STATE OF PARTIES. 



origin, overleaped the boundaries of prudence, and certainly afforded 

 the most convincing answer to those who asserted that the people are 

 uniformly forgetful of past favours, and willing to support only those 

 who flatter their prejudices by maintaining the most violent popular 

 doctrines. 



But how striking is the contrast between the ardent hopes with 

 which the people hailed the assembling of the reformed parliament, 

 and the languid indifference with which they witnessed the termina- 

 tion of its first session. Already the middle and working classes, who 

 mainly contributed to the success of the Reform Bill, are unequivo- 

 cally dissatisfied with the practical results of their triumph, and are 

 eagerly listening to those who would shew that nothing can secure 

 to the people their just influence in the management of things, 

 but a much more radical reform than that so recently obtained. 

 There prevails throughout the country a restless and feverish anxiety, 

 arising from the general conviction that we are threatened with a 

 great internal revolution, which even if beneficial in its ultimate con- 

 sequences, must be attended with incalculable evils. Those who 

 fondly hoped that this revolution might have been averted, or at 

 least rendered less destructive, by being made gradual in its operation 

 by the wisdom and popularity of a reformed parliament, have yielded 

 to despondency, nay, almost to despair, reflecting that during the short 

 period it has lived, the new House of Commons has incurred as great 

 a share of general odium, as ever attached to the parliaments of the 

 old system. The increasing discontent of large masses of the popu- 

 lation, whose external circumstances, impart a terrible energy to their 

 political sentiments, may well fill with alarm, the most heedless or 

 fearless, for unless some effectual means are adopted to allay this 

 discontent, it must speedily break out in consequences, which no 

 friend of his country can contemplate without horror. To ministers 

 and to the Whigs as a party, these things are most momentous. 

 Well will it be for them and for the country, if they employ the small 

 breathing time that is left us, in applying some remedies to evils which 

 their errors have aggravated, and which even now perhaps might be 

 suppressed, by a firm and decisive progress in that vital work of reform 

 to which they once and once only addressed themselves with energy. 



True, the adherents of government attempt to shew, that the 

 reaction in the state of public opinion, is either not real, or if so, has 

 resulted not from any just cause, but from the natural inconstancy of 

 the public mind, which in the present case has been inflamed by 

 radical misrepresentations. They tell us of the lengthened labours of 

 the Reformed Commons, of numerous reductions in the public esta- 

 blishments, and of the settlement of great and complicated questions, 

 on which our domestic and colonial greatness so much depended. 

 But what avails it to dwell on these points while the fact is unde- 

 niable, that all parties are more or less dissatisfied with the proceed- 

 ings of the House of Commons, and that even the moderate sup- 

 porters of Ministers, rather excuse than vindicate many of their 

 actions. No one denies that Ministers are Reformers to a certain 

 extent ; the great and general complaint is, that they shrink from 

 reforming with that firmness, which would command the respect of 



