THE NEW TORY REFORM GOVERNMENT. d 



another Sir Robert* more than a century and a half ago, will go 

 down no longer. In fact, we have seen, and we have been told a 

 great deal too much of the king's prerogative within the last few 

 weeks. Let it be remembered, that there is an elder brother to that 

 prerogative who might, under compulsion, and the blessing of pro- 

 vidence, prove the stronger of the two. 



It is easy for Sir Robert to tell us that he is no friend to abuses, 

 and that he is no enemy to reform ; but the question is, what does he 

 consider an abuse and what does he mean by Reform ? He did not 

 consider the Reform Bill a Bill of Reform : he did not think that 

 Gatton and Old Sarum were abuses. We must agree upon our first 

 principles ere we are likely to come to an amicable understanding. 

 The general principles he talks of, are rather vague and unsatis- 

 factory. They may be the principles, as we suspect they are, of 

 General the Duke of Wellington. The abuses, of which the country 

 complains, may be instruments of good government with him j and 

 Reform and retrenchment, with his reading of the words, may mean 

 the retrenchment of Reform. We have some homely sayings which 

 may be brought in exemplification of our more obscure hints : 

 " What is one man's meat," it is said, " is another man's poison." 

 And again, " What won't poison will fatten, and what won't fatten 

 will fill up." That is to say, " What is one man's use is another man's 

 abuse ; and while I can keep place I'll grow fat in it and such 

 places as I cannot grow fat in, I'll fill up with my friends, Herries, 

 Goulburn, and Knatchbull." 



It must never be forgotten that Sir Robert Peel, the Duke of Wel- 

 lington, and their present pliable drudges, are the most bitter oppo- 

 nents of the Reform Bill in all its stages. These were the men who 

 insulted the people of England by telling them that the old system 

 was perfect, and that it was impossible that human wisdom could 

 devise any theoretical form of Government which could be found to 

 work so well as that which they conceived chance had bestowed upon 

 them. 



" So, atoms dancing round the centre 

 They urge, made all things at a venture." 



This profound dogma, broached by the Duke of Wellington, and 



* Sir Robert Filmer. -By-the-bye, is the Sir Edmund Filmer, who lately 

 figured at one or two conservative meetings in Kent, a descendant of this 

 wretched lick-spittle of the conservative Stuarts ? 



