LORD JOLIN RUSSELL ON THE PRINCIPLES OF THE REFORM ACT.

UNTIL we read our Home Secretary's Letter to the Electors of Stroud, we never fathomed the depth of the ancient wise man's wish, " Oh that mine enemy had written a book!" and even now, we only apprehend Min on the supposition that his enemy was a Lord John. It would be below the truth to say that we never met a production more deficient in power, purpose, and literary ability—if by literary ability be meant any thing beyond mere ex- pression : it is one of the most reckless and ill-advised publications that ever emanated front the press, regard being had to the station of the writer and the present posture of affairs. By it the leader of the House of Commons must put an end to the hopes of all those Liberals who wanted an excuse to support the Ministry ; he leaves in the Slough of Despond the " sanguine Radicals," who were gaping with shut eyes and open months to see " what God would send them ;" he annihilates the wise scheme of those who would " conciliate" the Liberal interest by making the Ballot "an open question :" and he not only does all this without art to veil his meaning, power to impress a reader with respect for his intellectual ability, or animation to render his writing readable except for the ridicule it uncansciously excites, but he seems to trample on the feelings of his Liberal supporters with Mephistopheles' glee. 10 maintain the " Finality" of the Reform Bill of 1831—to assert that the country is averse to " further Reform "—to invite the Tones to "come in" whenever they can—and to uphold the right of the Peers to reject measures, but to advise "the men of large property, and moderate views among the Lords to agree to such a course 01 action as may satisfy .fair expectation, and give to the country the spectacle of the two Houses labouring patiently and harmoniously to improve our defective legislation "—is the object of the Letter to the Electors of Stroud, on the Principles of the Reform Act, by Lord JOHN RUSSELL.

The spirit of the pamphlet can only be fully caught by a perusal of the whole ; but a brief account of its successive topics, and a few

specimens of its more remarkable passages, may serve as a stay. to the politician's appetite in the mean time. And before allowing him to expend cash on a copy, we must warn him that nothing but the position of Lord Jona RUSSELL renders it worth one moment s attention. The pamphlet opens with an introduction, intended to be face- tious, in which, amongst other joeosa, my Lord is waggish upon Mr. FROST, the Magistrate-Delegate to the National Convention ; upon the "printed misrepresentations of the Political Union of Birmingham; " and upon "the Anti-Slavery Delegates sent on a special mission to disturb" the electors of Stroud. He then gives a long and somewhat tedious account of the purposes that ought to have been, and were carried out by the Reform Bill,—which he declares to be perfection, bating the fifty-pound tenant clause, and the retention of the freemen : and here he throws out a lure or a compliment (the solitary approach to liberality) to " one of the most valuable classes of the community—that of the industrious, intelligent, and able mechanics." The third branch of the dis- course consists of arguments against organic changes. In the fourth, he gives a summary of what has been done since the Reform Act; but, very strangely, omitting Mr. CHARLES WOOD'S "great measure," the renewal of the Bank Charter. The fifth ex- pounds Lord JOHN'S views upon the rights and duties of the House of Lords ; which is followed by a peroration, of more significance than eloquence.

The following is from the introduction, so exuberant of waggery.

LORD JOHN'S ILLUSTRATION AGAINST FURTHER REFORM.

GO to a gentleman who has lately repaired his house ; show him a plan for Altering the whole of it, with a number of finished drawings, and a beautiful view of the South front—he may very probably say, "Many thanks, my good Sir ; but a few years ago, at a great expense, and with much trouble, I had my house completely repaired; it has been greatly enlarged—new rooms have been added : for two years I could hardly sleep for the noise of the workmen. If I am to begin again, and to make, as you propose, the plan of my house Grecian instead of Gothic, I shall not know peace or comfort for the rest of my life. I must decline your obliging offer."

An illustration, to be apt, should be complete : the main point— the " satisfaction of the gentleman with his repairs "—is assumed.

"OH RELATION! Too NICE, AND YET TOO TRUE."

We can no longer have an awful Senate, even if we desired it—the reporters in the gallery unveil the mystery of Government, and the House of Commons must rely upon its own qualities for maintaining public respect. If then it were found, that the whole tone of debate was unworthy of the occasion; that the talent out of the House despised the talent within the House—that melt of wit and men of business saw among them the most eminent men of the nation, unable or unwilling to sit in the House of Conmions—neither its popular title nor its well-won privileges, nor its mighty authority, would prevent it from sinking in public estimation.

MY LORD'S JOKE ON FINALITY.

But it is said that all things are liable to change ; that no human mea- sure is final; that no supposed engagement ought to stand in the way of the in- terests and desires of the people. To all this I can readily agree ; as readily as the Welsh curate, when he found his cassock out at elbows, consoled himself with reflecting on the revolutions of the empire and the mutability of the world.

THE DISSATISFIED WITH THE REFORM BILL.

:AEA of this sullenness against the Reform Bill, if not the greater part, arises from those who never were satisfied with its provisions, and only looked upon it as the precedent and promise tbr future changes. They are consiatent in their desire for a New Reform Bill, though hardly candid in declaring their disappointment at results which they always expected. Another portion of the discontented consists of those who looked upon the Reform Bill as the epoch of the triumph of tlw Liberal party, and the extinc- tion of their adversaries. I never entertained such partial expectations nor such unjust desire.

TORY RIGHT TO "COME IN."

In scanning the general scope of the Bill with Lord Althorp, we always con- cluded that the Tory party were a party too deeply rooted in the property of the country to be thus destroyed; and that when the warmth of enthusiasm for Ref him should somewhat subside, they would have as .fair a prospect as any party, of obtaining a majority in the Refiamzed House of Commons. We en- deavonred to deprive the 'fortes of their undue power to overbear the opinion of the nation, not to proscribe them, should, the national voice be raised in their favour.

" Black-white keepers out of the Tories," is this your doctrine ?

GREAT AND USEFUL WORKING OF Tiff. REFORM RILL.

I am persuaded that the Reform Act is working gradually a great and useful change. That change, to be permanent and extensive, must not destroy and extinguish, but alter and improve the 71wy party. It was one of the worst effects of the borough system, that it separated the power of the ruling party from connexion with the people. Shire it has been overthrown, the members of the defeated party have been endeavouring to carry the people with them. These attempts have been alloyed by the old vices of the borough system—in- timidation, corruption, and flattery to prejudices rather than address to reason : but as the people rise higher in the scale, those who court their support must adapt themselves to their improved character. The means of influence will be elevated in proportion to the intelligence and self-respect of those to whom they are addressed.

PROSPECTS OF THE MERE BALLOT-MEN.

I told you at my election not to expect that I should vote in favour of Ballot. I have expressed in Parliament the opinion that Ballot alone would not satisfy the people at large. Some rebuked me for mixing two questions altogether distinct ; and sonic among my friends voted for Ballot, determined not to consent to an extension of tile suffrage. It was with sonic satisfaction, therefore, that I saw in the Miming Chronicle of March 25th of the present year, this manifesto- " Oar first point of union is the Ballot. But the Ballot, combined with the present limited franchise, and in tho present, which is likely to be the permanent, temper of the disfranchised, would he an unendurable anomaly. It would aggravate the existing breach between the middle and the working elas;e3."

Indeed! I entirely agree in this opinion. I bslieve if Ballot could be made effectual, those who have no votes would be far more discontented than they uow are. Ballot is salted to an absolute government of the few, or a free govern- ment where the suffrage is universal."

UNJUSTIFIABLE MODE OF CARRYING THE REFORM BILL.

The Reform Bill was carried by an expedient less justifiable [than the con- stant Tory creation of Peers.) The Private Secretary of the King wrote a letter to time Peers in Opposition, requestin,, their absence from the House of Lords, while a bill of the highest importance to the country was passing through its various stages ; a precedeut of the highest danger, which nothing but the respect felt by both parties for the person of the Sovereign could have induced them to permit.

REASONS FOR THROWING OVERBOARD THE APPROPRIATION PRINCIPLE, ET CETERA.

In this state of affairs it has been my wish that the Commons shoullask, not only for what was right in itself, but what the people would feel to be right. For instance, could we have contended longer for the Appropriation-clause? With a small majority in the Commons with us, the people of England were not favourable, and the people of Ireland have grown indifferent. The only effect of protracting the struggle would have been, that many an unfortunate farmer would have been yearly sent to prison, some lives would have been yearly sacrificed, some clergymen yearly suffered great distress, and the tithes would in the end have been paid by the landlord, without the deduction of one- fourth of their amount. The same may be said of other questions, on which the public mind is divided, or perhaps averse to measures that have been proposed.

What now becomes of Mr. WARD'S assertion that "the Irish Liberal Members" badgered the Ministers into this unprincipled abandonment ? The Ministers were led by their own unassisted reason, to abandon a thing that no longer served them.

We have reserved a passage in the peroration as a bonne kindle for the "sanguine Radicals.' There is nothing like it, save the slave-owner's address in JUVENAL to the ill-clad slave, shivering with the cold of winter.

DURATE, ET EXSPECTATE CICADAS."

Great changes in the law and government often make themselves more felt as the distance of time at which they were established becomes more remote. 'Who can doubt that the subjects of George the Third enjoyed more fully the lenefits of the Habeas Corpus Act than our ancestors did seven years after its enactment? [in Charles the Second's reign.] I trust, therefore, you will persevere in upholding the Reform Act, and seek to derive from it its sure and fruitful results, [a hundred years hence ? ] rather than exhibit to the world a new warning against popular reforms, and give a new argument to the enemies of all popular institutions.