war, is there a more powerful receipt for destroying | Protestants (gentlemen need not look so much surpris the prosperity of any country, than these eternal ed to hear it,) positively meet together, sir, in the jealousies and distinctions between the two religions? same room. They constitute what is called the reli What man will carry his industry and his capital into gious committee for the kingdom of the Netherlands, a country where his yard measure is a sword, his and so extremely desirous are they of preserving the pounce-box a powder-flask, and his ledger a return of strictest impartiality, that they have chosen a Jew for killed and wounded? Where a cat will get, there I their secretary. Their conduct has been unimpeachaknow a cotton-spinner will penetrate; but let these gen-ble and unimpeached; the two sects are at peace with tlemen wait till a few of their factories have been burned each other; and the doctrine, that no faith is kept with down, till one or two respectable merchants of Man- heretics, would, I assure you, be very little credited at chester have been carded and till they have seen the Amsterdam or the Hague, cities as essentially Protes cravatists hanging the shanavists in cotton twist. In tant as the town of Beverley. the present fervour for spinning, ourang-outangs, sir, Wretched is our condition, and still more wretched would be employed to spin, if they could be found in the condition of Ireland, if the Catholic does not res. sufficient quantities; but miserably will those reason-pect his oath. He serves on grand and petty juries in ers be disappointed who repose upon cotton-not upon both countries; we trust our lives, our liberties, and justice and who imagine this great question can be our properties, to his conscientous reverence of ai put aside, because a few hundred Irish spinners are oath, and yet, when it suits the purposes of party te gaining a morsel of bread by the overflowing industry bring forth this argument, we say he has no respect for of the English market. oaths. The right to a landed estate of 30007. per anBut what right have you to continue these rules, sir, num was decided last week, in York, by a jury, the these laws of exclusion? What necessity can you foreman of which was a Catholic; does any human beshow for it? Is the reigning monarch a concealed ing harbour a thought, that this gentleman, whom we Catholic? Is his successor an open one?-Is there a all know and respect, would, under any circumstances, disputed succession?-Is there a Catholic pretender? have thought more lightly of the obligation of an oath, If some of these circumstances are said to have justi- than his Protestant brethren of the box? We all dis. fied the introduction, and others the continuation of believe these arguments of Mr. A. the Catholic, and these measures, why does not the disappearance of all of Mr. B. the Catholic; but we believe them of Cathothese circumstances justify the repeal of the restric-ics in general, of the abstract Catholics, of the Cathotions? If you must be unjust-if it is a luxury you lic of the Tiger Inn, at Beverley, the formidable uncannot live without-reserve your injustice for the known Catholic, that is so apt to haunt our clerical weak, and not for the strong-persecute the Unitari- meetings. ans, muzzle the Ranters, be unjust to a few thousand sectaries, not to six millions-galvanize a frog, don't galvanize a tiger.

If you go into a parsonage-house in the country, Mr. Archdeacon, you see sometimes a style and fashion of furniture which does very well for us, but which has had its day in London. It is seen in London no more; it is banished to the provinces; from the gentlemen's houses of the provinces these pieces of furniture, as soon as they are discovered to be unfashionable, descend to the farm-houses, then to cottages, then to the faggot-heap, then to the dung-hill. As it is with turniture, so is it with arguments. I hear at country meetings many arguments against the Catholics which are never heard in London; their London existence is over-they are only to be met with in the provinces, and there they are fast hastening down, with clumsy chairs and ill-fashioned sofas, to another order of men. But, sir, as they are not yet gone where I am sure they are going, I shall endeavour to point out their defects, and to accelerate their descent.

Many gentlemen now assembled at the Tiger Inn, at Beverley, believe that the Catholics do not keep faith with heretics; these gentlemen ought to know that Mr. Pitt put this very question to six of the leading Catholic universities in Europe. He inquired of them whether this tenet did or did not constitute any part of the Catholic faith. The question received from these universities the most decided negative; they denied that such doctrine formed any part of the creed of Catholics. Such doctrine, sir, is denied upon oath, in the bill now pending in Parliament, a copy of which I hold in my hand. The denial of such a doctrine upon oath is the only means by which a Catholic can relieve himself from his present incapacities. If a Catholic, thereforefore, sir, will not take the oath, he is not relieved, and remains where you wish him to remain; if he does take the oath, you are safe from this peril; if he has no scruple about oaths, of what consequence is it whether this bill passes, the very object of which is to relieve him from oaths? Look at the fact, sir. Do the Protestant cantons of Switzerland, living under the same state with the Catholic cantons, complain that no faith is kept with heretics? Do not the Catholics and Protestants in the kingdom of the Netherlands meet in one common Parliament? Could they pursue a common purpose, have common friends, and common enemies, if there was a shadow of truth in this doctrine imputed to the Catholics? The religious af fairs of this last kingdom are managed with the strict est impartiality to both sects? ten Catholics and ten

I observe that some gentlemen who argue this question, are very bold about other offices, but very jealous lest Catholic gentlemen should become justices of the peace. If this jealousy is justifiable anywhere, it is justifiable in Ireland, where some of the best and most respectable magistrates are Catholics.

It is not true that the Roman Catholic religion is what it was. I meet that assertion with a plump denial. The pope does not dethrone kings, nor give away kingdoms, does not extort money, has given up, in some instances, the nomination of bishops to Cath olic princes, in some, I believe, to Protestant princes; Protestant worship is now carried on at Rome. In the Low Countries, the seat of the Duke of Alva's cruelties, the Catholic tolerates the Protestant, and sits with him in the same Parliament-the same in Hungary-the same in France. The first use which even the Spanish people made of their ephemeral lib erty, was to destroy the Inquisition. It was destroyed also by the mob at Portugal. I am so far from think. ing the Catholic not to be more tolerant than he was, that I am much afraid the English, who gave the first lesson of toleration to mankind, will very soon have a great deal to learn from their pupils.

Some men quarrel with the Catholics, because their language was violent in the Association; but a groan or two, sir, after two hundred years of incessant tyranny, may surely be forgiven. A few warm phrases to compensate the legal massacre of a million of Irish. men are not unworthy of our pardon. All this hardly deserves the eternal incapacity of holding civil offices. Then they quarrel with the Bible Society; in other words, they vindicate that ancient tenet of their church, that the Scriptures are not to be left to the unguided judgment of the laity. The objection to Catholics is, that they did what Catholics ought to do-and do not many prelates of our church object to the Bible Socie ty, and contend that the Scriptures ought not to be cir culated without the comment of the Prayer Book and the Articles? If they are right, the Catholics are not wrong; and if the Catholics are wrong, they are in such good company, that we ought to respect their errors.

Why not pay their clergy? the Presbyterian clergy in the north of Ireland are paid by the state; the Catholic clergy of Canada are provided for: the priests of the Hindoos are, I believe, in some of their temples, paid by the Company. You must surely admit, that the Catholic religion (the religion of two-thirds of Europe,) is better than no religion. I do not regret that the Irish are under the dominion of the priests. I am

glad that so savage a people as the lower orders of by the union of the Irish Catholics. They saw that Irish are under the dominion of their priests; for it is Catholic Ireland had discovered her strength, and a step gained to place such beings under any influence, stretched out her limbs, and felt manly powers, and and the clergy are always the first civilizers of man- called for manly treatment; and the House of Comkind. The Irish are deserted by their natural aristo- mons wisely and practically yielded to the innova cracy, and I should wish to make their priesthood restions of time, and the shifting attitude of human atpectable in their appearance, and easy in their circum- fairs. stances. A government provision has produced the most important change in the opinions of the Presby. terian clergy of the north of Ireland, and has changed them from levellers and Jacobins into reasonable men; it would not fail to improve most materially the political opinions of the Catholic priests. This cannot, however, be done, without the emancipation of the laity. No priest would dare to accept a salary from government, unless this preliminary was settled. I am aware it would give to government a tremendous pow. er in that country; but I must choose the least of two evils. The great point, as the physicians say, in some diseases, is to resist the tendency to death. The great object of our day is to prevent the loss of Ireland, and the consequent ruin of England; to obviate the tendency to death; we will first keep the patient alive, and then dispute about his diet and his medicine.

I admit the church, sir, to be in great danger. I am sure the state is so also. My remedy for these evils is, to enter into an alliance with the Irish people to conciliate the clergy, by giving them pensionsto loyalize the laity, by putting them on a footing with the Protestant. My remedy is the old one, approved of from the beginning of the world, to lessen dangers, by increasing friends, and appeasing ene mies. I think it most probable, that under this system of crown patronage, the clergy will be quiet. A Catholic layman, who finds all the honours of the state open to him, will not, I think, run into treason and rebellion-will not live with a rope about his neck, in order to turn our bishops out, and put his own in; he may not, too, be of opinion that the utility of his bishop will be four times as great, because his income is four times as large; but whether he is or not, he will never endanger his sweet acres (large measure) for such questions as these. Anti-trinitarian Dissenters sit in the House of Commons, whom we believe to be condemned to the punishments of another world. There is no limit to the introduction of Dissenters into both houses-Dissenting Lords or Dissenting Commons. What mischief have Dissenters for this last century and a half plotted against the Church of England? The Catholic lord and the Catholic gentleman (restored to their fair rights) will never join with levellers and Iconoclasts. You will find them defending you hereafter against your Protestant enemies. The crosier in any hand, the mitre on any head, are more tolerable in the eyes of a Catholic than doxological Barebones and tonsured Cromwell.

Suppose a law were passed, that no clergyman, who had ever held a living in the East Riding, could be made a bishop. Many gentlemen here (who have no hopes of ever being removed from their parishes) would feel the restriction of the law as a considerable degradation. We should soon be pointed at as a lower or der of clergymen. It would not be long before the common people would find some fortunate epithet for us, and it would not be long either before we should observe in our brethren of the north and west an air of superiority, which would aggravate not a little the justice of the privation. Every man feels the insults thrown upon his caste; the insulted party falls lower, every body else becomes higher. There are heartburnings and recollections. Peace flies from that land. The volume of parliamentary evidence I have brought here is loaded with the testimony of witnesses of all We preach to our congregations, sir, that a tree is ranks and occupations, stating to the House of Com-known by its fruits. By the fruits it produces I will mons the undoubted effects produced upon the lower judge your system. What has it done for Ireland? order of Catholics by these disqualifying laws, and the New Zealand is emerging-Otaheite is emerginglively interest they take in their removal. I have sev- Ireland is not emerging-she is still veiled in darkness enteen quotations, sir, from this evidence, and am rea--her children, safe under no law, live in the very shady to give any gentleman my references; but I forbear to read them, from compassion to my reverend brethren, who have trotted many miles to vote against the pope, and who will trot back in the dark, if I attempt to throw additional light upon the subject.

dow of death. Has your system of exclusion made Ire. land rich? Has is made Ireland loyal? Has it made Ireland free? Has it made Ireland happy? How is the wealth of Ireland proved? Is it by the naked, idle, suffering savages, who are slumbering on the mud floor I have, also, sir, a high-spirited class of gentlemen of their cabins? In what does the loyalty of Ireland to deal with, who will do nothing from fear, who ad- consist? Is it in the eagerness with which they would mit the danger, but think it disgraceful to act as if range themselves under the hostile banner of any inva they feared it. There is a degree of fear, which de- der, for your destruction and for your distress? Is it stroys a man's faculties, renders him incapable of act- liberty when men breathe and move among the bayo ing, and makes him ridiculous. There is another sort nets of English soldiers? Is their happiness and of fear, which enables a man to foresee a coming evil, their history any thing but such a tissue of murders, to measure it, to examine his powers of resistance, to burnings, hanging, famine, and disease, as never exbalance the evil of submission against the evils of op- isted before in the annals of the world? This is the position or defeat, and if he thinks he must be ulti-system which, I am sure, with very different intenmately overpowered, leads him to find a good escape in a good time. I can see no possible disgrace in this sort of fear, and in listening to its suggestions. But it is mere cant to say, that men will not be actuated by fear in such questions as these. Those who pretend not to fear now, would be the first to fear upon the approach of danger; it is always the case with this distant valour. Most of the concessions which have been given to the Irish have been given to fear. Ireland would have been lost to this country, if the British legislature had not, with all the rapidity and precipitation of the truest panic, passed those acts which Ireland did not ask, but demanded in the time of her armed associations. I should not think a man brave, but mad, who did not fear the treasons and rebellions of Ireland in time of war. I should think him not dastardly, but consummately wise, who provided against them in time of peace. The Catholic question has made a greater progress since the opening of this Parliament than I ever remember it to have made, and it has made that progress from fear alone. The House of Commons were astonished

tions, and different views of its effects, you are met this day to uphold. These are the dreadful consequences, which those laws your petition prays may be continued, have produced upon Ireland. From the principles of that system, from the cruelty of those laws, I turn, and turn with the homage of my whole heart, to that memorable proclamation which the head of our church-the present monarch of these realms-has lately made to his hereditary dominions of Hanover-That no man should be subjected to civil incapacities on account of religious opinions. Sir, there have been many memorable things done in this reign. Hostile armies have been destroyed; fleets have been captured; formidable combinations have been broken to pieces-but this sentiment, in the mouth of a king, deserves more than all glories and victories the notice of that historian who is destined to tell to future ages the deeds of the English people. I hope he will la vish upon it every gem which glitters in the cabinet of genius, and so uphold it to the world that it will be remembered when Waterloo is forgotten, and when the fall of Paris is blotted out from the memory of

man. Great as it is, sir, this is not the only pleasure most pregnant with good or evil to the country; and I have received in these latter days. I have seen, though I seldom meddle with political meetings, I within these few weeks, a degree of wisdom in our could not reconcile it to my conscience to be absent mercantile law, such superiority to vulgar prejudice, | from this. views so just and so profound, that it seemed to me as if I was reading the works of a speculative economist, rather than the improvement of a practical politician, agreed to by a legislative assembly, and upon the eve of being carried into execution, for the benefit of a great people. Let who will be their master, I honour and praise the ministers who have learnt such a lesson. I rejoice that I have lived to see such an improvement in English affairs-that the stubborn resistance to all improvement-the contempt of all scientific reasoning, and the rigid adhesion to every stupid error which so long characterized the proceedings of this country, are fast giving way to better things, under better men, placed in better circumstances.

I confess it is not without severe pain that, in the midst of all this expansion and improvement, I perceive that in our profession we are still calling for the same exclusion-still asking that the same fetters may be riveted on our fellow-creatures-still mistaking what constitutes the weakness and misfortune of the church, for that which contributes to its glory, its dignity, and its strength. Sir, there are two petitions at this moment in this house, against two of the wisest and best measures which ever came into the British parliament, against the impending corn law and against the Catholic emancipation-the one bill intended to increase the comforts, and the other to allay the bad passions of man.-Sir, I am not in a situation of life to do much good, but I will take care that I will not willingly do any evil. The wealth of the riding should not tempt me to petition against either of those bills. With the corn bill, I have nothing to do at this time. Of the Catholic emancipation bill, I shall say, that it will be the foundation stone of a lasting religious peace; that it will give to Ireland not all that it wants, but what it most wants, and without which no other boon will be of any avail.

When this bill passes, it will be a signal to all the religious sects of that unhappy country to lay aside their mutual hatred, and to live in peace, as equal men should live under equal law-when this bill passes, the Orange flag will fall-when this bill passes, the Green flag of the rebel will fall-when this bill passes, no other flag will fly in the land of Erin than that flag which blends the lion with the harp-that flag which, wherever it does fly, is the sign of freedom and of joy-the only banner in Europe which floats over a limited king and a free people.

SPEECH AT THE TAUNTON REFORM

MEETING.*

MR. BAILIFF, This is the greatest measure which has ever been before Parliament in my time, and the

*I was a sincere friend to reform; I am so still. It was a great deal too violent-but the only justification is, that you cannot reform as you wish, by degrees; you must avail yourself of the few opportunities that present themselves. The reform carried, it became the business of every honest man to turn it to good, and to see that the people (drunk with their new power) did not ruin our ancient institutions. We have been in considerable danger, and that danger is not over. What alarms me most is the large price paid by both parties for popular favour. The yeomanry were put down: nothing could be more grossly absurd-the people were rising up against the poor laws, and such an excellent and permanent force was abolished because they were not deemed a proper force to deal with popular insurrections. You may just as well object to put out a fire with pond water because pump water is better for the purpose: I say, put out the fire with the first water yon can get; but the truth is, radicals don't like armed yeomen: they have an ugly homicide appearance. Again, a million of revenue is given up in the nonsensical penny-post scheme, to please my old, excellent, and universaldissentient friend, Noah Warburton. I admire the whig ministry, and think they have done more good things than all the ministers since the Revolution; but these concessions are sad and unworthy marks of weakness, and fill reasonable men with just alarm. All this folly has taken place since they

Every year, for this half century, the question of reform has been pressing upon us, till it has swelled up at last into this great and awful combination; so that almost every city and every borough in England are at this moment assembled for the same purpose, and are doing the same thing we are doing. It damps the ostentation of argument and mitigates the pain of doubt, to believe (as I believe) that the measure is inevitable; the consequences may be good or bad; but done it must be; I defy the most determined enemy of popular influence, either now or a little time from now, to prevent a reform in Parliament. Some years ago, by timely concession, it might have been prevented. If members had been granted to Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, and other great towns, as opportunities occurred, a spirit of conciliation would have been evinced, and the people might have been satisfied with a reform, which though remote would have been gradual; but with the customary blindness and insolence of human beings, the day of adversity was forgotten, the rapid improvement of the people was not noticed; the object of a certain class of politicians was to please the court and to gratify their own arrogance by treating every attempt to expand the representation, and to increase the popular influence, with every species of contempt and obloquy: the golden opportunity was lost; and now proud lips must swallow bitter potions.

The arguments and practices (as I remember to have heard Mr. Huskisson say), which did very well twenty years ago, will not do now. The people read too much, think too much, see too many newspapers, hear too many speeches, have their eyes too intensely fixed upon political events. But if it was possible to put off parliamentary reform a week ago, is it possible now? When a monarch (whose amiable and popular manners have, I verily believe, saved us from a revoluion) approves the measure-when a minister of exalted character plans and fashions it-when a cabinet of such varied talent and disposition protects it-when such a body of the aristocracy vote for it-when the hundred-horse power of the press is labouring for it ;who does not know, after this, (whatever be the deci sion of the present Parliament), that the measure is virtually carried-and that all the struggle between such annunciation of such a plan, and its completion, is tumult, disorder, disaffection, and (it may be) po

litical rum?

An honourable member of the honourable house, much connected with this town, and once its representative, seems to be amazingly surprised, and equally dissatisfied, at this combination of king, ministers, no bles, and people, against his opinion;-like the gentle. man who came home from serving on a jury very much disconcerted, and complaining, he had met with eleven of the most obstinate people he had ever seen in his life, whom he found it absolutely impossible by the strongest arguments to bring over to his way of thinking.

They tell you gentlemen that you have grown rich and powerful with these rotten boroughs, and that it would be madness to part with them, or to alter a constitution which had produced such happy effects. There happens, gentlemen, to live near my parsonage a labouring man, of very superior character and understanding to his fellow labourers; and who has made such good use of that superiority, that he has saved what is (for his station in life) a very considerable sum of money, and if his existence is extended to the common period, he will die rich. It happens, however that he is (and long has been) troubled with violent stomachic pains, for which he has hitherto obtained no relief, and which really are the bane and torment of his life. Now if my excellent labourer were to send have become ministers upon principles of chivalry and gallantry; and the tories, too, for fear of the people, have been much too quiet. There is only one principle of public conduct Do what you think right, and take place and power as an accident. Upon any other plan, office is shabbiness, labour, and sorrow.

would destroy the trade of the smuggler; their functions would be carried on faintly, and with little profit; you would soon feel that your position was stable, solid, and safe.

for a physician, and to consult him respecting this malady, would it not be very singular language if our doctor were to say to him, My good friend, you surely will not be so rash as to attempt to get rid of these pains in your stomach. Have you not grown All would be well, it is urged, if they would but let rich with these pains in your stomach? have you not the people alone. But what chance is there, I demand, risen under them from poverty to prosperity? has not of these wise politicians, that the people will ever be your situation, since you were first attacked, been im- let alone; that the orator will lay down his craft, and proving every year? You surely will not be so foolish the demagogue forget his cunning? If many things and so indiscreet as to part with the pains in your sto- were let alone, which never will be let alone, the asmach ?-Why, what would be the answer of the rus-pect of human affairs would be a little varied. If the tic to this nonsensical monition? 'Monster of rhu- winds would let the waves alone, there would be no barb (he would say) I am not rich in consequence storms. If gentlemen would let ladies alone, there of the pains in my stomach, but in spite of the pains would he no unhappy marriages, and deserted damin my stomach; and I should have been ten times sels. If persons who can reason no better than this, richer, and fifty times happier, if I had never had any would leave speaking alone, the school of eloquence pains in my stomach at all. Gentlemen, these rotten might be improved. I have little hopes, however, of boroughs are your pains in the stomach-and you witnessing any of these acts of forbearance, particu would have been a much richer and greater people if larly the last, and so we must (however foolish it may you had never had them at all. Your wealth and your appear), proceed to make laws for a people who, we power have been owing, not to the debased and cor- are sure, will not be let alone. rupted parts of the House of Commons, but to the many independent and honourable members whom it has always contained within its walls. If there had been a few more of these very valuable members for close boroughs, we should, I verily believe, have been by this time about as free as Denmark, Sweden, or the Germanized states of Italy.

The

We might really imagine, from the objections made to the plan of reform, that the great mass of Englishmen were madmen, robbers, and murderers. kingly power is to be destroyed, the House of Lords is to be annihilated, the church is to be ruined, estates are to be confiscated. I am quite at a loss to find in these perpetrators of crimes-in this mass of pillagers and lunatics-the steady and respectable tradesmen and farmers, who will have votes to confer, and the steady and respectable country gentlemen, who will probably have votes to receive;-it may be true of the tradesmen of Mauritania, it may be just of the country gentlemen of Fez-it is any thing but true of the English people. The English are a tranquil, phlegmatic, money-loving, money getting people, who want to be quiet-and would be quiet if they were not surrounded by evils of such magnitude, that it would be baseness and pusillanimity not to oppose to them the strongest constitutional resistance.

They tell you of the few men of name and character who have sat for boroughs; but nothing is said of those mean and memal men who are sent down every day by their aristocratic masters to continue unjust and unnecessary wars, to prevent inquiring into profligate expenditure, to take money out of your pockets, or to do any other bad or base thing which the minister of the day may require at their unclean hands. What mischief, it is asked, have these boroughs done? I believe there is not a day of your lives in which you are not suffering in all the taxed commodities of life from the accumulation of bad votes of bad men. But, Mr. Bailiff, if this were otherwise; if it really were a Then it is said that there is to be a lack of talent in great political invention, that cities of 100,000 men the new Parliament: it is to be composed of ordinary should have no representatives, because those repre- and inferior persons, who will bring the government of sentatives were wanted for political ditches, political the country into contempt. But the best of all talents, walls, and political parks; that the people should be gentlemen, is to conduct our affairs honestly, diligentbought and sold like any other commodity; that a re-ly, and economically-and this talent will, I am sure, tired merchant should be able to go into the market and abound as much in the new Parliament as in many prebuy ten shares in the government of twenty millions vious parliaments. Parliament is not a school for rheof his fellow subjects; yet can such asseverations be toric and declamation, where a stranger would go to made openly before the people? Wise men, men con- hear a speech, as he would go to the opera to hear a versant with human affairs, may whisper such theo-song; but if it were otherwise-if eloquence be a neries to each other in retirement; but can the people cessary ornament of, and an indispensable adjunct to, ever be taught that it is right they should be bought popular assemblies-can it ever be absent from popuand sold? Can the vehemence of eloquent democrats lar assemblies? I have always found that all things be met with such arguments and theories? Can the moral or physical grow in the soil best suited for them. doubts of honest and limited men be met by such argu- Show me a deep and tenacious earth-and I am sure ments and theories? The moment such a government the oak will spring up in it. In a low and damp soil I is looked at by all the people it is lost. It is impossible am equally certain of the alder and the willow. to explain, defend, and recommend it to the mass of tlemen, the free Parliament of a free people is the namankind. And true enough it is, that as often as mis- tive soil of eloquence-and in that soil will it ever fortune threatens us at home, or imitation excites us flourish and abound-there it will produce those intelfrom abroad, political reform is clamoured for by the lectual effects which drive before them whole tribes people-there it stands, and ever will stand, in the and nations of the human race, and settle the destinies apprehension of the multitude-reform, the cure of of man. And, gentlemen, if a few persons of a less elevery evil--corruption, the source of every misfortune egant and aristocratic description were to become --famine, defeat, decayed trade, depressed agriculture, members of the House of Commons, where would be will all lapse into the question of reform. Till that the evil? They would probably understand the comquestion is set at rest (and it may be set at rest), all mon people a great deal better, and in this way the will be disaffection, tumult, and perhaps (which God feelings and interests of all classes of people would be avert!) destruction. better represented. The House of Commons, thus organized, will express more faithfully the opinions of

Gen

But democrats and agitators (and democrats and agitators there are in the world,) will not be content-the people. ed with this reform. Perhaps not, sir; I never hope The people are sometimes, it is urged, grossly misto content men whose game is never to be contented-taken; but are kings never mistaken? Are the higher but if they are not contented, I am sure their discon-orders never mistaken?-never wilfully corrupted by tent will then comparatively be of little importance. their own interests? The people have at least this su I am afraid of them now; I have no arguments to an-periority, that they always intend to do what is right. swer them: but I shall not be afraid of them after this The argument of fear is very easily disposed of: he bill, and would tell them boldly in the middle of their mobs, that there was no longer cause for agitation and excitement, and that they were intending wickedly to the people. You may depend upon it such a measure would destroy their trade, as the repeal of duties

who is afraid of a knock on the head or a cut on the cheek is a coward; he who is afraid of entailing greater evils on the country by refusing the remedy than by applying it, and who acts in pursuance of that conviction, is a wise and prudent man-nothing can be more

different than personal and political fear; it is the change of system. I did not understand the joy which artifice of our opponents to confound them together. it occasioned. I did not feel it, and I did not counter. The right of disfranchisement, gentlemen, must ex-feit what I did not feel. ist somewhere, and where but in Parliament? If not, I think very differently of the accession of his prehow was the Scotch union, how was the Irish union, sent majesty. I believe I see in that accession a great effected? The Duke of Wellington's administration probability of serious improvement, and a great indisfranchised at one blow 200,000 Irish voters-for no crease of public happiness. The evils which have fault of theirs, and for no other reason than the best of been long complained of by bold and intelligent men all reasons, that public expediency required it. These are now universally admitted. The public feeling, very same politicians are now looking in an agony of which has been so long appealed to, is now intensely terror at the disfranchisement of corporations contain-excited The remedies which have been so often ing twenty or thirty persons, sold to their representa- called for are now at last vigorously, wisely, and faithtives, who are themselves perhaps sold to the govern- fully applied. I admire, gentlemen, in the present ment and to put an end to these enormous abuses is king, his love of peace-1 admire in him his disposi called corporation robbery, and there are some persons tion to economy-and I admire in him, above all, his wild enough to talk of compensation. This principle faithful and honourable conduct to those who happen of compensation you will consider perhaps in the to be his ministers. He was, I believe, quite as faithfollowing instance to have been carried as far as sound ful to the Duke of Wellington as to Lord Grey, and discretion permits. When I was a young man, the would, I have no doubt, be quite as faithful to the place in England I remember as most notorious for political enemies of Lord Grey (if he thought fit to highwaymen and their exploits was Finchley Common, employ them) as he is to Lord Grey himself. There near the metropolis; but Finchley Common, gentle- is, in this reign, no secret influence, no double minismen, in the progress of improvement, came to be try-on whomsoever he confers the office, to him he enclosed, and the highwaymen lost by these means the gives that confidence without which the office cannot opportunity of exercising their gallant vocation. I be holden with honour, nor executed with effect. He remember a friend of mine proposed to draw up for is not only a peaceful king, and an economical king, them a petition to the House of Commons for compen- but he is an honest king. So far, I believe, every sation, which ran in this manner-We, your loyal individual of this company will go with me. There is highwaymen of Finchley Common, and its neighbour- another topic of eulogium, on which, before I sit hood, having, at great expense, laid in a stock of down, I should like to say a few words-I mean the blunderbusses, pistols, and other instruments for willingness of our present king to investigate abuses plundering the public, and finding ourselves impeded and to reform them. If this subject is not unpleasant, in the exercise of our calling by the said enclosure of I will offer upon it a very few observations-a few, the said Common of Finchley, humbly petition your because the subject is exhausted, and because, if it honourable house will be pleased to assign to us such were not, I have no right, from my standing or my compensation as your honourable house in its wisdom situation in this country, to detain you long upon that and justice may think fit.' Gentlemen, I must leave or any other subject. the application to you.

In criticising this great question of reform, I think An honourable baronet says, if Parliament is dissol- there is some injustice done to its authors. Men ved, I will go to my borough with the bill in my hand, seem to suppose that a minister can sit down and and will say, I know of no crime you have commit- make a plan of reform with as much ease and as much ted, I found nothing proved against you: I voted exactness, and with as complete a gratification of his against the bill, and am come to fling myself upon own will, as an architect can do in a building or your kindness, with the hope that my conduct will be altering a house. But a minister of state (it should be approved, and that you will return me again to Parlia- in justice observed), works in the hands of hatred, ment.' That honourable baronet may, perhaps, re- injustice, violence, and the worst of human passionsceive from his borough an answer he little expects—his works are not the works of calm and unembarrassWe are above being bribed by such a childish and ed wisdom-they are not the best that a dreamer of unworthy artifice; we do not choose to consult our dreams can imagine. It is enough if they are the best own interest at the expense of the general peace and plans which the parties, passions, and prejudices of happiness of the country; we are thoroughly convinc- the times in which he acts will permit. In passing a ed a reform ought to take place; we are very willing reform bill, the minister overthrows the long and deep to sacrifice a privilege we ought never to have possess interest which powerful men have in existing abuses ed to the good of the community, and we will return -he subjects himself to the deepest hatred, and enno one to Parliament who is not deeply impressed with counters the bitterest opposition. Auxiliaries he must the same feeling.' This I hope is the answer that have, and auxiliaries he can only find among the peogentleman will receive, and this, I hope, will be the ple-not the mob-but the great mass of those who noble and generous feeling of every borough in Eng- have opinions worth hearing, and property worth land. defending a greater mass, I am happy to say, in this country than exists in any other country on the face of the earth. Now, before the middling orders will come forward with one great impulse, they must see that something is offered them worth the price of contention; they must see that the object is great, and the gain serious. If you call them in at all, it must not be to displace one faction at the expense of another, but to put down all factions-to substitute purity and principle for corruption-to give to the many that political power which the few have unjustly taken to themselves-to get rid of evils so ancient and so vast that any other arm than the public arm would be lifted up against them in vain. This, then, I say, is one of the reasons why ministers have been compelled to make their measures a little more vigorous and deci sive than a speculative philosopher, sitting in his clo set, might approve of. They had a mass of opposition to contend with, which could be encountered only by a general exertion of public spirit-they had a long-suf fering and an often deceived public to appeal to, who were determined to suffer no longer, and to be deceived no more. The alternative was to continue the ancient abuses, or to do what they have done-and most firmly do I believe that you and I, and the latest posterity of

The greater part of human improvements, gentlemen, I am sorry to say, are made after war, tumult, bloodshed, and civil commotion: mankind seem to object to every species of gratuitous happiness, and to consider every advantage as too cheap, which is not purchased by some calamity. I shall esteem it as a singular act of God's providence, if this great nation, guided by these warnings of history, not waiting till tumult for reform, nor trusting reform to the rude hands of the lowest of the people, shan amend their decayed institutions at a period when they are ruled by a popular monarch, guided by an upright minister, and blest with profound peace.

SPEECH AT TAUNTON

MR. CHAIRMAN,-I am particularly happy to assist on this occasion, because I think that the accession of the present king is a marked and important era in English history. Another coronation has taken place since I have been in the world, but I never assisted at its celebration. I saw in it a change of masters, not a