1831.] The State of Europe. 591 



over in silence, the Attorney-General was the proper person to take 

 the matter in hand and prosecute them (cries of 'no, no/ from the 

 opposition benches)." Who cried No, no ? Was it Sir James Scarlett ? 

 Could it be the independent member for ." fortunate Maldon/' who now 

 declares " he has nothing to gain, and nothing to suffer, by the opinions 

 he delivers, and neither expects to lose or to retain his seat by the vote 

 he should give ?" But what is so graceful as a repentant sinner ? 



Mr. Calcraft himself, who had the honour of deciding the second 

 reading by his vote, and who has thenceforth obtained the happy cogno- 

 men of number one; exhibited the same striking and instant illumination 

 of the darkness of many a long and not unsalaried year. So late as the 

 4th of March, his dislike, nay his horror, of the Bill was of the most 

 irreconcilable nature. Like Sir R. Peel on the Catholic Bill, for fifteen 

 sturdy years, " his abhorrence of the measure, was founded on principle! 

 not on the fluctuations of party, not on the accident of time or person, 

 not on any thing that ever had changed, or ever could, but on the essence 

 of the thing." In short, he was Blifil all over, without his perpetual 

 smile. 



But let this man of stubborn virtue speak for himself, " The gentle- 

 men/' said he, on the 4th of March, " on the opposite side (the ministry) 

 if indulged to the extent of their wishes (as manifested in this bill), satis- 

 fied I am that they would not long have a king or house of lords, to 

 participate in the government of the country. If I were asked how the 

 institutions of the county would work under the new constitution for 

 such it was I should reply, ( A great deal worse than before.' If this 

 bill passed, the mischief would be irremediable : it would overturn the 

 constitution, and throw a preponderating power into this estate, fatal to 

 the two others. I am not willing to admit, that such was the overwhelm- 

 ing influence of public opinion, that the house must be the slave of it. 

 If we passed this measure, we could not stop here : in a short time, 

 further alterations would be required and conceded. The moment we 

 admitted 500,000 new voters, the greater proportion voting as house- 

 holders, the argument for the ballot would become unanswerable. I 

 solemnly declared my opinion, that this measure must, in the end, con- 

 vert this monarchy into a republic j and the trifling difference that exists 

 between my noble friend opposite and myself, is this; that I am for 

 reform, and the noble lord for revolution." 



Yet on the second reading, this magnanimous and far-seeing senator, 

 votes for " the bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill." We 

 leave him to his reflections on the spirit of the transaction. But the same 

 faculty of sudden discovery develops itself through all the organs of 

 party. The journal which has the merit of being foremost in the battle 

 of Whiggism, scarcely more months ago, than the minutes which purified 

 Mr. Calcraft' s brains, thus sketched the pretensions of the party to 

 governing the empire, " As to the Whigs, we plainly, and in the face 

 of the people of England, deny that the country looks to them as its 

 saviours in any great emergency the experience of nearly fifty years 

 has proved the real character of this party at once haughty and pusil- 

 lanimous rash and short-sighted noisy democrats when out of place, 

 insolent aristocrats when in ignorant of the noble qualities of their own 

 countrymen, and timid depreciators of their glory, while they are ever 

 vehement, and ready to applaud and magnify the successes of foreigners. 



