THE SUPREMACY OF PUliLIC OPINION. 281 



therefore, that those who composed and supported the administration 

 which then existed, trembled when they witnessed the triumph of 

 the French people, and the sensations which it excited in England. 

 The interest which the great body of the people began to manifest, in 

 regard to political subjects, was to them ominous of changes calcu- 

 lated to deprive them of advantages, which, if not so glaring and 

 odious, were at least as substantial and profitable as those enjoyed 

 by the privileged classes in France. The most eloquent and distin- 

 guished members of the House of Commons had always advocated 

 the necessity of Parliamentary Reform, as the best, and indeed the 

 only means, for putting an end to that system of corruption which 

 was the disgrace of every successive government, and which gave 

 more than a colour of truth to the assertion, that no honest man 

 could be a British Minister. But well did the possessors of office, 

 and the minions of the aristocracy, know, that if the management of 

 the House of Commons were taken out of their hands, their political 

 power was at an end ; and, however willing to make a few partial 

 changes, to satisfy the people, they were determined never to consent 

 to popularize the House of Commons, which would not only strike 

 at a few of the more glaring corruptions that existed, but would 

 remove the cause to which they might all be traced. The great 

 body of the aristocracy were, therefore, seized with no small alarm, 

 when they found that the principles of Parliamentary Reform were 

 making rapid progress among the people ; and they could not con- 

 ceal from themselves the melancholy truth, that if once this great 

 question were properly understood, the country would never rest 

 satisfied, until the influence of the people in the House of Commons 

 became real, and not nominal. But happily for those who had so 

 much cause to dread the progress of political knowledge, events at 

 the time took place which dispelled their apprehensions, turned the 

 tide of public opinion in their favour, and enabled them to derive 

 from that event, which they had regarded with so much fear and 

 dislike, the means not only of more firmly establishing, but of greatly 

 increasing, their former political power. 



The French Revolution had not proceeded far in its career, before 

 the measures adopted by the popular leaders had alienated from 

 them many of the most zealous of their foreign friends, and had ma- 

 terially changed the opinions of the English people in regard to the 

 political prospects of France. Many individuals, allowing their 

 judgment to be overpowered by their feelings, had rashly and fool- 

 ishly concluded that the struggle for liberty in France had termi- 

 nated before it had well commenced ; and that the crown and the 

 aristocracy were disposed tamely to relinquish those privileges which, 

 however unjust and oppressive, in regard to the people, they de- 

 fended as their natural and unalienable rights. But the case was 

 very different in reality ; for no sooner had the court and nobility 

 discovered that the great object of the Tiers Etat was to establish 

 upon a firm basis the representation, and the other political rights of 

 the people, than they resolved, by every means in their power, and 

 even, if necessary, by actual violence, to dissolve the States- General ; 

 and thus, as they thought, to put an end to the pretensions of the 



M. M. No. 87. 2 F 



