1833.

CHAP. example was immediately followed in all the other great XXXI. towns and new constituencies; and to the influence of this circumstance, great part if not the whole of the subsequent changes in the policy of the British empire are to be ascribed. The pledges taken were chiefly to bind the representative to vote for the repeal of particular taxes, such as the house-tax, window-tax, duty on corn, spirits, tea, or sugar, which immediately affected themselves, without inquiring for a moment how the deficiency was to be supplied, or the national armaments maintained. without these taxes. The exaction of these pledges, which was almost universal in the new constituencies, had a most important effect on the composition of Parliament, and greatly augmented the Reform majority. The Conservatives nearly all refused to take the pledges, and were in consequence in great part thrown overboard in the very outset; and the majority were tied to a course of conduct by persons ignorant of, or indifferent to, the effect it might have upon the fortunes, or even existence, of the country. The Liberals gained a great accession of strength in Parliament in the first instance by this circumstance, but they experienced nothing but embarrassment from it in the end, for it brought them under the rule of an ungovernable majority in the House of Commons, whose votes, being determined by the dictates of rash and ignorant constituencies given beforehand, could neither be directed by reason nor swayed by influence. The least consideration must show every candid mind that a popular legislature, where the majority is thus directed. by pledges, so far from being a benefit, must always prove one of the greatest curses which can afflict society.

man on whom firm reliance cannot be placed that he will obey the wishes and directions of his constituents.

"4. That a signed engagement should be exacted from the member that he would at all times and in all things act conformably to the wishes of a majority of his constituents deliberately expressed, or would at their request resign the trust with which they had honoured him.""-London Resolutions, Oct. 17, 1832; Ann. Reg., 1832, p. 300.

XXXI.

1833.

What should we think of a court of law, where the judges CHAP. and jury, before they heard the evidence in every case, or knew anything about its merits, were bound ab ante to give certain decisions in every one of them according to the dictates of a crowd of noisy occupants of shops and Ann. Reg. houses rented below L.20, in general as ignorant of the 300. merits of each case as themselves ? 1

1

1832, 299,

the new

The registrations were all completed in October, and 26. the elections took place in the end of December and be- Result of ginning of January. Parliament was dissolved on the elections. 3d December, and the new writs were returnable on the 29th January. The elections, upon the whole, went off more quietly and with less violence than had been anticipated, and it is not surprising that it was so. The Liberals had in general acquired so decided a majority that they were secure of victory; violence and intimidation were no longer required, and therefore they were not resorted to. The greater part of the seats were secured with ease for the Reformers by decided majorities. Ignorant of the decisive change which had been worked by the Reform Bill in boroughs, the Conservatives started candidates in most of the great towns, but they were generally defeated. The whole twenty members for London and its suburban districts were returned in the Liberal interest, and Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds did the same. All the boroughs in Scotland, twenty in number, returned Liberal members, and the great majority of the Irish seats were carried by the same interest. In a few instances, much to the disappointment of the Reformers, who expected to have carried the whole boroughs in the empire, Conservatives got in. Sir R. Vivian, who had been distinguished by his resistance to reform, was at the head of the poll in Bristol, and Lord Sandon, a moderate Tory, preserved his seat for Liverpool; but that was known to be owing to the number of the old freemen in these cities, and afforded no test of the opinions of the new constituencies. Upon the whole, it was calculated, when the returns were all made,

XXXI.

1833.

CHAP. that the Liberals had a majority of at least five to one in the House of Commons; there being scarce 100 Tories in a House of 658 members. The victory was complete ; to all appearance the Conservative interest was irrevocably and for ever destroyed in the Lower House. So far the Reform Bill had completely answered the expectations of its supporters; but from the decisive nature of their triumph a new source of anxiety was opened up to them. They had destroyed one set of opponents only to rear up another still more formidable; it was already doubtful how far the Whig Ministry could withstand a combination of the English Radicals and Irish Catholics; and whether the latter, by threatening such a coalition, might 1 Ann. Reg. not be in a condition to dictate their own terms to 1832, 301, 303. Government, and acquire the entire command of the

27.

Parliament.

Jan. 29,

1833.

country.1

Parliament met on January 29, 1833, and after some Opening of discussion, Mr Manners Sutton was elected Speaker by a large majority in opposition to Mr Lyttleton, who was supported by the Radicals. The session was opened by the King in person, who, with truth, said that "never at any time did subjects of greater interest and magnitude call for their attention." The renewal of the Bank Charter, of that of the East India Company, the question of West Indian slavery, and the everlasting disorders of Ireland, all called for immediate attention. Important as these topics were, however, it was not upon them that the anxious attention of the country was fixed. It was the House itself which occupied every eye, engrossed every thought. This was the first reformed Parliament, and the object of universal interest was how it would conduct itself, and whether it would realise the extravagant expectations of good formed by the one party, or the gloomy denunciations of evil which had been uttered by the other. Intense was the anxiety with which the first debates at this, the most momentous crisis in British history, the turningpoint in the whole policy, foreign and domestic, of the

XXXI.

1833.

empire, were regarded. Never, it may safely be affirmed, CHAP. were anticipations on both sides more signally disappointed. The terrors of the Conservatives were allayed by the division on Mr Hume's amendment to the Address, seconded by Mr O'Connell, which was only supported by 40 members, of whom 34 were Irish, out of a house of 428. This division tested the strength of the ultra-Irish and Catholic party, when opposed by the united Whigs, Tories, and Radicals of the empire; as one which immediately followed of 300 to 23, on a motion of Mr Cobbett 1 Parl. Deb. for the entire rejection of the Address, did of the extreme Jan. 29, English Radicals. Sir R. Peel and the whole Conserva- 1833; Ann. tives, on both these occasions, gave their whole strength 1-32. to the support of the Government.1

Feb. 9,

Reg, 1833,

wordiness

new regula

sequence.

Important as these divisions were, as testing the strength 28. of the two extreme parties in the House of Commons Extreme from whom most danger was to be apprehended, they yet of the new yielded in consequence to the impression which the de- House, and bate on the Address produced upon the country. It lasted tions in connine nights from January 30 to February 9-and never were fervent hopes and highly-wrought expectations more thoroughly disappointed than by its result. Wordiness was its grand characteristic; and if there is anything more than another which wears out the patience and cools the fervour of political ambition, it is a copious effusion of words. When the French National Assembly, in a transport of enthusiasm, in August 1789, voted away the whole feudal rights, it was done in a single night. Immense was the good done by the Radical Reformers, though not in the way they intended, by the interminable speeches in which they indulged; they at once disappointed the hopes of the revolutionists, and proved their own incapacity for real business, or the lead in any rational assembly. Even the constituencies for whose special edification these effusions were intended, were worn out by their length; they began to fear that they would see realised on this side of the Atlantic, the occurrence often

XXXI.

1833.

1833, 33,

34.

29.

for forenoon

House of

Commons.

CHAP. described in the records of the American Congress, in these words, "Mr M. got possession of the floor on Tuesday night, and it is expected he will keep it during the remainder of the week." The vigour and condensation of the old debaters from the unreformed House stood forth in bright contrast to the long-winded harangues of the new members; and men wakened, as from a dream, to the painful conviction that statesmanship is a profession 1 Ann. Reg. which, like every other, requires a long apprenticeship, and that in the contests of the forum, as of the field, victory will usually attend the banners of the old soldiers.1 The determination of the new members, however, espeRegulations cially from the great towns, to be heard was so great, and hours in the their obvious inability to condense their arguments so evident, that it led to a great and lasting change in the mode of conducting the public business of the House of Commons. "It was not without reason," says the annalist, "that Sir Robert Peel had anticipated an overwhelming quantity of attempted legislation, in consequence of the new constitution of the House. Ministers themselves saw it would be impossible to confine the session within any reasonable bounds, unless the working hours of the House were increased, and, if possible, the love of speech-making was laid under some restraint." Το accomplish these objects, Lord Althorpe, on the first day of the session, gave notice of certain resolutions, which were adopted, for increasing the business hours of the House of Commons. The Speaker was to take the chair at twelve o'clock, and proceed with private business until three, when the House was to adjourn till five, when the public business was to be proceeded with. Every petition was to be read, and one speech made on the motion that it be received, and one on that it should be printed, instead of four, which were competent at present. The committees were to sit from nine to twelve, and from three to five, so that a member of the House in much request might have to sit seventeen hours successively each day.