§ It is remarkable that the great parties adopt opposite principles in pursuance of the same line of reasoning. The advocates of things as they are, wish to stop all change, in order to _prevent revolution_. Those who inculcate continual progress, support it, because it makes all changes gradual, and thus, in their opinion, it _prevents revolution_. It is by sudden changes in laws and institutions that the greatest misery is inflicted on mankind. Those gradual changes which are spread over a considerable period are foreseen, and men make preparation beforehand to accommodate themselves to the new but expected circumstances. If the changes effected by the Reform Bill, had been spread over the ten preceding and ten subsequent years, few will deny that it would have been a better measure, and more effective for its purpose. The experience derived from its earlier changes would then have been available for its later uses. The pertinacity, however, with which all reform was resisted, led to such a state of affairs, that after the refusal to transfer the franchise from East Retford, revolution was averted only by vast and _immediate_ concession. § The terms Tory and Whig had been the watchwords of these two parties, until, at last, the public lost all confidence in either. With the increasing wealth of the country, and with the greater application of observation, of reasoning, and of science, to its many arts and manufactures, a vast increase has been produced in the numbers, the power, and the influence of the middle classes. Many individuals who have raised themselves by their intellect and industry into this class, have been so fully impressed with the advantages of previous training, that they have made efforts to give their children an education more extensive and more liberal than any which, until lately, our universities had attempted to supply. It is to the growth of this class, which includes men possessing from 500_l._ to 5,000_l._ a-year, that we are indebted for much of the strength which public opinion now exerts upon the ministry of the day. Notwithstanding the vast influence of wealth and of rank throughout the country, there are still amongst these middle classes, thousands whose moderation renders them rich; who, therefore, can afford to be honest, and whose approbation is neither to be purchased by wealth, nor won by the seductions of rank and of fashionable life. Such men, on all public questions, influence widely and justly the opinions of those around them. There are such in the House of Commons; and, with the extension of knowledge, many more will be added to their number.