, all over England, you will find great scholars rotting on curacies, brave captains starving in garrets, profound lawyers decayed and mouldering in the inns of court, because the parsons, warriors, and advocates of boroughmongers must be crammed to saturation, before there is a morsel of bread for the man who does not sell his votes, and put his country up to auction; and though this is of every day occurrence, the borough system, we are told, is no practical

three governments which preceded that of Lord Grey? The cruelties and enormities of this code had been thoroughly exposed; and a general conviction existed of the necessity of a change. Bills were brought in by various gentlemen, containing some trifling alteration in this abominable code, and even these were sacrificed to the tricks and manœuvres of some noble Nimrod, who availed himself of the emptiness of the town in July, and flung out the bill. Government never stirred a step. The fulness of the prisons, the wretchedness and demoralization of the poor, never came across them. The humane and considerate Peel never once offered to extend his ægis over them. It had nothing to do with the state of party; and some of their double-barrelled voters might be offended. In the mean time, for every ten pheasants which fluttered in the wood, one English peasant was rotting in jail. Who can bear to walk through a slaughter-house? No sooner is Lord Althorp chancellor of the excheblood, garbage, stomachs, entrails, legs, tails, kid-quer, than he turns out of the house a trumpery and neys, horrors-I often walk a mile to avoid it. What a scene of disgust and horror is an election-the base and infamous traffic of principles-a candidate of high character reduced to such means the perjury and evasion of agents-the detestable rapacity of voters the ten days' dominion of mammon and Belial. The bill lessens it begins the destruction of such practices-affords some chance and some means of turning public opinion against bribery, and of rendering it infamous.

evil.

perhaps) an insiduous bill for the improvement of the game laws; and in an instant offers the assistance of government for the abolition of the whole code.

Then look at the gigantic Brougham, sworn in at twelve o'clock, and before six, has a bill on the table abolishing the abuses of a court which has been the curse of the people of England for centuries. For twenty-five long years did Lord Eldon sit in that court, surrounded with misery and sorrow, which he never held up a finger to alleviate. The widow and the But the thing I cannot. and will not bear, is this;-orphan cried to him as vainly as the town crier cries

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