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Untitled Article
called for by both , parties ( whether it will be equally so in Parliament is a different matter ); and there is a general surprise , that the returns have not given greater manifestation of the influence of the opinions at Court .
Perhaps a Reformer , who cares nothing for party as such , and who finds himself , by a painful choice of duties ( never more trying to him than at this moment ) under his old necessity of saying what it may be " better for others to hear than
for himself to utter , " may be enabled by his merely standing aloof from party committals , and at the same time wishing well to every body , to put the present state of the nation in a
simpler and wider light than most , without offending the honest predilections , and still less the superior natural understandings of any . Most truly can he affirm , that there are men
among all parties whom he honours and loves ; and if he thinks their perceptions clouded by party prejudice , he is not unaware that a supposed exemption from prejudice may lie under mistakes of its own ; often does , to a highly prejudiced
extent . If he is wrong , he only wishes that he may be shewn to be so , in a like spirit of good-will-It appears then to us of the Repository , that there is a reaction , if not in favour of Toryism , yet to the disadvantage of Reform ; and that it has been
caused by one virtue in the enemy , and one pervading defect in the friend . The Tories have been more energetic than
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their opponents ; the Reformers want sympathy with those beneath them , and with one
another . Speaking in more detail , the merely monied , or trading interest , who chiefly return the reforming members , have had too much of the
confidence attending upon success , and made too little impression upon the many , the poorer orders , of a character for cordiality and good-will ; the Ministers have latterly been too
slow and apparently indifferent in the furtherance of popular measures , with the exception of appointments in the church 3 and the Tories , thus left to
themselves , and enabled to appeal to the disappointments , as well as the pockets of the agriculturists , have strained every nerve accordingly , and effected a jovial rally .
The objection of want of sympathy applies , we think , to all grades of Reform ; partly from difference of breeding , in the ordinary sense of the word , chiefly from the false views of self-interest induced by commercial habits and the
mechanical part of the utilitarian philosophy . Reform , it is true , is advocated by many men out of a sincere regard for the public welfare , and in the least selfish spirit ; but with more ( as must of necessity be the case )
the desire for it is merely the instinctive result of the progress of common knowledge and an improved education ; and in its character , as the desire of a people , it is naturally modified by the habit ? of that people , by the nature of the
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146 Result of the Elections , and Defects of the Reformers .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1837, page 146, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1835/page/2/
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