218 THE CONSERVATIVE REFORMERS. 



supporters of the late ministry. Now, we unhesitatingly affirm, that 

 to these men, and to men like these in the present House of Com- 

 mons, are we alone to look for a return to the first principles and the 

 pure and unfettered practice of the British Constitution. 



The theory of the constitution, as set forth by the highest authori- 

 ties, is that the three parts of which it is composed form mutual and 

 equal checks upon each other. Now it might reasonably enough 

 have been supposed, that a party, calling itself a conservative party, 

 would have been enabled, during their protracted enjoyment of 

 power, to exhibit some few evidences of their love and veneration for 

 a constitution which they have at all times professed themselves so 

 anxious to conserve. It might naturally be imagined that, on looking 

 back to their annals, we should have found the most equitable adjust- 

 ment of the three checks forming the constitution ; in other words, 

 that with the most patriotic determination to uphold the King and 

 the Lords, no less zeal would have been shown in the preservation of 

 the privileges of the people, as represented in the House of Commons. 

 We might have expected from a truly conservative ministry an equal 

 desire to support the interests of the country at home, and to uphold 

 its dignity abroad. We might have expected that they would have 

 conserved our national honour our national freedom and our na- 

 tional independence. If, then, upon referring to their proceedings, 

 during the last twenty years, we have not found that they have acted 

 " with this view, and with these intentions," it is assuredly not unfair 

 to inquire, in what sense the Tories can claim for themselves the dis- 

 tinction of conservatism. How, we ask, are they conservatives, or 

 of what ? 



Hence, it is quite clear, that the term destructive, as applied by the 

 conservatives to their opponents, and the distinctive appellation they 

 bestow upon themselves, are, in both cases, either gross misappli- 

 cations, or words which have no definite or intelligible appositeness. 

 Neither of these terms is in itself a badge of merit, or a mark of igno- 

 miny. Because you propose to destroy, you do not therefore purpose 

 to do mischief; and you may conserve till Heaven stops the nose at 

 your conserves. Corruption will not keep well, and there is nothing 

 very laudable in the attempt to keep it. The dragon was a conser- 

 vative when he exercised his rather mischievous prerogative against 

 the people ; and 8t. George of Cappadocia was a destructive when he 

 put the finishing touch to the dragon. 



