THE NEW TORY REFORM GOVERNMENT. 7 



second sneer at the Reformers. If the Reformers may with justice 

 be called " one section, and one section only" of public men ; why 

 not boldly avow the principles of the vast Tory majority. Why 

 falsify and desert his principles for a few, principles in which the 

 many participate. Oh ! the Peel Ministry will certainly maintain 

 the Reform Bill ! Let us have more. 



ee But the Reform Bill, it is said, constitutes a new era, and it is the duty 

 of a Minister to declare explicitly first, whether he will maintain the Bill 

 itself; and, secondly, whether he will act upon the spirit in which it was 

 conceived. 



1 ' With respect to the Reform Bill itself, I will repeat now the declara- 

 tion which I made when I entered the House of Commons as a member of 

 the Reformed Parliament, that I consider the Reform Bill a final and irre- 

 vocable settlement of a great constitutional question a settlement which 

 no friend to the peace and welfare of this country would attempt to disturb 

 either by direct or by insidious means." 



Here we are again at issue with Sir Robert Peel. It is not a final 

 and irrevocable settlement of a great constitutional question. It 

 must and will be disturbed by such constitutional means as the Bill 

 itself has furnished. The franchise must be extended. We must 

 have household suffrage, triennial parliaments, and vote by ballot ; 

 and when we have got them, we shall doubtless have the satisfaction 

 of beholding an equal readiness on the part of Sir Robert to under- 

 take the King's Government under the new system, with that he has 

 evinced to administer it under the Reform Bill, We must not hear of 

 " final" till all be finished. 



The paragraph that succeeds the one we have quoted above is 

 devoted to an inquiry as to what is meant by the spirit of the Reform 

 Bill. If this, or that, or the other be meant knowing full well, at 

 the same time, that nothing of that nature is meant then he will not 

 undertake to adopt it ; but if it means a " careful review of institu- 

 tions civil and ecclesiastical, undertaken in a friendly temper, com- 

 bining with the maintenance of established rights the correction of 

 proved base, and the redress of real grievances" in that case, he 

 concludes, " I can for myself and colleagues undertake to act in such 

 a spirit and with such intentions." 



This would seem to be plausible enough ; but a question naturally 

 arises what degree of proof does Sir Robert Peel require ere he 



