Speeches, Volume 1Redfield, 1853 - Great Britain |
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3d Series abuses admitted agitation argument Baronet believe body Catholic charge Church circumstances civil Company conduct considered Constitution course Court debate declared defend Duke of Wellington duty effect election empire England English evil existed favour feeling franchise give Government grievances Hansard heard honour House of Commons House of Lords India institutions Ireland King learned Friend learned Gentleman learned member legislate Legislature liberty Lord Liverpool Majesty's Government Mauritius means measure ment Ministers Ministry monopoly nation never noble Friend noble Lord object Old Sarum opinion opposed Opposition Parliament Parliamentary party peace persons Pitt political present principles privileges Privy Councillors produced proposed Protestantism question reason Reform Bill remedy Repeal representative respect revolution right hon slave slavery society Sovereign speech suppose things thought tion Tory trade Union vote Whigs whole wish
Popular passages
Page 86 - What facts does my hon. friend produce in support of his opinion? One fact only; and that a fact which has absolutely nothing to do with the question. The effect of this Reform, he tells us, would be to make the House of Commons all-powerful. It was all-powerful once before, in the beginning of 1649. Then it cut off the head of the King, and abolished the House of Peers. Therefore, if it again has the supreme power, it will act in the same manner. Now, Sir, it was not the House of Commons that cut...
Page 156 - From that moment, as by a charm, the tumults subsided ; obedience was restored ; peace, order, and civilization followed in the train of liberty. When the day-star of the English Constitution had arisen in their hearts, all was harmony within and without.
Page 85 - ... in the works of Paine. My honorable friend's proposition is, in fact, this : that our monarchical and aristocratical institutions have no hold on the public mind of England ; that these institutions are regarded with aversion by a decided majority of the middle class.
Page 84 - I have read history to little purpose. Sir, this alarming discontent is not the growth of a day or of a year. If there be any symptoms by which it is possible to distinguish the chronic diseases of the body politic from its passing inflammations, all those symptoms exist in the present case. The taint has been gradually becoming more extensive and more malignant, through the whole lifetime of two generations.
Page 125 - The law has no eyes: the law has no hands : the law is nothing, nothing but a piece of paper printed by the King's printer, with the King's arms at the top, till public opinion breathes the breath of life into the dead letter.
Page 131 - Is there one among us who is not looking with breathless anxiety for the next tidings which may arrive from the remote parts of the kingdom ? Even while I speak, the moments are passing away, the irrevocable moments pregnant with the destiny of a great people. The country is in danger : it may be saved : we can save it : this is the way: this is the time. In our hands are the issues of great good and great evil, the issues of the life and death of the State. May the result of our deliberations be...
Page 89 - Sir, to undertake the defence of gentlemen who are so well able to defend themselves. I will only say that, in my opinion, the country will not think worse either of their capacity or of their patriotism, because they have shown that they can profit by experience, because they have learned to see the folly of delaying inevitable changes. There are others who ought to have learned the same lesson. I say, Sir, that there are those who, I should have thought, must have had enough to last them all their...
Page 80 - Oxford,* challenges us to show that the Constitution was ever better than it is. Sir, we are legislators, not antiquaries. The question for us is, not whether the Constitution was better formerly, but whether we can make it better now.
Page 91 - Turn where we may, within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us: Reform, that you may preserve. Now, therefore, while everything at home and abroad forebodes ruin to those who persist in a hopeless struggle against the spirit of the age; now, while the crash of the proudest throne of the continent is still resounding in our ears; now, while the roof of a British palace affords an ignominious shelter to the sxiled heir of forty kings...
Page 34 - with all their heart, with all their soul, — ' with all their mind and strength.