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Untitled Article
was any one purpose more essential than another in the estimation of all enlightened and honest friends of improvement , it was the keeping together , in unbroken and cordial union , that
parliamentary strength which the reform had produced , for effecting the further changes in which alone consists its worth . They have done their utmost to break it up . But for them the word c repeal' need not have been heard within the walls of St . Stephen ' s . Nay , more ; they might , by a consistent course , have produced a moral certainty that it never would . Following their leaders , and Mr . Stanley is a proper huntsman to halloo on the pack , the Ministerial majority has evinced a coarse , clamorous , and insolent determination to put down the radical reform minority , ( made a minority and an opposition by the perverse course pursued , ) individually and collectively . Never , in the worst days of Pitt and Castlereagh , has there been a more outrageous and overbearing spirit displayed towards men whose attainments and abilities ought to have commanded the most respectful attention
to the expression of their opinions . It will soon be found that this will not do ; and the unutterable disgust excited in the minds of some of the new Members , who came up , in the honesty of their hearts , to support a reform Ministry in reform measures , and not to witness the baiting of a Radical , will probably extend itself so as to produce a little more decency and decorum . But the alienation is past healing . Ministers need not fear that they shall be identified with such men as O'Connell , or Hume , or Tennyson ; they ha \ e achieved that separation . They have purchased the occasional and treacherous support of the rump of the Tory faction . They have weakened themselves for all good purposes . But still they are too strong . ' They are evidently strong enough to carry those further constitutional reforms by which alone the avowed purposes of the Reform Bill can be secured ; and it is as evident that they will not . We are no longer told , as we were while that Bill was yet pending , that the Ballot and Triennial Parliaments are reserved questions . The Ballot might be threatened while certain elections
were in suspense ; but now , in face of evidence that never has more influence been exercised over voters than at the last election , it will have to encounter the full force of Ministerial opposition . Triennial Parliaments have been the morning and evening song of Whig reformers for the last forty years . Triennial
Parliaments and Household Suffrage were the creed of those who advocated reform at all . But that was in opposition days . All allusions to such matters are met by the inquiry , Have not the elections turned out well ? We say , No , if the elected make no more provision for securing the freedom of a future choice . The people ought not always to be called on for such sacrifices as in the excitement of the last two years they have had the virtue to make ; and they will always be acted upon by the corrupting iu- %
Untitled Article
On the Conduct of Ministers since the Meeting of Parliament . 245
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1833, page 245, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2612/page/29/
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