OUR SITUATION AND PROSPECTS. 225 



even good men may be lulled by it. It is possible that many an honest 

 voter, looking up to the banners of authority, may believe that he is 

 defending the constitution and the laws, at the very moment he is 

 trampling down every principle of justice upon which both are founded. 

 The importance, therefore, is equal to the necessity, of every member of 

 the community keeping his eye steadily fixed on the spirit of the con- 

 stitution, as the polar star of his political course not the constitution 

 as encumbered by the abuses of ages not the constitution as impaired 

 by the venal breath of profligates and traitors not the constitution as 

 defaced by the encroachments of tyranny on the one hand, and servility 

 on the other: but the CONSTITUTION as developed by the glorious 

 REVOLUTION. The importance, we say again, is equal to the necessity, 

 of every elector taking care, that while he pays the tribute of obe- 

 dience to the government, he may know when the reciprocal duty is 

 paid back to the public and himself. 



Whether his Majesty be favourable or not to the plans of Reform 

 introduced by lord Melbourne's government, we, of course, have not 

 the means of ascertaining : and, indeed, as a matter of fact, it appears 

 to us of very little consequence. The constitution of our government 

 will admit of no arbitrary tyranny : nor is it an oligarchy, where the 

 great may, with impunity, prey upon the less : nor is it a democracy, 

 or popular state : much less is it anarchy, where all is confusion. But 

 it recognizes a qualified monarchy, where the king being invested with 

 high prerogatives, is yet restrained from the power of doing himself or 

 the people harm. In France, formerly, and in other nations, the 

 mere will of the prince was the law : but electors of England ! re- 

 member with us the law is both the measure and the bond of every 

 subject's allegiance. At the present moment, the patriotic language 

 of FORTESCUE, Henry Vlth's. Chancellor, cannot be out of place. He 

 says,* " The king of England cannot alter nor change the laws of his 

 realm at pleasure ; because he governeth his people by power, not only 

 royal, but also politic. If his power over them were only regal, then 

 he might change the laws of his realm, and charge his subjects with 

 burdens without their consent : and such is the dominion that the civil 

 laws purport, when they cry, Quod principi placuit legis habet vigor em 

 the prince's pleasure has the force of a law. But from this much 



* De laudibus Legem, Anglice, cap. 9. 



