The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-04-11 00:00:00

when he says,—" If time alters things to the

worse, and wisdom and counsel-shall not alter
them to the better, what shall be the end ?" The

end will be the destruction of those things—
there can be no doubting that. And for this

very reason true Conservatism would seek to

"alter them to thebetter." But Radicalism wants

to alter them to the worse, by overturning them
altogether. We quite agree with them when
they declare, that "to say that no changes shall

take place, is to talk idly. One might as well
pretend to control the motions of the earth. To

resolve that none shall take place except what

are undesigned and accidental, is to resolve that
though a clock may gain or lose indefinitely, at

least we will take care that it shall never be

regulated." Here is the very word to our hand
to explain the difference between our reform 'and
theirs. "Be regulated,"—that is what Conser-
vatives seek. The changes they advocate are for

;he regulation of what has got out of order—the

reform of what has come to be amiss.
Let us view for a moment Lord J. RUSSELL'S
Reform Bill in this light. It is a measure that
goes a pretty long way as a concession to those
who, like Mr. JOHN BRIGHT, would transfer all
political power from the respectable hands which
now hold it, to those of the lower class of the
people,—who desire. actually to swamp the re-
spectability and intelligence of the nation, by an
overwhelming inundation of the democracy. The
votes of all those who are best qualified, and
therefore most entitled to exercise the elective
franchise in a monarchical system such as ours,—
or, indeed, any political system that is to secure
order and good government,—are to be over-
powered by the votes of an indiscriminate multi-

tude, with scarcely any qualification, and therefore
no claim at all to possess them. It may doubtless
be, as they tell us, " that hurtful changes are
often attributed to harmless ones ; and apprehen-
sions are entertained that a change, however
small, is necessarily a dangerous thing, as tending
to produce extensive and hurtful innovations."
But such changes as are proposed in the Minis-
terial Reform Bill are neither small nor harmless
ones, opening the door, as they would inevitably
do, to the most sweeping innovations upon
the system to which they are to be applied—
unclosing the flood-gates which now preserve us
from a democratic deluge which would soon carry
away, by its resistless force, all the very land-
marks of a Constitution that has raised us to the
highest eminence among the nations of the earth.
Cordially do we concur in the opinion they have
just put forth, that " most wise is the admonition
to copy the great innovator Time, by vigilantly
watching for, and promptly counteracting, the
first small insidious approaches of decay, and
introducing gradually, from time to time, such
small improvements (individually small, but col-
lectively great) as there may be room for, and
which will prevent the necessity of violent, and
sweeping, reformations." This is not the language
of Radicalism, but of Conservatism, although our
Radical reformers find it expedient to dissemble
sometimes by adopting it, Even the Reform Bill
of Lord JOIIN RUSSELL, which they so readily
accept as "an instalment," is not based on any
such Conservative principle as pervades language
like that,—it would not, in fact, be the " instal-
ment" of Radicalism that they are sensible it is,
if it were. It may not be quite as "sweeping" a
a reformation all at once as the Radicals would
wish, but it is sufficiently so, they are convinced,
to prepare the way for still more " sweeping "
ones—nntil the Constitution itself is at length
entirely swept away, and a Manchester republic
is fairly substituted for the British monarchy.
Now this, we repeat, is something more, and
something worse than reform. We quite sub-
scribe to the well-known opinion of ANDREW
MARVELL, that " all governments and societies
of men do in process of long time gather an irre-
gularity, aro. wear away ranch of their primitive
institution. And therefore the true wisdom of
all ages hath been to review at fit periods those
errors, defects, or excesses that haie insensibly
crept into the public administration ; to brush
the dust off the wheels, and oil them again, or, if
it be found advisable, to choose a set of new
ones." This were true reform. But it is not
such reform 14.9 the Radicals want=it is not that
which such a Bill as this of Lord JOHN RUS-
SFLL'S can ever secure.