ails in England, for this reason, that it falls upon the poorest
and lowest classes of the community. The expenditure of the rich gives
comfort and ease to the middle classes, but it gives subsistence to the
poor; and it is for want of this subsistence and comfort for the lower
classes, that agitation has been carried to such an extent.

_April_ 10, 1832.

* * * * *

_Military Force will be required to Govern the Country if the Reform
Bill is carried._

The noble Viscount, one of his Majesty's Secretaries of State, who spoke
yesterday upon the subject, admitted that he did not expect that the
Reform measure would relieve any of the distresses of the country. It
certainly does appear most extraordinary, that a Minister, particularly
a Secretary of State, should say of a measure, which he is supporting
himself, and which he knows must have such extensive consequences as the
measure now proposed, that he does not believe that it will tend to
relieve any of the existing distresses of the country. But I say not
only that it will not relieve any of the distresses of the country, but,
on the contrary, that it will deeply aggravate them. But let us go a
little further, and see whether this system is good; and whether the
system of cheap government, which it is to introduce, is likely to
produce good to the country. And here, again, I would wish to call the
attention of your Lordships to what is passing in another country. If
your Lordships will take the trouble of examining what has passed in
France in the course of the last two years, you will see that, during
that period, that country has expended 50,000,000 l. sterling beyond its
usual expenditure. Its ordinary Budget, notwithstanding every
description of saving that could be made from the Civil List, and in
other establishments, which have been cut down as low as possible--still
its ordinary Budget exceeds the Budget of the former reign--the
extravagant reign of the Bourbons--to the amount of 10,000,000 l.
sterling; and, including those laws for two years, there is the
extraordinary expenditure of 50,000,000 l. in that space of time. To say,
then, that popular excitement tends to cheap government, is monstrous
and absurd, and it is impossible for any man who regards these facts to
arrive at that conclusion. We are called upon to adopt a system which is
to lead to these results. I ask, then, whether such a system can be more
effectual in th