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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
I * briefed tlM md * obfrtous mm * If so , my Lord , there is a traitor * on prtnaipl # In your mind , a fklse allegiance incompatible with Cain * patriotietn . The old slavish devotion to a particular ihr , the unquestioning loyalty which was claimed by and vowea te the Stuarts , is , I know , transferred b y many to the forms of our Government , and the ancient privileges of certain
classes of society . It is not much the better for the transfer . The mover of the Reform Bill ought not to be found amongst the votaries of this blind faith , this political popery ; ' alterations * may be fundamental ; ' but what then , if they be also beneficial 1 Irresponsible power may be one of the ' branches of the Constitution ; but wh ^ t then , if it bear bitter fruit , and overshadow the land pestiferously ? Nay , even should c unquestionable danger
to the Monarchy' be logically predicated , of any arrangements which are essential to the nation s rights , security , prosperity , and improvement , then must such danger be incurred , unless we are prepared to revert to ' the monstrous faith of millions made for one . So long as there is a mighty sinister interest in the country ,
it may be that ' organic changes cannot be proposed without causing division , nor carried without risk of convulsion . ' But the assertion is only true of them on account of their eminent utility \ it applies to all other changes in proportion as they advance public good at the expense , of privilege ; and the risk is diminished fay every accession of power to the people . It is already too nmoh diminished for reasonable apprehension . The time for
a fi g ht is gone by . Your Lordship , I apprehend , has a salvo in your own mind to rcooneile your allegiance to the forms of Government with your devotion to the people ' s cause . With you the ' branches of the constitution are the * great land-marks of our liberties . ' But , as to those particulars in which the Radical Reformers plead for
change ,, they are rather the marks of encroachment upon liberty , tlian of its extenrion . The Septennial Act is the land-mark of a daring advance by the House of Commons , beyond the legitimate boundaries of its delegated trust . Election influence , which exists by the continuance of open voting , is the land-mark of successful piratical invasion of the people ' s allowed share in the Government
by the Aristocracy . Hie limitation of the franchise is the land-mark of ancient vassalage , of slavery in the excluded , ifhieh , as yet , is only nominally abolished . And the House of Lords is a land-mark of feudal privilege , authority , and insolence , fited where its leaden weight wos deposited in the dark ages , and bearing the inscription ' Tmis far shalt them come , and no farther / while in all other directions the road is open for the march of improvement . If the Roman * worshipped the god Terminus , the WBttttth of their devotion was dependent upon the frequency of his dhranae * . Of the ' principles which pervade our primitive insti-«« ta »* * tod whfah * by to * *** , wn * MompmcO <^ Uyiwrthf > omhig
Untitled Article
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1835, page 706, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2651/page/14/
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