A Hundred Years Ago
THE SPECTATOR, JULY 18TH, 1829. REFORM OF PARLIAMENT.
For years it has been confessed on all sides, that the actual constitution of the House of Commons is by no means faithful to the fundamental principles upon which our system of government is professedly founded ; and that it does not, in fact, represent the popular sentiment, as in theory it ought to do. The anomaly has been hitherto successfully met by this one proposition—" The system works well," and so long as it did work well, the defensive Argument was unanswerable, because although the House of Commons happened to differ from the body of the people (and the occasions were not many), the subject matter of the difference was of too little moment to control the authority of those funda- mental maxims of State policy, " Stare super visa antiquas," " no quiets moveri." The last few years, however, have given a succession of proofs too striking to be overlooked, too uniform to leave the conclusion doubtful, that " the House of Commons does not work well." Trade fearfully and steadily declining at a time when we are said to maintain the best understanding with
'all the civilized world ; manufacturers perishing for want of employ-
ment ; agriculturists ruined for want of sale of their produce ; a declining revenue, and approaching civil war in one part of the Empire—all at a season of profound peace abroad ; this is a state of things incontestibly existing, and as incontestibly proving that " the House of Commons does not work well."
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