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    aHve ; and the cause of the Movement still mtsrmilatitoljr apoflite tAeieit Supporters . We cannot understand how men so conscientious as some of these ire , can reconcile this self-annihilation to their notions of worthiness . With the

    exception of their votes , which have been steadily given on the right tkfe , we can name few things which any of them have done , more than might have been done by adherents of the present Ministry ; and it was not for this , nor on the faith of these expectations , that they were sent to that House , in preference to men who , on any footing but that of strenuous advocates of the people ' s cause , had perhaps equal claims to theirs .

    The usual excuse for inaction , that' there is no good to be done / never was so manifestly inapplicable . At all times there is much good to ] be done , if men will but resolve to do it . But the effects of individual exertion , though sure , are usually slow . Not so in the present state of politics . Every well-directed attempt , even by a solitary individual , to accomplish any worthy object , is sure of a certain measure of immediate success . It may be true thatjit is impossible to carry anything against the Ministry . But

    there is hardly any limit to what may now be carried through the Ministry . Though Ministers seldom lead , they are willing- to be led . To most of the reforms which a vigorous and enlightened Ministry would , in the present state of the public mind , venture to propose , the present Ministers are by no means hostile . Their faults , like those of the Radical Members , are chiefly those of omission . They do not like to involve themselves in new questions . They have already more to think of , more difficulties to surmount and exigencies to provide for , than they feel the strength to cope with . When you have forced a discussion on any subject , and compelled them to turn

    their minds to it , and make up an opinion oneway or another , your business is half done . From having been anxious to stave off the question , they become anxious to settle it , so that the discussion may not be revived . The independent Members should take their measures accordingly . They should insist upon having all the great questions discussed . They should not yield to the representations which are sure to be made , which were made by the Chancellor on the Jewish question , that to be unremitting in exertion is not the way to succeed . It is the sure , and the only way . They should let no question sleep , and should agitate all the more important questions incessantly .

    Me O'Connell , among whose faults inactivity is not to be numbered , did not think that to force a discussion on the liberty of the press would do no good ; and already his motion has compelled the Government to take up the subject , and a part of the necessary reform has a fair chance of being accomplished in the present Session . Since the publication of our last month ' s Notes , Mr . O'Connell ' s Bill for the Reform of the Law of Libel has been printed ; and the objections to which it seemed liable , from his own statement , as reported in the newspapers , are applicable to it in a very inferior degree to what we had supposed . It does make provision for freedom of criticism on institutions and xtoctrines , with the single exception of religion ; and , in case of private libel , instead of making truth in all cases a justification , it only allows the truth to be given in evidence , leaving the jury to decide what weight shall be allowed to it as a defence . Even this we continue to think objectionable , but , undoubtedly , in a far less degree .

    20 th March . Sir Robert Peel on the Corn Laws . —In the House of Commons yesterday an incidental discussion of the Corn Laws took place on the presentation of a petition . After a speech from Mr . Roebuck , of the great merits of which w 4 should have remained ignorant if we had not accidentally 4

    seen the report of it in the Morning Post / Sir Robert Peel rose . Having first accused , by implication , Mr . Roebuck of presumption , in saying that the subject might be disposed of in ftve minuUs , while he , though he had

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    310 Note * on m * Niumap& 9 .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1834, page 310, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2632/page/82/