y have given up one atom of reform--I do not believe that a
great people were ever before so firmly bent upon any one measure. I
put it to any man of common sense, whether he believes it possible,
after the King and Parliament have acted as they have done, that the
people will ever be content with much less than the present bill
contains. If a contrary principle be acted upon, and the bill
attempted to be got rid of altogether, I confess I tremble for the
consequences, which I believe will be of the worst and most painful
description; and this I say deliberately, after the most diligent and
extensive enquiry. Upon that diligent enquiry I repeat again my firm
conviction, that the desire of reform has increased, not diminished;
that the present repose is not indifference, but the calmness of
victory, and the tranquillity of success. When I see all the wishes
and appetites of created beings changed,--when I see an eagle, that,
after long confinement, has escaped into the air, come back to his
cage and his chain,--when I see the emancipated negro asking again for
the hoe which has broken down his strength, and the lash which has
tortured his body--I will then, and not till then, believe that the
English people will return to their ancient degradation--that they
will hold out their repentant hands for those manacles which at this
moment lie broken into links at their feet."

This fine speech was delivered at a crucial moment of the speaker's
personal fortunes. Whether he would or would not have made a good bishop,
and whether the Whigs were or wore not justly chargeable with
cowardice[103] in not having raised him to the Episcopal Bench, are
disputable points. It seems certain, from his own declarations, that in
later life he would have declined the honour; but there was a time when it
might have been offered, and would probably have been accepted. When he
feared that England might be dragged into war with France on behalf of
Spain, he composed a skit purporting to be a Protest entered on the
Journals of the Lords by the Bishop of Worcester, and signed it "Sydney
Vigorn."[104] The Bishop of Worcester[105] died on the 5th of September
1831, and Lord Grey gave the vacant mitre to a Tory.[106] Sydney's emotions
are not recorded; but on the 10th of September Lord Grey offered him a
Residentiary Canonry of St. Paul's--"a snug thing, let me tell you, bei