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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), September 1835, Edition 1 of 1, Page 565, THE HOUSE OF LORDS—REFORM OR ABOLITION ?

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    • THE HOUSE OF LORDS—REFORM OR ABOLITION ?
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      Untitled Article

      The impossibility of governing the country by the Houses of Lords * and Commons , if each of those bodies is to continue as at present constituted , has received not only ample proof , but a most inconvenient surplusage of demonstration . That the Peers would

      either mutilate or reject the Municipal Reform Bill , was generally anticipated ; that they would transform it altogether , so as to fashion it into a machine for augmenting and perpetuating the local evils of oligarchical domination , was beyond the compass of expectancy . While people were exclaiming that they could not do it , and dare not do it , the fact conies upon us that they

      have done it ; there is the Bill—as perfect a Tory Bill , as pretty a contrivance for legalizing all sorts of local oppression , corruption , peculation , and misrule , as ever was invented . We trust that < before these remarks have passed the press ,, the Bill will have been indignantly rejected by the Commons ; will have been trampled in the dirt ; and care taken of the public purse for the recess , if

      recess there is to be : but its final and fatal testimony against the Aristocracy is never to be obliterated . They have reduced the question between themselves and the people to its simplest elements . We thank them for this unequivocal exhibition of the animus of their body . The mask is dropped . The gauntlet is thrown . The nation ' s cry is 'to the rescue . The inquiry is not , what is to be done with the bill V but . what is to be done

      with ' the House of Lords V And one point at least is distinctlyunderstood , that whatever change be necessary , the country shall not be baulked of that most important step towards peace , justice , civic order , and local and general improvement , which would be gained by the Municipal Reform Bill in its original state ; but which requires , that it may be safely and permanently gained , the

      abatement of not one jot or atom of the popular provisions of that measure . Much , indeed , is it to be desired that those provisions should be made yet more extensive and efficient . We hope the Bill will never again leave the Commons without at least the optional introduction of the vote by ballot .

      The principles avowed in the late discussions , and sanctioned by so overwhelming a majority that we may fairly note them down as the principles of the privileged order , are such as must deeply affect all future speculations upon the mode in which it is practicable for the people of this country to secure the blessings of

      good and cheap government . It is contended that no corporation should be interfered with , unless there be proof of malversation . Proof enough there is , in most cases , as all the world very well knows ; but suppose there were not , what then ? Is a parish or town to be permanently deprived of the besj : regulations and agency for its government , because the present corporators cannot

      Untitled Article

      565

      The House Of Lords—Reform Or Abolition ?

      THE HOUSE OF LORDS—REFORM OR ABOLITION ?

      Untitled Article

      Nu . ll ) 5 . 28

  • Citation
    • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1835, page 565, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2649/page/1/