328 THE LA8I SESSION. 



to the annihilation of a power which has too successfully, in the "last 

 session," frustrated their plans, and set at nought their anxious 

 labours. They must insist on a cheap government ; on a retrench- 

 ment of extravagant expenses ; on a free untaxed use of the press ; 

 on the abolition of the unnatural corn-laws ; and on the destruction 

 of holy alliance influence, abroad and at home. Then will they 

 have a just claim to the respect of the sovereign, and to the 

 love and devotion of the country. Flinching in this, they will 

 become the mockery of the oligarchic pandemonium ; and the 

 sun of their popularity will set in storm and darkness, never to 

 rise again. Their talents are above praise, and their intentions 

 cannot be doubted. Firmness and uncompromising opposition to 

 lordly dominion is all that is wanting to secure their seats in the 

 ministry and in the hearts of millions who await with anxiety the 

 result of their endeavours. 



The last hope of the oligarchs is per fas aut nefas, to induce his 

 majesty to change the ministry and dissolve the Parliament. Let 

 them try the experiment! They will then see how much the nation 

 isalienated from them ; they will be convinced that their reign is 

 over. They may then hear counsel again, as to the verity of our 

 assertions, and as to the propriety of throwing out the various bills 

 which their lordships had not leisure to consider in the last session ; 

 one of the most grievous, of which to them, perhaps, is the Bill 

 relating to Imprisonment for Debt. If that were passed, it would 

 oblige them to pay their tradesmen, now debarred by the shameful 

 privilege of peers from obtaining satisfaction of their just demands. 

 Hinc ill& lachrymcd / Wetherell and Knight must again be put in 

 requisition, to twaddle over the injustice of such a law, and attempt 

 to prove that their lordships may swindle with impunity. Far be 

 it from us, however, to apply these remarks to many of their lord- 

 ships, than whom more honourable men do not exist; and were 

 the whole house of their stamp, the claims of justice would be 

 heard ; misery would vanish ; the channels of labour would be 

 refreshed with the waters of prosperity ; our valleys would again 

 smile ; and the dawn of a golden day would once more gladden 

 our now oppressed land. 



And who are the people who would stand by the lords in their 

 attempts to enslave us ? We scarcely need answer the question to 

 its full extent; but we may enumerate a great part of those who are 



