"METHINKS THE LADY DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH." .
"Os all the six points of the Charter," said Mr. MACAULAY, "there was only one to which he had an extreme and unmitigated hostility." In regard to universal suffrage, "he felt it his duty manfully to declare that he could not consent to hold out the least hope that he could ever under any circumstances support such a change." This sounds very like an irreversible decision: Mr. MACAULAY has made up his mind, and no power in the heavens or the earth can make him alter it. But, unhappily, mixed up with this vehement protesting was an allusion to the vote by ballot- " he had already voted in favour of the ballot " ; and that brought up the recollection of certain much-lauded articles in the Edin- burgh Review, in which a hatred as deep and lasting of vote by ballot was vowed and protested as now of universal suffrage. The man who has changed so decidedly once ought to be cautious of vehement protestations that he will change no more. Their very violence renders them suspicious : they sound like Donna Julia's— "sighing she would ne'er consent, consented."
Previous page
