STATE OF THE GOVERNMENT.
Ardross, 1st September 1837.
There is little to gratify any friend of rational policy in the state of public
affairs. The consequences of the late general election were to be expected ; aod what shall happen is nearly as obvious as that which has passed. Two factions have ruled the empire for more than a century. The Tories, having lost their credit with all but the ecclesiastics of the Established Church, now call themselves Conservatives,—a term equally suited to those who prepare pickles and sweetmeats; while the Whigs, instead of the sobriquet in which they delighted, and to increase their small pretensions to numbers, have adopted the ample and intelligible name of Reformers: and to this they are entitled, at least in contradistinction to the Tories, who, louse the candid declaration of Lord STORMONT in regard to himself, hate the very name of Reform; though, indeed, Whig Reform has often been of the daintiest kind. An article in the 68th Number of the Edinburgh Review exhibits an effort of Whig Parliamentary Reform: it was attributed to the pen of Sir „Tastes MACKINTOSH. After various qualifying, weakening, maneenvering express ions, the reviewer adopts the resolutions, moved by Lord JOHN RUSSELL on the 14th December 1819, as the basis of his project : they signified, that boroughs convicted of gross bribery and corruption should cease to return Members to Parliament, and that their forfeited 140 ts should be transferred to populous towns and the largest counties. This the reviewer supposes would give an addition of twenty new Members. He admits that, " in point of numbers," this is not considerable ; but he insists that as the Members would all be men of talents, zeal, and activity, they would mainly strengthen the demoniacal principles in the Rouse of Commons. If each new Member to be returned for each new borough, equalled in Parliamentary achievements Bobadil and his sword in feats of arms, how were the corrupt boroughs to be extinguished ? Years afterwards, one rotten borough, by the tactics of Sir ROBERT PEEL and his coadjutors, baffled every sanatory attack. Yet this trickery directed the public attention to the State's wickedness; and when the Duke of WE!.. LINGTON, carrying it more loftily, declared that the Constitution was perfect, and boroughs immaculate, the universal people started up at the insolence, and Parliamentary Reform became the claim of all. Then the Whigs were called to office. This was the time for instituting an enduring improvement in all the relations of society.. The Whigs knew that without a considerable reform they could not hold office, except as temporary substitutes for the Tories, who, when the occasion passed off, would be reinstated in office as they were in 1807, where they remained for nearly a quarter of a century in uninterrupted possession, and where they might still have remained, except for that extravaganza of the hero of Waterloo. The Whigs proposed a reform ; and so low was the expectation of the people, so desolate and desperate were they, that many hailed their plan as beyond all praise. The people are not so enthusiastic at present.
We now end then obtain a notice of the imaginings of the actors in great
questions. It is wrung from them in the flurry of reply in the Honourable House; but it comes more appropriately at an election•dinner, when the bottle unlocks the heart, and great cheering bolts secrets from cold and reserved lips. Lord JOIIN RESSELL, in his last speech at Stroud, stated that lie had been directed to draw up a plan of reform ; that his scheme was submitted to a Committee, who, after consideration and discussion, proposed that the franchise Should be fixed at 20/. with vote by ballot, and that Parliaments should be Shortened to five years. This, he says, was rejected by Lewd GREY'b Cabinet ; who fixed the franchise at 10/.
Here we have two projects of reform, but household suffrage with sect and lot is not adverted to. Had the ancient title to the electoral suffrage been still higher than 10 or 20 pounds, then we should have been assailed with twiner custom, and the wisdom of our ancestors; but when the latest innovation makes against popular rights, then the wisdom of our ancestors is folly to their eons. Yet let tie rejoice, the Ballot was contemplated by some nameless Whigs ; but then, not unlike 311e.roe's intimation respecting a sinister thought,
" il into the mind of God or man May come and go, so unapproved, and leave No spot belline."
Let us rejoice, Ballot was honoured with a brief audience, though dismissed advisedly from Whig counsels. Why was ballot associated with WI. rather than the lin. franchise? unless that, in politics, benefits are always mated with injuries" as in Ireland Catholic Emancipation had appended to it, pensioning the priests, which did not succeed, for the Protestants and Catholics were Vothi Tiverse ; but 170,000 forty-shilling freeholders, Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenting, were disfranchised, (who were afterwards ousted from their farms,) and, according to the Secretary, Mr. LITTLETON, intentionally to strengthen the Church Established by law. And this immense disfranchisement passed with the approbation of the opulent persons of all sects and per/omens in the country, because (remark this) persons of small holdings could not vote freely, they being at the mercy of their landlords, who, they said, drove them to the hustings; and this reason was paraded by the oligarchy, the eternal enemies of the people, just after the forties had broken from their landlords, and returned in despite of them the persons of their choice. If these hypocrites wished the forties should have had free votes, the ballot would have insued them independence. The fact is, they were disfranchised because they bad practically meuifested their electoral independence. It is strange that any prefessed Reformers should have attempted to raise the money qualification ; and it it passing strange, that ballot being promised by a Whig Committee, should have been rejected by a Whig Cabinet. The velue of the ballot is unimpeachable : it is employed advantageously in very different gevernments. In new America, it is the common mode of voting, where suffrage is almost universal—in old Switzerland, where the suffrage in the majority of the cantons is also uuiversal: voting by ballot is the common practice in France ; and Mousier Tut let et DCAU in his evidence before the Bribery Committee, speaking of Ida country, said" The general habit of the people is secrecy in voting; and it Ia the only guarantee we hive, for otherwise elections would be a mere nomination of the Government." Lord JOHN RESSELL declares that he is for open voting ; and I would not vote secretly ; but it happens tit it open vothig etilijeeta electors to all sorte:of persecution: besides, open voting deters many from voting at all, anti it prevents also not a few from registering. The Bellot is a popular reform ; and it would equally apply to Bedford as Temworth, and against all masters everywhere. Yet was upholding the Septennial duration of Parliament, contrary to the advice of the Committee, still more unaccountable. Voting by b illot in England was rather a novelty, but the Whigs extended the duration of Parliemesia from three to seven years, confessedly to support the new dynasty that being effected, the former and shorter period for general elections should have been restored to the people a century ago. flow the GREY Cabinet could now avoid this act of justice, they being appointed to office to refiwin Parliament, I cannot understand. And be it further remembered, that on the celebrated petition from the Society of the Friends of the People, presented by Mr. CHARLES GREY, new Lord GREY, to the House of Commune the 5th of May 1793, for the purpose of obtaining Parliamentary Reform, shortening the duration of Parliament is particularly insisted on.
At the commencement of the GREY Ministry, the Peeple were so strennoas that they would have carried them through all difficulties, in ■nsposition to King, Lords, 'Tories, and the Church : but they lost the tide of Awed, and now they are miserably floundering in the shallows of their own reform. Having lost this opportunity, sadly they added to their eriginal mistake. 'f hey were pressed to follow up refidin with practical measures. They did so. A schism and secession of some of the Ministers followed. 'fide was in some measure a gain to the remaining members. The peevish malignity of Lord STANLEY'S Thimblei ig epeech showed he Was an intolerable associate; rind that the People sided with the 3Iinistry in opposition to Sir JAMES (3 R A II n's views, has been fully evinced by the electors of Cumbeiland rejecting their former flaunting Representative. Of the Reforming measures introduced, some passed, others were opposed, and rejected by the Lords. About this time a spirit of extreme dulcet moderation, like the sweet South over a bulk of violets, affected the Ministers. Lord ilnor eneet, in his romantic tour, and all the way to Inverness, said that if the Ministers did little last session, they would do less the next. Lord dons lle serest. declared that the Reform Bill was a final measure, and was not to be disturbcd by mooted improvements. Then the different measures that bad been offered to Parliament were modified or curtailed. The Appropriation.clause, the great gem in that crowning measure, became tarnished, and in the last session it dropped from its setting. The absurdity of large stipends to Protestant clergymen in parishes innocent of having a casual resident Protestant became forgotten, or Is registered in that great repertory of benefits for Ireland "de rebus perditis." The Tithe Bill was again brought forward, and the Irish Members and the Irish patriots, (such patriots!) consented to become tithe. proctors, and to have the Catholic and Dissenting population mulcted to enrich the Protestant clergy. The English Dissenters are not of such long-suffering virtue : thee. appealed to Lord JOHN RUSSELL for relief—he refused their request, but they pressed their suit, and the Ministry was forced to bring in a bill to relieve them from Churchrates : and in the last session petitions against Church-rates amounted to 2318, having 067,:H0 signatures. They did not act like the Irish silentiaries, who by their servile muteness have given a consent to that monstrous imposition : they were not to be wheedled by Ministerial emissaries, crying " The Tories are coming ! " but they increased their exertions, and they not ouly urged relief for themselves, but they made war on the Established Church, and exposed its enormous expense, and its prodigious deficiencies. Among other petitions to that effect, Lord 'Noes:neer, on the 24th April 1837, presented oce from the borough of Lambeth, containing 160,000 inhabitants, which stated, that while the churches and chapels of the Established Church did not afford accommodation to niore than 5,000 persons, the chapels supported by voluntary subscriptions accommodated 56,000 individuals.
Then, in respect to the 31unici1al Reform Bill, how has tide sunk in the hands of the retreating Whigs ! The first bill gave 67 eorearate ttOVIIS, the next 54, the third 47 ; in which clauses proposed by Lord Set. Ni:., and adopted by the Lords, were inserted to conciliate the Tories. Why, they care little for your measures—they want your pleree : quit the protitahle command of the empire, and they will adopt your measures at their freellest—perhape outgo them, as they did in the bill thes proposed and carried, for Catholic Emancipation.
Thus, this timid policy, this &Weil fancy to disarm the Tory Lords and lordlinge by approaching their wishes and professitine, taetes sell many formerly zealous indifferent or worse; ;intl the speeches of flieW1 ;;.e at the meetinry continuing the Conservative eloctri.ies, no wonder that ties. loet, and that the WhigRadicals lost also ; for as more was expected leen, them, they fell still lower in pultlie estimation. Alal it the disgr we i■f their Radical accessories is not complete. They make nen on tin -c who geve 11:v.:1 only occasional assistance, as their mei-tires merited: they call them Tosy-Ragicale—becauee tiny act on prinviple, who see the il.ine,er if the pa rte, s.el. tell them so. But they would It tve all pleasingly sJid. " Sweet won!, are eelson, bitter words are physic ; " but they cry " Give physic to the does!" Yes, after such a tall ; for on a former election, Lord Benet:lie er said, " We shall be too stimg :" and on this election who says we are net too ‘veak ? Yet after all these iliseste: s eillowine, a retrea•isie, polka., the .1:n ',iv elleonicle, August 8th, in Melding the chances of the Whige tnt suppeet themselves in office, states—" 'f he patronege of the Crown renetins with Almietets. During the ensuilig Parlienient, Nlinieters will gradually strengthen rdeureAvcs by a wise and julicious exercise of moron:etc. rA 11.0:t Cenetrvetive Being without a large majority. it will he tle. more neceesars' fer them to be on their guard in respect to the measures flee' bring forward, and iii the general conduct of Government." lit illy on their ()meld in r(speet to the measures, means that they will be less popular in their measures : this is (dwieus from the sue ceeding paragraph, which states, that, OS a amber qt' deeiiled li.elleals are thrown Out, Ministers will be Fr ft »inch 11:re iii liberty to pursue their own course. A ',sin oily, the Ministry loet ('relit by diluting their measures ; ).et the remedy proposed to restore their credit is a fresh infusion into them of insipidity. This is an improvement its the limmeopathic sy, hen of ;edes.
GEORGE ENS() R.
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