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Untitled Article
cases separated at random from the rest of the community in many deriving the right of suffrage from circumstances which give them a distinct interest ; and in but a few instances identical with the general body of the people . The return of such a House of Commons as the present is an extraordinary event—it could
only happen in a season of strong excitement ; and it implies an influence of public feeling , and an extent of individual sacrifice , of which it would be most unreasonable to expect the repetition . The present members are delegates for the reform of the representative system , appointed for that purpose by an immense effort , which ought to be regarded , in having been made once , as being made for ever .
The opposition to reform is scarcely so much the expression of an opinion as the defence of an interest . Certain advantages , real or imaginary , possessed by certain individuals or classes , are , or are supposed to be , at stake . Hence , inconsistency , vehemence , pertinacity , and continual recourse to the means of delay and annoyance afforded by the forms of debate , have characterized the opposition to this measure . The plain fact is , that
there are those who consider themselves as having a vested interest in legislation . They struggle for its retention as any other class in the community would struggle to uphold a monopoly or put down a rivalry . It is their patrimony or their purchase . We cannot wonder at their tenacity ; it is only what we have seen in the silk-manufacturer , the timber-merchant , the ship-owner , the slave-holder , the land-owner , and a hundred others . Society is , unhappily , made up of conflicting interests , of distinct and
hostile classes . Yet the certainty of ultimate defeat ought , in common prudence , to prompt a timely and graceful resignation . Turning , in our survey , from the political to the religious indications of the state of the community afforded by the year which is closing , we cannot bat observe that the prospect of ecclesiastical reformation is bound up with that of political reformation . The conduct of the bishops has accelerated that revision of the establishment and correction of abuses which it was intended to
postpone . Their votes on the Reform Bill sealed the doom of the tythe system . A more proportionate distribution of ecclesiastical revenues , a reduction of their amount , a better mode of raising them , and a modification , if not the destruction , of the political character of the Church , are evidently at no great distance .
It is not unreasonable to hope that , in the inquisition into the temporal machinery of the Church , inquiry will also arise as to its spiritual and moral efficiency , the evidence of the tenets which it inculcates , and the fitness of the forms which it employs . Its doctrines and devotions will be scrutinized . Whenever that
shall happen , a brighter day will dawn of religious truth . Bigotry and enthusiasm have rendered that contribution towards human good which consists jn the disgust excited by the
Untitled Article
State and Praspeets of the Country * 9
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1832, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1804/page/7/
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