The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts.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The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts.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
From what has been said, it appears that the political influence of the
family of Lowther in Westmoreland is the natural and reasonable
consequence of a long-continued possession of large
property--furnishing, with the judicious Nobleman at its head, an
obvious support, defence, and _instrument_ for the intelligent
patriotism of the County. I have said instrument, and laid an emphasis
upon the word; because they who do not perceive that such is the truth
are ignorant what shape, in these cases, social combinations must take,
in order to be efficient and be preserved. Every great family which many
have rallied round from congeniality of public sentiment, and for a
political purpose, seems in course of time to direct, and in ordinary
cases does direct, its voluntary adherents; but, if it should violate
their wishes and shock their sense of right, it would speedily be
reduced to such support only as it could _command_; and then would be
seen who had been Principal, and who Secondary; to whom had belonged in
reality the place of Agent, to whom that of the Employer. The sticklers
for _emancipation_ (a fashionable word in our times, when rational
acquiescence is deemed baseness of spirit, and the most enlightened
service passes for benighted servility!) have been free on numerous
occasions to make the effort they are now making. Could any considerable
person have been found to share their feeling, they might have proposed
a Representative unacceptable to the Family whose ascendancy they
complain of, with a certainty of securing his election, had the
good-will of the Freeholders been on their side. What could possibly
have prevented this trial? But they talk as if some mysterious power had
been used to their injury. Some call it 'a thraldom from without'--some
'a drowsiness within.'--Mr. Brougham's Kendal Committee find fault with
others--the Chairman of the Appleby Committee is inclined to fix the
blame nearer home. An accredited organ of their Kendal Committee tells
you dogmatically, from the Bill of Rights, that '_Elections shall be
free_;' and, if asked how the citation bears upon the case, his answer
would most likely prove him of opinion, that, as noise is sometimes an
accompaniment of freedom, so there can be no freedom without noise. Or,
does the erudite Constitutionalist take this method of informing us,
that the Lord Lieutenant has been accustomed to awe and controul the
Voters of this County, as Charles the Second and his Brother attempted
to awe and controul those of the whole kingdom? If such be the meaning
of the Writer and his Employers, what a pity Westmoreland has not a
Lunatic Asylum for the accommodation of the whole Body! In the same
strain, and from the same quarter, we are triumphantly told 'that no
Peer of Parliament shall interfere in Elections.' How injurious then to
these Monitors and their Cause the report of the Hereditary High
Sheriff's massy subscription, and his zealous countenance! Let him be
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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