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Untitled Article
which gives them almost all the direct influence they possess in the management of their own affairs . He was thrown out , that it might be brought in ; it was thrown out , that he might be brought in ; Wellington , and Reform , were the antagonist watchwords , the darkness and the light that struggled together , until the dawn of political existence beamed upon the nation .
Not merely is he opposed to the natural and necessary completion of that Bill by the addition of further Organic Reforms , in the mode and frequency of elections , but there can be little doubt of his aiming , directly or indirectly , at the curtailment of the popular rights which it recognised . Nor is he less committed in opposition , to its genuine results , the various other reforms of which it was framed to be the harbinger , and for carrying which it provided means , which , if they be fitting ones . , are yet ,, as experience has shown , deficient in the requisite degree of power .
To Church Reform , Corporation Reform , Law Reform , Corn Monopoly Reform ; to all that is most liberal in principle , or in practice most needful for good government , he stands the pledged and determined foe . Not the less so , should he descend to a temporary hypocrisy . Orangeism already sends across the Channel its yell of anticipated , but premature triumph ; and already the locusts nearer home are rejoicing like those in the Apocalypse at the opening of the bottomless pit , and preparing for another carnival before they shall feel the constraining hand of
Ecclesiastical Reformation . The appointment of the duke is the hoisting of a signal flag of sympathy with despotism all the world over . The sceptres of Holland , and Austria , and Russia , will be waved in responsive gladness , and the chains of the Pole clank mournfully in the wilds of Siberia . His policy must make England foully fall away from her natural alliance with the free , and the struggling to be free , in all countries . It would be a national apostasy , from the cause of intelligence and civilization , to that of military
barbarism . And when did this disgraceful change happen ? Just when the Whig Cabinet had been cleared of a polluting and paralyzing admixture ; when it had lost most of that leaven of aristocratical prejudice , which did it a mischief with the public that no talent could redeem ; when although not strong in party strength , and yet untried by deeds , it had nevertheless sent forth
a hope into the country that public utility would be pursued in that spirit of simplicity and straightforwardness , which becomes the rulers of a Reformed People , but which had not hitherto been satisfactorily manifested : just when the popular demonstrations elicited by Lord Durham ' s manly conduct and professions had promised resistless support for the government , in the course which it was hoped vVould be adopted , or a crushing opposition should it fail—just then comes like a thunderbolt , in
Untitled Article
822 The Wellington Dictatorship .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1834, page 822, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2640/page/4/
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