THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE, 



OF 



POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND THE BELLES LETTRES. 

 VOL. XV.] SEPTEMBER, 1832. [No. 81. 



THE LATE SESSION. 



PARLIAMENT is at length up, and, as we are inclined to waive the 

 consideration of past evils, inseparable from the House of Commons, as 

 of late composed in the hope and assurance of coming benefit, we shall 

 take but little space to descant on the errors, both of judgment and 

 principle, which, to the last day of the sessions, distinguished its deli- 

 berations. The sessions has given to us the one great measure; but, 

 with singular unity of purpose, maintained, to its closing hour, the cha- 

 racter which had rendered the passing of that measure most imperative. 

 The people were united for reform the invincible front, which, on the 

 breaking up of Earl Grey's cabinet, they opposed to the exulting fac- 

 tion, displayed the stern will of the country, its determination, at any 

 risk, to obtain the means of honest government. The people received 

 the Reform Bill ; and that great achievement done, the House of Com- 

 mons became, for all public benefit, null and void : the dissolution had 

 really taken place, and we look in vain for any subsequent act in any 

 way worthy of the spirit and purpose in which the House had assem- 

 bled. It seemed as if the passing of the one great measure had ex- 

 hausted all the patriotism, the great Roman virtue, directing the votes 

 of the reformers. The majority of the House having done one good 

 act, seemed startled at the encroachment on time-hallowed custom, and 

 on the instant, returned to its old pleasant ways. Thus we had the 

 ready vote for any proposition of our pence-sowing ministry the same 

 acquiescence and dispatch in the disposal of the public money the 

 same listlessness to motions for the protection of the many, against the 

 selfish tyranny of the few, which, in the good old times of Tory ascen- 

 dancy, marked and characterised their House : for, until the passing of 

 the Reform Bill, it was in vain to call it the House of the People, but 

 the House of the Minister no matter of what party or complexion that 

 minister might be. " I want not advice," Mr. Canning was used to 

 cry; " I want tools." In the House of Commons they were to be had 

 of every kind, and for any purpose. These times are, however, gone; 

 and the Prime Minister of England may, in future, have a chance of 

 uniting the functions of a politician with the purposes of an honest man: 

 before he was but a state juggler, with knaves and fools for balls, and 

 the people for his dupes ; their eyes were dazzled, and their senses con- 

 founded, whilst the political Nyms, with a <( short knife,* -cut pockets. 



The King's speech was worthy of the general tenor of the sessions. 

 It has been held, that speech was given to man, that he might hide his 

 thoughts. The bold theory is strikingly illustrated in the parliamentary 

 speeches of kings, and most felicitously in the late oration of his Ma- 

 jesty. It would be difficult to arrange so many words, with such admi- 



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