ry, the opinion
which more than another he was anxious to express was, that they should
not treat the present bill as they had treated the last; that though
they had then acted right in rejecting the bill, they would not
be warranted to do so again; and that they could not hope again
successfully to resist a measure which the house of commons had
sanctioned a second time by a large majority, and in favour of which
the people of England had expressed a decided opinion. It was for this
reason that he had prepared a resolution by which the house would pledge
itself, in the then next session, to take into serious consideration
some plan for extending the franchise to his majesty's subjects, and for
correcting the abuses which had crept into the representative branch of
the constitution. He was on the point of moving this resolution, when
he was persuaded by some noble friends that to do so then would do more
harm than good; that it would be better to wait till the excitement of
the public mind had been somewhat allayed before a more moderate measure
of reform than that brought forward by ministers should be submitted
to parliament. He yielded to the suggestion, hoping that the interval
between the two sessions would afford the public and their lordships
time to consider maturely the merits of the question, and that both
would see that, if the ministers' plan were adopted, it would prove
injurious to all existing interests. In this he had been disappointed;
there had been time enough to allow a reaction to have manifested
itself; but it could not be denied that, notwithstanding the potent
objections which had been urged against the bill, no such reaction had
occurred. On these grounds, with others, his lordship said he would vote
for the second reading. He was followed by the Duke of Wellington, who
said that he could not shift into the course which the Earl of Harrowby,
and those who thought with him had adopted. Why he could not, he
explained at great length; and he afterwards descanted at large upon the
objections which he had to the bill itself. It was bad, he said, because
it went to overturn the whole established system of representation;
it destroyed for the mere pleasure of reconstructing: it totally
revolutionised the representation of Scotland, and put an end to all the
arrangements which, three years ago, had been entered into for the final
settlement of the catholic question. It put an end, also, to that
most valu