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may be produced amongst them , they may depend upon it that their old enemies will not miss the opportunity . Either security or dissension may be alike fatal . Another ground of caution , if not of apprehension , exists in the altered situation of the reformers as to the immediate
object towards which their efforts are directed . At the last elections all eyes were fixed upon a single point , all minds were filled with a single purpose . There was but one word on all lips , and that was Reform . So that a candidate did but pledge himself to this , no offences were remembered , no inquiries were made , no other pledges were exacted . Here there * could be no diversity and no mistake . But now the bill is carried *
That common and comprehensive watchword is obsolete . It is true the purposes remain to be accomplished which made reform the object of such intense desire , but the nature , number , variety , complication , and undefined extent of those purposes necessarily render them less fitted to serve as signals for combined and concentrated effort . All may deem all of them desirable , but there may be yet much difference of opinion as to their relative
importance . There is need of discussion , of communication , of mutual understanding . There is need that the principles should be defined which the friends of their country will generally regard as paramount ; and that pledges should be agreed upon to be generally exacted of candidates . I shall again advert to this topic , the importance of which is my chief reason for presuming to address you . I shall do what I can towards making the best
use of the interval which may elapse , in this essential preparation for the coming elections—and a vigorous use must be made of it , if a wise and happy choice of representatives is to be secured . There is danger even from the good feelings of the people . They may be misled by their gratitude . Much as we owe to the present administration , it by no means follows that its supporters are indiscriminately to be re-chosen . The great merit , both of
the ministers and their majorities , is that they have passed the Bill . Let that good service never be forgotten . Let its memory be green in our souls' while England is England . Let no man dare to show his face before independent constituents who votecj against the Bill . He bears the brand upon his forehead . The credentials of his ineligibility are signed , sealed , and delivered . But the converse does not hold good . To have voted for the Bill may cover a multitude of political sins in the past , but it does not discover a multitude of qualifications for the future . It is possible that some scarcely ever gave a good vote before , and may scarcely ever give a good vote again . Look farther than this . It is not for every fiddler who can scrape a single string , to set up for a Paganini . Intelligent gratitude is not the parent of blind confidence . The last parliament consisted of delegates ; they lmve done that for which they were delegated . Honour to their names . Ths next parliament should be an assembly of legislators .
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On Parliamentary Pledges . 435
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1832, page 435, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1816/page/3/
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