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divisions ^ tHfe tenants-at-will , so strangely let in by the government * seem likely to swamp the rfeal proprietary * Under all these circumstances , and just on the eve of an election , with all the old evil agencies of influence and intimidation at work , is it strange that people should not be hymning their matin and evening song of thanks to Whig government ? The strangeness
is , that statesmen—men of reflection and foresight—should have expected less discontent with them than there actually is . When they announced their Bill , it was hailed with a burst pf enthu > siasm . They supped full of gratitude ; it seemed , even to satiety . On this they , no doubt , calculated ; they had kept their secret well , so . as to produce an electrical effect ; and they should also have calculated on the partial revulsion which must ensue from
all the deductions and restrictions , and annoyances , which they havib seen fit to embarrass their measure with . Why they have so embarassed it—why . they could not establish the principle ( of the 101 . franchise ) in all its simplicity aud entireness- ^ -it is hard to Say . They could not mean to keep the word of prottiiseto the eai * , but break it to the hope . ' The exceptions neither disarmed hostility nor conciliated support . If their intention was to create
a constituency which should be numerically about two-thirds of the * apparentfy qualified householders , thinking such a con 6 tl * tuettcy better than a more numerous one , they certainly did not takb a direct or manly course for the accomplishment of that purpose . Nor can anything savour more of caprice or chancework , than the way in which they have left the distinction to be arrived at between voters and non -voters . Unaware of the
disenfranchising tendency of the details of the Bill , they wdre riot . Their attention at an early period wais drawn to the fact , which was clearly stated in petitions , and which would have been the subject of much popular discussion , but for the uncertainty in Which the fate of the whole measure was involved . If they inerfely meartt incidentally to make the Reform Bill an
instrument for screwing up the collection of the taxes , they disgraced trie authorship of a great and glorious measure , by the alloy of a rfiotive most unworthy , mean , and pitiful . Any way , thfey cbtn-Ifiitted a great fault , and one which could not but detract , as soon as its coiiseqliences began to be felt , and that not undeservedly , from the pebble ' s gratitude and their own popularity .
In the long and arddous conflict by which Reform was carried , it was to be expected that some practical errors would bfe erjfrrmifted . flut there were errors not exactly of the * kind Whifch might have been e&pgcted , and which have proved alt additltfhai Sdiirce of the State of feelhig of which they rioW complain * t'hfcy
Have appeared rather to patronize the people thaii hettrtiiy to coalesce with them , making common cause , and advancing it by fymmpn efforts . They wGuid do something fot the pebpl ^ btit Mot Wltbjr f by thb pfettole . Tlifcir cl&ita of ebnfldehc * wtwfittfct
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tFiiig GMerhrnent . 843
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1832, page 843, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1826/page/51/
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