Star.
London, England, 1821-04-18 00:00:00

aid to have been delivered by a certain Right Hon.
Gentleman, at a dinner given him by his constituents,
in which the principles of the Reformers were dis-
cuJed at some length, and treated with great free-
dom ;—that speech was said by its admirers to be
" unanswered and unanswerable"—(hear, hear) ;
after dwelling upon the arguments of the Reformers,
it proceeded to state the supposed views which some
of them had in attacking the corruption of the House
of Commons :—with 'some it was the desire of popu-
larity—with others a mistaken zeal, in a wrong
cause—with the mass, mean ambition, and a view to
the attainment of particular ends ! One advocate of
Reform was singled cut, and made the butt of the
speaker's bitterest satire and reproach : it was a de-
magogue! one striving to gain upon a mob of noisy
electors by more noisy and equally empty professions
of attachment to the Constitution, and of disgust to
corruption. The said speech stated that in the House
of Commons, the demagogue found his own level ;
that in less than six months, he sunk into his pristine
obscurity; that so contemptible would be the condi-
tion into which he was thrown, that, unless a nest of
Boroughs was kept up expressly to secure their re-
turn, the demagogues would disappear from the House.
But if the demagogue had the misfortune to find his
level in so short a time, it appeared there was another
character, whose true colours, thirty years could not
expose—(Hear, hear)—This was, the regular trading
politician—thepolitical adventurer!—(Loud cheers).—
I presume (said Mr. Hobhouse) to attempt a
portrait, not finished, but not exaggerated :—A smart
six form boy, the little hero of a little world, matures
his precocious parts at College, and sends before him
his fame to the Metropolis: a Minister, or some Bo-
rough-holder of the day, thinks him worth saving
from his democratic associates, and from the unpro-
fitable principles which the thoughtless enthusiasm of
youth may have inclined him hitherto to adopt. Theo
hopeful youth yields at once; and placed in the line
of promotion, he takes his seat with the more veteran
prostitutes of Parliament. There he minds his pe-
riods; there he balances his antitheses; there he ad-
justs his alliterations; and,filling up the interstices of
his piebald patchwork rhetoric with troth and foam,
this master of pompous nothings becomes first fa-
vourite of the Great Council of the Nation—( Hear,
hear). His very want of sincerity and virtue quali-
fies him for a corrufted audience, who look upon his
•parts as an excuse for their degeneracy, and regard
him, not only as the partner, but as the apologist of
their common degradation. Such a man may have
notoriously spurned at every principle of public mo-
rality and public honour; he may have by turns in-
sulted, derided, betrayed, and crouched, to every
party, or at least every politician, in the State—
(Hear, hear).—Sometimes he may have shewn all
the arrogance of success, at other times have dis-
played all the true tameness of an underling, and
have submitted to serve under those in public, whom
he has conspired in private to ruin and destroy—
(Cheors)—Yet this man—with

61 Beauty that shocks ynu, parts that none can trust,
64 Wit that can creep, and priJe that licks the dust"—
this man, I say, shall be courted and caressed in
Parliament, and he shall never be so much admired,
never so much applauded, as when playing off his
buffoonery at the expense of public virtue—as when
depreciating the understandings, or mocking the suf-
ferings of the People. Such a man does not find his
level; he does not shrink to his proper dimensions in
the unreformed House—on the contrary, he is the
true House of Commons hero. Despised and de-
tected as he may be without doors, he finds a shelter,
in the bosom of the Senate: sunk as he may be in
public,opinion, he there attains to an eminence which
raises him, for the time, above the scorn of his fel-
low-countrymen. True, his fame is not lasting, but
for the moment he is he glory and the shame of
Parliament: no one equals him on that stage.

" Ilitn, thus exalted, for a wit we own,
"4 And court hint as top4ddle of the town!"

Inch a man, I say, Sir, would have no place in a re-
formed Parliament; aud, if he be either useful or
ornamental in a deliberative Assembly, it is for him
that should be reserved that nest of Boroughs which
it has been proposed to keep solely for the dentagopres.
Talents without character would be banisW from
such an Assembly, and the honest discharge of a
sacred trust would be the first, instead of the last re-
quisite of a public man !—(Loud cheers).
Mr. HORACE TWISS was inaudible for some
time in the gallery, owing to the noise in the House.
It had been argued (said the Hon. Gentleman) that
public opinion was slow in arriving at correctness.
This slowness was his great objection to the extension
of suffrages, as proposed by the Hop. Member. The
opinion of the People was right in the great current
from age to age. It was not to be regarded as the
reflection of a mirror, but as the permanence of a
picture, and therefore time was required for the fea•
tures to settle. Public opinion ought to follow, not
to precede, the deliberations of Parliament. If that
was at all times proper, how much more so now,
when the public mind was so exposed to novelties in
opinions and events ? It bad been stated that 150
Members were returned by borough influence. He
would here mention, not as important in itself, but
as spewing the accuracy of Hon. Gentlemen on the
other side, that this number was quoted from Lord
Grey's Petition of 1793, without adverting to the ad-
dition of 100 Irish Members since that time. Every
Government must be more or less oligarchical, except
the government of the unit of despotism ; the more
democratical a government was, the more oligar-,
chical it became. But there was no greater fallacy
than to represent the 150 Members as if they were
returned by one united corporation. They never
did, and never would, pull together—(Hear, hear).—
It was a greater misapprehension to suppose that if
Triennial Parliaments were restored, one Parliament
only would be held every three years. Reasons of
precaution, as beneficial to the People as to the Go-
vernment, had required a dissolution one year before
the period limited by law. Those reasons of pre-
caution would not be less likely to operate in Trien-
nial Parliaments. Miscellaneous cases of deaths of
Monarchs, changes of Administration, and other cir-
cumstances, would occasion still more frequent dis-
solutions. Triennial Parliaments would therefore be
very little more than Annual Parliaments. Besiees,
we were to regard not only our internal liberty, but'
our foreign glory. If we were surrounded, as Bishop
Berkeley supposed, by a brazen wall, frequent Elec-
tions ought with less hazard be ventured upon; but

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