HI

that of the Duke of Wellington, had entered office under express declarations that they would forthwith apply themselves to what was termed the reform of the representation, that is, to strengthen and enlarge the democratic part of the Constitution. To this they were pledged, both by their general principles as a party, and by the opinions to which they had given utterance regarding the political events which had agitated Europe during the preceding year. What might be the extent of the changes which they meant to introduce, how much they would destroy and how much reconstruct; how VOL. LXXIII.

diffusing the elective franchise over places which had grown up in the course of years, and still remained unrepresented, or how far they would allow themselves to be seduced by the love of making constitutions,-remained unknown; neither was there any thing in the composition of the ministry from which its measures could be predicted. If at its head was Earl Grey, whose opinions were favourable to changes of no moderate kind, it contained Lord Melbourne, Lord Palmerston, and Mr. Grant, the disciples of Mr. Canning, the most inveterate and unyielding foe of changes in the Constitution. The [B]

fact that they had accepted office under a ministry pledged to change, was sufficient evidence that they were prepared to depart from their former opinions; but it was not to be anticipated that they would readily rush into the opposite extreme. It was clear, too, that the whigs themselves were not all of one mind. Lord Brougham's inotion on parliamentary reform had stood, in the House of Commons, for the very day succeeding that on which the Duke of Wellington had retired. His plan, therefore, if not in all its details, yet in its broad principles and general arrangements, must have been ready for presentation; but the long adjournment till the third of February, confessedly on the ground that much time and many inquiries were necessary to settle the intended ministerial constitution of the commons, gave reason to believe that this plan would be very different from that of the Lord Chancellor, which, if his colleagues had approved of it, courted their accept

ance.

While the members of the ministry were occupied in framing the new parliamentary constitution, meetings were held in all parts of the country, in counties, in towns, and in parishes, for the purpose of getting up petitions, whieh were at once to be the result and the support of the declared intentions of the government. Such expres sions of opinion are at all times easily obtained; and, in reference to such a topic, they bear on the solution of the question only in so far as they prove the fact of the existence of an unsatisfied desire in masses of the population, in regard to their political condition. Reform, in all the thousand modifications of meaning which were

included under this general term, comprehended an extension of the elective franchise: to extend the franchise was to confer political power; to petition for reform, therefore, was merely the very natural expression of a desire to possess political power-a desire which it is always difficult to control and repress, but the excitement of which, into even its most extravagant expression, is an exploit of absolutely vulgar facility. That thousands of men declare political power to be their right, does not make it a right; that they unanimously demand to be put in possession of it, no more touches the reason of the question-is it fitting and expedient that they should possess it ?-than their unanimous demand to be put in possession of the estates of their neighbours, or to be exempted from taxation, would prove that what they sought was useful and proper.

No difficulty, therefore, was found in bringing forth all over the country, loud and violent demands that the democratical part of the constitution should be strengthened and extended; and the task was the more easy, as the reformers were aided by the contagion of foreign example. The revolution of the preceding year in France was the origin of the outcry for reform in Britain. Previous to that event, reform, a standing topic, to some extent or other, in every session of parliament, had excited less attention than usual; even the restless spirit of petitioning had fallen into a slumber; in the public mind there was no agitation. In 1821 there had been nineteen petitions for reform; in 1822 there had been twelve ; twenty-nine in 1823 during the following six years there had not