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reviving Tory domination under the name of Reform , The people were told to v ^ ait for the elections ; and they did wait . They were told not to exact pledges , but to trust their friends ; and they did trust . Parliament meets ; and the Minister , backed by a section of soi-disant Reformers , after being left in a minority on the first two questions , is allowed , without a direct struggle , to go on and try his hand at dividing the Opposition , cajoling the public , and re-edifying that sinister interest which had been battered down at the expense of so
much time , toil , and peril . O this is not the way in which honest and high minded men should have battled for the welfare of a great community They should have taken a Loftier stand . They should have disdained all petty tactics . They should have unfurled the banner of principle ; have declared 'he that is not with us is against us ; ' and without regard to votecounting or place-expectancy have manifested that not to the slavish on principle , the hypocritical in profession , or the infirm of purpose , should be committed the destinies of a reformed nation , if it were possible for them to ward off bo fearful a calamity and so loathsome a degradation . Had this cut
down the majority of three hundred to a minority of half that number , or Ies 3 , it would yet have invested the minority with a moral power that would have achieved , and at no protracted period , far greater advantages for the nation than those hitherto effected by the combined force of opposition . The withdrawment of Mr . Hume ' s notice of motion , and afterwards of Mr . Ward ' s , for postponing or limiting the supplies , was a deplorable circumstance . It showed a want of concert in the camp , which was alone a
sufficient occasion of insolent triumph to the common enemy . Those notices , once given , ought to have been acted upon , and we should have thought that every honest reformer would have felt bound to support them . No nonsense about not allowing this or that individual to lead ; no waiting for a better opportunity , ( . that is , one on which more votes might have been caught , ) should nave occasioned their abandonment . If carried , the resignation of Ministers might not have followed . They would probably have taken their three months' allowance , and trusted to the chapter of accidents , or have amended and multiplied the promised measures of Reform which are the price they
ate content to pay for place . But they would have been in a condition which better becomes them ; treated as undeserving of confidence , and the rod . held over their heads to enforce their decent behaviour . \ Xhe consequence of the failure of the Opposition to occupy the high ground whicji was open to them , ia that the country is taught to tolerate conduct which surpasses , for its unprincipledness and profligacy , that of any political party upon record . False to their innate and hitherto avowed anti-reform principles , by the measures of Reform which they are proposing and
proihising ; false to the Reformers , whom those measures [ are designed to conciliate or neutralize , by the spirit in which they are propounded and will be acted upon ; false to the people , the agriculturists especially , whose needful aid they won , with promises like * dicers' oaths / to oust some portion of their opponents ; they are true to nothing but their own personal and party interests ; and yet they are allowed to govern the country . Nevertheless , —as the national disgrace of recognising their authority at all , has been incurred , it is , perhaps , as well that they should remain where they are until those w } xo would succeed them in office have not yet shown themselves prepared for grappling with the great difficulty in the way of good government ,
and beginning their career by % reformation of the House of Lords , Ttiey will do , or promise , far more themselves than ever they , and their hereditary ; backers , would have allowed any other Administration to do for the . country . Let them pay the price of their temporary elevation , to the uttermost farthing ; let thenji relieve the Dissenters ; let them prepare for the commutation of tithes in England , and accomplish it in Ireland ; or if they do not realize , let them show all the extent of Reform , real or sham , which they are wjUling , rf necessary , to grant . Then- maximum will be the minimum
Untitled Article
218 Notes on tffe Newspapers .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1835, page 218, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2643/page/74/
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