It was calculated by the Tadpoles and
Tapers that a dissolution by Sir Robert, after the
registration of 1837, would give him a clear majority, not too
great a one, but large enough: a manageable majority; some
five-and-twenty or thirty men, who with a probable peerage or
two dangling in the distance, half-a-dozen positive
baronetcies, the Customs for their constituents, and Court
balls for their wives, might be induced to save the state. 0!
England, glorious and ancient realm, the fortunes of thy
polity are indeed strange! The wisdom of the Saxons, Norman
valour, the state-craft of the Tudors, the national sympathies
of the Stuarts, the spirit of the latter Guelphs struggling
against their enslaved sovereignty,--these are the high
qualities, that for a thousand years have secured thy national
developement. And now all thy memorial dynasties end in the
huckstering rule of some thirty unknown and anonymous jobbers!
The Thirty at Athens were at least tyrants. They were marked
men. But the obscure majority, who under our present
constitution are destined to govern England, are as secret as
a Venetian conclave. Yet on their dark voices all depends.
Would you promote or prevent some great measure that may
affect the destinies of unborn millions, and the future
character of the people,--take, for example, a system of
national education,--the minister must apportion the plunder
to the illiterate clan; the scum that floats on the surface of
a party; or hold out the prospect of honours, which are only
honourable when in their transmission they impart and receive
lustre; when they are the meed of public virtue and public
services, and the distinction of worth and of genius.
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