580 THE PLEDGE-CANT. 



Mr. Charles Pearson, " what is the candidate's declaration of principles 

 but a pledge ?" Well, why not be satisfied with such declaration ? But 

 no; he and his coadjutors know well enough that they want some- 

 thing more ; that, patriots as they profess to be, theirs is the very 

 tyranny they complain of; and that, however pleasing to them it might 

 be, to behold a parliament of slaves representing a free nation, there is 

 sense enough, even amongst the majority of their own party, (if party it 

 can be called, which is neither the madness of many nor the gain of a 

 few) to see through their flimsy folly, and to scout their insolent attempt 

 at domination. 



Let us behold more clearly the light in which these gentry view the 

 connexion between a member and his constituents. " What !" again asks 

 Mr. Pearson, " What would they think of a servant who, when seeking 

 a place, and upon being told that he must clean the knives, wait at 

 table, and attend the door, should turn round upon his intended master, 

 and say, " Excuse me, sir, the duties you point out to me are, no doubt, 

 abstractedly right, and I dare say, I shall perform them to your satis- 

 faction, but I cannot pledge myself to do so; the Reform Bill is passed 

 now, and, as with other servants, my days of promising are over." A fit 

 exemplification of the honourable compact sought to be established. 



This mischievous cant would have been, indeed, lamentable in its 

 effects, if the good sense of the country had not at once rejected it. It 

 was impossible that any constituency, or a majority of them, could meet 

 together for any such purpose, or agree to any string of pledges under 

 the idea that any independent man could be found to agree to them. 

 Were the poor creatures who waited upon Sir John Hobhouse the other 

 day, with their cut and dry pledges were they the representatives of 

 the electors of Westminster or gratuitously officious and self-elected 

 oracles, whom the electors themselves will in due time repudiate? It 

 will be somewhat ludicrous to behold some chattering mountebank, whose 

 insolvency of brains is counterbalanced by a vast capital of impudence, 

 briskly catechizing a candidate, in the fond belief that a series of 

 pledges, emanating from his sole and particular impertinence, will be 

 cheerfully adopted ; modestly assuming to himself, at the same time, the 

 right of dictating to the rest of the constituency, what are, and what are 

 not the particular measures to be supported on the one hand, or re- 

 jected on the other. 



The truth is, we are so pestered by quacks of all descriptions at the 

 present time by political economists by Benthamite utilitarians by 

 circumstantial Owenites and by disbanded unionists that it is a hard 

 matter even for a plain and inoffensive man like ourselves to steer clear 

 of their obstructions. We have hitherto yawned, sighed and held our 

 peace, ^but we shall no longer be kept from whispering 



" That secret to each fool that he's an ass." 



and we shall do so as often and as emphatically as the opportunity shall 

 be presented to us. Is it to be endured, that a set of ultra-radicals, not 

 one of whom is commonly respectable in point of ability, shall be for ever 

 imputing the worst and basest motives to others ; that they shall seize 

 upon every conceivable occasion of lauding themselves, and of abusing 

 those without whom they had been at this hour without political exist- 

 ence at all and that they should be playing into the hands of the Tories 

 some, we doubt not, with a knavish design, and others from uncon- 



