The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes.Wordsworth, William
General
The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes.
Wordsworth, William
English literature -- 19th century
The public life of the Candidate who now, for the first time, solicits
your suffrages, my Brother Freeholders, cannot, however, without
injustice to that Party, be deemed a fair exponent of its political
opinions. It has, indeed, been too tolerant with Mr. Brougham, while he
was labouring to ingraft certain sour cuttings from the wild wood of
ultra reform on the reverend, though somewhat decayed, stock of that
tree of Whiggism, which flourished proudly under the cultivation of our
Ancestors. This indulgence, and others like it, will embolden him to aim
at passing himself off as the Delegate of Opposition, and the authorized
pleader of their cause. But Time, that Judge from whom none but triflers
appeal to conjecture, has decided upon leading principles and main
events, and given the verdict against his clients. While, with a ready
tongue, the Advocate of a disappointed party is filling one scale, do
you, with a clear memory and apt judgment, silently throw in what of
right belongs to the other; and the result will be, that no sensible man
among you, who has supported the present Members on account of their
steady adherence to Ministers, can be induced to change his conduct, or
be persuaded that the hour is either come, or approaching, when, for the
sake of bringing the power of Opposition in this County nearer to an
equality with that of Ministers, it will be his duty to vote against
those Representatives in whom he has hitherto confided. No, if Mr.
Brougham had not individually passed far beyond the line of that
Party--if his conduct had been such that even they themselves would
admit that he truly belonged to them--the exception would still lie
against the general rule; and will remain till the character of men and
measures materially changes, for the better, assuredly, on the one side,
if not for the worse on the other. Remember what England might have been
with an Administration countenancing French Doctrines at the dawn of the
French Revolution, and suffering them, as it advanced, to be sown with
every wind that came across the Channel! Think what was the state of
Europe before the French Emperor, the apparent, and in too many respects
the real, Idol of Opposition, was overthrown!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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