1832.] [ 465 ] 



NOTES OF THE MONTH ON AFFAIRS IN GENERAL. 



THE REFORM BILL. The " Bill" has at length passed the Commons ; 

 and now comes the Rubicon. Will it pass or not? Twenty millions 

 answer, yes the Duke of Wellington thunders, no. The odds against 

 freedom would be fearful, but for one little circumstance that promises 

 to turn the scale. Is it the glorious and convincing majority of one 

 hundred and sixteen by which the Bill has been sent up for the con- 

 sideration of the Lords ? No ; the opinion of the Commons has little 

 weight with the Lords, except when it declares itself in favour of some 

 suppression of useful knowledge, or an increase of that taxation which 

 distinguishes us from surrounding nations, and makes us the envy of 

 them all ! Is it the energy and enthusiasm of a ministry, strong, in the 

 confidence of the king, and in the fidelity and patient firmness of the 

 people ? No ; the ministers seem scarcely to know more than that the 

 king has summoned them to his councils, and that the people are com- 

 plaining about tithes. Is it the new batch of peers, of whom Lord 

 Grey has had fifty lists in his pocket for the last six months ? No ; there 

 is a perpetual motion on the part of the press and the people for the 

 production of one of these lists ; but, like the perpetual motion, it is 

 not to be found. Is it the transfer of Lord Althorpe to the ftouse of 

 Lords, to make an amiable return of good for evil, and to charm the 

 refractory peers by the suavity of his temper, as Jack the Giant-Killer 

 vanquished his enemies, by a skilful layer of straws ? No ; Lord Al- 

 thorpe may be wanted in the House of Commons to introduce a fourth 

 Reform Bill, and to assure the people that there is no earthly reason 

 why they should feel discouraged, as every debater in the House knows 

 his speech by heart, and can recite it again without the slightest incon- 

 venience. Is it but we need not multiply inquiries ; every man that 

 has read the debates in the House of Lords on the bringing up of the 

 Bill, knows whither the wind bloweth, and whence it cometh. It may 

 truly be said to come from the sees. The Bishop of London has de- 

 clared himself this, as the contagionists phrase it, is an undeniable 

 symptom. 



The Duke of Wellington won his political battle of Waterloo, upon 

 the occasion of the defeat of the last Reform Bill, not by any gigantic 

 measures of his own, but by the unexpected and unprovidential coming 

 up of those Prussians, the Bishops, at the very instant when the reform 

 troops were least able to withstand the shock of their crosiers. But 

 bishops are easily translated when there is an object to gain ; and the 

 Prussian politicians seem not unwilling to undergo a translation into 

 English churchmen to act with forbearance, when they find that they 

 are not fighting with windmills, and to give up all idea of gaining 

 what they have no hope of being able to keep when gained. A few 

 will, of course, hold out, consistent in their philosophy or folly, to the 

 last, as the Roman Emperor fiddled to the flames ; and even the others 

 submit to civilization and liberality with so ill a grace, that posterity 

 will hardly think of peopling Westminster Abbey with their statues. 



But, notwithstanding this church- symptom of support, and certain 

 promises from the " smooth tongues" (according to the Standard) of 

 Lords Wharncliflfe and Harrowby, we are by no means secure but 

 exactly the reverse that the Bill will pass the final reading. There are 



M.M. New Series. VOL. XIII. No. 76. 2 I 



