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hensive, was able to attain to at the time of its discussion. The history of the revolution itself was very singular; it was the result, for the most part, of a combination of circumstances which may strictly be called accidental. The machinations or labours of party movement had very little to do in its accomplishment; as little can we consider the catastrophe as the natural result of the progressive force of public opinion prevailing finally over the obstacles that had hitherto resisted its exigencies. The question of reform had long been forgotten by the party which was suddenly called upon to carry it into effect. This very fact may bear witness to the little hold it had on the interest of the people at large, when it had been disused as a topic of agitation even by the politics of a disappointed and hopeless faction. In fact, it would not be difficult to shew, that up to the year 1830 the question had gradually lost, rather than gained, importance in general esteem.* Hardly three years had elapsed since the death of Mr. Canning, a minister who was by far the most popular the country had seen since the earlier years of the government of Mr. Pitt, notwithstanding that he had peculiarly distinguished himself by a systematical resistance to every shade of parliamentary reform.

* "In the year 1821, nineteen petitions were presented in favour of reform; in the year 1822, the number was reduced to twelve; in the year 1823, the number was twenty-nine; in the year 1824, there was no petition at all in favour of reform. The same was the case

in the years 1825, 1826, 1827, 1828, and 1829. In the session of 1830 there were fourteen. Then came the dissolution of parliament." - Speech of Mr. Croker in the House of Commons, March 1,

1831.

Nor is the explanation of this state of the public mind, a matter of much difficulty. It was the result of a clearer understanding of the subject. Men saw, that whatever anomalies might exist in the construction of the representative body, they were less important than might have been imagined to the performance of its proper business in the expression of the public mind. There were other channels, beside the parliamentary franchise, through which the people could act, whether in the way of control or impulse, on the conduct of their representatives. The electoral privilege remained the same as under the Plantagenets, and yet the force of popular opinion was surely and steadily increasing in a full proportion to the growing intelligence and wealth of the great body of the community. Thinking men of all parties were brought to perceive this; and people in general, in the conviction that the government did substantially follow the public voice on every question in which it was important to express it, began naturally to take less interest in the question of the particular mechanism by which this result was produced.

The direct cause of the revolution of 1832 was the sudden excitement which had been given to the popular feeling all over Europe by the successful insurrection of the last days of July; concurring, as it did, with the total disorganization of the great party which in this country had opposed such long and effective resistance to democratic encroachment or change. Both these circumstances may be said to have been accidental in their occurrence; it was their coincidence that made them irresistible. Another fact of singular favour to the

event, but which concerned, not so much its origination as the accomplishment of it, was the active part which the king, upon grounds the most honest, even if mistaken, was led to take in support of a measure which the mere instinct of his position might have led him to see, that he, at least, had no interest in promoting. With a crew thus weak and distracted, the vessel of the constitution could hardly have weathered a less violent gust of popular feeling than then arose to assail it.

These remarks upon the story of the reform bill are the less foreign to our present business, because, if the situation of things which gave rise to that catastrophe was of an accidental rather than of a permanent or progressive nature, it might naturally be expected, in some degree, to cease with the circumstances which gave it birth. And such, we think, has been the fact. The first reformed parliament, chosen as it was under the intoxication of popular triumph, and in the fresh glow of gratitude to the government which brought it about, could hardly fail to reflect, to their full extent, the class of opinions which for the time had obtained the ascendancy. But it was impossible to judge fairly of the general tendency of the change by such an instance. The next parliament summoned under the new system, was likely to afford a much fairer criterion of the use which the people were disposed to make of the power it had placed in their hands; and the result of this second experiment was considerably to quiet the apprehensions of those who had been led to calculate the future progress of the revolutionary movement by the way it had made during the short course

of the three years preceding. As we have said, it was hardly possible that in the just exercise of their electoral privileges the new constituencies should not return a large majority favourable to the government which had called them into being. The excitement, moreover, which had carried the reform measure was still maintained by the expectation of the fruits which the people had been told would instantly, and almost magically, be felt to flow from it. The lapse of two sessions was sufficient to cool both the glow of gratitude and the ardour of hope. This result was considerably accelerated by the conduct of what is called the radical party, whose support had been mainly instrumental in enabling the ministers to carry through their measure of reform. Their success on this occasion had led them much to overrate their hold on the permanent opinion of the country. Looking upon the tory party as virtually extinct-as far, at least, as concerned their pretensions to power-conceiving that in all revolutions the tendency of the public mind, when once in motion, is surely to advance to extreme opinions-they boldly took up an independent position as the advocates of such, and bent all their endeavours to disgust the public with those principles of moderation and compromise with which the ministers endeavoured to mediate between the conflicting claims, whether of conservation or change, of the various bodies that composed their party. The effect of this conduct on the part of their recent allies was only to deprive the whigs of the popularity which they had so hardly earned with the multitude. At the same time the open avowal of their hopes and projects, which, in the conviction of their growing strength the radicals did not fear to indulge, had its natural effect in alarming many who had supported the late change in the representation only on the understanding that it was a final one; and who were strongly indisposed as well to the progressive exaggeration of the doctrines then put forward, as to the regular and periodical recurrence of the popular agitation which was necessary to give them effect. If to this we add the natural lassitude which follows all periods of popular excitement, unless artificially maintained from above-and the disappointment felt by a large class of the supporters of reform when they found, that the passing of the bill, even in its entireness, neither improved the weather nor affected the markets; nor, as they had fondly hoped, enabled everyone at once to sell at high prices and purchase at low-we have a sufficient explanation of the very different results of the general election which produced the first reformed parliament, and that which returned the one which was called together by Sir Robert Peel in less than two years afterwards.

One important effect of that election was, to shew that little material change had taken place in the political feelings of the English people; a fact that so far confirms the view we have taken of the accidental and temporary nature of the circumstances which brought about the reform bill of 1832. Short as was the interval since the agitation of that period, the influence of property, of old connexions and early prejudices had already resumed almost their former sway. The new distribution which had been made of the franchise neces

sarily gave increased force to the popular party, but such would always have been the effect of the multiplication or enlargement of constituencies purely popular in their materials. The new metropolitan or manufacturing boroughs only acted as the old ones had always done, and nothing could thence be inferred as to the increased prevalence of extreme or revolutionary opinions among the people in general.

The experiment which the king was then led to make of establishing a conservative ministry has been commonly said to have been premature. The whig cabinet, it has been argued, if left alone, would have fallen to pieces of itself. This does not appear cer. tain, judging from the evidence of adherence to office which the men composing it have since afforded under circumstances considerably more trying; but, at any rate, as long as the same parliament continued, it may be doubted if the disruption, had it taken place, would have turned to the profit of the conservative party. A change of the House of Commons was an object much more important than one of the ministry; and the opportunity which then offered itself of effecting its dissolution was too valuable to be hazarded upon any speculation of that kind. Still less can we understand the doctrine of some who argue that Sir Robert Peel should have reserved his appeal to a new parliament until he had first tried the temper of the old. It seems much more probable, that had he ventured to meet the old House of Commons, he would not have been allowed the opportunity of making any such trial at all.

Nor can the experiment be said to have failed; on the contrary, it might not be difficult to shew it produced all the good that could reasonably have been expected from it. That within two years after the passing of the reform bill the new constituencies of the three kingdoms should return a conservative majority, was an expectation of the grounds of which we have never heard a distinct explanation. Sir Robert Peel, indeed, affected to calculate on the support of the radical party which had so virulently oppugned the ministers whom he displaced; but surely his penetration could not have mistaken their discontent with the moderation of the whigs, for a disposition to support the tories. In fact, he could have proposed to himself but two objects in taking office; to get rid, in the first place, of the existing parliament; and, secondly, to afford himself an opportunity of holding a language and broaching measures which would effectually vindicate him in the public mind from that hostility to all improvement in the institutions of the country which was popularly believed to animate his party. This he was enabled most effectually to do; and having accomplished so much, we are far from sure, that his subsequent removal from the government was, under the circumstances, any matter of regret. As a minister, his course would have been one of incessant and ungraceful struggle. Fallen from office, he rose again the leader of the most powerful opposition that was ever banded together under one head. In theadministration he could have done little good-with the means of control which he wields from the opposite benches, he effectually prevents all serious harm.

It may seem paradoxical to say it; but, although the gain of the conservative party was chiefly at the expence of the whigs, yet, we doubt, whether the position of these last was materially injured by the loss. In one sense it might be said to be better. The weakness of the whigs, as a party, is their strength as a government. It has restored to them the votes, and, what is better, relieved them from the abuse of their former allies, the radicals. The pressure from without, of which Lord Grey so pathetically complained, as constantly urging the adoption of extreme and violent measures, has been transformed to a friendly and effective support. Ministers have exchanged a radical for a conservative opposition, and, so far, we may believe, much to their own comfort. If their opponents are more formidable, their friends have become much less troublesome. The radicals have been compelled to moderate their tone in proportion as the conservatives have been enabled to elevate theirs; and it is not impossible that ministers may find reason to congratulate themselves on the alteration. At any rate, we cannot but consider the change as one of the happiest augury for the peace and welfare of the country in general. In that point of view, it may be made a matter of question whether, in the present state of parties, it is, upon the whole, desirable that the direct administration of the government should be replaced in the hands of the conservatives. It is, at least, a considerable compensation to them, in their exclusion from power, that it keeps in abeyance all the grosser and more noxious elements of political agitation. The radical supporters of the ministers feel, that they have but to drive a small section of the more moderate of their friends across the house, and the tories will be enabled to resume the government. Some ultra-liberals have professed themselves anxious for this consummation, as thinking it preferable to the mere semblance of reform, which is all that the whigs are able to offer to the people. We are far from sure, that with a view to the ultimate triumph of the revolutionary movement, they are not right in their calculation. Resuming their places on the left side of the house, the whigs would regain something of that comparative popularity which always attaches to opposition. The radicals would be at liberty to resume the task of excitement and agitation, which is their proper calling as a party, and both might thus co-operate with much more effect than at present they are allowed to do, in the regeneration, on their own principles, of our civil and ecclesiastical institutions.

This reasoning, indeed, supposes that the whigs are really anxious for such changes; a fact which we may be allowed to doubt. The whigs form a party more purely aristocratical in its materials than any other in the state. It is difficult, therefore, to suppose them indifferent to the stability of those establishments, upon which, in fact, their own importance and well-being immediately depend.

It was made a topic of incessant imputation upon the ministers, that they owed their maintenance in power directly to the aid of Mr. O'Connell and his followers; men, it was said, who had but lately overwhelmed the whigs as a body, with the most contemptuous vituperation, and of whose good

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will to the interests or union of the empire, such doubt might be reasonably entertained. sense of their dependence upon the support of such a body was, no doubt, a mortification in the position of the ministers; but we cannot see, that they were, therefore, called upon to decline the assistance of its votes. The case would have been otherwise had the support of Mr. O'Connell been conciliated by any material concession of principle on the part of the whigs. But this does not clearly appear to have been the case. The sacrifices hitherto seem to have come altogether from the more violent of the two parties to this compromise; nor do we see, that any measure has been brought forward, or language employed, by ministers on Irish questions which might not have been expected from them in perfect consistency with the principles they have always professed in reference to the government of that part of the kingdom. Even the appropriation clause, we suspect, was insisted upon less as an oblation to Mr. O'Connell, than as a stumbling-block to the conservatives. In displacing Sir Robert Peel it had performed its office, and its authors were afterwards content to let it rest in oblivion. If O'Connell, therefore, could influence the whigs, they were fully as much enabled to control O'Connell; nor, under these circumstances, can we see anything degrading to either party in their co-operation for a common and paramount object.

The most embarrassing part of the position of the whigs in office was the relation in which they stood to the other branches of the legislature. The crown was avowedly unfriendly to them, and

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