put their hands in my purse, and to sway the future destinies of this country; and when the neighbours step in, and beg permission to say a few words before these persons are chosen, there is an universal cry of rain, confusion, and destruction—­’We have become a great people under Vellum and Plumpkin—­under Vellum and Plumpkin our ships have covered the ocean—­under Vellum and Plumpkin our armies have secured the strength of the Hills—­to turn out Vellum and Plumpkin is not Reform, but Revolution.’”

It was said by the opponents of the Bill that the existing system worked well.—­

“Work well!  How does it work well, when every human being in-doors and out (with the exception of the Duke of Wellington) says it must be made to work better, or it will soon cease to work at all?  It is little short of absolute nonsense to call a government good, which the great mass of Englishmen would, before twenty years were elapsed, if Reform were denied, rise up and destroy.  Of what use have all the cruel laws been of Perceval, Eldon, and Castlereagh, to extinguish Reform?  Lord John Russell, and his abettors, would have been committed to gaol twenty years ago for half only of his present Reform; and now relays of the people would drag them from London to Edinburgh; at which latter city we are told, by Mr. Dundas, that there is no eagerness for Reform.  Five minutes before Moses struck the rock, this gentleman would have said that there was no eagerness for water.

“There are two methods of making alterations:  the one is to despise the applicants, to begin with refusing every concession, then to relax by making concessions which are always too late; by offering in 1831 what is then too late, but would have been cheerfully accepted in 1830—­gradually to O’Connellize the country, till at last, after this process has gone on for some time, the alarm becomes too great, and every thing is conceded in hurry and confusion.  In the mean time fresh conspiracies have been hatched by the long delay, and no gratitude is expressed for what has been extorted by fear.  In this way peace was concluded with America, and Emancipation granted to the Catholics; and in this way the War of Complexions will be finished in the West Indies.  The other method us, to see at a distance that the thing must be done, and to do it effectually, and at once; to take it out of the hands of the common people, and to carry the measure in a manly liberal manner, so as to satisfy the great majority.  The merit of this belongs to the administration of Lord Grey.  He is the only Minister I know of, who has begun a great measure in good time, conceded at the beginning of twenty years what would have been extorted at the end of it, and prevented that folly, violence, and ignorance, which emanate from a long denial and extorted concession of justice to great masses of human beings.  I believe the question of Reform, or any dangerous agitation of it, is set at rest for thirty or forty years; and this is an eternity in politics.

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