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ON ORGANIC REFORMS.* To the Right Honourable Lord John Russell.
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My Lobd— -While many of your speeches and writings are such as do credit to your principles , talent , and character accord well with ? The document on which the following remarks are founded is here given , from the ' Morning Chronicle' of Oct . 17 : —
' Address to Lord John Russell : ' The inhabitants of Plymouth , Devonport , and Stonehouse , have done themselves honour , as we learn from the " Plymouth Journal" of Thursday , by presenting an excellent address to Lord John Russell , at Endsleigh . It was signed by 3 , 000 respectable , industrious , enterprising , and independent men . The leader of the deputation , iQ presenting it , said
that—* " They were deep ly sensible of the debt of gratitude which they owe to you , as the firm supporter of the civil and religious liberties of your fellow-subjects . Whtn those individuals who have here testified their attachment to your Lordship shall have quitted this world , the name of Russell will continue to be hailed by posterity as-the friend or freedom , of justice , and of truth . Long , long may your health ana spirits be preserved to enable you to persevere in those reforms , which we deem so es > s&ptial to the best interests of the British empire . " '
' In reply his Lordshi p observed : — u ( Gentlemen—I thank you most gratefully for the personal kindness which has prompted this address ; for t ^ e entire approbation of my political conduct , of which you assure me ; for the generous spirit in which your sentiments are conceived , and . for the temperate language in which they are conveyed . * " In common with the rest of his Majesty's Ministers , I have endeavoured to prove my attachment to the cause of civil and religious liberty , not by words only , but by acts . The principal measures which we have proposed during the short
period which has elapsed since Lord Melbourne and his colleagues have been recalled to power , were calculated , in our opinion , to strengthen the bondt of union between different parts of the empire—to solve perplexing difficulties—to secure the participation of the people in the benefit of institutions intended for their use—to promote freedom , order , morality , and religion , ' " Some of these measures , after receiving the sanction of the Honse of Commons have been defeated b y the resistance of another branch of the Legislature . They exercised their undoubted privilege , whether wisely or no it is for you , and not for
me , to determine . I may , however , be permitted to observe , that the same party which prompted and led this resistance have been opposed to every liberal measure which has been proposed for the last seven years ; and that , upon all the most important of these measures , their resistance has ended in a confession that the struggle was hopeless , and that , although darkness was still to be desired , light was no longer to be excluded . * " This iuherent weakness of their cause has appeared , even in the present year ,
upon the Bill for the Regulation of Municipal Corporations . The denunciation of robbery , the imputation of calumny , the cry of revolution , however loudly uttered and valiantly sustained , have all ended in a concession of five-sixths of the main provisions of that Bill . For the remainder likewise we are not precluded , as you justly observe , from proposing such alterations an experience may require , '" Fortified , therefore , by past victories , relying firmly on future progress , I earnestly recommend you to look for the triumph of further measures 01-reform rather to the effect of public opinion , enlightened and matured by knowledge and discussion , than to organic changes , which cannot be proposed without causing divi ^
sion , nor carried without risk of convulsion ; and which , even if carried , would be of wry dubious benefit indeed to the popular cause , but of unquestionable danger to the Monarchy . * " For my own part , in my address to you upon taking office , I declared my resolution with respect to « uch fundamental alterations . To the great land-marks of our liberties I must steadily adhere ; of the * principles ) which pervade our primitive institutions I am an ardent admirer ; to Um > constitution of- the country , in aUita branches , I stand pledged by feeling , by opinion , and by duty . ' " Qenttanen , I cannot conclude WHhtnit assuring you , that although no longer your representative , I shall aver talc * a warm , inttffit In the prosperity of this county , and of all its inhabitants . '
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On Organic Reforms.* To The Right Honourable Lord John Russell.
ON ORGANIC REFORMS . * To the Right Honourable Lord John Russell .
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No . 107 . 3 C
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1835, page 693, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2651/page/1/
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