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Untitled Article
ihelosute . * The Baronetage of England is not to be scorned by Peers who had no grandfathers . Nor can it be difficult to find men whose talent , fortune * and character , would render their coronets more lustrous than those of most of their new and unwilling associates . If the Peerage were thrown open to competition , on the score of ascertained antiquity of blood or extent
of property , a majority would , in all probability , lose their places to Commoners . Surely " the memory of man" goes further back than to the commencement of the Pitt Administration . Yet the peerage of that day , which is but yesterday , gives a majority in favour of the Bill . The new men have done the mischief . They should be corrected by the addition of some who are the old men which they falsely claim to be .
* It is too late to dream of saving the order from degradation . No repentance on the late vote can recover it in public estimation . The effect of that vote was felt even in the French Chamber . It swelled the majority against the hereditary peerage in that country . There is but one way left 6 f regaining respect . Title must be so distributed and extended that its holders are in harmony with the people . If they become too numerous for deliberation ,
let them legislate by representatives , as the Scotch and Irish Peers now do . This would be far better than the much talked-of expedient of elevating the eldest sons of Peers ; a plan which would , for a time , give particular families a very undue influence . Some reformation in this direction is so reasonable and necessary , that it must follow , at no very distant period , from the discussions arid feelings which have been now excited .
One class will scarcely survive any reformatory change . The Bishops have sinned past political redemption . Even the Bishop of London , who did not vote , is prevented by " unavoidable circumstances" from shewing his face in a parish pulpit ( St . Anne ' s , Westminster ) according to appointment . Every child who can calculate that twice twenty-one is forty-two cries " The Bishops and the Bishops only . " The obnoxious vote was given
under circumstances of great aggravation . Ministers were taken by surprise . They seem to have calculated on neutrality , if not support . The feeling of the Country has been unequivocally and strongly expressed by the resolutions passed at various meetings . The claim will not much longer be allowed of professedly spiritual functions to legislative authority . The Church will become a Church only ; the most honourable and useful position for itself in which it can be placed , as well as the best for the
nation . If these benefits shall indeed result from the delay ; if the temporary postponement of the Reform Bill shall , incidentally , prepare the way for correcting some of the evils which flow from the present state of the Peerage and the Church , and rendering those institutions auxiliary to the improvement of the people , we shall have unexpected reason for ultimate thankfulness and joy , whatever our temporary apprehensions . On the upright intentions of Ministers we have the firmest reliance . It were an indication of
Untitled Article
77 § 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 778, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2603/page/54/
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