2 THE NEW TORY REFORM GOVERNMENT. 



signal failure that has been made of late years, is the document put 

 forth by Sir Robert Peel, purporting to be an address to the con- 

 stituents of Tamworth, but which, in reality, is meant to be a feeler to 

 the constituency of England. It is intended as a blind to the ma- 

 jority, and as something that shall effectually open the eyes of the 

 select few. It is as though he should say, " The devil, we are told, 

 can quote Scripture for his own purposes see you now, how I shall 

 quote Reform for Tory ends, and denounce abuses in order that I may 

 the more effectually perpetuate them." 



We should have supposed it impossible that the address put forth 

 by Sir Robert Peel could have imposed upon any human creature 

 breathing, had we not seen, much to our surprise and mortification, 

 that it has already produced an effect in quarters from whence we 

 might naturally have expected some degree of suspicious vigilance. 

 But, as we are told by Milton, that hypocrisy is the only vice which 

 angels themselves cannot detect, so we must in charity suppose, that, 

 in some cases, hypocrisy, being thinly enough clad, is frequently 

 mistaken for naked truth. How else are we to palliate or excuse the 

 avowal of the Globe, that this composition is " a most interesting and 

 important document it is a temperate, full, able, and honest expla- 

 nation of the writer's sentiments, and deserves the highest praise 

 from all parties;" and that " we must repeat the manly and candid 

 tone of the address ; we think that the Right Honorable Baronet is 

 honorably exculpated in it !" How, also, should we have thought 

 (if we had not known pretty well what to think before) of the 

 Courier, when it makes a similar confession ? 



The truth is, this address of Sir Robert Peel is not such an one 

 as should be endured by a people to whom the king himself is ac- 

 countable, proceeding from one who is the king's servant, in trust 

 for the people. It is a specimen of the chiaro scuro, which is by no 

 means to our taste. That which it is intended to compass is clear 

 enough ; that which it contains is clouded. The goblet may be seen 

 through, and is sufficiently brittle ; but the mixture it contains is 

 neither pellucid nor pleasing but an abomination. Sir Robert Peel 

 talks of carrying on the king's government with vigour and success. 

 It is an awkward phrase, " the king's government" leading, as it 

 does, to the conclusion, that it is something in which the people are to 

 have no share. This insolence, so peremptorily propounded by 



