Gentlemen, it is but in a pale and weak and almost despicable miniature that such ideas are now set up, but you will observe that the poison lies—that the poison and the mischief lie—in the principle and not the scale.
It is the opposite principle which, I say, has been compromised by the action of the ministry, and which I call upon you, and upon any who choose to hear my views, to vindicate when the day of our election comes; I mean the sound and the sacred principle that Christendom is formed of a band of nations who are united to one another in the bonds of right; that they are without distinction of great and small; there is an absolute equality between them,—the same sacredness defends the narrow limits of Belgium as attaches to the extended frontiers of Russia, or Germany, or France. I hold that he who by act or word brings that principle into peril or disparagement, however honest his intentions may be, places himself in the position of one inflicting—I won’t say intending to inflict—I ascribe nothing of the sort—but inflicting injury upon his own country, and endangering the peace and all the most fundamental interests of Christian society.
Æolus sits upon his lofty tower And holds the sceptre, calming all their rage; Else would they bear sea, earth, and heaven profound In rapid flight, and sweep them through the air.
NOTE 2, p. 73.—Only so much of London was represented as was included in the territory of the Corporation—scarcely more than one square mile in the heart of the metropolis. The other portions of the city, Westminster, Southwark, Paddington, Chelsea, etc., were subsequently enfranchised as individual boroughs.
NOTE 3, p. 73.—The condition of representation in Scotland before the passage of the Reform Bill was worse than that in England. The county franchise consisted of what were known as “superiorities,” which were bought and sold like stocks in open market. The County of Argyll, for example, with a population of 100,000 had only 115 electors, of whom 84 resided outside the county, and were known as “out voters.” The city and borough franchise was vested in the town-councillors, who constituted a close corporation, with the right of electing their own successors. Edinburgh and Glasgow, the two first cities in Scotland, elected their representatives in this way, each having a constituency of thirty-three persons. See May, “Con. Hist.,” Am. ed., i., 284.