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THE FIRST ILPFORM BILL.*
Ma. J. R. M. Brrmart is a welcome recruit to the ranks of English historians. He has taken for his subject a period just beyond the reach of living memories; and such a theme is alviays difficult, partly bemuse sufficient detachment is still hard to win, and partly because the material has not been put into shape by other hands, and the historian is both quarryman and builder, He is the master of a pure and dignified English style, and the defect of the book—its occasional overweighting with detail—was probably inevitable in a case where aci much of the detail is new,. But he never loses sight of the great issues, and he has an exCellent judgment and much subtlety in discrimination, His own opinions are not concealed, but he understands fully the case of the different combatants, and be is never guilty of a pettish verdict. In its 'mastery in handling much intractable stuff and in its broad and luminous outlook the book has few recent competitors in the sphere of social and political histopi. The First Reform Bill was not the culmination of a long-pursued and clearly held policy. The party which carried it were forced into it in spite of themselves, and in a sense it was as ill-related to Whig as to Tory doctrine. Nor was it* Radical measure, though the Radicals in the main supported it, for it did not realize any of their pet dogmas. It marks an epoch, because it was the first definite symptom of a movement which had been long in process—the awakening of what we call the democratic spirit. The people, not being clear as to what they wanted, were induced to ask for something and gob it. It is the gateway to our modern politics, but the gate-poste were not adjusted to the true direction of the road.
Mr. Butler's earlier chapters deal with the genesis of the movement towards Parliamentary Reform from the days of Cartwright and Price kind Wyvill. Before the French Revolu- tion the claim was based chiefly on the iniquities of the Crown and the borough-mongers ; but after the Revolution first principles Were rampant, and that doctrine of natural right which Burke abhorred was called in to aid. Fox and his group in Parliament "preserved a: link between the governing class and the inarticulate political sense of the populacel—a valuable work which may be permitted to out- weigh some of his blunders!. Thereafter the battle of Reform was fought rather in the country than in the Commons. The dry factions character of Whiggism about 1810 was scarcely more demoiratio than Lord Eldon' a Toryism. Mr. Butler neatly sums rip the situation:— "As for the governing class, with untroubled conscience they believed for the most part, if they were Tories, that all mast somehow turn out for the best under our matchless constitution of Church and State, if only the Land were given a chance: if they were Whigs. that a fine time was coming, with a pure but well- connected Ministry governing a grateful country on the most liberal fainciple of laissez-faire, supported by the solid worth of the middle-class. There were few who, like the young Disraeli, looked down beneath the thin crust into the boiling waves of restless energy, and sought to understand the desires of labour."
It was in the country, in the associations of London and Birmingham and Manchester and Glasgow, that the true impetus to Reform was to be found. They instructed and inspired the populace, and created that wave of national feeling which broke down the conservatism of Lords and
King.
The story of the two years of struggle is long, complex, but, as told by Mr. Butler, of the profoundest interest: The accession of Grey to power; the hectic General Election ; the debates in the Commons ; the long duel in the Lords ; the resignation of Grey and the Duke's failure to form a Cabinet; the intricate negotiations over Peermaking—it is by far the most Striking and effective drama in recent political history.
• The Passing of tha Great Erna Bill. By J. R. II. Butler. London: LonEsmaus and Co. [121, Sd. not 'It is full, too, of interesting precedents for the cottatitutionn student, for in those years the bones of the Constitutien were laid bare. Did the result correspond, in Cromwell's words, n to the honesty and simplicity of the design" P Scarcely. As with all political changes, the consequences were tuiforeseen. Reform did little for the working classes, whose enthusiasm had carried it.. It established the middle classes as the main factor in the State, and these fell into a Conservatism different from Eldonism, but scarcely less deep. The Tories were left aghast, thinking that the end of the world had come, and " doubting whether in future politics would be a fit pastime for a gentleman." But Peel was there to recount-11ot a Conservative party, and there were younger men growing up, like Disraeli, who were to outbid the Whigs in the auction-room of democracy. The real achievement of the Reform Bill was the proof it gave that the Constitution was elastic, that changes, even drastic changes, could come without altering its substance. For thinking men it took melodrama out of arguments about progress. The figures of the play stand out clearly on Mr. Butler's stage. Not the least heroic is the Duke of Wellington, fighting the battle of his country, as he understood it, not less gallantly than on other fields :— " That character stands as one of the noblest possessions of English public history, and the keenest tests which students of political intrigue can apply serve only to re-establish its essential simplicity and grandeur. Subject to endless misrepresentations and abuse from men whose sympathies and standards were alien to his, and often playing a part which the democratic tribunal of to-day condemns as politically criminal, he never appears for a moment to have failed in what he believed to be his duty, or to have been consciously swayed by selfish or hypocritical motives." We hear much, too, of the leaders out of Parliament, then like Attwood, of Birmingham, and that mister of the art of putting pressure from the outside, Francis Place. To these men, as much as to the Whig leaders, was due the success of the "bloodless revolution?' Their very names are now mostly forgotten; only Cobbett stands onfrom the dim ranks of the unofficial "agitators," for he fought for deeper human issues than any political scheme. In the Ministry itself it is hard to apportion praise. Lord John Russell was the chief drafts- man of the Bill; Durham, for all his difficulties, provided a valuable link with the recalcitrant Radicals; Brougham was the public orator, who kindled the popular imagina- tion; and Althorp, the sweetest and truest piece of humanity that ever sat unwillingly in a Cabinet, lent the influence of his perfect honesty and perfect good temper. But beyond them all stands out the figure of the Prime Minister. Grey is not a figure that makes strong demands upon the affection of posterity. The typical Whig, he despised the ordinary popular appeal, and if he loved the people, loved them at a distance. He seemed- to lack energy and definiteness, and to be tied to the chariot-wheel of narrow dogmas. He was an old man when he entered -On the great fight, and subject to fits of profound depression. No contemporary could have foreseen that in the conduct of the campaign he would show the noblest sort of opportunism, while refraining from sacri- ficing any single principle. His tenacity of purpose was only equalled by his readiness to concede all that was inessen- tial; and he held to his policy in the face of doubting colleagues, divided followers, an implacable Opposition, and constant popular misunderstanding. Is a statesman he must rank high in our annals, not for any great constructive power or peculiar insight, but for his complete mastery of a situation which was as novel and complex as ever faced a British Government.
Not the least instructive part of Mr. Butler's book is his attempt to estimate the standpoint; of the different combatants. Reform did not owe its popular appeal to its merits. Five out of six of those who shouted against the Duke did not care a rush for the actual provisions of the Bill, even if they under- stood them. it was. a cry round which gathered- all the venom, dissatisfactions of the nation.. No one believes. that the cry of "The People against the Peers," which did duty at recent elections, meant that the ordinary Englishman- had any serious grievance against a Lord, but he might have felt aggrieved against his employer and his parson, and the" Peers" signified to him those in authority.. In the same way; to the ill- paid artisan in 1832 " Reforni" Was a WON which focussed airhis aspirations towards a- better State of things. It is ffiora difficult to understand the motives of those who residged the Bill, but it in clear that they had good Motives. "Bea, Canning, and Peel," as Mr. Butler -reminds us, "were imithet knaves nor fools, and they all with no hesitating void) declared against the Reformers of their day." To begin with; they se* in' the movement an attempt to try instituticate by the standard of pure reason, an attitude which they detested, not merely from digitized memories of the Frenett Revolution, but on sound- principles. Of political philo- sophy. Burke's pages provide us with their reasoned defence. They believed in property as the bails of political power, in variety of representation, and in a system of cheat* and balances; and what infuriated the Tories was- that Gee& and his friends, who preached Reform, also believed in these principles. The Bill, they urged, would destroy the 'old variegated web of the. Constitution, and substitute a dead middle-claes drabness. Why, even Place agreed that A Government of shopkeepers would be a.desplcable thing. Every interest.would be disfranchised except that of the proletariat-1- a dangerous outlook for !oven; of freedom, for an uncurbed democracy is as great a tyranny as an absolute monarchy. Inge.' tutions, said the Tories, are more important than individuate, and it is only the shallowest of rationalising that despise* them. There was a further argument, which weighed with thinking men, drawn from Burke's doctrine of representation: A representative, they said, Should be a free man chosen to do the political thinking of hie eleeterate. He has to consult his own conscience, not the • electors' mandate. and he is a good representative if he thinks honestly and clearly. Therefore it is quite immaterial whether he voted for by five or by five thousand. If he has not got thet.rprai' sentative character, no popular majority will give it biro: Lastly, it is to be- remembered that to many Of a gerlerotti imagination there was eomething deadly in the Whig.nOtion of progress, eveo when enshrined in- the golden'eloquenee Macaulay. What was the goal of that progress P One gathers it Was a kind of permanent international inhibition., I Crystal Palace in which the middle chigoes might worship; the three gracious forms of Peace, Plenty, and- Property." . The fault of the opponents of the Bill was not that they did not sympathize with the ideal of its promoters, but that they imagined it could be resisted. Reform was a necessary nap in national development, a step to be taken and then speedily forgotten. Both sides exaggerated its ultimate importancei the Tories could not realize its immediate necessity. . . .
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