498 England and Europe in October 1830. [Nov. 



mal parties of the House, but between the Treasury Bench and the dele- 

 gates of the people that people itself assuming a new character, and 

 commissioning its representalives to Parliament with a voice of autho- 

 thority, and a jealous and rigid determination to see that their duty is 

 done, unexampled in British history. 



This spirit we applaud. To this spirit we look for the support of the 

 liberties, the invaluable liberties of England ; and by this spirit alone 

 will the decaying vitality of the Constitution be restored. We are well 

 known to be no Republicans, to see nothing good in the changes 

 wrought by popular passion, by the vulgar artifice of vulgar haranguers, 

 by the itinerant inflammation of beggar patriotism. But we see in this 

 public feeling no republicanism, no appeal to the atheist, to the demo- 

 crat, to the baseness of the plunderer, or the fury of the assassin. 

 We see in it but the natural expression of honourable minds, disdain- 

 ing to look upon injustice and extortion, however sanctioned by time ; 

 sick of the venality of public men ; insulted by the open spoil which 

 the sinecurist commits upon the honest gains of society j doubtful of the 

 necessity of that strangling burthen of taxes which makes industry as 

 poor as idleness ; more than doubtful of their appropriation ; and utterly 

 shrinking from the view of their fatal effect on the freedom of England. 

 With the extravagance of political mountebanks we have no connection. 

 But not the wild hater of all government, nor the sullen conspirator 

 against the peace of mankind, are the appellants here ; but the father of 

 the industrious family, the man of secluded piety, the man of accom- 

 plished literature, the man of genius, honesty, and virtue, are those who 

 now feel themselves compelled to come from their willing obscurity into 

 the front rank of public care, to raise up their voices till now never 

 heard beyond the study or the fireside, and demand that the British 

 Parliament shall at last throw off its fetters, scorn the indolence, mean- 

 ness, and venality of party, and know no impulse but its duty, no 

 patronage but that of public gratitude, and no party but its country. 

 Those feelings are so just, that they have become universal, and so uni- 

 versal, that they have become irresistible. The minister must yield to 

 them, or he instantly descends from his power. But from that power 

 he will not descend, while it is to be secured by the most eager reten- 

 tion, or even by the most signal sacrifices. It is now announced, that, unable 

 to oppose the current, he will suffer himself to be borne along it. So 

 much the better. Every sacrifice wrested from his ambition, or ren- 

 dered up as the price of his safety, will be so much gained. The nation 

 will be made strong as the power of purchase is made weak ; and the 

 candidates for public distinction will be compelled at last to discover, 

 that the most prudent choice, not less than the most manly, generous, 

 and principled, is to side with the country. 



It is rumoured that the Premier intends to propose, among his earliest 

 measures, the extension of suffrage to Manchester, Birmingham, and 

 other of the great towns. So far has been long demanded, and it will 

 be wise in him to concede. But the rights of representation are but a 

 barren victory. If Manchester returned fifty members instead of two, 

 it would not extinguish the sinecures, clear the government of obnoxious 

 patronage, destroy, down to the roots, the whole boroughmongering 

 system ; rend away every superfluous expense of the public service ; 

 reduce the enormous salaries of the ministers, the household, the feeders 

 on the civil list ; expunge the annuities to ministerial aunts, cousins, 



