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Untitled Article
influential a positioa as he might once have aspired to occupy , and his , chance of which was chiefly owing to his being relied upon as an uncompromising man . The great glory of your
party > that illustrious man , Charles James Fox , sacrificed a moral influence that might have wrought the political regeneration of his country , for the sake of forming , by repeated coalitions , a strong Whig party in the House of Commons . Had not the Reform Ministry been previously discredited by compromise , in no quarter could there have been found the daring which was
exhibited in its dismission ; nor would the late elections have put your Lordship at the head of an Opposition barely strong enough to effect the discomfiture of the common enemy . Depend upon it , my Lord , it is false policy , with whatever honesty of intention it may be pursued . Nor do I know that I am warranted in attributing it to your Lordship personally . It maybe that you
would not avow it to the world , nor even in solitude to your own mind , as your principle of action . It may be that , in those portions of your public conduct which most strongly bear its semb&nce , it has seemed to you that your corivictions of truth , justice , and utility , coincided entirely with the policy of your party .
I enter upon no discussion of this matter . I merely address your Lordship as the member of a party , and that party now in possession of the reins of Government , which avowedly does act upon the principle of expediency ; and I contest the satisfactory application of that principle to your recent language on organic reforms .
You are in a situation , my Lord , which requires the freest exercise of the soundest judgment . Was-it , then , expedient for you to fetter your future conduct , to sacrifice your discretion , to commit yourself at once upon all the momentous topics which come under the denomination of organic changes , and exhibit yourself as a pledged' , and , on these points , an unalterable
Anti-Reformer ? Is this the part of a great statesman in times of difficulty ? What a determined and successful opposition has been made to the exaction of pledges from candidates for a seat in the Legislature ! And yet that practice is far less liable to objection than the one which your Lordship has voluntarily adopted . The people have a right to determine what points they will leave , and what they will not leave , to the discretion of their Member . They have a right , on certain emergencies and for certain purposes , to transform
representation into delegation . For the exercise of that right , on some recent occasions , there has been at least a strong appearance of expediency * Their decision of the great constitutional question of Reform . was formally invoked ; and the decision of Aat question involved various other topics . The frequent instance * of deception , of inconsistency , of apostasy , required the imposition < m their parts , of t )* e strongest obligation they could wapot * * s to tta * c * iwluo 4 tf * t ** cq ^^ enAative oft mattera « f yital
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6 ? t On &rg * nic Rtfornu .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1835, page 696, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2651/page/4/
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