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The subject of Reform still preserves its all-absorbing interest . * ' Hope deferred maketh the heart sick , " but the national heart must not yet sicken in awaiting the settlement of this momentous question . Nor will k . The people continue to manifest a patience beyond all praise . They are upheld by confidence in Ministers , in the King , in the House of Commons , and
m themselves . " Such confidence can scarcely be disappointed . It is amongst the surest pledges which Providence gives of success . The state " of the question has undergone an unexpected change within the last month . That the Bill would be rejected by the Lords was anticipated . But it was supposed that the majority would be very small , and that a new creation of Peers , sufficient to turn the scale , or the resignation of Ministers , would
have immediately followed . The majority of 41 was so large as to excite astonishment : no creation of Peers has yet taken place : Ministers remain in office : and on the reassembling of Parliament for business , which is expected to be in the course of next month , another Bill is to be introduced , varied from the former in its enactments , but founded on the same
principles , which many suppose will be allowed to pass . Meanwhile an unprecedented succession of meetings , numerous and unanimous , and attended by all ranks , from the highest to the lowest , throughout the country , has evinced the unabated zeal and the unflinching determination of the people to obtain their right of a fair and adequate representation .
While we partake of the general confidence as to the issue , we cannot but regard with deep anxiety this prolongation of excitement and conflict . We cannot but wish that it had been terminated , or even anticipated , by the elevation of a sufficient number of friends of the people to the Peerage to ensure the favourable decision of the House of Lords . The ultimate
rejection of the Bill , the resignation of Ministers , and the return of a faction to power , which could only rule by force , are events so fraught with disastrous consequences that we shrink from their contemplation . We cannot anticipate them . But in the mere postponement of the decision there is much to apprehend . We dread the occurrence of some dark page
in the chapter of accidents . We dread the rekindHng of last winter ' s fires in farm-yards and vicarage-grounds . We dread such aimless and most mischievous ebullitions as those at Nottingham and Derby . We dread the division of opinion which may be created by the particulars of any measure varying from that which united the people in the cry , " the Bill , the whole
Bill , and nothing but the Bill . " We dread the alienation , wisely or unwisely , of any portion of that confidence which now so happily exists between the people and the government , and which is so strong a source of power , and so firm a ground of hope . We dread the unfair use which may be made of such events as the Dorsetshire election , and the advantage
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ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE REFORM QUESTION .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1831, page 775, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2603/page/51/
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