ART. VII.-1. Would Reform in Parliament be a Benefit to the Country? By B. S. Escott, Esq. Second Edition. 1831. 2. Essentials of Parliamentary Reform. By George Grote, Esq. 1831. 3. Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform. By the Right Hon. Sir John Sinclair, Bart. Edinburgh. 4. Reflections on the Ballot. 1831. 1831. 5. A Dialogue on Election by Ballot. By William Henry Ord, Esq., M.A. 1831. 6. The Real Character and Tendency of the proposed Reform. Tenth Edition. Rooke & Varty, 39, Strand. Price 1d. 7. The Speech of the Right Hon. John Wilson Croker on the Reform Question. 1831. 8. A few Words to the Electors of Guildford, on Reform. By Charles Baring Wall, Esq., M.P. 9. The Mirror of Parliament. LXXXI. 1831. 1831. Parts LXXVIII. LXXIX. 10. View of the Representation of Scotland in 1831. Second Edition. 1831. 11. Dissection of the Scottish Reform Bill. By a Member of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple. 1831. 12. Observations on the Ministerial Plan of Reform. By Sir John Walsh, Bart., M.P. 1831. 13. The New Constitution: Remarks by P. Pusey, Esq., M.P. THE HE Movement is still on the advance, and just now at full tilt. His Majesty's ministers have fairly thrown aside the reins, and, surrendering themselves and the country to its impulse, have adventured on a leap which has astonished equally their friends and their opponents. It was long ago foretold by Montesquieu, that the British constitution would perish whenever the legislative body should become more corrupt than the executive. The prophecy has something in it of Delphic ambiguity; but in whatever sense it may be read, it obviously has little or no application to the actual dangers of 1831. The curse now impending over the institutions of our country comes from a very different quarter,-from a source which least of all perhaps Montesquieu would have suspected, but whose potency of mischief has been amply developed by the experience of a later generation; -it comes from one of those dispensations which Frederick the Great held to be the most severe of all conceivable inflictions on a nation, the government of a set of persons of that rash and speculative class miscalled philosophers, to whom history is as a dead letter, and even living experience without instruction,-who begin where they ought to end, by framing to themselves an ideal system, system, and, without respect for precedent or fear of consequences,--unembarrassed by any of those nice scruples, those compunctions of self-distrust, which sometimes visit the conscience of the practical statesman, can see no rational object before them but in the advancement of that system, and are ready, for its sake, to bend, break, and destroy, until all existing things be squared to an exact conformity with it. We return to this momentous question of Parliamentary Reform, under circumstances most materially altered since the date of our last publication. Up to that period, or at least till the nearly contemporaneous appearance of Sir John Walsh's and Colonel Stewart's pamphlets, the reformers had held for some time undisputed possession of the field; on all the main parts of the. question, their assumptions had been allowed to stand for argument; and, save on the isolated point of the ballot, the discussion, properly speaking, could scarcely be said to have commenced. Now, the project of government has, for upwards of six weeks, been before the public: the subject has been canvassed in all its bearings, both in Parliament and out of Parliament, in speech and in print; it has been the unceasing theme of the daily press, and the hourly topic of private conversation; and it may be doubted, if any political question within the memory of man (the Catholic question not excepted) has ever engaged, within so short a space of time, so large a share of thought and consideration. Yet, after all this, a much longer, fuller, and certainly a calmer and more deliberate discussion, we fear, is still wanting, before it is at all likely to be thoroughly and generally understood. We have listened with patience, and sometimes, we confess, with amazement,―always (if we may so far trust ourselves) with a sincere and candid desire of instruction, to the arguments of those who have professed to advocate the measure. We do not hesitate to say, indeed, that we have been most anxious to be convinced;-for who would not rid himself, if he could, of those painful and overwhelming apprehensions with which we have all along regarded the possibility of any such scheme being successfully propagated? It may be our infirmity or misfortune, that the very reverse of conviction has been the result. So it certainly is, however, that we now resume the argument, not only with faith undiminished in the strong reason of our case, but with an assurance not easily to be shaken, that whatever may be the fate of this miserable bill, that reason will eventually (and perhaps at no very distant period) be acknowledged by a large proportion even of those who at this moment are the most pertinacious in its denial. Unfortunately, the subject itself is of so complicated a nature,-so delicate in many of its relations,-so mixed up with a thousand sinister interests, prejudices, prejudices, and passions, all at this moment in a state of active ferment, and so easily distorted, obscured, or disguised by a little false colouring, that perhaps there never was a question propounded for any practical end, inviting the opinions of all men, and largely affecting the welfare of every individual in a community, that was in reality so little familiar to ordinary apprehension, so unlikely to find unbiassed judges, or so hard to be disentangled or accurately appreciated by careless or unpractised thinkers. The scheme of the reformers has all the advantage of a specious and plausible exterior, but, to find its intrinsic rottenness, you must seek for it at the core. Unfortunately too, that experience which is the usual corrector of error, and, under all common circumstances and on common questions, is sure to bring the public to a right way of thinking in the long run, can be of no avail in a case where experience would come too late. Yet, notwithstanding all these difficulties, in spite of the utmost efforts of a most powerful and numerous faction of the press, leagued to the cause not merely by the ordinary links of interest, but by new incentives of personal ambition springing out of the occasion itself, and directing all their artillery on this single point, with a skill, audacity, and combination unexampled in any similar discussion,-in spite of the acclamations of the half million of individuals, who (according to the ministerial calculation) have been invited to share in the spoils of denounced corporations, the truth is at this moment, to our certain knowledge, gradually, but surely, making its way, and in the end will as surely prevail. But will it prevail in time to save the country? That is another and a more fearful question. It is one, however, from which we cannot but indulge the most consolatory hopes of a happy extrication, through the powerful and persevering aid of his Majesty's ministers. They have produced a bill, doubtless cunningly devised enough in one or two of its leading features, but so utterly absurd and impracticable in its details, so devoid of all intelligible principle, so unjust in its spirit, so replete with palpable inconsistencies, contradictions and blunders in every clause, that even if all the world were agreed on the general expediency of the measure, it could scarcely, without a miracle, be palmed in its present shape, or in any thing resembling its present shape, on any rational assembly. All that we want is time,-time for cool reflection,-for clamour to subside and common sense to operate. Let this be gained, and we have no fear for the issue. We have no fear, but that intelligence, property and station will ere long revert to their natural alliances, will resume their natural influence over the impetuosity of the unreasoning and misguided, and will afford an effectual and safe support to the verdict of an upright legislature. For For our general views on the great leading principles by which this question is to be judged, we must refer our readers to the article on Parliamentary Reform in our last Number. It will be sufficient here to remind those who have honoured that article with an attentive perusal, of the main points which it was our aim there to establish, and which were briefly as follows; viz. That no extensive change in the ancient institutions of a prosperous and civilized country, can be justified on any other ground than that of practical expediency; and that those who propose such a change are bound to make out a strong case of such expediency, to prove that, by adopting their project, the country will in fact obtain a better government,—a government more efficient for the practical and useful ends of government, than it has previously possessed ;-but that no such case has been or can be established by the reformers. That concessions to mere popular clamour, on the principle of conciliating the people and preserving the public tranquillity, without reference to the wisdom or justice of the thing to be conceded, can only be defended on the supposition, that at least such concessions are not pregnant with any positive mischief or danger; and that the concession must always frustrate the very end for which it was designed, unless it embrace the entire grievance complained of, and so put a final end to all further agitation on the same subject;-two conditions, in which the case of reform is most conspicuously wanting. That the small and close boroughs, against which the batteries of the reformers have been more especially directed, and which it is proposed by the bill now before parliament in a great part to abolish, are one of the least objectionable branches of the existing representation, in respect to their moral influence on the people, and have hitherto been nearly the only channels through which the youthful talent of the country has found access to parliament, and some of the most important classes and interests of the community (including all the great mercantile, colonial, and funded proprietors) have been admitted to a voice in public affairs. That by the aid of the same machinery of the boroughs, not only is the business of the nation more efficiently conducted, and property in all its relations better protected than they probably would be by any other system that has yet been proposed, but the aristocracy and the crown are enabled to obtain a hearing, and to exercise a certain influence on all great questions affecting their interests or privileges, through their virtual representatives in the lower house; that thus the House of Commons, being, as it in fact is, the depository of the supreme supreme power of the state, has fortunately become, at the same time, the arena in which all political contests between the three estates of the realm are conducted, and in ordinary cases decided; and that by such means those collisions, which have proved fatal to the existence of mixed monarchies in every other part of the globe, have, in this country, been almost entirely avoided. That by adopting, therefore, the alterations proposed by the reformers, we should be parting with the very spell, by whose virtue the frame of the constitution has hitherto been held together, and wilfully and irremediably entangling ourselves in a system which all experience has proved to be impracticable. That any reform, by which the democratic influence in the lower house should be materially increased, would, in the ordinary course of things, and under the influence of the same powers that are now in the ascendant, lead to a second reform, that reform to a third, and so on through the successive stages of vote by ballot, universal suffrage and annual parliaments, to the extinction of the aristocracy and the monarchy, and to the entire prostration of rank and property at the feet of a Jacobin faction. That the first important step in this series of causes and effects would be necessarily and certainly irrevocable. That even if the condition of the country were as deplorable as the radicals delight to represent it, and that condition could be so clearly traced to the corrupt state of the representation as, in the absence of all lights from without, to justify the desire of a change on mere experiment, and at the hazard even of making things worse than they were before, it would yet be exceedingly preposterous to precipitate such a change at a time, when the very same experiment is on trial in five or six neighbouring states, and when we may have a full and early opportunity, therefore, of judging of the result at the expense and risk of others. And lastly, that these projects of the reformers, pretending to no authority from experience, professing no defined or tangible purpose of use or beneficence, but sent abruptly forth into the world big with danger and menace to all existing establishments, borne along by the foul breath of calumny and faction, by vain promises for the credulous, and terrors as idle for the reluctant and the timid, it behoves every man who holds a stake in the community, or feels for the peace and welfare of society, to fortify his heart, and nerve his arm against them. There were, besides these, some minor and collateral topics, to which we have the less need now to revert, as they have no very important |