()pi:limit of tbe Pruitt.
MR. HUME'S CAREER IN PARLIAMENT.
MORNING CHRONICLE—There is no public man who is so much hated by the whole host of corruptionists as Mr. Home. The cause of this is sufficiently obvious. From his first entrance on public life to the present hour, Mr. Hume has devoted himself, heart and soul, to the exposure of abuses in Church and State, suffering himself neither to be deterred by fear nor influenced by favour, but advancing in a straightforward course. The merits of Mr. Hume can with difficulty be appreciated in the present day. The cause of Reform is now triumphant, and the People have a direct influence on the House of Commons. But at the period when Mr. Hume first commenced his career, the Popular party in the House, as distinguished from the two sections of the Aristocracy, the Ins and the Outs, amounted only to between twenty and thirty individuals. Opposition to the Minister of the day was conducted according to a system which bore some resemblance to that of the Condottkri in Italy, as described by 11Iachiavel. The Condottieri spared each other as much as possible ; and the historian tells us, that in a battle which lasted from morning to night, the only person killed was a horseman, who, losing his seat in passing a bridge, was trodden to death. Mr. Hume made war in good earnest. Ile had peculiar advantages for the task on which he entered. Sprung from the people, he was restrained by none of those considerations of relationship or connexion which so often deter men of excellent understanding in the higher ranks from pressing with severity on their political opponents. Simple in his habits, he was contented with the moderate independence he possessed ; and in the prime of life, and in the possession of unusual strength and vigour, he devoted the per- severing energy for which Scotchmen are thought to be distinguished, and which the ordinary run of men would have employed in the acquisition of wealth, to the gratuitous service of the public. The House of Commons was generally filled by politicians by profession—by indolent country gentlemen—by Ia..vyers, who made their Parliamentary duty a secondary object—by rich merchants and bankers, either engaged in business, or, if retired from it, too old generally to toil day after day for the mere exposure of abuses. Some of these merchants and bankers were, no doubt, like Mr. Hume, the architects of thair own fortunes; but it is a trite remark that no men are so anxious to be thought well of by the higher classes as those whose title to be received among them is questionable. From these and various causes, Mr. Hume en- tered on a course in the House of Commons which had never been trod before. He took the machinery of our Oligarchical system to pieces, and exhibited it in all its hideous detail to the eyes of the public. No coldness or discouragement could damp his perseverance ; and we have seen him, in a House of fifteen or twenty Members, toiling on in the exposure of some compli- cated abuse, cheered only by the consciousness that though the two parties in the House abandoned hint, the public would, through the report in the news- papers, reap the benefit of his labours. The English are a practical people ; aud the facts which Mr. Hume brought, day after day, before their notice, produced an impression on them, which no mere reasoning, however acute or conclusive, could have done. Exposure never fails to tell in the long run ; and even under the Liverpool and Wellington Administrations, the Ministry were shamed into various reductions, and compelled t appoint vari.m. Committees, tinder the shelter of whose report they might refuse the demands of their supper ters and adherents. In this way Mr. Hume contributed mere than any public man to the Reform of Parliament. Every reduction was a curtailment of the means of the enemy. The Duke of Wellington, whose peculiarity is rather force of character and vigilance than acute discernment, or the capacity to take comprehensive views, contributed greatly, without intending it, to the destruction of the Oligarchical system, which he loves. He was misled by inability to perceive the difference between a political society and an army. The o:ganization of an army subjects it to the will of its chief; and the greater the economy and vigilance in every department, the greater the efficiency of the whole. But an oligarchical system can only be maintained by an extensive application of the sonney of the people to the purpose of corrupting the various tools necessary to keep down the people. To say that such a system is compatible with purity and economy, is to forget that the people must always rise in proportion as the pressure on them is removed. Every reduction of the Duke of Wellington dimi- nished the forces of the enemies of the people, and allowed additional scope to the development of popular energy. The ranks of the Opposition were swelled with discontented Corruptionists. In the mean time, Mr. Hume held on his career, undismayed by threats, indifferent to sarcasms or sneers; exhibiting a moral courage which falls to the lot of few men, and disarming the violent by his imperturbable good nature, and determination never to
take offence, but leave his character to speak for itself. Sir Francis Burdett has the merit of having advocated Reform when Reform was nearly abandoned by all but himself ; hut Sir Francis's annual speech on Reform, and his speeches in Palace Yard, advanced very little that great cause. Mr. Hume, on the other hand, by his incessant labour in detecting Aires, gained a gradual en- trance into the minds of the English People; and ultimately shot k the founda- tions of Oligarchy. He accomplished by industry and perseverance, what the
finest talents and the highest oratory could not have achieved. They who sneer now at Mr. flume's economical labours, are little aware of their real im•
portance. We repeat these things now, because it is the duty of the people not
to show themselves indifferent to a man to whom they are so largely indebted. His labours are not so necessary to the public welfare as they once were, because
the Reform Bill has opened the way for many labourers in the snore field. But the County of Middlesex would be for ever disgraced, were the must useful man who ever sat in Parliament not to be adequately supported at this time. Mr. Hume has more pretended than real friends in the higher ranks. Every man who lives on public money, anti whose income has been reduced, is more or less
hostile to Mr. Hume in his heart. But the people ought to consider this hos-. laity She strongeat of all motives fee exerting themselves in his behalf.
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