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where coalescing in the common cause, under a sense of the common danger. The opinions of the Radical Reformers are, we regret to find, rapidly spreading among the most respectable classes of the community, from the unwilling conviction, forced upon them by the conduct of the Tories, that by no other measures than the Radicals contend for, can the objects of the Reform Bill be put out of hazard. We regret this, because we have not as yet arrived at or yielded to this conviction; and because we have doubts as to the soundness of the ultra-liberal theories. However this may be, these are not times in which Reformers can afford to be disunited; and it is satisfactory to find that the Political Radicals are every where rallying round Whig leaders, merging all minor differences, and discovering a temper and spirit worthy of a good cause.

The two pamphlets before us are well deserving of attentive perusal and the widest circulation. The first is a simple dispassionate recapitulation of the principal measures carried into execution during the last four years, without any attempt at declamation, and with a very brief but emphatic comment on each. Those measures are enumerated as follows:

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I. Reform of Parliament-England, Scotland, and Ireland.
II. Abolition of Colonial Slavery.

III. Reduction of Taxation to the amount of nearly Six Millions.

IV. The Retrenchment effected in the different departments of the State.

V. The Law Reforms.

VI. The Poor Law Amendment Act.

VII. The Burgh, or Corporation, Reform-Scotland.

VIII. The Opening of the China Trade.

IX. The Irish Church Temporalities Bill.-Reduction of Bishopricks, &c.—The Plan of Education (Ireland).--The Grand Jury Bill (Ireland.)' p. 4.

After going through the details given under each head, the reader will probably feel surprise at the vast amount of what has been done within the period referred to. The Reform Act has

now been in operation for two years and a half. What have been its results? Not all, it is admitted, for which the nation have a right to ask, but far more than those have been disposed to admit, who have looked only at its defective or inconvenient operation, or at the reforms which are yet withheld. Such is the testimony of Mr. Carpenter, whom we cite on this occasion as an avowed and honest abetter of what are termed Radical opinions, and therefore an impartial witness. Wisely does he remark, that a clear understanding of the value of the Reform Bill is essen'tial to our defence against Tory machinations at the present extraordinary crisis in our political affairs.'

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VOL. XIII.-N.S.

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abandoned, worn out faction. Earl Roden has become a Moderate, the Earl of Aberdeen a Liberal, and secretary Goulburn, a Reformer! Reform is the name of the wooden horse by which these wily Greeks hope to smuggle themselves into the national confidence, and steal our Palladium. They-and who but they? the Knatchbulls and Percivals, the Herrieses and Wynnes, are the last hope of a falling State! And how is the State to be saved from destruction, the Monarchy to be upheld? Oh, by reform, of course; by municipal reform and church reform, by the correction of proved abuses, and the redress of real grievances: only let the New Reformers be suffered to judge what grievances are real and what abuses are proved, and then, no doubt, they will do all that becomes their new character. If the people of England could be taken in by such transparent pretences as these, they would deserve to have the whole locust army of Tories quartered upon them for the next half century.

To understand the tactics of the Tories, it must be observed that they have two distinct objects in view, the attainment of which affords the only chance of their retaining their power for three months: one is, to outbid the Whigs with the people, the other is to alarm the leaders of the Whig party, so as to alienate them from the people. To effect the first object, they take every possible method of depreciating what has been accomplished in the way of reform by the late Government, converting the clamours of the dissatisfied Radicals against the slow and timid policy of Earl Grey into an accusation against his government, although well aware that the difficulties which embarrassed the late Government, and the consequent decline of its popularity, were chiefly owing to court intrigue and the machinations of the high-church party. And at the same time, that they are endeavouring to destroy all gratitude to the Liberal Government they have for the time overthrown, and all confidence in the Whig Aristocracy on the part of the people, while they are affirming loudly that no materials for a Whig ministry exist, they are endeavouring to frighten the very party they are thus aspersing, by exaggerating the forces and maligning the purposes of the popular or Radical party. They would have it believed, that a gulf stands yawning for the Whig aristocracy, towards which, by some strange magic, all are impelled who join in the march of reform. And how is this gulf to be filled up? Is Sir Robert to be the political Curtius ?

The drift of this double policy is, however, sufficiently plain. To the Radicals, the Tory scribe cries aloud, Do not trust the Whigs; they are lazy fellows; we will do more for you than they ever would. To the Whigs, he whispers, For Heaven's sake do not put yourselves at the head of the Radicals. The dishonest trick will not succeed. The Radicals and the Whigs

are every where coalescing in the common cause, under a sense of the common danger. The opinions of the Radical Reformers are, we regret to find, rapidly spreading among the most respectable classes of the community, from the unwilling conviction, forced upon them by the conduct of the Tories, that by no other measures than the Radicals contend for, can the objects of the Reform Bill be put out of hazard. We regret this, because we have not as yet arrived at or yielded to this conviction; and because we have doubts as to the soundness of the ultra-liberal theories. However this may be, these are not times in which Reformers can afford to be disunited; and it is satisfactory to find that the Political Radicals are every where rallying round Whig leaders, merging all minor differences, and discovering a temper and spirit worthy of a good cause.

The two pamphlets before us are well deserving of attentive perusal and the widest circulation. The first is a simple dispassionate recapitulation of the principal measures carried into execution during the last four years, without any attempt at declamation, and with a very brief but emphatic comment on each. Those measures are enumerated as follows:

'I. Reform of Parliament-England, Scotland, and Ireland. II. Abolition of Colonial Slavery.

III. Reduction of Taxation to the amount of nearly Six Millions.

IV. The Retrenchment effected in the different departments of the State.

V. The Law Reforms.

VI. The Poor Law Amendment Act.

VII. The Burgh, or Corporation, Reform-Scotland.

VIII. The Opening of the China Trade.

IX. The Irish Church Temporalities Bill.-Reduction of Bishopricks, &c.-The Plan of Education (Ireland).--The Grand Jury Bill (Ireland.)' p. 4.

After going through the details given under each head, the reader will probably feel surprise at the vast amount of what has been done within the period referred to. The Reform Act has now been in operation for two years and a half. What have been its results? Not all, it is admitted, for which the nation have a right to ask, but far more than those have been disposed to admit, who have looked only at its defective or inconvenient operation, or at the reforms which are yet withheld. Such is the testimony of Mr. Carpenter, whom we cite on this occasion as an avowed and honest abetter of what are termed Radical opinions, and therefore an impartial witness. Wisely does he remark, that a clear understanding of the value of the Reform Bill 'is essen'tial to our defence against Tory machinations at the present ex'traordinary crisis in our political affairs."

VOL. XIII.-N.S.

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Was it nothing, then, we ask, to extinguish nomination boroughs, avowedly upon the principle, that the House of Commons should be a creation and reflection of the popular will, and not a creature and instrument of the long-dominant aristocracy? Was it nothing that the three branches of the legislature should make a formal and solemn recognition of the great constitutional principle, that the House of Commons is the responsible guardian of the public purse, checking and controlling the aristocracy and the crown in their tendencies to encroach upon popular liberty, instead of being what it had long been, the mere hand of the oligarchy, abstracting from the public the largest possible amount from the proceeds of their skill and industry, and handing it over to that all-devouring and insatiable monster? is unnecessary to advert to the other legislative points of the bill, which, as far as they pertain to a revision of the previously existing electoral system are generally sound in principle and mostly beneficial in operation. True, they are defective-they stop far short of the point to which they should have been carried, they leave the electoral system clogged with conditions and obligations neither just nor polític. But as far as they go, they ameliorate and improve the previous system; and above all, they admit and realize the principle to which I have more than once already adverted, the principle of utility as a test of public institutions, and the authority of the public voice in the maturing and administering the measures of govern

ment.

But will any man pretend to say, that the passing of the Reform Bill has had no direct influence on the character of the legislative proceedings? Will it be seriously maintained that the Reformed House of Commons, bad as it is-and I am not about to become its apologist--has exhibited no more sympathy with the public at large than its predecessor did that it has shewn the same indifference to and contempt of the public voice, the same slavish devotion to the oligarchy, the same reckless profligacy in dealing with the national resources, and the same hostility to the march of national amelioration and improvement, as characterised the borough-mongering parliament during the last half century? The man who would seriously and deliberately maintain this, must either be so blinded by prejudice, or so stultified by ignorance, as to be past reasoning with. Has there been no amelioration of the fiscal system,-no reduction of large state salaries, no abolition of sinecures,-no breaking in upon monopolies, -no extinction of obnoxious taxes,-no diminution of government expenditure,—no inquiries into the abominations of corporations?

'Let me not be misunderstood. I do not assert that what has been done in this way, is the best that could have been done: and above all, I do not mean to say that in proceeding in their new course, the Reformed Legislature was governed or directed by any intelligible, comprehensive, or uniformly-operating principle; all I mean to contend for is this,—that there has been an onward movement, that the reform principle has been operating-imperfectly, and loaded with many incumbrances, it is true, but that it has nevertheless been operating throughout the whole course of legislation, since the first moment that the Reformed Parliament was called into being.

'I shall be told, no doubt, of the bad measures that the Reformed Parliament has passed, and of the good measures brought before it that it has rejected. But this will be no answer to what I have said, as to the new and active element introduced into the legislative and governing bodies. The emancipation of the slaves in our colonies, has not been effected in the best possible manner, and the evils attendant upon the system of Poor Laws have not been rectified with wisdom or humanity; but it would be folly to argue, that there is, therefore, no new spirit infused into the popular branch of the legislature, or that its new spirit is one destined only for evil. Nay, is not the very objection, as to the rejection, by a majority of the Commons, of good measures brought before it, in itself conclusive for the improved and improving spirit of legislation? What were these measures-entertained, discussed, deliberated upon, and therefore admitted to be within the legitimate sphere of its functions, by the House of Commons? They were measures for equalizing the burden of taxation-for relieving the poor from the pressure of distress-for depriving the worthless pensioners upon the public purse of this source of their income-for reducing the overgrown and wealth-pampered church of Ireland-for protecting electors against the undue power and influence of wealth-for shortening the duration of parliamentsfor appropriating the surplus property of the Irish church to the purposes of the state-for abolishing naval impressment, and military flogging-for ejecting the bishops from the House of Lords-for abolishing church-rates-and for repealing the stamp-duty upon newspapers.

Is it nothing that these measures should have been introduced into the House of Commons, and have been admitted by that body to be entitled to consideration and discussion ? These and similar questions are now included in the ordinary and recognized topics of legislative inquiry and adjustment, and public opinion is thus invited to dispose

of them as it will.

I have now glanced at some of the more obvious consequences of the Reform Bill-direct and indirect. The Tories foresaw them; and because they foresaw them, and for no other reason, they opposed the Bill with their united strength, at every stage of its progress, recorded their solemn protest against its being placed on the pages of the statute book, and as we shall presently see, menaced the country with fire and sword, should they ever regain the power to employ them, to stay the progress of that principle which it recognized and asserted.

Now, adverting to all that has been said of the predictions of the Tories as to the consequence of breaking in upon the old constitution of the House of Commons-of their declared-to-be-unalterable hostility to the Reform Bill, avowedly because they foresaw its consequencesof their menaces of brute-force could they ever obtain a reaction in their favour of their uniform opposition, since its enactment, to every measure having for its object the realization of those consequencesand of their recent acceptance of office in the stead of an administration

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Upon this point we are entirely at issue with Mr. Carpenter.

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