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merit negatively . You shine as a beacon upon your solitary rock . The pamphlet edition of your letter , if it have one , should be mottoed from the schoolboys' sport , — When I say hold fast , let go ; and when I say let go , hold fast . The Spirit of Reform replies , ' I will , my lord ; and young Liberty shall not slip , or be torn , from my grasp , till I have nursed her to maturity . When once the possession of the suffrage is general , and its exercise free , it will be desirable that Reform clubs should cease ;
and I doubt not but that they will cease , whatever may have become , meanwhile , of those of the Conservatives . The nation will then be itself the one great Reform Association , and the Tories , dwindled in numbers and importance by the continued failure of their natural aliment , will only be in the position of a squad of refractory members , easily kept in order . The rapidity with which that consummation advances will be materially affected by the
great measure of municipal reform now in progress . Your lordship ' s exertions have not been wanting to infuse into that measure as much as possible of the old corrupt and poisonous leaven of aristocracy ; nor will you be wanting to the last effort of Oligarchy , when the time is ripe for it , the combination of the worst portion of all parties against the popular cause . The attempt , no doubt ,
will be made to form a government out ot such materials as yourself , Peel and Wellington , and the more aristocratic Whigs . A strong government you will fancy yourselves ; a slight interruption you may give to the movement of that mighty wheel which you dream of turning back ; and then , the more majestic and resistless , from the feeble pressure and the momentary check , will be its continuous and accelerated revolution . Rightly has your lordship enumerated not only your 4 pr inciples / but also your ' education , birth , positioain society , and prejudices / as amongst the elements of your claim to the coiiiideuce of the Conservatives . In the following passage from your letter the operation of these influences is very evident . * I do not deny that the present is a period at which great interests are at stake . I do not deny that the Reform Bill itself , necessary iis 1 believe that measure to have been , and called for by the deliberate opinion of the country * may have had the effect o { stimulating the desire of political change , and of exciting in nieu ' s uiinds an overweening anxiety for alterations iu our institutions , ami an
unreasonable expectation of advantages to be derived therefrom . I aux far from denying that to correct such exaggerated expectations , to reason away such overstrained desires , nay , even to- expose the sophistries of ignorant or mischievous quack doctors in politics , who impose ujk > u the ill-informed , by persuading tbeiu that the benefit to be- derived must bo commensurate with the streugth of the dose administered , may become the duty ofc tlu >; se vthoiu Provide net * has placed iu a station to give theiu the uietuts of forming a more dispassionate judgment , and the influence to add weight
Untitled Article
on Conservative and Reform A ** ociation 9 . 444
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1, 1835, page 443, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2647/page/7/
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