To the chartists indeed the
factious embroilment at first was of no great moment, except
as the breaking up and formation of cabinets might delay the
presentation of the National Petition. They had long ceased
to distinguish between the two parties who then and now
contend for power. And they were tight. Between the noble
lord who goes out and the right honourable gentleman who comes
in, where is the distinctive principle? A shadowy difference
may be simulated in opposition, to serve a cry and stimulate
the hustings: but the mask is not even worn in Downing Street:
and the conscientious conservative seeks in the pigeon-holes
of a whig bureau for the measures against which for ten years
he has been sanctioning by the speaking silence of an
approving nod, a general wail of frenzied alarm.
Once it was otherwise; once the people recognised a party in
the state whose principles identified them with the rights and
privileges of the multitude: but when they found the parochial
constitution of the country sacrificed without a struggle, and
a rude assault made on all local influences in order to
establish a severely organised centralisation, a blow was
given to the influence of the priest and of the gentleman, the
ancient champions of the people against arbitrary courts and
rapacious parliaments, from which they will find that it
requires no ordinary courage and wisdom to recover.
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