REFORM FROM TORY HANDS.
IT matters not, it may be said, from whom the. boon of Reform comes, provided we get it. This is a sophism ; which it will be as
well to unmask. If we are to have Reform, why Amid not the parents and fosterers of it be allowed to present us with their own offspring? It seems that, if a good thing is to descend upon the People at all, it is only to be permitted to pass through a Tory channel. This is snatching charity from the liberal hand, that the miser may be bountiful with it. As regards Reform itself alone, if the Tories will give, the People will take it, to the last and least item. But why did they not give it before?—why have they kept us twelve months in a state of agitation, alarm, stagnation, and now distress, by withholding it? The flict is, that they will give us as little as they can help;
but, for the sake of place, they will give all that it is necessary to
give, even at the sacrifice of principle, faith, honour. But let the People beware of a .popular boon from tyrants' hands: let them think of the half-crown that was thrown at a beggar in such a manner as to break his head. If the Tories snake over to the People the object of their desire, it is that they may pocket the price of it.
If the Tories will give Reform, the People will not refuse it, even from dirty bands. No—but should not a nation respect its Government ? and in what light can these men be viewed, but as
a set of paltry intriguers, who have truckled honour for office? 'What a moral example is thus held out to the inferior classes by
the highest, who have not scrupled, from motives of the most degrading kind, to deny the People's rights, to agitate their coun- try, and last of all, perhaps, to throw it into a state of revolution !
Reform from Tory hands is an inconsistency, perhaps an impos- sibility; and let not the People be deceived by those who promise
it. We will take it if we can get it ; but shall we get it Q Will
they not deceive once more, who have deceived so long and so often? Shall we trust those who first tell us that Reform is ruin,
and that they will never be instrumental in its enactment; and yet, for a sufficient bribe, turn round and declare Reform shall proceed from no other hands than their own ? Reform from Tory hands may be considered an intrigue—a scheme of temporization —a vent for the volcano they dread.
Previous page
