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    I will instance four marked stages in the progress of Reform , under the dynasty of Gatton and Bramber . In 1828 . The Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts . In 1829 » Catholic Emancipation . , In 1830 . The Tories were driven out . * - ; III 1831 ^ 2 ; The R eform Bill passer ) , „ I challenge the production of any four measures sincg

    1882 , instrumental to the furtherance of Reform , whieh you can place in juxta-position with these . The very best measure you have achieved has been the Municipal Bill ; and y « t so- craftily was , it leavened , that it is questionable whether t | us measure will eventually become instrumental to the Torjr p 4 * to the liberal cause . Of what else can you boast , — -what

    else $ an you produce comparable in magnitude of service to the peppie , to the least of the Boroughmonger Reforms ? Is it the Jpbercion Bill for Ireland ? Is it the reduction of the number of hfr Bishops and the preservation of their pay ? Is it the Emancipatio n of Slaves at the cost of twenty millions of money , f vnereby the people purchased an act of common humanity ? Is it fjiG Poor Law Bill , which , however good , not you , but the Tories , originated and carried ? Is it the two-penny farthing

    reductionof the Tax on Knowledge , leaving the last and worst jenny behind ; and with it the monopoly of the trade in intelligence , imperceptibly diminished ?* Is it the liberty to Dissenters ; b be married by their own priests , with leave from the worklouses ? Your Tithe Bill was an admirable measure , but I deny it to be any enlargement of the liberties of the people . Look again at the majorities which have attended Reform .

    Yoti darried the Reform Bill in the teeth of the constituent representatives of Bramber and Gatton by majorities of 100 and odd yotes . The succeeding Parliament afforded you 200 . And yet iiotV , lii the ~ sixth year of the era of Reform , you are barely secure tit & majority at all ; while each contested election marks the ctecrepHtyde of your power ! My Lord , are these not facts ? Are they not eloquent facts ? Arfe they not pregnant with reproof and admonition ? Is it

    to be . wondered that the malignity of the Lords , spell-bound hf the enthusiasm of 1831 , resuscitates with the desuetude > . ?< In London the newspaper proprietors have been the gainers . The daily papers « pocket a portion of tlie benefit intended for the people ; they having reduced tfiejr price tho fifth of a penny less than the tax . The Morning Chronicle , supposing f t * IftJe to fae , aft jt professes , 6000 per diem , gains a clear 1 , 560 / , per annum kythisr arrangement . JVforeover , the odious and disgraceful bondage the ; London press still tolerates on the part of the newsmen , who qre enabled , by the monopoly Along tjie proprietors , to exact more than one penny oh each paper , is preferred IWW /* fel ! IDefii | re ^ ntion of f | i e )> emiy-tax . Severa l journals have p referred W unmanageable magnitude to cheapness ; just as if intelligence was efltimatett like table cloths , by size , . '

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    * 258 Hints to the tibJne Secretary .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 1, 1837, page 258, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1831/page/3/