e?

His biographer rashly denies the reality of those dangers, and says,
that the Reform Act has not produced any of the calamities which his
lordship then saw in such ominous prospect. But to this the natural
answer is, that the Reform Bill is little more than a dozen years old;
that though the power of property in so great a country as England, and
the voice of common sense in a country of such general and solid
knowledge, could not be extinguished at once; and though the national
character forbade our following the example and the rapidity of a French
revolution; still, that great evil has been done--that a democratic
tendency has been introduced into the constitution--that Radicalism has
assumed a place and a shape in public deliberations--that faction beards
and browbeats the legitimate authorities of public counsel--that low
agitators are suffered to carry on the full insolence of intrigue with a
dangerous impunity--and that the pressure from without too often becomes
paramount to the wisdom from within.

At the same time, we fully admit that there were abuses in the ancient
system, offensive to the natural sense of justice; that the sale of
seats was contrary to principle; and that the dependence of members on
individual patrons was a violation of legislative liberty. But whose was
the criminality? not that of the constitution, but of the faction; not
that of the enfeebled law, but of the local supremacy of Whig influence.
Property is the true, and in fact the only safe pledge of legislative
power; and if Manchester and the other great manufacturing towns had
possessed, five hundred years ago, the property which they have acquired
within the last fifty there can be no doubt that representatives would
have been allotted to them. There can be as little doubt, that in 1830,
or in a quarter of a century before, they ought to have had
representatives; but the true evil has been in the sweeping nature of
the change. Still, we will hope the best; we have strong faith in the
fortunes of England, and shall rejoice to see that our fears have been
vain.

The young senator's exertions, on this occasion, confirmed the opinion
already entertained of him in high quarters. He was shortly after sworn
in as a member of the Privy Council in England, and was made one of the
commissioners for the affairs of India. Pitt's memorable India Bill, in
1784, had appointed a board of six commissioners for Indian affairs, who
were to be pr