TOPICS OF THE DAY.
MANIFESTO OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND SIR ROBERT PEEL ON THE REFORM QUESTION.
THE usual period of gestation with quarterly reviews is, as the word " quarterly " implies, three calendar months. The last num- ber of THE Quarterly Review was brought forth on the 26th of January. Yet another child of the same stock is born this day, the 19th of February ;—a thin and puny volume ; for, as was to be expected, it wants those layers of fat advertisements which al- ways envelop the vitals of a full-grown quarterly number. What 'portends this premature birth ? The kalends of March will show! Meanwhile, it is evident that the reviewer's labour has been forced by some powerful stimulant. The bantling, however, like most of its brethren, is born with teeth.
In plain English, this number of the Quarterly has been pro- duced thus early, as a means of publishing, before the 1st of March, a formal and elaborate declaration of the WELLINGTON and PEEL party on the question of Reform. The concluding ar- tick contains a "savage and tartarly " • attack on Reformers of • "Who killed bock Robin..? 1, says the Quarterly, So savage and tartarly, I killed Cock Robin." P. B. SaELLEY. every shade and degree ;—ably written, like most papers in the Quarterly, and peculiarly interesting at the present moment ; since it manifestly expresses the opinions, and indicates the intentions, not of any small fraction of Parliament, such as the followers of Mr. HUME or Sir CHARLES WETHERELL, but of that great body which, under the banner of the Duke of WELLINGTON in one House, and under that of Sir ROBERT PEEL in the other, may, for aught we yet know, be able, on this vital question, to muster a majority of votes ! The following epitome of so important a state paper will not be unacceptable to our readers, of whom scarcely any may see the Review itself before next week.
The Quarterly writer sets out by stating, that, of all the revo- lutions of the last half year, the most extraordinary is the revo- lution of opinion in favour of Reform. After attributing the late national distress to the speculations and crisis of 1825 and the return to a gold standard, he goes on to say, that early in the spring of last year distress began to abate ; and that, " with re- turning prosperity, men found a renewed source of hope and in- terest in their private affairs, and were pesplexing themselves less with those of the state." Next comes the bold assertion, that, at the period of his present Majesty's accession, Reform was the most hopeless of causes. " What a change !" the Re- viewer proceeds to exclaim ; and he then enumerates the present • advocates of Reform. They are described as follows—Free- Trade men ; Anti-Free-Trade men ; Bullionists ; Paper Currency men ; the people of Liverpool, for the sake of trade with India and China ; the Saints, for the sake of the Negroes; Whigs ; Ultra Tories, for the sake of Protestant Ascendency ; those Who would give Poor-Laws to Ireland ; those who desire the abroga- tion of all Poor-Laws whatsoever; Annuitants, who demand a repeal of the Corn-Laws ; Landowners, who want a reduction of taxes and demolition of funded property ; Farmers, who wish for an " exemption from tithes AND rent ;" the Operatives, for the sake of high wages ; the Rioters and Rick-burners, in order that they may drink- wine every day and swine,- in a coach ; the Benthamites, Spenceans, and Owenites, and all kinds of Repub- licans • and, finally, Mr. DANIEL 0.CONNELL. " On they rush," says this Anti-Reformer, " following each other like a flock of sheep, to the brink of the precipice, and committing themselves to their fate—some in the gayety of unreflecting security, some with the reckless levity of despair." He then asks—" To what are we to ascribe all this sudden chaos of unanimity ?" and at some length endeavours to show that its sole cause is "dread of physical force." Thence he easily reaches the conclusion, that " we are about to legislate on this great question under the influence of bodily fear, and the dictation of an inflamed populace." To avert so deplorable an end, he then proceeds, addressing himself in particular to "the wavering, the timid, and the indif- ferent," to argue against Reform of every kind and degree. The argument begins by a statement, that "the only sound principle, and only safe measure, applicable to such cases, is UTILITY." (Hear this, ye Utilitarians of the Westminster ! ). The question thus based, he contends—That Retrenchment, if an object of Re- form, has been carried far enough—That a further reduction of Taxes would be of no use to any one, and especially of none to the labouring classes—That the present amount of' public Expen- diture and Government Patronage is necessary for the support of our glorious Constitution—That a Reformed Parliament, con- sisting, as it necessarily must, of levellers and fools, would be actuated by "a mischievous, meddling, pestilent spirit of' Economy, an outrageous and ungovernable phrensy of Retrenchment"—That "tile main cause, with us, of the increase of the public bur- dens, has always been war ;" that the people of England delight in war ; that a Reformed Parliament would assuredly be a warlike Parliament ; and that, therefore, it behoves the present Parliament "to protect the people from themselves," by resisting all Reform— That Reform would, sooner or later, end in a complete representa- tion of numbers ; that "public opinion is frequently opposed to beneficial innovations "—as, for instance, in the cases of Free Trade and the Relief Bill ; and that therefore, again on the principle of utility, all Reform ought to be resisted—That the Rotten Boroughs are a precious institution ; for that to these we are indebted for the public services of PITT, BURKE, Fox, SUER!- DAN, CANNING, HORNER, MACKINTOSH, and RICARDO ; and that, therefore, on the principle of utility, the Rotten Boroughs ought to be carefully preserved—Lastly, and above all, that for preserving the exact balance of our glorious Constitution, "the envy of surrounding nations, the theme of the philosopher, the jurist, and the statesman," it is absolutely necessary that the Crown and the high Aristocracy should enjoy a prtponderating influence in the House of Commons. Having thus condemned Reform on the principle of utility, the Reviewer makes a dead set at the Ballot. This part of the article is so feeble and inconsistent, that we cannot help suspecting it was furnished by Sir ROBERT WILSON, who, all the world remem- bers, was not long ago playing fast and loose with Sir ROBERT PEEL. His main argument (if the stale and exploded phrase may be called an argument) against the Ballot, is, that secret voting would make no difference at all in the degree of corruption ; and 'that voters would be bought, as under the present system,--with this difference only, that the losing candidate Weald pay nothing, the winner all. - We are. then told, that from this so harmless Bal- lot," there is but one stage more to Universal Suffrage and Annual Parliaments ; and that, therefore, the Ballot, as well P As the least degree of Reform, which would inevitably lead to the 'Ballot, must be resisted tooth and nail." The remainder of the article consists, for the most part, of ani imitation of Boma, being an appeal to the fern's of the owners of property ; who are assured, that Reform would produce instant Revolution—" a war of the house of Want against the house of Have ;" and that, " if such a war should ever commence, all that we have ever read or heard of revolutionary horrors will be tame to the scenes of misery which await this great country?' In con- clusion, the Wellington-Peelite reverts to his original proposition, that the clamour for Reform is owing solely to dread of physical force; and declares that, " though he will not take upon himself to define what may be the precise extent and nature of the danger to be apprehended from the denial of such a Reform as is re- quired of us, his own belief is, that whatever importance that dana,er may possess, it derives from sufferance ; and that it will shrink at once into nothing beneath the grasp of a determined opposition.- The most remarkable feature of this laboured, and except as to the ballot, ably-written argument, is, that it does not contain one word of novelty. The concluding appeal to the fears of the owners of property is mouldy through staleness ; and we can discover nothing approaching to freshness in the whole article, except the assertions, that all Refofmers are actuated by dread of physical force, and that physical force is utterly despicable. The last assertion stands naked and unsupported by facts or reasoning. Many late facts are, surely, opposed to it. Why has not this de- spiser of the angry Million attempted to reason us out of the fears with which he reproaches us ? Upon what force do the Duke of WELLINGTON and Sir ROBERT PEEL depend, for maintaining a denial of all Reform, against that "chaos of unanimity" which so urgently demands, and which the King and his Ministers have so solemnly promised—a "full and effectual" Reform ? Perhaps Sir ROBERT PEEL will tell us, on the 1st of March, that the Duke of WELLINGTON depends implicitly on the Army—" the authori- ties," as the Quarterly writer has it, "supported by a military force ; " but if so, and if Parliament, depending on that assurance, should deny all Reform, which side of the question will be sup- ported by "dread of physical force ? " Some people will think, almost, that Sir ROBERT PEEL has been passing the late holydays at the fortress of Ham,—others, that he never heard of the down- fall Of POLIGNAC and PEYRONNET. All, however, will discover, in parts of this extraordinary manifesto, striking resemblances to the celebrated Report of the French Ministers which preceded the Ordonnances. Like the Tories of France, our Tories imagine that the cry for Reform is a mere passing effervescence of ignorant discontent, and that it may be readily quelled by a display of energy—witness the success of POLIGNAC'S "energy" in France, and of that of the infelix FELIX VAN MAANEN in the Nether- lands! Like the Tory writers of France, this Quarterly Reviewer holds journalism in abhorrence ; and though he speaks not of the newspapers in the words of M. de CHANTELAUZE, as being "a thick cloud which prevents the King from communicating frankly with his people," his opinion of them differs in nothing from that of the indifferent writer and worse minister who drew up the French Manifesto against Reform. "The newspapers," says he, "always echoing the voice which, for the time, is loudest, throw in their too powerful influence, to work on the enthusiasm of some and the fears of others." Of course, the "powerful in- fluence" of the Quarterly Review, which no one, except, appa- rently, this writer in that journal, ever thinks of doubting, is not to be reckoned amongst the effects of journalism. It was just so with the blind POLIGNAC party ; who could never understand that opinion generally has two sides, and that journalism must ever be the just expression of both.
We had almost forgotten to mention, what measures of Im- provement may be expected from the Duke of WELLINGTON and Sir ROBERT PEEL, if they should again lead the majorities of Parliament. These are recited in the Manifesto.
First, " the extension of the elective franchise to some few great manufacturing towns, such as Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds,—increasing pro tanto the numerical strength of the House' until the proved delinquency and just disfranchisement of an equal number of petty boroughs should afford the opportunity of restoring it again to its present standard." But such a Reform would be permitted only because, " after this new infusion, the House of Commons would probably be neither more nor less egi- dent than it is now"—because, in short, this would be absolutely no Reform at all.
Apropos of proved delinquency, we think it will be instructive to copy here the following passage from a speech delivered by Sir CHARLES FORBEs (who is any thing but a Revolutionist) in the House of Commons, on last Thursday night. "In these matters, people here acted on the principle of the Chinese, who attached no disgrace to stealing (especially from a European), pro- vided the delinquent could escape detection. If once discovered, he was torn in pieces like the hunted-down boroughs of Grampound and East Retford. The general principle of all elections was corruption : they might accordingly fasten on them in alphabetical order, beginning with Abingdon and Bletchingly, and proceeding through Liverpool till they ended with Truro. It was mere affectation, not to say cant or hypocrisy, to attack individual cases, when it would be difficult for any honourable member whatever to come forward with hand on heart, and make oath that he had obtained his seat without being indebted to those means which drew down their collective displeasure on such places as Evesham." Secondly, the "practical adoption of some portion at bast of Mr. WILMOT HORTON'S benevolent plans ;" and Some slight mo- dification of the Poor-Laws.
Thirdly," some provision for the Poor of Ireland, analogous to our own Poor Laws."
And this is all.
We must confess, that the strongest impression left on us by the perusal of this important document, is one of alarm ; one of ex- treme dread lest the sentiments which it puts forth in the name of the great Tory party, should be embodied in a vote of the House of Commons. Our limits of time and space prevent us from fur- ther enlarging on the subject to-day ; but we shall return to it next week, for the purpose of further exposing the selfish reckless- ness of those who, for their own ends of place and power, would incite the King to break his promises and the People to forget their allegiance.
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