of opinion that resistance will still be tion this year and that they, if they made to the efforts of the King and his did not vote for the bill, would have Ministers to give us, in a quiet manner, no chance of being elected for a reformthis satisfactory and efficient reformed Parliament. I do not say that any In such a state of things as that in man voted for the bill from these which we now are, men do not reason motives. I do not assert this of any much; if they see danger, their anger one of them; but, every one must. or their interest hushes their fears. allow that here were motives, quite Their pride, too, comes to their support: sufficient to make a selfish man vote and they push on, if not regardless of for the bill though he detested it in his consequences, at least disposed to stand heart. But, when these gentlemen of upon the chapter of accidents. Besides the red-list come back again, they this, there is a rivalship for power and for will have incurred the trouble and what is called honour; these are seen in expense of a new election; and they the deadly hatred and the bitter ani- will know that, if the bill be thrown mosity against the successful rivals. out, they may, if the people can be The Treasury Bench is the heaven of kept quiet, sit snugly for seven years; a certain number of ambitious and talk- whereas, if the bill be passed, there ing men. Those are very much mis must be another dissolution almost taken who imagine that the three hun-immediately, and they must take their dred and one who voted against the chance of obtaining a seat in a reformsecond reading, all acted upon the con- ed Parliament. The King cannot be viction of their own minds, either for good or for evil. The whole body were influenced by a few, comparatively; and these few have passions in their bosoms of which the rest know nothing. Each of the leaders may probably risk very little the whole body, taken together, risk a great deal; but as a commander will very often risk the destruction of his whole army, in order to avoid disgrace to himself; so will those leaders risk the whole of their followers from a similar motive. : called upon to dissolve the Parliament again in order that this bill may be carried! This should be borne in the mind of every man. He has now dissolved the Parliament expressly for the purpose of getting this bill carried and, if it be not now carried, he cannot be called upon to resort to the same means again. This the borough people clearly understand; so that, if they be prepared to set the people at defiance, they have now a motive for voting against the bill much stronger than they had before. If, indeed, all those who are in the red list continue to vote for the bill, the bill is safe; the bill is carried, and the peace of the country is Then observe, that when they come back again to Parliament, the whole body will be in a new position; and electors, as well as every-body else, should be cautious how they believe, secured. that because a man's name is down in But we have seen some slippery the red lists printed by Mr. RIDGWAY, gentlemen already, under the most and also by Mr. WAKLEY, that man paltry pretence, slide out of that list; will be sure to vote for the Ministers! and, unless the electors have some In quite a new position will the mem- better security than that mere list prebers all be. Many of those who are sents them with, they have just no upon that list may have voted for the security at all. I am not supposing bill; I do not say that they did; but that there are many men, nor they may have done it upon this one other man, equally slippery with ground; that, if the bill were lost, a Sir BOBBY, the boast of the Boroughs dissolution would take place at once, but there was Sir THOMAS ACLAND, and that, then, they would be put to who, indeed, said, when he voted for the trouble and expense of a new the second reading, that he did not enelection; and further, that, if the bill tirely approve of the bill. There is were carried, there must be a dissolu- Mr. ADEANE, Member for Cambridge en CE as J 、, 7 £aH} »39}! 19 fiY 9 } "As to the 'seat-owners themselves, no change can be expected in them, other than that which has been already discovered, and that has been in amount as moderate as their best friends could possibly have expected. And here let me observe upon the folly, nay, I am afraid I must call it the baseness, of those who have thanked, and that, too, in formal resolutions, humbly thanked, those of them who have expressed a readiness to surrender their boroughs, as it is oddly enough called. Thanked! for what? Either they had a right to hold the boroughs and make use of them as they did, and as they do, or they had not. Either they exercised a just and lawful power, or they exercised an unjust and unlawful power. If the first, it is unjust to take the power away from them; if the last, instead of thanks, they ought to think themselves happy if they escape reproaches. They (shire, Chobeni rad sa reformer, observe, cannot take place if the bill be rejected; land who votell for the second reading seeing that it must take place if the of the bill, who has since declared that bill be passed, seeing these things, The does not approve of all its details. who is to rely upon them without a Therefore, very little reliance is to be firmer pledge than the mere circumplaced on that list. In short, it is im stance of their names being in the red possible to cast your eye over that list, list? where you find four BARINGS almost at the very outset ; it is impossible to read the list over and to believe that all the members are in very heart and soul, in favour of this bill. Look once more at these three hundred and two excellent reformers; and then bless God for their miraculous conversion. Doubtless, there are some of thein, I think I could name about ten, who really, from the bottom of their hearts, wished for the passing of the bill. But, my sincere belief, is, that four out of five, at the least, whose names are to be found on that list, would much rather that the bill had never been put upon paper. And if they calculate no further than the mere power of voting; if they do not see danger in the cruel disappointment of the people; if they totally overlook the awful prognostics of the Westminster petition to the King, the red list would, in my opinion, be reduced to a very small amount. If surrender, as it is called, that which they were all men of sense; if they they can no longer keep; that which it had sense to perceive that, to use a is proposed to take from them by force vulgar phrase, "the game is up," and of law; that which the King and bis that the borough system can no longer Ministers and the people say they have exist, I should say, take them from the held unjustly. They see the warrant red list, and send them back to Parlia- coming to take from them the thing ment; but this is far from being the they unjustly detain; they then genecase: when they get together, they rously give it up; and there are people give each other countenance who would treat with scorn and indigcourage they have no idea of any nation a proposition to thank detected power greater than that which they robbers for ceasing to rob, who, neverpossess: they have never seen a Parlia-theless, approach these generous souls ment overpowered by the people, and with votes of grateful thanks. they never expected to see it. This is the temper in which they will come back to the House; and, therefore, the red list is not worth a pin. and Morning Chronicle of the 23d of April, in calling upon the people to exert themselves upon this occasion, says, "Thus the nation will be saved, and all The far greater part of them have will be rescued from the rapacious been accustomed, from their earliest and degrading slavery of the infernal days, to look upon the Parliament as "boroughmongers." What! then, thank being what it has been figuratively men, call them patriotic, merely because called, namely, omnipotent; and see-they say they are willing to cease to ening security for their seat in a non-slave us, when they see that they can thesolution; seeing that that dissolution do it no longer! Thank men for ́ex their willingness to cease to be are matters which admit of alteration infernal And, besides, is my friend without any injury to the principle of Dr. BLACK quite sure that, if the people the bill. The duration of Parliaments were to slacken their efforts, and were is a matter that may be introduced to be beaten, these liberal and generous without at all altering the great princisouls would not be infernal again: Did ple of the bill; and I cannot help thinkany one of them ever give up, or offer ing that now that the work is to be to give up, till Schedule A and Schedule begun anew, it would be wise to return B met his eye? Did any one of them to the triennial Parliaments, to which no ever bring the accursed parchments man could reasonably object, and which, and fling them down upon the floor of while it would get rid of the odious the House and spit upon them? Did Septennial Act, would give great adany one of them ever put in a Member ditional pleasure to the people. By this to move for, or to vote for, a reform of time, too, Lord GREY must have seen the Parliament, except as a mere that the ballot is a thing not all on one sham? Never! There is, therefore, side; for if there were brutal wreches no foundation of hope here. The own- to be found to follow the brutal ers of boroughs might have put an end advice given to the people of Bolto the turmoil long ago, if only a fifth ton, Manchester, and Durlaston, aito part of them had expressed their readiness to give up their unjust power. Every-thing shows that what is proposed, if it should be carried finally, must come like drops of blood from the heart. Every-thing shows, in short, that the bill will not now be carried in that peaceable manner for which all good men wish, unless the people be extremely vigilant, and unless they exact something a great deal more positive and specific than the mere circumstance of the name being in the red list. If that circumstance be relied on, men will not only have an excuse, but a plausible excuse, for voting finally against the clauses of the bill; for the bill has really been altered since the second reading; and this is what Sir RICHARD VYVYAN says, in his address to his constituents of Cornwall. The excuse is a shuffle; for the alteration makes the bill better than it was before; but still it is not the same bill. Therefore a new and distinct pledge should be exacted. To go and tear the arms nearly off the 101. voters, unless they voted agreeably to the will of the most numerous part of the people; if there were Englishmen so brutal to be found, nothing in this case but the ballot would be a pro tection to the voters and I beseech Lord GREY to be so good as to res member what I am now saying; that when Members are given to the great towns, and the voting confined to renters of ten pounds a year, whoever is at the head of the Government will find that the ballot will become absolutely necessary to insure the peace of elec tions, which is its great use, and which is the ground upon which it was adopted and has been adhered to inc America. Let us take Bolton, for instance, and suppose the voters to be about four hundred out of twenty or thirty thousand souls. These voters will in general be shopkeepers. The mass of the people will, as is always the case, and always must be the case, have their favourite candidate; and There are in the bill two vital pro- they will have a vigilant eye upon the visions; namely, the abolition, of the voters. There will of necessity arise rotten boroughs, and the extension of great strife; there will be combinations the suffrage. These two things do in of the working people not to deal with fact contain that which may be called such a man and such a man on account the principle of the bill, The divisions of his vote. This is inevitable by in the counties; the apportioning of any earthly means except that of the the Members; the making of prepa- ballot.bas Justogiamo man belles ratory lists; the exclusion of out- However, the ballot is only a mode voters; these, and various other things, of taking an election. It involves no matter which of them, if he be a boroughmonger's tool, and no matter what boroughmonger, he has no cordial liking for this bill: a thousand to one but he hates it in the bottom of his heart. It will be against his grain to make the pledge; but if you do not get the pledge, you may be sure, quite sure, that he will do his best to defeat the bill. principle of right; and, like the other tray you. Always believe that, if he things of which I have just spoken, it belong to any of the great families, no may be introduced or not, and the bill still remain what it now is, a thing to give cordial satisfaction to the people. But the demolition of the rotten boroughs, and the extension of the suffrage; these comprise the principle of the bill, and in support of these, the pledges exacted from every Member ought to be as clear, as distinct, and as positive, as words can make them. The Morning Chronicle has insisted, and I think with reason, that a candidate should be rejected for being absent at the second reading of the bill. It has very well observed, that absence from illness ought to be taken as proof of incapacity, therefore there should be some. inquiries preceding the pledge. And the whole put together, would make a little catechism in the following words: Did you vote for the second reading of the Reform Bill? Did you vote against General Gascoyne's Will you vote for Schedule A and In this present case, there is to be expected no very great departure from ancient habits. The same men will come back again under one form or another, except those that will be actually turned out for ever. There will be scarcely a single new man.. In Hampshire, for instance, they intend, it appears, to turn out the two present county Members, and to take, in their place, two from a couple of rotten boroughs! Those boroughs will be filled up by the boroughmongers who own them; but in such way, perhaps, as to ensure two additional votes for the bill. This is very proper: no matter who are the men to shove out LITTLE FLEMING and HEATHCOTE : if it were a couple of shoyhoys, taken out of a pea-field, instead of Sir JAMES M'DONALD and SHAW LEFEVRE, it would be just as well, provided the shoyhoys could say aye and no. Nay, in this case, aye alone would be quite sufficient. Now, can any man sincerely believe that these two men do not curse the Reform Bill in their hearts? Can any man, in his senses, believe this? What, sit for rotten boroughs all their political lives, and then, all at once, abhor rotten boroughs! Nay, abhor them, and continue to sit for them! Rail against them, and continue to sit for them! If the candidate can answer all these Call those "infernal boroughmongers questions in the affirmative; if he will who deal in them, and be the nominees do that, and will give the answer under of those "infernal people!" These his hand, or in the presence of some two nominees do not call them infernal, one who shall take down his words, to be sure; but they speak of the then I would trust him; then I would trafic as infamous; and, indeed, this elect him, at any rate; but if he boggle way of thinking in them is clearly imat any, one of these questions; if he plied by their votes in this case... shuffle, if he talk about his honour, and God knows what besides, he will be Will you vote for the giving of Members to counties or towns beyond the number specified in the said bill, if such be proposed by the Ministers ? Such men are not to be trusted, unless bound by the strongest pledges. Hardly will it be safe then; but, with- | been articles of simple purchase and out the pledge, without the certainty of sale. The cost of them is immense. infamy in case of voting against the To take down a thousand voters to bill, they are not to be trusted a yard. Norwich would probably cost not less If, at last, it come to a refusal to pay than fifteen thousand pounds. There taxes, the rejection of the Bill will be fore, he who has the most money to of no use; and, it will not be amiss to expend, carries the election. In the remind candidates of this! To remind greater part of these open boroughs, them of this will be full as efficacious the resident voters would be for the as the pledge, if not more. And, as to reform candidate; and if the London the boroughmongers themselves, the voters could but be prevailed upon, for strongest argument with them would this once, to stay in London and ab. be this; that, if this bill be carried stain from the exercise of their honourquietly, it will rub off all old scores; able functions as voters, this circumit will prevent the people from trying stance alone might decide the fate of back; it will prevent them from com- this bill. Therefore, it is the duty of puting how much each borough has all those who have any influence with added to the Debt; it will, in short, persons of this description, to endeavour like the old landlord's mop, rub out all to cause them to act an honest part in the chalks at once. But, if the bill be this case; to represent to them the rejected; if things come to this ex- good and the mischief that it is now in tremity, there must be, and there will their power to do, and, if possible, to be, a ripping-up of the past. The re- deter them from doing the mischief. form will take place somehow or other, The reform candidates are not likely to in spite of every-thing that can be done be able to expend the money necessary to prevent it: a river can be driven in general to the carrying down of these backwards just as easily as reform can voters; the Government cannot employ now be stopped: the longer it is de- the public money for this purpose; the layed, the greater will be the change; boroughmongers are raising a great and those who fear that this reform fund to effect this object. Thousands will bring revolution, have reason, in- of vile electioneering attornies are now deed, to dread a revolution if they suffer in the field of corruption to collect these the dispute to come to the non-payment stray souls together, and send them of taxes, which has been the great sig-down to their everlasting perdition; nal for the overthrow of governments for the next twenty days, England will in all the countries where governments be a perfect hell upon earth; much, have been overthrown. A retrospect perhaps, cannot be done with these would be a frightful thing; a thing which I never wish to see take place; but a thing which I very much fear I shall see take place, judging, as I do, from the apparent disposition of the boroughmongers. London voters, to restrain them from taking the horrid bribes; but something may be done, and by whomsoever that something can be done, it ought not to be neglected. I perceive that the newspapers in Besides these pledges to be taken favour of reform are calling upon peofrom candidates, there is another sort of ple to subscribe, in order to form a fund persons from whom pledges might be to be employed for counteracting the taken. There are twenty open bo- effect of the fund of the boroughroughs or more, like Dover, Norwich, mongers. It is pleasant enough for me Coventry, &c, the elections of which to see projects of this sort put forth by are generally, if not always, decided by the Times and the Courier, both of the London voters. These are very which urged the Government to pass numerous, in proportion to the resident the horrible dungeon and gagging bills voters. They form, perhaps, one out in 1817, in order to stifle the voice of of three, and sometimes one half, in reform. A strange change, to be sure: point of numbers. They have always a very strange change; and who is to |