THE SECOND REFORM AGITATION.
THE first Reform Bill was carried by the pressure of the People upon the Parliament ; and so must the second be, if at all. Nay, a more vigorous and forcible demonstration of the public will, may be necessary in order to convince the Members of the "Re- formed" Parliament that they must " set their house in order." It is a fact, little noticed, but important, that the regulation which prevents debates on the presentation of petitions, stifles in a great measure the popular voice in the House of Commons. It was by the repeated discussions, for which petitions furnished the oppor- tunity, that the Reform agitation was kept alive, in the House and out of it. Now, any thing more than a dry statement of the prayer of the petitioners is prohibited ; and no impression is pro- duced even by the most numerously signed and powerfully ex- pressed representation of the People's wishes in that form. It is the more necessary that public meetings should be held, and a resolute tone assumed in assemblies of the People. Unless the Reformers in the country bestir themselves, the two aristocratic factions, encouraged by the spaniel-like tameness of the Parliamentary Radicals, will succeed in establishing au anti- popular policy, more difficult to overturn than the old Borough- mongering system. Nothing will be done in Parliament until a great deal has been accomplished out of doors.
Discerning the signs of the times, and appreciating the im- portance of the crisis. Sir WILLIAM NIOLESWORTH has taken a first step in the second Reform agitation. His address to the Electors of Leeds appears in our advertising columns; and seldom have the advertising columns of any newspaper been so graced. The thoughts that breathe and words that burn" are spirit-stirring like a trumpet. Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH warns his con- stituents, that "the time for a quiet, deferential, and submis- sive course of proceeding," has passed away ; since the Ministers have proclaimed that to them the Reform Act is a final measure.
" 'fhe Ministers have declared that they were not prevented from supporting the Ballot by any engagements with the Sovereign, but by their own rooted hostility to it. Lord John Russell has chosen the very time when his sup- porters were smarting under the persecutions they have suffered to keep him an ellice—he has chosen that very time to declare that they shall never, with his consent, be shielded from those persecutions. At the very opening of the last Parliament in which, unless the Ballot be made a Cabinet question, his party will ever have the majority,—and while it is still uncertain whether they will continue to have it even in this,—he has declared the fact, which for the last three years has been sedulously disguised, that the Reform Act is to him a final measure; and that if the Tories cannot be kept out without a measure to give effect to that Act according to the declared intentions of its supporters, the Tories must come in.
"I do not say these things for the purpose of complaint ; nor do I seek to excite you to that indignation which I do not affect to deny that I think you might justly feel. My object is to impress upon you that the time is come when all temporizing—all delicacy towards the Whigs—all fear of disuniting Reformers, or of embarrassing Ministers by pressing forward reforms, must be at an end. If you wish for the Ballot,—if you wish for Triennial Parlia- ments,—if you wish for the Extension of the Suffrage, or its distribution so as to diminish the exorbitant and uncontrollable power of the great landholders, of the men who tax your bread and fetter your industry,—you must say it in the teeth of both the Aristocratic Factions now avowedly united to resist these just and necessary improvements. You must be prepared steadily to look in the face the unfortunate but nowise astonishing fact, that not only from the House of Lords, but from a large majority of the House of Coamnus, you never will obtain either the Ballot or any of the other measures to which i have referred, but by such a demonstration of your will as those bodies shall not dare to resist. You must be prepared for a struggle as arduous as that which carried the Reform Bill, to extort these measure* from both the parties of the Aristocracy and from both Houses of Parliament."
Sir WILLIAM !%rOLESWORTH anticipates the cry of the " Reform Ministry in danger;" and replies, that the Ministry " is already duomed."
"The Ministry themselves know that, without the Ballot, the Tories cannot be kept out of office longer, at the utmost, than till the next General Election. They have made their late declaration in the full knowledge of this ; and would never have made it, if they had not fully determined to rest their chance of remaining in office upon hieing able to persuade the Tories that Tory oyects can be better promoted by them than by a Tory Ministry. And truly, I know not what objects, but Tory objects, they are likely to promote ; or what those great prospects of amelioration are, which it is supposed would he injured, if we were to embarrass the Government' by standing forth in the face of the world and declaring our opinions. All the reforms which they propose, are the merest trifles compared with the evils to be removed; and even those they can only propose, but cannot carry. If they ever carry them, it will be only by the terror of your voices demanding things infinitely greater. All experience proves that unwilling rulers can be more easily induced to concede great reforms than small noes; that so long as the people are satisfied with demanding little, even that little is refused ; but when they have raised their demands to some- thing considerable, much more than the little they at first asked is eagerly thrown to them, in the hope of allaying the storm of dissatisfaction Which then, for the int time, their masters are willing to consider formidable." If the electors and non-electors of Leeds neglect the manly appeal of their true Representative, and, instead of respond- ing to it by meeting at once and declaring their resolution not to be sacrificed to the selfish policy of their present rulers, quietly submit to the infliction in store for them, we shall almost despair of the popular cause in the present generation. But the honesty and vigour which, despite of open foes and false friends, carried the election of Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH, forbid the idea that the Reformers of Leeds will prove craven. And they will not stand alone. There are indications in various parts of the country that the RUSSELL declaration will bring forth good fruit. The Council of the Political Union of Birmingham, we under- stand, have addressed their brother Reformers of Stroud to require from him who misrepresents them in the People's House, the resignation of his hitherto convenient seat. This is the boldest step we have seen announced, but not the only strong one. Next week the Westminster Liberals meet. A few such examples, operating on cheated hopes and exasperated feelings, will have a powerful effect in rekindling the Reform spirit of the country.
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