at the upshot. The result of a mode of election subject to these flagrant perversions, true to the iniquity of the process, is a spurious representation of the people, in a House of Commons where we are now, in all probability, doomed to see the liberal policy rather struggling to maintain a precarious existence than aspiring to victory. But let the worst auguries be verified or exceeded, let the liberal policy be ever so effectually obstructed and baffled, those reformers will have no right to complain, who, in sight of all these abominations and this corresponding result of the one mode of election, have pronounced against the other, which would put an end to the greatest part of them, and return a House of Commons beyond all comparison more truly representative of the national mind. They prefer the system which they see cannot give a powerful reforming legislature. Let them silently acquiesce in the consequences. For my part, I shall hear any murmurs or lamentations from them with contempt. As to the Whig ministry, they should not let themselves be "shut up in measureless content" with respect to the opinion and feelings of the people on this subject. A very great number of the earnest friends of reform in the middle classes, who expected to be of some value to the public welfare by means of the Reform Bill, and at less cost than the forfeiture of their own, have suffered a disappointment which goes far to destroy, in their estimation, the worth of that great national measure. How should it be otherwise, when, to many of them, it has proved a bill of pains and penalties? And when they see the government, as if heedless of any such consideration, persisting to oppose the only conceivable provision for the protection of conscientious voting, and for giving effect, as far as possible, to the professed design and principle of the bill, they feel, but regret to feel, their warm good will to that ministry cooling down, and its call on the people for zealous exertion to be anything rather than a generous requirement. They are beginning to say, How is it worth our sacrificing ourselves to support a government who refuse to protect us against some of the grossest wrongs in doing so; wrongs endured under the insolent triumph of those who inflict them, and the coarse contempt of the other class who are enjoying the venal re wards of violating their moral principles, or having none to maintain? Why, especially, these exertions, when the exposed condition in which by the will of the government, they are to be made at this cost, condemns them at the same time to be thrown away; since they are unavailing to secure an election though the real mind of a majority of the constituency were certainly with us? Why, again, when, as the effect of all this, the government appear in league with their mortal enemies, to deny themselves a parliament which would give them a most preponderating power for the prosecution of a liberal policy? If they are withheld by some unexplained, unavowed interests, or obligations, let them at least be aware, that their adherence to those interests cannot now be taken to imply less than their consent and their will to stand in office, destitute of the power to carry vigorously forward the great national improvements, for the sake of which alone they are by the people preferred to their opponents. Their frank support given at last to the protective measure, though not made formally a government measure, and though not carried in the first instance, would greatly conduce to retain, and even to recover, the popular attachment, which there are too evident signs they are in danger of losing. In concluding, Mr. Editor, I am tempted to make an observation on the kind of conventional etiquette apparently recognised throughout the House of Commons. It is perfectly well known there by what means many of the seatholders got there. Those who entered in an honourable way can run their eye over the benches and note many a front bearing the stigma. But let there not be a hint of allusion to this, though the integrity of the senate be vitiated by the fact. Let no voice mutter, "Bless the mark!" It were as disorderly and indecorous as an inuendo at an natural feature, an overgrown or otherwise remarkable nose. In my simplicity I have sometimes wondered, when there has been a proud overbearing array of numbers against some patriotic measure, that no bold Cato in the assembly-if such there be-himself integer s erisque purus, should rise up in virtuous indignation, to declare aloud that such a house is not morally competent to a decision, being no genuine representation of the people; that many of the honourable gentlemen have no right to be there, having made their way thither, and they know it, spite of their self-complacent and reciprocally complacent smiles of conscious security, by means which ought to have sent their agents to the treadmill, and themselves, as having authorized those agents, or at the least being cognizant of the villainy, and gladly taking the benefit of it, to a place where those gay looks would be apt to darken under the dingy light admitted through grated windows. I am, Sir, yours, &c. No TENANT AT WILL. LIST OF MR. FOSTER'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ECLECTIC REVIEW. [** The Articles marked with a † have been reprinted in the "Contributions," edited by Dr. Price. 2 Vols. 8vo. 1844.] 1806. 1.+Carr's Stranger in Ireland. November and December. 1807. 2.+Forbes's Life of Beattie. January and February. July and August. 9. Collyer's Lectures on Scripture Facts. October. 10. Carr's Tour through Holland. November. 11.+Blair's Life. December. 12. Grant's Letters from the Mountains. December. 13. Hibernian Society's Report. December. 1808. 14.+Ritchie's Life of Hume. January. 15. Barrow's Life of Lord Macartney. February. 16.+Vindication of the Hindoos. March. May. 19. Edwards's Narrative. June. vember. 23. Life of Sir Thomas More. December. 24. Midas. December. October and No 25.+Cunningham on Christianity in India. December. 1809. 26.+Paley's Sermons. January. February and March. 27. Gass's Expedition. February. 32. Account of Jamaica. April. 33.+Thomas's Letters on the Church, and a Layman's Answer. April. 34.+Scott Waring's Pamphlet. May. 35.†Sydney Smith's Sermons. May and June. 36.+Meadley's Life of Paley. June. 37.+Rose on Fox's History. July. 38. Lord Valentia's Travels. August, September, October. 39. Ancient Indian Literature. September. 40. Walker's Essays. October. 41.+Plumptre's Discourses on the Stage. November. 42. Lewis and Clarke's Travels. November. 43.+Chatfield's Historical Review of Hindostan. December. 44.+Characters of Fox. December. 45. Erskine's Speech on Cruelty to Animals. December. 1810. 46.+Edgeworth's Essays on Professional Education. January and February. 47.+Pearson on Propagating Christianity in Asia. February. 48. Tenant's Indian Recreations. March. |