announce that power has only one
duty--to secure the social welfare of the PEOPLE.

Book 4 Chapter 15

During the week of political agitation which terminated with the
inglorious catastrophe of the Bedchamber plot, Sybil remained tranquil,
and would have been scarcely conscious of what was disturbing so many
right honourable hearts, had it not been for the incidental notice
of their transactions by her father and his friends. 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.

The unexpected termination of the events of May, 1839, in the
re-establishment in power of a party confessedly too weak to carry on
the parliamentary government of the country, was viewed however by
the chartists in a very different spirit to that with which they had
witnessed the outbreak of these transactions. It had unquestionably a
tendency to animate their efforts, and imparted a bolder tone to their
future plans and movements. They were encouraged to try a fall with
a feeble administration. Gerard from this moment became engrossed
in affairs; his correspondence greatly increased; and he was so much
occupied that