[ 306 3 [Sept. 



NOTES OF THE MONTH ON AFFAIRS IN GENERAL. 



The Reform Bill is going to the dogs. Who shall now doubt our powers 

 of prophecy ! We said so from the beginning. We said, that it was never 

 intended to pass. We said that Lord Grey was pne of the last men in 

 England who wished it to pass, and that the Whigs, aye, the Whigs 

 themselves were the party who would in their secret souls oppose it 

 tooth and nail; for we argued from fact, nature, the old tricks of Whig- 

 gery, the mother and mistress of Boroughmongering, and from the 

 fierce aristocracy of the premier's visage. Who that ever saw that 

 premier could think that, by any possible contingency, he would ever ask 

 the " most sweet voices" of the rabble of cobblers, coalheavers, barbers, 

 and butchers, who were to make up this new legislature of ten pound 

 votes ! Such might do very well for the Hunts or the Humes, but we 

 have seen how eagerly Burdett has struggled to get rid of patriotic con- 

 stituency in that virtuous part of the world, Westminster ; and how his 

 coadjutor shrinks from " His Majesty the Mob." With what jubila- 

 tion would either of these Gracchi hail the chance of a peerage, come 

 how it might, if it were but for the mere circumstance of escaping for 

 ever the adipous fondlings of their " citizen" constituents. And what 

 must be the feelings of the tribe of actual Whig gentlemen, yet unused 

 to this embrace, at the prospect of having nothing else to do every year 

 of their lives, with the addition of that fever of friendship, that cholera 

 of canvassing, which must be gone through every two years, the late 

 average duration of parliaments ! The thing is impossible, except by a 

 revolution, which would throw Whig and Tory alike into the general 

 mire ; and is inconceivable but by such brains as are substitutes for ra- 

 tionality, in the crania of the Carlisles and Nugents of this silliest of siUy 

 worlds. 



But what said we, on the first mention of the matter ? " This Bill 

 will lie imder the table within the next six months." Else, why have so 

 many precautions been taken against its success > Why was " Reform," 

 such as it is, taken out of the hands of Brougham, a daring fellow, a 

 clever fellow, and a leading name with the House and the Reform party 

 throughout the country } And why, but to make assurance doubly 

 sure, was it put into the hands of little Lord John Russel } — little Lord 

 John, of all men upon earth ; an amiable lyric poet, a gentle tragedian, 

 a delicate historian, and a pretty member of parliament ; and with all 

 these qualifications the last man in the House, or out of the House, to 

 carry this measure, or any other measure. We actually mean no dis- 

 respect, though we can feel no great love for the hero of a measure, 

 which would in ten years cover England with armies, fighting each other 

 to their last drop of bl&od for the ground they stood on ; send one half 

 of us as prisoners to the colonies, or despairing fugitives round the 

 earth, and raise the ten-pound legislators into the enviable condition of 

 tearing each other in turn. But speaking in all possible respect of Lord 

 John, we said then, and say now, that the measure was put into his 

 hands purposely to fail. Were his the Ajax shoulders to carry the 

 shield of Reform against the arrowy storm of vengeance and scorn, that 

 must pour upon it from the honest representatives of the country, and 

 from the empire itself .J* But the Bill was, from its very nature, con- 

 structed for a speedy mortality. Why was the clause introduced, ex- 



