The Sun.
London, England, 1818-07-03 00:00:00

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• • ••
. • ..headtul .•
and inimarefei•_,A, mid republics, bowed ; some were crumbled
into [lust, and Stifle bought their safety by compromise. in
the toidst.of this wide-spread win, among tottering columns
.and falliub edifices, one fabric itloir StOil(' erect, Mad braved
storm;the and out only prtivided for its own internal seen-
rity,—lit was enabled to send forth at every portal armed
aids to ~vhoever wanted support. Onthis edifice floated that
ensigas (pointing to the L:taglish ensign), a signal of rallying
to the combataut and of shelter to the fallen.—(Unbounded
cheering.)
"To an impartial observer---I will not say to tilt inhabit-
ant of this little fortress—to an imparti-t1 observer, in what-
ever part of the world, one should think .sotnethiag of this
sort would have occurred. fiery is a fabric constructed opt.'
some principles not common to 01 lief% around it ; principles
which enable it to stand elect while every thing is prostrate
or tottering around it. In the construction of this fabric
there must be some curious felicity which the eye of the
philosopher would be well employed sat investigating, sod
which its neighbours may profit by adopting. This, I say.
Gentlemen, Woold have been an obvious iiiference. fiat what ,
shall we think of their understandings who draw an inference
directly the reverse? and who say to its--‘ YOU hate stood,
alien others have fallen; when others have crouched, yam
hare borne yourselves aloft; you :dome have resisted the
power which has shaken, and swallowed Jolt half the civilized
world. We like not this suspicious peculiarity. There must
lie something wromg ill your internal caufortnation!' With
this unhappy curiosity, and in the spirit of this perverse :ana-
lysis, they proceed to dissect our Constitittion. They tied
that, like other states, we have a monarch; that. :s no.niity,
though not organized like ours, is common to all the great
cnipart.F. of E,,arope I but that our distinction lies 1(1 4 popillar
;Assembly, ahicb gives life, and vigour, and straitly, to the
whsle frame of the government. Here, thesefure, they tind
the seat of our disease. Our peccaut part is. undoubtedly,
the house of Commons. lichee our presumptuous exemp-
tion from what was the common lot of all our neighbours,
the anomaly ought forthwith to be corrected ; suit, their-
fore, the House of 01111111i/11S nntst be reformed.--(Applause
and laughter.)
" Gentlemen, it cannot hut bare struck you as somewhat
extraordinary, that, whereas, iii speaking of foreign Sore-
reigns, our reformers are never very Sparing of niatant...tly
epithets; that whereas, in discussing the general principles
of Government, they seldom omit .rn opp,ortnnity of discre-
alitiag and deriding the privileged orders of society; yet,
when they canoe to discus the British Constitution, nothing
cal be more tespectful than their language towards the
Crown ; nothing snore forbearing than their treatment of the
aristocracy. With the horse of •Commoas alone they take
the freedom of familiarity; upon it they poor out all the
viat: of their wrath, and exhaust their denunciations of
amendment.
" Gentlemen, this, thumb extraordinary, is not unintel-
ligible. The reformers are Wise in I heir generation. They
know well ettiatigh,—atal have read plainly enough in our own
history,—that the prerocatives of the Crown and the privi-
leges of the peerage would he but as dust in the balance
against a preponderating democracy. They mean democracy
and nothing else And, give them but a House of Commons
constructed on their own principles,—...the peerage and the
l throne may exist for a day, lint may be swept to the earth by
the first angry vote of such it House of Connuons.—(Lnuil
cheering.)

" It is, therefore, utterly unnecessary for the Reformers to
declare hostility to the Crown; it is, therefore, utterly soper-
Moots for them to make sear against the Peerage. 'l't ey
know that, let but their principles have full play, the Crown'
anti the Peerage would he to the Constitution which they as-
! sail but as the baggage to the army—and the destruction of
them but as the gleanings of the battle—(\lt:eh cheering.)-
1 They know that the battle is with the [louse of Common,' as
At present coustittoo ; and that 1h,41 caret- overt lii own, no-
other popular assembly constructed on their principle—as
the creature and depository of the people's power, and the
unreasoning instrument of the people's will,—there would
not only be no choice, hot (1 wilt go further for them in
avowal, though not itt intention, than they go further them-
a selves) there would not be a pretence for the existeuce of any
other branch of the Constitution.—(Contittuesi cheering.)
" Gentlemen, the whole fallacy lies in Mit : the return:era
reason from fake premises, and theeefore are driving on
their unhappy aeherents to false and dangerous conclusions.
The Constant Mil of this country is A moNAIICITY controlled
by two assembites : the I.IIC hrrellit ary, iodependent alike of
the Crownatid the people : the other elected by and for the
people, but elected for the purpose of controlling atol not ad-
ministering the Government. The error of the reformers, if
error it can be called, is, that they argue as if the Corwin'.
torn of this country was a democracy, inlaid (for ornament's
sake) with a peerage, and topped (by sufferance) with a
Crown.—(Applause and much laughter.)
" If they say that for such a Constitution, that is, in effect,
for an necontrolled democracy, the present House of Com-
mons is not sufficiently popular, they are right: but such a
Vinstitu•• •s nor what we have or what we desire. are
horn moot- a Monarchy which it is our duty, as much as it
is for our happiness, to pressave; and which th-re cannot he
a shadow of .1.610, that the reforms which are reCOilltUelijcd
to its would destroy.
' " I love the monarchy, Gentlemen, because, limited and
introllyd as it i$ in liar happy Constitution, 1 belie,T it to
be not tially the safest depository of power, but the surest
guardian of liberty. I love the system of popular repress-Ista-
ti,m, Gentlemen—who C.,40 have more cause to value it highly
tbau I feel ut this moment....refireting on the triumphs which
it has earotal for me, and addressing Skase who have hero the
menus of achieviug them ?—But of popular represtutation, I
think we have enough for. every purpose of jealous, steady,
corrective, efficient control, over the acts of that monarchial
put et. %, loch. for the safety and for the peace of the commu-
nay, .s lodged iu one sacred family, and descendible from
sire to sou,

" If any man tell me that the popular principle in the
House of Commons is not strong enough for effective con-
tiool, nor diffused enough in insure sympathy with the peo-
ple, I appeal to the whole course of the transactions of the
laNt was desire to have cited to me the instances in which
the Mouse of rommons•has failed either to expres, the ma-
tured and settled opinion of the nation, or to convey it to
the crown. lint I waro those who nay undertake to make the
citation, that they do not (as in fact they almost always do)
sulroitute their own fur the national opinion, and then
complain of its having been imperfectly echoed in the House
tot Commons.

" If, on the other hand, it be only mesa!' to say, that the
1-Touse of Commons is nut the frigid, Gorernmeul of the Conn-
try,--which, if all power he not only fee but in the people,
the lionse of Commons might to be, if the people were ade-
quately represented,-1 answer. Thank God it is not so—
God forbid that it. should ever aim at becoming so.'
" But they look far short of the ultimate effect of the doc-
trines of the present day who do not see that their I endency
ie nut to Make A liaise of Commons such as, in theory, it
has always been defined—a third branch of the Legislature,
Lot to aliNarh the legislative and executive powers into one;
hi, create an immediate delegation of the whole authority of
the people—to which practically, nothing could, and, in Sea-
suit-m!, nothing ought to stand in °ppm:it' .
" Gentlemen, it would he well it these doctrines were the
ebtillitions of the nonnetit, and ended with the occasions
which naturally give them their freest. play; I illeali with
the season of poets: at elections. Itut, onfortimatvlYt disse-
minated as they art ainong all tanks of the community, they
are doss; permanent and incalculable mischief. floW la-
went abl{i• experience lost un niankmd for whett,—in what
age, in what country of the world—have doctrines of this
sort been reduced to practice, without leading through altar-
city to military despotism ? The revolutioq of the seasons is
hot Mote curtail, than is this connexion of events in the
course ()littoral nature.—(Land cheering.)
" Gentlemen, to theories like these you will du me the jus-
tice to remember that I have always
.opposed myself, not
more sirtie I have had the honour to represent this conliTOS-
litty tt au when. I was Uncertain Low far my opinions cm such
subjects nii;,:ht ci)incide with yours.—(Applause.)
For oppnsing these theories, Ortitlemen, I tract 4eCtitile
aA ohjrct of peculiar obloviy: hat I barn bori'iwt hat obloquy
with the c riscimisness In having discharged my ditty; toot
with thin coasolatt.ot that the time was not far di,lant when
I smith! come here among you,—(to when, alone I owe an

'account of Inv pudic conduct),--when I should hare an op-
in ;unit yof heating from no whether 1 had, us I flattered
myself) spoken the sense of .ttic second'coniiiierci.il connou-
uity 1...1141;1nd, and %viten, if—unfortunately and contrary
to"tily bMiet--4 had separated myself in opinion from you, I
should lent) the grounds ot that separation.—s(Applause.)
Gentlemen, my- object pith-tit:Al lire loss alwayslfren
rather to recon;:ile the nation to the lot which -has fallen to
thetti--:Cstirely a lutist blessed and glorious lot among iia-
lions)7.4liiii; to azgiarate incurable iptperfections,—and to
mania out 'int:lglu:try and Unattainable •excellencies for their
admitallon..-7(.lpplattsr•)—l have dour so; because, though
I ;too- Meare that noire splendidly pnpalar systems of govern-
ment be devised than that which it is our happiness
to enjoy, it
.is, I believe it+ my conscience, itopiessible to devise
one to which gomi (pillities of huusati nature shonid
Ire brought more beneficially into action,---it) which there
should he us touch ortleriutoil as inuclviiherty—in which pro-
petty (the conservative principle of society) should
.operatie,
'All a jets; au uvcr whulating wvistt)ii;