THE REFORMERS' BATTLE-CRY.
ONE of our correspondents calls upon us to furnish for the present time and the coming struggle, a rallying,-cry for the Nation, as efficient in its power of uniting and animating all lfenlrmers es our former device, " 'flie Bill, the whole Bill, and nothiter bet the Bill," which proved so useful in the General Election et I 831. Before saying what this should be, let us attend to the dial.coliec of our position. In la:; I, the Nation had but one object n se- cure the key to all future improvements. Now. that ()him 'win:, accomplished, andlthe fruits of Reform expected, t is a bre railing out of important public aims; and every man is disposed to follow those especially to which he is himself, from taste, habit, interest, or accident, most attached. Thus the Nation has no longer only one, but many objects to care for ; though they may all, indeed, be summed up in the general term GOOD GOVERNMENT. 'MIS is too abstract and formal for a rousing battle-cry : and so, perhaps, is another form of words by which our actual position in reference to the former struggle might be accurately expressed—" Fun PLAY TO THE REFORM ACT!" It strikes us, that we cannot have a better sentence for conveying the expression of' a feeling in which the greatest number of persons concur—implying at the same time vigorous action in a common cause—than the short one which has already been employed several times in this journal during the last month : "Dowat WITH THE TORIES !.. In the sense in which we use it, this sentiment imports a vast deal indeed—no less than the removal of all kinds of abuses in Church and State, and the establishment of good government for the many ; for we do hold that Tory supremacy is synonymous with the conservation of abuses, and of government for the gain of a few. Our rally ing-cry points to no measures of personal vio- lence. We would not knock the Tories' brains out : we do not call upon the Reformers to take up " brickbats and bludgeons," or use their physical superiority for the corporeal injury of their adversaries. We do not call for a Coercion Bill to keep the Canton Club people from assembling together; thoup we believe their machinations to be unpatriotic and full of mis- chief. We have no wish to restrain the Tories even from doing mischief by personal duresse or bodily hardship. No, no—our motto implies nothing of the kind.
"Down with the Tories" certainly means that the Reform Act shall have fair play : which it cannot have at the hands of its natural and sworn enemies.
" Down with the Tories" means a thorough Reform of the Church in Ireland. It means that the Protestant Establishment in Ireland shall be reduced to a size commensurate with the wants of the Protestant population ; that the Catholics shall no longer be dragooned into the support of it ; and that instead of
aullters and furious partisans, the Clergy shall be
duced. or entirely disbanded. "Down with the Tories" means a Reform of the Church in England. The abolition of sinecures and pluralities, the more righteous distribution of clerical revenues, the restriction of Bishops and spiritual persons to spiritual matters, is implied in the overthrow of the Tories; who have ever been the upholders of abuses and oppression in the Church. "Down with the Tories" means equal rights to the Dissenters ef all classes ; their admission to the national seminaries of educa- tion; and the entire removal of the minor grievances connected with the registration of births and the performance of the mar- riage and funeral services.
"Down with the Tories" means the abolition of Church-rates and the just commutation of Tithes.
" Down with the Tories" means the thorough purging of the Corporations, and the abolition of the self-elective system. Never will those sinks of pollution, the English and Irish Corporations, be cleansed by the Tories. On the subserviency and corruption of the corporate bodies the Duke and his men mainly rely for the return of Borough Members at the ensuing election. With scarcely an exception, the Corporations throughout England and Ireland (our canny friends in North Britain lost no time after the Great Bill was carried in obtaining the reform of their municipal system) are the enslaved tools of Tory Peers. Men who could not get credit for a guinea are allowed to domineer over the most wealthy and reputable of their fellow townsmen. To this system the Tories are warmly attached, and no wonder. Their overthrow, then, is the necessary preliminary to Corporation Reform.
"Down with the Tories" means the spread of information among all classes. The Tory maxim has always been, that igno- rance and political slavery must flourish or fall together; that the people must be ignorant, or Tories cannot be safe; and therefore that the masses must be taught as little as possible, and that little such as will perpetuate Tory domination.
"Down with the Tories" means the removal of those restrictions on the interchange of commodities which prevent the industrious from carrying the product of their labour to the best market, and check the growth and manufacture of things necessary and useful to mankind.
"Down with the Tories" means cheap justice. In England, justice is generally out of the reach of all but the wealthy. It is proverbially ruinous to go to law. Hence numberless oppressions are never redressed. The late Government made an effort to establish cheap courts of justice, but the Tory Oligarchy beheld in the attempt an attack on their "right divine to govern wrong ;*. so they crushed it. "Down with the Tories" means economy and retrenchment. The Army never will be reduced materially as long as WELLING- TON, HARDINGE, HILL, ELLENBOROUGH, GOULBURN, and the rest, are allowed to sway the national councils; or as long as a system hostile to the welfare of the many is to be kept up at all hazards. It is only by the army that there is any chance of sup- porting the Tory system ; and therefore the military are to be pampered and flattered as the Prmtorian guards of old, or the Turkish Janissaries. A patriotic and paternal Government might safely dispense with a large standing army : it is essential, and always has been, to the continuance of the Tory system of misrule. "Down with the Tories" means "Down with jobbing." There is no chance of a reduction of the Pension-list or the abolition of Sinecures from the Tories. The Duke will soon find a successor to Mrs. A RBUTH NOT, and to his late mother, Lady MOR NI NGTON. The old system of Colonial jobbing will soon again be in full force. There will be more PEELS for Australia and more SOBER- SETS forlthe Cape. The Diplomatic service will again be illus- trated with the LONDONDERRIES and COWLEYS. Lord ELLEN- BOROUGH may reasonably expect an augmentation of his sinecure.
"Down with the Tories" means cheap Newspapers, the amend- /need of the Libel Law, the repeal of the Six Acts, the liberty to speak and write the truth of public men.
We may continue these definitions; space now fails us. Enough, however, has been indicated to show the capabilities, and warrant the adoption of the battle-cry," Down with the Tories l"
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