TORY PROSPECTS AND PROCEEDINGS.
Jr is generally admitted that the Movement has acquired a re- markable impetus by the events of the last five months. The latent power and influence of the Tory party has also been developed to a greater extent than most Liberals, or even the less sanguine Tories themselves, anticipated. The Juste Milieu, composed as it was principally of timid Whigs and men of no fixed politics, has been the chief sufferer in the struggle. That this party would ultimately lose much in number and influence, and sooner or later be forced to clear the way for the decisive con- flict between the representatives of Popular principles on one side and Aristocratical on the other, was, after the passing of the Reform Act, evident to men of ordinary sagacity. The indiscreet eagerness of the Tories for power has hurried on the period of col- lision. The battle has now commenced. Some of the Whigs bave gone over to their old antagonists ; but the great body have coalesced with the more determined Reformers—have admitted the folly of half-measures and truckling, and have agreed once more to unite sincerely and heartily with the men who carried them in triumph through the dangerous years of 1831 and 1832. As Lord DURHAM told the men of Newcastle, we are now going to have a fair "stand-up fight." We must not seek to conceal that it will be a severe and lengthened conflict; though the history of the past, and what is taking place every day around us, remove anxiety or doubt as to its final result. The Tories were overcome when they had the Rotten Boroughs at their backs, the control of the Government, and the expenditure of double the sum of public money which any Ministry can now have at its disposal. The same energy which returned a majority of Reformers, even before the passing of the Charter of 1832, would absolutely prostrate the Anti-national faction, now that nearly all the Rotten Boroughs are annihilated, and something like real representation is enjoyed by the middle classes. The only question is, will the Nation rouse itself as it did in 1832? We cannot doubt it—when the real mature of the contest becomes clearly understood.
The present activity and management of the Tories, though at first they may have the effect of giving an appearance of great power to the Aristocratical principle, will only hasten its final overthrow. The very means which they find themselves com- pelled to take in order to contest the victory with the Liberals, are evidence of Democratical superiority. Their only hope lies in deluding the People. They have the Court on their side, and the majority of the Peerage, and they have large possessions; but all this availeth them little unless they can manage the Democracy, the depositary of predominant power. Now, to a certain extent, the employment of illicit influence, bribery, and intimidation, will serve their turn. They may by such practices obtain the cooperation of numbers for a time. But all the wealth of the Tories will net enable them to corrupt a suflicient number of electors; the more corruptible portion of the constituencies is daily diminishing, as the old scot and lot voters and burgesses die out : and the end of intimidation will be a general rising against the men who practise it—never yet was the spirit of Eng- lishmen effectually overawed by such means as Lords SALISBURY, EXETER, and NEWCASTLE, have used for the coercion of voters.
These means must soon fail ; and then what have they to fall back upon ? Formerly the cry of "Church and King" and "No Popery" enabled them to rally honest though ignorant multitudes round their standard. But the days are past when these party -watchwords could rouse the national prejudices. "No Popery" was the bugbear of a bygone generation, whose successors have more knowledge and less bigotry ; and as to "the Church "— meaning what they who use the term as a word of faction mean —the multitude of tithe-payers and rate-payers assuredly have no love for her. They have not now a single rallying-cry that is good for any thing. The Tories cannot engage the sympathies of the masses with them on any one leading question. They cannot promise the mechanic cheap bread by a repeal of the Corn-laws ; they cannot hold forth to the farmer the prospect of dear wheat by raising the duty—for it is now considerably above a hundred per cent, on the selling-price ; they cannot for shame now even talk of abolishing the Malt-duty. Will they denounce the Pen- sion-list? No; there they are tongue-tied by the absolute ne- cessity of keeping on good terms with the Court and the pension- ers. The Poor-laws—dare they attempt to delude the multitude by a promise to restore the old system of extortion and waste, by -which pauperism was pampered though poverty was not relieved? Certainly not; for Sir RonEwr PEEL, the Duke of WELLINGTON, and the great body of the Tories, supported the new bill. But there are the Ballot and Short Parliaments—will they declare in favour of those popular changes? They know that not the least credit would be given to them, should their assurance extend so far as this. Will they venture to propose universal suffrage? They are not yet quite mad, though desperate ; therefore they will not. What then can they do to make common cause with the masses ? As we have seen, they have been compelled to resort to the old, worn-out, stupid, and ineffectual cry of " No Popery Miserable impostors! they began by attempting to cheat the open-eyed public, they end by hoodwinking and deceiving them- selves. As they are thus on every hand precluded from appealing to popular prejudices or principles, is it not a hazardous and indis- creet game they are playing, when they organize the men who must one day be their opponents, into disciplined societies, teaching them that union is power ? It seems to us, that although the Tory pro- ceedings have been one series of blunders for many years, this their last shift of banding the population together in clubs— Political Unions under another name—is by far the most danger- ous mistake, and the infallible forerunner of their utter downfal.
In the meanwhile, it will be necessary to make active prepara- tions for resisting with effect the first efforts of the Tory clubbists. We scarcely take up a newspaper, or a private letter from the country, that does not contain intelligence of the establishment of Conservative associations, either avowedly political, or half-dis- guised by the insidious mask of charity. All these are only branches of one extended system, the trunks of which are rooted in the Metropolis. At the next election we shall see the effects of this organization. It would be madness not to take warning by the preparations of our adversaries. Combination and discipline are within our reach. Public-spirit and industry may be made to counteract the exertions of the self-interested. A paid agent is no doubt a very useful person, but he is no match for an intelligent Reformer, hearty in the cause.
A writer in Blackwood' s Magazine for the current month says, that the Liberals must be " outvoted,* or the Constitution is lost :" and he adds—" The mode in which this is to be done is obvious ; and it is here that the persevering efforts of PROPERTY can best overcome the prodigious ascendancy which the Reform Bill in the outset gave to the reckless and destitute classes of the community. It is in the Registration Courts that the battle of the Constitution is to be fought and won. It is by a continued, persevering, and skilful exertion there, that education, worth, and property, are to regain their ascendancy over anarchy, vice, and democracy." We need not point out the common Tory trick of confounding the Constitution with the preservation of abuses, and of representing Democracy as synonymous with anarchy and vice ; but we call upon the Liberals to do for a righteous cause—for the cause of justice, equal rights, and progressive improvement—what our opponents are so ready to perform in behalf of their principles of misgovernment. Truly does the writer in Blackwood say, that in the REGISTRATION COURTS the battle must be fought. Last year
the Tories acted cunningly and quietly in accordance with the ad- vice here tendered. They gained great advantages at a very trifling cost. For instance, we happen to know that the representation of one county was changed—the Reformers being replaced by Tories —by an outlay of only 350/. Persons were employed to foist Tory voters, good and bad, on the lists, and to object to all on the other side against whom an objection could be found or fabricated. Re-
formers were negligent and confident; and thus were surely de- feated in the way least expensive and troublesome to their oppo-
nents. Now a Registration Club in that county may reverse this state of things. Very small individual subscriptions, and a mode- rate exertion of honest zeal for a few days on the part of those who are acquainted with the county,would probably give the Reformers a majority at the next election. No time should be lost, although some may think that immediate exertion is not necessary. Multitudes were disfranchised last election by the non-payment of rates and taxes. In many in- stances, Tory Overseers purposely neglected to make the usual applications for taxes; and, according to the decisions of several of the Revising Barristers, the electors lost their right of voting by this intentional negligence. To entitle an elector to vote, all his taxes due at Lady-day must be paid before the 20th of July. It should be the care of the Registration Clubs to give repeated warning of this to the electors in their vicinity. To place the names of all the Liberals who have a right to vote on the Over- seers' lists—to object to all the adversary's voters who are impro- perly placed there—and to employ qualified persona to attend the Revising Barristers' Courts—are the principal duties of the mem- bers of Registration Clubs. We rejoice to see that in many parts of the country the Reformers are acting in conformity with this plan; but no place of any size in the country should be without one of these Reform Associations. Then shall we reckon up with the Tories, at our leisure, the results on both sides of the appeal to Popular Combination—to Political Unions !
• In Fraser's Magazine for May the same doctrine is inculcated.
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