Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 70, No. 431, September 1851Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 70, No. 431, September 1851
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
I do not know what your individual sentiments may be on the subject
of Free Trade; but whether you are for it or against it, my argument
remains the same. It is essentially a question for the solution of
the electoral body; and if the Whigs are right in their averment
that its operation hitherto has been attended with marked success,
and has even transcended the expectation of its promoters, you may
rely upon it that there is no power in the British Empire which
can overthrow it. No Protectionist ravings can damage a system
which has been productive of real advantage to the great bulk of
the people. But if, on the contrary, it is a bad system, is it to
be endured that any man or body of men shall attempt to perpetuate
it against the will of the majority of the electors, by a change
in the representation of the country? I ask you this as a Liberal.
Without having any undue diffidence in the soundness of your own
judgment, I presume you do not, like his Holiness the Pope, consider
yourself infallible, or entitled to coerce others who may differ
from you in opinion. Yet this is precisely what Lord John Russell is
now attempting to do; and I warn you and others who are similarly
situated, to be wise in time, and to take care lest, under the
operation of this new Reform Bill, you are not stripped of that
political power and those political privileges which at present you
enjoy.
Don't suppose that I am speaking rashly or without consideration.
All I know touching this new Reform Bill, is derived from the
arguments and proposals which have been advanced and made by the
Liberal press in consequence of the late indications of public
feeling, as manifested by the result of recent elections. It
is rather remarkable that we heard few or no proposals for an
alteration in the electoral system, until it became apparent
that the voice of the boroughs could no longer be depended on
for the maintenance of the present commercial policy. You may
recollect that the earliest of the victories which were achieved
by the Protectionists, with respect to vacant seats in the House
of Commons, were treated lightly by their opponents as mere
casualties; but when borough after borough deliberately renounced
its adherence to the cause of the League, and, not unfrequently
under circumstances of very marked significance, declared openly in
favour of Protection, the matter became serious. It was _then_, and
then only, that we heard the necessity for some new and sweeping
change in the representation of this country broadly asserted;
and, singularly enough, the advocates of that change do not
attempt to disguise their motives. They do not venture to say that
the intelligence of the country is not adequately represented at
present--what they complain of is, that the intelligence of the
country is becoming every day more hostile to their commercial
theories. In short, they want to get rid of that intelligence, and
must get rid of it speedily, unless their system is to crumble to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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