LORD ELDON. Ill 



official career, he neglected every opportunity of advancing the liber- 

 ties of mankind, and rather aided than resisted oppression if we find 

 him the bold enemy of all freedom of conscience, the champion of 

 intolerance, and the instrument of persecution : if we trace all these 

 things, and are convinced of their reality; we shall indeed arrive at 

 a very different estimate of his conduct and character. It is indeed 

 lamentable, that his long life has passed away, in a manner so unpro- 

 fitable to all but himself; and that even its .close should be devoted 

 to the support and extension of those evils which, happily for man- 

 kind, are rapidly decreasing. 



NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



PLEDGE CANDIDATES. The election at Westminster has proved 

 the sense of the people on the subject of pledges. Last month, when 

 the doctrine was revived, or rather insisted upon, in its most ex- 

 tended sense, we spoke fearlessly out, and scouted the monstrous 

 system, in terms somewhat too plain for those whom we would wil- 

 lingly consider friends. 



A candidate, with any chance of success, must have the confidence 

 of his constituents to deserve which, he ought to be a man of ho- 

 nour and integrity, and his opinions on all vital questions known. 

 Does it not seem monstrous, then, that a man so known and so cir- 

 cumstanced, should be regarded with suspicion, and that he should 

 be called upon to pledge himself to those measures, his ardent attach- 

 ment to which, the whole tenour of his life has proved ? But there 

 are some, it seems, who think differently, who treat honour as chi- 

 merical, and integrity as a thing to be wondered at, with whom 

 clamour is patriotism, and destructiveness public virtuej Such we 

 are not, and never have been: and when these doctrines are acknow- 

 ledged to be true Radicalism, we will expunge our name from the 

 list, and not blush at our want of consistency. 



We rejoice at Mr. Hume's triumph. He was not pledged, save 

 by his own honour, conscience, and free choice of party ; and with 

 such pledges ought every man to be content. It would be a mise- 

 rable proof of the freedom of Englishmen, if our House of Commons 

 were filled with manacled members, and, on every change of admi- 

 nistration, or European change of policy, they were obliged to send 

 to their constituents for instructions ! A member of the Commons 

 House of Parliament has the proud distinction of representing the 

 People of England, and not a self-elected junta, who have arrogated 

 to themselves an authority which, in the sequel, has covered them 

 with mortification and ridicule. They remind us of little Captain 

 Weazle, in Roderick Random, whose stentorian voice, issuing from 

 the obscure recesses of the waggon, struck terror into the hearts of 

 the by-standers. His sanguinary threats intimated annihilation to 

 all who opposed him. It is needless to say his threats were bombast 

 his strength that of a pigmy ! 



The time has arrived when it behoves every man to take his 



