THE decisive triumph of Conservative principles in the recent and ever memorable election, should not, to the thoughtful or far-seeing leaders of that great party, form the subject merely of party congratulation. It is a victory too great to be considered in any other light than as a most important, it may be decisive, step in the future destinies of England; for it puts into the hands of that great party which had so long ruled its fortunes and conducted its course-the means either of amending its fortunes or precipitating its downfal. The responsibility which it confers is greater even than the victory which it has achieved; and the noble body of enlightened men of whom it is composed, will indeed be inexcusable in the eyes of God and man, if they do not improve, to the best advantage of their country and of humanity, the vast opportunities which Providence has now again placed into their hands. The moment is momentous: it is solemn. And it is under a deep sense of what is incumbent on all connected with that party, that the following observations are submitted to the consideration of the many men its ranks contain, who are both aware of their responsibility, and feel their duties.

When we look back ten years in the history of Great Britain, and reflect upon the opinions which then prevailed in the majority of the community, and the passions which then

VOL. L. NO. CCCXI,

agitated the multitude, the change to the present times appears so great as almost to exceed belief. The empire, with its defences prostrated by Catholic emancipation and the repeal of the test and corporation acts, shaken as by the heaving of an earthquake by the Revolution of the Barricades, was then convulsed by the furious jacobinical passions excited by the Reform Bill. The ancient character of the English people appeared to have been destroyed; national rivalries were obliterated; national glories for gotten; hereditary habits overlooked. The people which had been long and justly esteemed in Europe the most tenacious of its customs, and the most cautious in its innovations, seemed suddenly seized with the frenzy of revolution; the tri-color flag, the old antagonist of England, was paraded amid shouts of triumph through our streets, and a new era was anticipated for the country and mankind from that vast change, which, totally subverting the old constitution, promised to subject property, interest, learning, patriotism, and virtue, beneath the sway of an excited, and, in great part, ignorant and incapable multitude. It was amidst the shouts of jacobinical triumph, and the yells of revolutionary ambition, that the old constitution fell in England. The moment was awful, its recollection will never be effaced from our memories; and not a few of the strongest heads in England

T

were impressed with the conviction that the death-warrant of the British empire was signed, and that her infatuated children, with suicidal hands, had plunged a poisoned dagger in the breast of their country.

What rendered that period peculiarly mournful, and must now, to the eye of historical retrospect, afford the chief subject of astonishment, is, that the great interests in the state, who were usually relied upon as the parties most interested in upholding the constitution, were then the foremost in forwarding the work of innovation. The counties and the landed interests, who had, in every period of English history, been foremost in support of the altar and the throne, were then the first in raising the cry of innovation; the leaders of the UltraTory party had joined with the Whigs and Radicals in the vote on the Civil List in November 1830, which expels led the Duke of Wellington's ministry from the government; and the counties of England, by a majority of nearly ten to one, had returned members at the election in April 1831, in favour of the revolutionary party. The Church, the ancient warder of the state, was silent; and, with the exception of a petition from Bristol, and the public meeting at Edinburgh where Professor Wilson pronounced his noble address, hardly one effort was made in the country to support the Conservative ministry in defending the old institutions of the empire. The English constitution, the boast of the patriot and the pride of the historian during so many ages, sunk to the dust without one arm being held out for its support, except in a small but determined Conservative phalanx in the House of Commons, and a noble patriotic majority in the House of Lords. The public press, with a few honourable exceptions, was almost unanimous in favour of a great political change; and even the ancient and deeply-furrowed lines of party distinction seemed to have been obliterated or forgotten in the chaos of unanimity that prevailed in favour of the Reform Bill.

At the present time, how great how astonishing is the change! Again the national spirit seems to have revived, and the old and natural distinction between the Movement and

Conservative party have come to mark the different classes of society, and separate the different interests in the state. The chaos of unanimity in favour of the Reform Bill has not only ceased, but it has been succeeded by a chaos of opposition to it. The most violent supporters of that great change no longer pretend that it has proved a public advantage, or that it has not bitterly disappointed the expectations of its promoters. The old cry of "The bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill," has been succeeded by an universal feeling of discontent and dissatisfaction. The promised harmony between the legislature and the masses of the community, so far from being realized, has produced more bitter feelings of discord between them than ever existed previously in English history; and the only supporters of Maxima Charta are now to be found among the Conservative party, who are of opinion, that, with all its defects-and, God knows! they are not a few-the maintenance of it is preferable to an annual revolution, or a continual straining after something new.

The old and long-established lines of party distinction-the great landmarks which distinguish the Movement from the Conservative interests in the State, have again re-appeared. The chaos of unanimity is at an end. Not only has the Reform Bill itself fallen into the most determined discredit and obloquy with its original supporters; but the cause of innovation itself, the fever of change, the passion for organic revolution has to

a

most surprising degree abated among all the more intelligent and sober ranks of the community. Democrats and Chartists indeed there are, and probably will be in every free state to the end of time; but the general thirst after political alteration has become extinct. Men now seefor they have learned by dear bought experience, that alteration is not always improvement that there is such a thing as changing for the worse; and that, in particular, the anxiety, distrust, and consequent misery, which follow organic or revolutionary changes, are such, that all the advantages promised by their supporters are dearly purchased in their adoption. The chaos of unanimity in fa

vour of fundamental change, accordingly, has given place to a strong desire on the part of the majority, not only of all the educated classes, but even of the whole constituencies in the empire, to uphold, instead of changing the great institutions of the empire as they now exist, both in Church and State; and the passion for innovation has given place to a general desire, instead of any farther organic change, to adopt such changes in our social organization, as may leave the balance of political powers as it now stands, and which, while still upholding all the great institutions of the empire untouched, may adapt the details of its government and social institutions to the altered state of society in recent times.

What was the cause of this extraordinary aberration of the public mind, and departure from all English principle, at the period of the Reform Bill? What has been the cause of the recent and gratifying return of the empire, to its ancient Conservative principles? The answer to these questions, will at once point out the political errors to which our past misfortunes have been owing, and shadow out the path, in future, by which similar calamities may be avoided.

The extraordinary, though tempor ary, fall of the Conservative party in Great Britain, ten years ago, was obviously owing to two causes: neglect of their own principles, and of the interests of the persons committed to their charge.

It is unfortunately unnecessary to say in what the main neglect of their principles by the Conservative party in 1829 and 1830 consisted. England was essentially a Protestant country; its liberties and constitution had sprung from the date of the Reformation, and formed the basis both of the constitution of 1688, and the whole frame of society in Great Britain. It may be, that such a constitution and state of things is not so perfect as wise and philanthropic men may desire, or as a future state of society under a more perfect social system might render practicable. Suffice it to say, it was the constitution of England, and it was that under which this empire had attained an unexampled degree of happiness, prosperity, and glory. And experience,

in every age, has demonstrated that no vital change in the religious institutions of an empire can be made without endangering the foundations of society, and probably shortening its national existence.

The Catholic Emancipation Bill, and the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, had been long and loudly called for by a considerable and most clamorous party in the state; and such had been the use made by the Whigs of the lever thus put into their hands, that they had not only divided the Conservative party, but rendered it wellnigh impracticable to carry on the government. This impracticability did not arise from the absolute strength of the Emancipation party, even with the addition of those who supported it among the Conservative ranks; for whenever the people were made aware that the Protestant institutions of the empire were seriously menaced, they had never failed to give decisive evidence, by their returns to parliament, that the great majority of the nation was determined to uphold them.

This great change may, therefore, be regarded as the immediate and most powerful cause which produced the Reform Bill. It was not by the great addition which it at once made to the Liberal members of Parliament by the junction of the Roman Catholics, that the mischief was done, so much as by the shake which was given to the Conservative party, and the opinion which was generally diffused through the nation, that the House of Commons no longer represented either its principles or its tenets. The warmest, the most sincere, and the most upright supporters of the constitution felt bitterly, and loudly complained, that a measure fraught with the most important consequences, and the dearest interests of the people, both in this world and the next, was forced upon the nation against the known opinion of a majority of its electors by a strange combination of parties, and an unparalleled exertion of the power of Government. Hence arose, in a most important and influential part of the nation, and where it had never before been heard-in the rural, the thinking and religious classes of the state-the cry for Parliamentary reform. They felt that the legislature, in a vital

question, had departed from their principles, and they thought to reinstate themselves, by an organic change in the constitution of Parliament, in the influence of which they seemed to have been unjustly deprived. The Whigs, Radicals, and Revolutionists, at the same period loudly responded to the cry, from a desire to augment their own influence in Parliament, to oust the Tories from power, and to insert the point of the revolutionary wedge which was to tear the fabric of society in pieces. Thus, by a strange and anomalous combination of circumstances, but the natural effect of the steadfast prosecution of its principles by one party, and of the signal dereliction of its principles by the other, the same cry for organic change was raised by the most opposite classes in the state; and while the Whigs and Radicals loudly supported it in order to effect democratic ascendancy, and increase the popular influence in the legislature, the Ultra-Tories and conscientious Churchmen as loudly responded to it, from a sense of the necessity of staying the progress of religious change, and re-establishing in the legislature the principles of the Protestant constitution of the empire. The cause which has now been stated was the main source of the cry for reform which pervaded the rural and serious thinking part of the community in 1830, and of the extraordinary number of members who were returned to Parliament in opposition to the Duke of Wellington's government, at the election in August 1830. But powerful as this cause was, it may be doubted whether it would of itself have sufficed to have overturned the Conservative government and old constitution of the empire, if it had not been at the same time attended by a similar desire for reform in the House of Commons, which arose in the commercial and manufacturing boroughs, from the ruinous effect of the freetrade principles in commerce and in shipping, which the Whigs and the political economists had succeeded in forcing upon the Government. Now that the facts of these vital points have been fully brought before the public by the searching accuracy of statistical enquiries, and that Mr Porter's Parliamentary tables have demonstrated the blasting influence of

free-trade principles upon every branch of industry to which they were applied, it is not surprising that so profound and deep-seated a feeling of indignation should have pervaded a large and influential portion of the mercantile community. The losses they had sustained, the sufferings they had undergone from the influence of these erroneous principles, by which so large a portion of the legislature on both sides of the House had been involved, were indescribable. The change of currency in 1819, followed by the suppression of small notes in England by the bill of 1826, had not only spread bankruptcy to an unparalleled extent through all the manufacturing towns, but lowered by at least a third, sometimes a half, the money value of property of every kind in the kingdom. Hundreds of master merchants and manufacturers in every city in the empire had been rendered bankrupt; thousands of industrious artisans whom they employed, reduced to poverty or the workhouse, in consequence of these prodigious monetary changes. Every man whose property was burdened with debt, whether in land or moveables, soon found that debt assume a menacing, sometimes a crushing magnitude; every person who lived by buying and selling-that is, the whole trading and mercantile community-found their commodities constantly getting cheaper on their hands, and instead of making money by buying goods and afterwards disposing of them, they, in too many instances, found themselves losers by the transaction. twenty years ago, Cobbett said, that the moment he saw the currency bill of 1819 pass, he made preparations for leaving America and returning to Great Britain, because he foresaw that Parliamentary reform could not be much longer delayed; and the event proved that that sagacious democrat had not over-estimated the ultimate effects of the measure.

Above

The reciprocity and free-trade system introduced by Mr Huskisson in 1823, and which for the next ten years was so perseveringly carried out by every subsequent administration, in troduced at the same time unparalleled distress in the shipping interest of Great Britain, and, beyond all question, had the effect of reducing one

half the value of all the property held in that form by the British merchants. The merchants who were affected by this pressure, at once became sensible of its existence, and made loud and repeated complaints to Parliament of the utter ruin to which they had been exposed from the effects of the reciprocity system. They were always, however, met by the statement, on the part of the President of the Board of Trade, that the shipping of the empire, upon the whole, was increasing rather than diminishing; that the wisdom of the policy of Governmentwas decisively demonstrated by the results, and that their distresses were owing to over-trading, or some other causes, for which Government were not responsible. It may safely be affirmed, that for ten long years, during which the shipowners were suffering the most acute distress, this plausible delusion prevented their complaints from meeting with attention, and led to their petitions being continually dismissed without any redress from the legislature. But no efforts of Government, however powerful, no delusion of the legislature, however long continued, can in a free country permanently shut out the light of truth. The very efforts which the theorists make to demonstrate the truth of their principles, lead to the detection of their fallacy. In an evil hour for the liberal administration, Mr Porter commenced the classification of the exports and shipping of Great Britain with all the different countries of the world; and these distinguishing and classified returns are now complete since the year 1820. The publication of these returns has settled the question as to the ruinous effects of the reciprocity system upon our shipping interests. They have demonstrated, beyond the possibility of misconception, that the Baltic powers with whom we have concluded these reciprocity treaties, have, ever since their date, continually and rapidly increased upon the British shipowners, insomuch that their tonnage with us is now four or five times greater than it was when the reciprocity system began, while ours with them has declined in general to a fourth part of what our shipping with them was when the system commenced. short, it has now been completely

In

proved that the complaints of the shipowners were, in every particular, well-founded, and that the British flag has been rapidly and almost entirely ousted from the trade of all the northern powers of Europe; while the steady growth of our shipping, upon the whole, has been shown to be solely owing to the extraordinary and rapid growth of our colonial trade, which we share with no other powers, and the benefits of which the reciprocity mania has not hitherto compelled us to share with distant or hostile states. If any of our readers have the slightest doubt on this subject, they have only to turn to the article in this miscellany "The Whig Dissolution" for July last, where they will find the returns quoted, which establish these important propositions.

The same classified Parliamentary returns of Mr Porter have, in like manner, completely demonstrated the fallacy of the free-trade mania in merchandise, and proved the truth of the common complaint, that the free-trade system had essentially injured many of the most important branches of industry in the country. Every body knows that this free-trade system was established by Mr Huskisson in 1823, 1824, and 1825; and that, in pursuance of it, a very great reduction was made on the duties on French silks, French wines, French clocks, kid gloves, and a great variety of other articles of Euro. pean manufacture. The dealers in these articles in this country immediately suf fered, and suffered severely, by the competition to which they were exposed, and the great reduction in the price of their produce which in consequence ensued; and they petitioned Parliament again and again in the most urgent terms, to investigate their complaints, and grant them protection against the ruinous decline of prices which the competition of foreigners, employing workmen at one-third of the British wages, had produced. They were constantly met by the statement, that their grievances were entirely imaginary, or were imputable only to themselves; that our exports, on the whole, were rapidly increasing, and that commerce never was in a more flourishing condition. It may be imagined what bitter feelings this reception of their complaints produced among persons who, during the hey-day of the reciprocity