The men and parties, however, that first turned up, were

like the a foreign dynasty. It was a marriage that has had its honey-moon event by which they had risen, generous, popular, and British. Every succeeded by indifference, and followed by disagreement and disgust. student of our history who has the characteristic feelings of English- The parties are now treating for a settlement in order to preclude a men, loves freedom, and is proud of our rank as the pioneers of Eu- divorce. The Nation at the Revolution launched into a new career, ropean liberty—the first that broke ground and planted the standard— animated with new life, full of new vigour—prosperous, aggrandized, well knows the difference between the import of Whig and of Tory: and renowned—enjoyed too deeply the sentiment of its noble existence and, if the one name cannot claim to be national any more than the to dwell on evils in detail, or be conscious of the malady whose germs other, he at least distinguishes between the generous and the sordid, were deep in its frame. Society was advancing; it was the " progres- between what is proud and independent and what is servile and sive, the cheerful and hearty state ;" and the disorder that was destined creeping; between the men that love popularity and respect the to shake its more advanced age, was unobserved in the fulness of its People, and those that crowd about the Court and affect to scorn the exuberant health. Those times have passed away ; " the dull and " mob ;" between a party content to make common cause with the stationary " period is come ; and already threatened with "the decli- Nation provided it is allowed to lead, and the party which aspires to ning and melancholy," we are brought by it to serious reflection, to trample on the People and govern in spite of the Nation. A renegade self-examination. and to a full recognition of those wounds which if not like the bellwether Times cannot comprehend the union of Whigs and healed must inevitably one day prove themselves mortal. One Reformed Reformers,and thinks it unnatural, because the nature of a renegade and Parliament has already met to seek out or devise the remedies ; its ex- a bellwether is sordid and abject ; but the Whigs cannot forget they istence has been prematurely cut short ; and a second, heir to the sen- were the Reformers of 1688, and the Reformers cannot but see in timents of its predecessor, is about to succeed, and, if equal to its duty, themselves the Whigs of 1832. to avenge it. It has grievances to redress, and wrongs to complain of; The accession of GEORGE the Third, the grandson of " ZELL," was and if it would learn how to redress the one and obtain satisfaction for a new writ, and introduced the second part of Parliamentary history. the other, it must be guided by the example and precedents of English The Court wanted tools, the Tories wanted an employer : the bargain Parliaments, that, placed in similar circumstances, had a similar mission was soon struck ; and the unmanageable Whigs were cast out into Oppo. to fulfil ; and from whose mishrinking discharge of a duty, till then sition,--a post that has undoubtedly preserved to them that portion of unexampled, the liberty of both worlds springs as from its source. esteem which the most Radical Reformer, if he looks back into our These Parliaments are the First, the Second, and the Third of history, cannot in his heart refuse them. This period, which began CHART.ES the First. The Commons of 1835 may read in the Tory with general search-warrants and discretionary incapacitation of duly. historian, how their ancestors and predecessors dealt with a King who. elected Members—pretensions happily defeated by a people not yet cut short their reforms by premature dissolutions, and imposed on them: plunged chin-deep in Tory wars—ended, as all arrived at manhood can Ministers offensive to the Nation. remember, in a "huge cantle" cut out of British liberty,—in gagging. " He ( Charles) told the Parliament, that, by a promise of subsidies, bills and people-massacre. This is the reign of Toryism, in which he had engaged the King of Denmark to take part in the war; that Great Britain has been severed by the sword from America, and bound the States must be supported in the unequal warfare which they mains over in 700 millions to keep the peace with France. The Tories have tained with Spain ; that no less a sum than 700,0001. a year bad been fully developed their new principles ; proved that the " forms of a free found, by computation, requisite for all these purposes ; that the main- and the ends of an arbitrary government are not incompatible ;" and tenance of the fleet and the defence of Ireland demanded an annual ex- given us the full measure, heaped up and flowing over, of their mis. pence of 400,000/. ; but he himself had already exhausted and andel-- chief. Their exterior policy yoked us to an iron despotism, and their pated in the public service his whole revenue, &c. interior has sown deep the seeds of discord between the members of the " To these reasons the Commons [who had voted 112,0001 ] re- Union, and fomented the sores of Parliament into a vast gangrene. mained INEXORABLE. Notwithstanding that the King's measures were The House, which in the first half of its post-revolutionary career had altogether unexceptionable, they obstinately refused any further aid. been generally turbulent, often unmanageable, sometimes generous, and Some Members, favourable to the Court, having insisted on an addi- seldom wise, became, in the second, all duty and compliance—at once the Lion of two-fifteenths to the former supply, even this pittance was refused; tool and the accomplice, and religiously fathered all the villanies of the though it was known that a fleet and army were lying at Portsmouth, in Tory Government, to share in the spoils of the empire and the plunder great want of pay and provisions; and that Buckingham, the Admiral . of the People. Under the Tory regime, popularity was proscribed as and the Treasurer of the Navy, had advanced, on their own credit, near penal, and opposition denounced as faction. The Commons, seduced a hundred thousand- pounds for the sea service." from lawful wedlock, gave themselves up without shame or remorse to Thus the "cat was wringing her bands ;" the whole Court in agonies,. the Court; the divorce between them and the People was consum- the Standard and Post rabid with loyalty and dismay ; and yet the sturdy mated ; and the House, instead of being what BURKE declares it ought Commons would not come down with a groat. The King, however, to be, " the express image of the feelings of the Nation," reflected only might, if he had been pleased to part with an abuse or two, have ob- the passions, the caprice, and the cupidity of the Tory faction and the tabled at their hands a more adequate supply. This honest Davin of Tory Court. Then was seen " an addressing House of Commons and course does not tell us, but " critic HALLAM " does. " The Commons a petitioning Nation ; a House of Commons full of confidence when would not have refused a fresh subsidy, in addition to the two first, if the Nation was plunged in despair ; in the utmost harmony with Mi- any offers of Reform had been made them by the Crown. They had nisters whom the People regarded with abhorrence ; who voted thanks already entered on the subject, when their debates were interrupted by a sud- when the public opinion called upon them for impeachments ; who den dissolution." So much for the First Parliament of CHARLES.

were eager to grant when the general voice demanded account ; who in The King, by a Court contrivance of those days, had hoped to incapa- all disputes between the People and Administration presumed against citate some of the great popular leaders from being elected to serve in the Veople ; who punished their disorders,but refuscd.earen to inquire into the new Parliament; but to no purpose; for, says HUSIE sulkily, who fatten on the revenues of the Bloody Church of Ireland! Let the provocations." After agitating Place-bills, Triennial Parliaments, the Tories cast the beams first out of their own eyes. and the other remedies (short of Reform), to Mint BURKE denomi-

nates the " Destructive system," that statesman lays it down that no cure is possible, but the one whose application in 183-2 has justified his pro- " NO SUPPLIES!" visiona—" the interposition of the body of the People." Yet were Paws, Iaausry 1835. " the five hundred on whom the tower of Siloam fell sinners above all

" Magnus ab integro seelorurn oaseitur ordo." the Galileans ?" A body invested with irresponsible power is certain A VOICE of the old time—the ancestral voice; that proclaimed to abuse it in the interest of its members. The House of Commons English liberty and laid the foundations of British grandeur—cries was intended to be a control for the People ; the Tories perverted it unto the Representatives of the People—" No supplies ! Redress of into a control upon the people. In its Revolutionary being, it was de- grievances ever in our days went before the grant of subsidies. So signed to bear a vigilant eye over toe Executive and the Magistracy—to England, pukherrinta return, grew in freedom ; so liberty was built in look anxiously after the public money, and keep open ears to corn- our island deep as that island in the ocean ; so the British name rose plaint. The Tories charmed its vigilance with a share of power : they eminent among the nations ; so her sons spread over the world, and brought their evil designs into Parliament, instead of conspiring in the won and founded empires ; so we laid the base of the pyramid, and so Cabinet, arid, by making the House their accomplice, put it out of its

you must crown the summit." power to punish. They set up a Parliamentary Executive, which

The People's Representatives about to assemble for legislation, and BURKE has pronounced, and the Nation felt to be, " the most intolerable exploring, as far as mortals' ken, the vast career that opens be- of all the modes of tyranny ;" and thus they domineered, till the People, Sore them, will find in no Parliament since the Revolution a fit pre- by a " bodily interposition," cast out the devils that had abandoned cadent by which to guide their steps, or a generous example to inspire Prerogative to effect a lodgment in the body of Parliament, and having their resolution. At that rani, the passions and interests which for been ejected from Parliament, are now grappling again to Prerogative.

half a century had heaved and swelled in the land, and, in their con- It is not in the career of a Borouglimortgering Oligarchy, bartering the flier, toppled down throne and altar, found the satisfaction they had welfare of the People against a share in its spoils, and its control upon sought, and ceased from agitation; the barriers were withdrawn, the Government for a participation in power, that the present Representa-

flood rolled strongly but peaceably in its channel. In plain prose, the tives of the People must look for a precedent by which to direct their Commons fortified themselves in Parliament, Prerogative drew in its proceedings. To find a rule of conduct, they must reflect on their horns (it was thought for ever), and Parliament in the plenitude of own character, and the circumstances of the time; and if they desire power usurped the attribute of the Almighty arid pronounced itself the support of example and precedent, they must seek it in the conduct omnipotent. But pride is ever near its fall, and the omnipotence of of those who bore a similar character and were placed in like eircum- men is the prelude to their abasement. A new enemy arose, whose stances. They are the organs of the community which suffers under operations are visible only when complete ; an enemy whose existence the abuses of the state and the maleadrninistration of government ; they is announced by his victory ; say rather a disease, whose first symptom sympathize with it, for they are themselves of it ; they are vigilantly is incurable mortification. Many years—whole reigns—passed over of watched by and cannot deceive it ; they are strictly accountable to it, outwardly florid health ; but even there the practised eye could, under and cannot escape the audit. They are incorruptible, for the best of the bloom of the cheek, detect the ravages: that wasted the heart. all reasons—that they represent those who suffer by corruption, and During that period, the principles which had triumphed at the Revo- who, if their Representatives tampered with the accursed thing, would lution operated more or less upon those who rose on the wheel of for- instantly perceive, and, as quickly as might be, punish. A Represen- tune to guide its course : yet, though the principles were national, the tation of this kind is without any parallel since the Revolution, and dominant interests were partial ; the rights of the individual were cannot therefore find the rule in any Parliament since the Revolution. secure, but the weal of the nation was at the mercy of persons and The circumstances tinder which the House is about to meet, and the- classes ; and the victorious Commons, giving up to " party what was objects it has in contemplation, bear as little resemblance to any cir- meant fur mankind," soon demonstrated that the Revolution was the ctimstances or objects since 1688, as its character does to that of any &era of civil, not of political freedom ; and that the People, who had House since the same :era. The Revolution was the closing of a long, won liberty for each, would one day have to struggle for the liberty arduous, and sanguinary account with the government of the STUARTS ; of the whole. it was the opening of a new one with a revolutionary government and

• Falow of patriots still remained to keep up the ill.humo ur of ••'1 he views therefore of the last Parliament were adopted, as if the minor same men had been everywhere elected. and no time had intervened since their meeting. When the King laid before the House his neces.

subsidies e s and three fifteenths ; and thoush they afterwards added one subsidy more, the sum was little prop& do! ed to the greatness of the which the young Prince in his first enterprise sa ardently longed. But " tlis circumstance was not the most disagreeable one. The supply was eds- voted by the Cononone. The passing gi that vote into law was reserved till the end of the session. A condition was thereby made, in a very undisguised manner, with their Sovereign. Under colour of re- dressing grievances, whit h during this short reign could not be very name- u

mns, they were to proceed in regulating and controlling .every part of

Government whieh displeased them : and if the King either cut them The King, indeed, as HALLAM observes, reaped little good from his Trews of its predecessors, otherwise would have but ill represented Means, ti pelis of the kingdom, would indeed have been poorly served by e- and unnecessary wars. Among other charges brought against this Premier of Cuarti.es, they accused him of " procuring many titles of barrier to the " interposition of the body of the People."

Administration. they but for a moment refer their own case and condition to those of the

" The Lord Keeper, in the King's name, expressly commanded the Parliaments of GEGRGE the Third, they will perceive that they have }louse not to meddle oath his Minister and servant BUCKINGHAM; and nothing in common with a House which the Tories had utterly discon- ordered them to finish in a few days the bill which they had begun for meted with the People, in order to make it an instrument for ruling in the subsidies, and to make some addition to them ; otherwise they defiance of the People. Let them take a longer survey, both before must not export to sit any longer. Citsaus even went so far, in a and behind, and they will perceive that the present is a new era—the message, as to threaten the Commons, that if they did not furnish him sera of political, as that of 1626 was the sera of civil liberty. It is the with supplies, he should be obliged to try " new counsels." These inn- period of the PEOPLE. IN PARLIAMENT ; as that which in 1832 came to prudent suggest ons either gave warning than struck terror. A Ferris a close, was the period of the territorial Aristocracy is Parliament. The rious liberty the Commons thought, which was to be preserved by en- circumference of the present circle is much vaster—who shall calculate limited complaisance, was no liberty at all. And it was necessary, while the People's orbit?—but the Second Reformed Parliament stands at yet in power, to secure the Constitution by such invincible barriers that precisely the same point in the cycle of political that was occupied by no King or Minister should ever, for the future, dare to speak such Ian- the Third Parliament of CHARLES the First in that of civil Reform.

page to any Parliament." The Third Parliament of CHARLES the First avenged the untimely Among the " barriers " proposed, was a declaration, that levying of dissolution of its predecessor, and obliged the King to pass the famous

customs without consent of Parliament was illegal : Petition of Right, which under the name of Bill of Rights is the " By depriving the King of these resources, they would have reduced existing foundation of British liberty. They did their duty to the na- bim to total subjection and dependence. While they retained such a tion nobly ; they have merited the veneration of all ages and countries; pledge, besides the supply already promised, they were sure that nothing they raised the English name above that of every modem people ; and could be refused them. Though they found themselves incapable of they prepared the way for the great career which British prosperity- fixing any legal crime upon the Duke [the bill of accusation compre- built on British freedom was to accomplish. But did the course of headed eight articles, of which several, says HALLAM. were probably things henceforward run smooth ? History says no. The King and well founded], they regarded him as an unable and perhaps a dangerous his Government of Lords and Bishops premed this Petition of Right, Minister: and they intended to present a petition, which would then have and then broke it. Eleven years of misrule and dragoon legislation been equivalent to a command, for removing him from his Majesty's person ensued ; High Tory despotism enjoyed and abused its hour. But the

and councils." avenger came at last—the Long Parliament followed, of necessity, " The King was alarmed at the yoke which he saw prepared for him : and STRAFFORD and LAUD and CHARLES . . . Deep had been the he was determined immediately to dissolve the Parliament. When offence, and dreadful was the vengeance! this resolution was known, the House of Peers, whose compliant beha- The People of Great Britain in 1835 do not complain of martial law viour entitled them to some authority with him, endeavoured to inter- in England, but of their fellow-citizens butchered in Ireland to main. pose : and they petitioned him, that he would allow the Parliament to taro ministers of the Gospel. They do not complain of soldiers bil- sit some time longer. " Not u moment longer ! " cried the King hastily; leted in their houses, but of the dregs of the Aristocracy pensioned on and he soon after ended the session by a dissolution." their industry. They do not complain of want of freedom for their

" Such signs forerun the death or WI of kings." This was the first persons, but of not being at liberty to guide their affairs. They do mt. act of the drama; the second was the King's descent into the House of complain of hundreds of thousands, but of hundreds of millions squan- Commons to arrest the five Members; the third passed before the dered in wars with France. In a word, they have won for themselves window of Whitehall. The grievous and fatal error of CHARLES, his civil freedom ; they are determined to have political freedom.—to Court and Lords and Bishops, was simply that of being, as BURKE says, govern themselves collectively, as they govern themselves individually. " filty years behindhand in their politics ;" and HTmIE, in other words, The .Commons of 183', if they are not degenerated from their ances- is of the same opinion : " No one was at that time sufficiently sensible of tors and predecessors, will grant NO SUPPLIES till their complaints are the great weight which the Commons bore in the balance of the Constitution. redressed, and the Government that supports the abuses complained of And as their rank, both considered in a body and as individuals, was but is deposed. They will lay down their petition of right, and throw the second in the kingdom, nothing less than fatal experience could upon the King and Lords the alternative of accepting or rejecting it. engage the English princes to pay a due regard to the inclinations of that If they do this, they will fill a place in history like that of the Third Par- forma/46k assembly." The unhappy CHARLES—far from the worst of hermit of CHARLEs1 the First, and unite the suffrages of all times and his class, but rather, on the contrary, a favourable specimen--had an all countries. If they do this, the People are in no alarm eten for the apology for a mistake, which after him became inexcusable : he had no quiet of the land and the uninterrupted flow of commerce and industry. precedent to warn him of the danger, even though a precedent had The King and the Lords may not be deeply read in history, but there been able to influence his conduce—which, if we are to judge from sub- are events which common fame brings to the ears of every Man.. sequent experience, it in all probability would not ; for the error has Should the Commons shrink from their duty, or only partially act up been repeated once at home, and twice in a neighbouring land ; and how to it, the People will lament it more for their Representatives than for often again the ignorance of men, and the madness of interested classes, themselves : they will regret a Reformed House sunk in disesteem and will exemplify the same inability to look before and behind, it remains dishonour; but they apprehend nothing for themselves. They have fur future history to tell. And let not the reader be led by the pitiful always their own resource—the resource which the nature of the ewe- Toryism of HUME, more worthy, as CHARLES Fox said, of a child indicates, and which BURKE has reduced to a formula—THE INTERPC.. than of a philosopher, to reflect harshly on the " niggardliness" of the Sr ION OF THE. BODY OF THE PEOPLE. But they hope better things ef Commons to a " youthful monarch," who " ardently longed for glory ;" their Representatives, both for the sake of the Commons and the coun- but judge the picture in its proper light, examine the cloth on its try ; and in the spirit of this hope they exclaim unto the Second Re. right side, the side which even HOME himself cannot help some- formed House—

times turning up to the reader " They boldly embraced the side of " stand for your own : freedom, and resolved to grant no supplies to their necessitous prince, Look back unto your mighty ancestors!" without extorting concessions in favour of civil liberty. The end they

esteemed beneficent and noble ; the means regular and constitutional. The editor of a newspaper at Columbus, Ohio, apologizes for the To grant or refuse Supplies, was the undoubted privilege of the Commons." non-appearance of his paper, on the regular day of publication, by say- . It will not exact much additional reflection on the reader's part to ing, that he was engaged, during that day, in cow-biding a fellow who extend his views a little beyond the Tory historians, and to consider had slandered him, and didn't get through early enough to go on with with Constitutional 'Lassen, that " if those assemblies had met his paper.

together only to carry their abject flatteries to the foot of the Throne—to the l louse vote submissively such supplies as Ministers were pleased to demand, ." or even to enter into some minor grievances, not affecting the King's prerogative, or absolute power in the affairs of the Strde—if eve)), remomstrance was to be answered by dissolution, and its autlo. a and asked for supply, they immediately voted him three punished with imprisonment—an English Pa liament, like the Cortes t f &ties, Castile, would have tecome a mockery of natimal representation." Let it be further asked, how the destinies of this great people would have occasion, and ill fitted to promote those views of success and glory for been affected by such a course of " loyal" conduct—of such " kind and dutiful usage"—of such sweetness between his Majesty and the Con. mons," as would have been extolled by the Standards and Posts of 162e, and as was actually preached from the pulpit, with every spiritual de- nunciation in case of nomeompliatice, by the ',elms, the WILLI/sneer,

the NEILES, the FIELDS, and the rest of BUCKINGHAM'S Bishops—

abject courtiers, as HALLAM calls them, and gross flatterers of the Court? " Tyranny," answers that admirable Constitutionalist BENJA- MIN CONSTANT, " has always one of two results : it bastardizes and

share in their undertaking, or refused compliance with their demands, degrades the people, and reduces it to the lowest rank of nations, lit e

le must not expert any supply from the Commons." Spain. Under its ancient Cortes (not the Cortes of Cuatille, but an English Parliament of 1626), Spain was the queen of the world, the cuttings short, and abrupt dissolutions : '•It served only to augment the arbiter of commerce, the sovereign of the ocean, and counted thirty embarrnsinents of the Crown. Every new House inherited, the send- millions of inhabitants: rolitical and religious despotism have weighed her down ; her supremacy has vanished ; her treasures are exhausted ; Mmher fleets no longer formidable ; and a population of nine millions, poor the prevailing spirit ef the Nation." The capitals, counties, and metro- arid naked, wander over a territory hardy cultivated." Such is the last r le rs going into a Committee of Ways and eans, or even putting the result of a court, a noble and episcopal government, ineffectually de- Supplies " into the hands of Commissioners." The Commons of 1626 precated by " dutiful and affectionate" Commons, that grant supplies had other game on font; and before they paid the Army and Navy, the before they have redressed grievances. It is not, however, adds Court and Bedchamber, they were bent on bringing down the great BENJAMIN CONSTANT, •°the necessary result ;" and FERDINAND the Tory abuse of those days, in the person of the Duke of BUCKINGHAM, Seventh, at the very moment of his saying this a prisoner in his palace, testified in favour of the Constitutional orator's argument, that wko squandered the public treasure and involved the country in ruinous an unflinching " inexorable" House of Commons is the only durable

honour for his kindred," and " of having united many offices in his person." For God's sake, and that of the destinies of this great nation, let not The Commons of 1626, like those of Ins, had a long account of griev- the Commons of 1835 fall into the common error, and take up the po- airces to settle with ; o.'er, and a long list of abuses to reform ; but the litics and precedents of " fifty years ago ;" when " Parliamentary support question immediately at issue was, it appears, the existence of an odious came and went with office, totally regardless of the man or the merit." If

Administration. they but for a moment refer their own case and condition to those of the

" The Lord Keeper, in the King's name, expressly commanded the Parliaments of GEGRGE the Third, they will perceive that they have }louse not to meddle oath his Minister and servant BUCKINGHAM; and nothing in common with a House which the Tories had utterly discon- ordered them to finish in a few days the bill which they had begun for meted with the People, in order to make it an instrument for ruling in the subsidies, and to make some addition to them ; otherwise they defiance of the People. Let them take a longer survey, both before must not export to sit any longer. Citsaus even went so far, in a and behind, and they will perceive that the present is a new era—the message, as to threaten the Commons, that if they did not furnish him sera of political, as that of 1626 was the sera of civil liberty. It is the with supplies, he should be obliged to try " new counsels." These inn- period of the PEOPLE. IN PARLIAMENT ; as that which in 1832 came to prudent suggest ons either gave warning than struck terror. A Ferris a close, was the period of the territorial Aristocracy is Parliament. The rious liberty the Commons thought, which was to be preserved by en- circumference of the present circle is much vaster—who shall calculate limited complaisance, was no liberty at all. And it was necessary, while the People's orbit?—but the Second Reformed Parliament stands at yet in power, to secure the Constitution by such invincible barriers that precisely the same point in the cycle of political that was occupied by no King or Minister should ever, for the future, dare to speak such Ian- the Third Parliament of CHARLES the First in that of civil Reform.