tar Chamber and a Parliamentary High
Commission Court would not be in the background to supply all the
deficiencies of the laws of England? When these merry times arrive--the
times of extraordinary tribunals and extraordinary taxes--and, if we
proceed in our present course, they are much nearer than we imagine-the
phrase 'Anti-Reformer' will serve as well as that of 'Malignant,' and
be as valid a plea as the former title for harassing and plundering all
those who venture to wince under the crowning mercies of centralisation.

Behold the Republic of the Whigs! Behold the only Republic that can be
established in England except by force! And who can doubt the swift
and stern termination of institutions introduced by so unnatural and
irrational a process. I would address myself to the English Radicals.
I do not mean those fine gentlemen or those vulgar adventurers who, in
this age of quackery, may sail into Parliament by hoisting for the
nonce the false colours of the movement; but I mean that honest and
considerable party, too considerable, I fear, for their happiness and
the safety of the State-who have a definite object which they distinctly
avow--I mean those thoughtful and enthusiastic men who study their
unstamped press, and ponder over a millennium of operative amelioration.
Not merely that which is just, but that which is also practicable,
should be the aim of a sagacious politician. Let the Radicals well
consider whether, in attempting to achieve their avowed object, they are
not, in fact, only assisting the secret views of a party whose scheme
is infinitely more adverse to their own than the existing system, whose
genius I believe they entirely misapprehend. The monarchy of the Tories
is more democratic than the Republic of the Whigs. It appeals with
a keener sympathy to the passions of the millions; it studies their
interest with a more comprehensive solicitude. Admitting for a moment
that I have mistaken the genius of the English constitution, what
chance, if our institutions be overthrown, is there of substituting
in their stead a more popular polity? This hazard, both for their own
happiness and the honour of their country, the English Radicals are
bound to calculate nicely. If they do not, they will find themselves,
too late, the tools of a selfish faction or the slaves of a stern
usurper.

CHAPTER IV.

_The English Constitution_

A CHAPTER on the English constitution is a natural episode on the