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with the practice of hereditary rank and title d —is therefore very questionable ; but that term can scarcely be applied to its success , or , I should rather say , to its failure . When do you expect to carry it ? This session ?—or next year ?—or the year after ?—or ever , while the House of Commons is constituted as at present ? You will probably say "No" to all these questions , except the last , and answer that in the affirmative . At any rate there are few reformers who will differ except upon the last question . What , then , is their best course of action ? You have answered by anticipation ; and I shall quote the passage from your second letter to the " Leeds Mercury . "
** I therefore address the people of England , of Scotland , and Ireland —I call upon all real Reformers , and especially upon that grewt and growing class , called Radical Reformers , who , with me , glory in the tmme , to rouse themselves from torpor— -to give up lesser pursuits , and to rally for the commencement and the progress of these legal a i * 4 constitutional exertions which are necessary , in order to obtain the reform of the Lords—tbat reform can be caused only by constitutional " pressure from without . " We cannot expect that any
Ministry will initiate such a Reform as this—nay , it would be folly in any Ministry to participate in the struggle to bring about this Reform , unless it shall first be called for by the unequivocal and loud voice of a great majority of the intellect and of the vigour of the British people . The task ia ours—not theirs . The Ministry , in this respect must obey , not lead the popular impulse , until such time as that impulse
is » o strong us to be able to remove the great obstacles to success . «• The Reform of the Lords is the great , the radical improvement , in tbe Bfitish Constitution . Do you wish for an extension of the elective franchise to universal Suffrage , or , at least , to household suffrage ? ——You uever can obtain the one or the other until the House of JLords is reformed . Do you wish to procure for every voter the protection of the ballot ?—You wish in vain , until the House of Lords is reformed .
Do you see the utility of shortening the duration of the representative trust in the Commons } —You must wait until after the Reform of the Lords . Do you desire a perfect Corporation Reform ?—You know you cannot get it until the House of Lords is reformed . Do you honestly look for justice to the people of Ireland ?—You know that you will wH lye allowed to make one &te \> towards that object until the Houhc of Lords is reformed .
** Brother Reformers—Brother Radicals—I appeal to your good sense- —U > your patriotism—to your political integrity . Do uot Imi led u * hv from the first aiid ^ natebt an d mos t usefu l labour in the cause oi Reform— -that of the Lords . Do not liatrn to those who would divert your attention to stale complaints and modern j ^ rievaiuen , alleged against th » - Wlu ;» s . L «* t us reserve the * e until the puMic
enem y —the Tory oligarchy , is reduced into subjection . The lion of the fold , the lordly aristocracy , lias vowed to arrest the progress of every improvement in the political state of these realms . When you have pared Viis tulotte and drawn his fangs , we will return to the detail of our grtey « iict * and constitutional deficiencies , with the certainty of
Untitled Article
58 Agitation of Peerage R e form .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1836, page 58, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2653/page/58/
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