tion has not been in existence more than
forty years. I will not say it has been deteriorating, for I wish to avoid
all invidious phrases; but it has been rapidly undergoing a change from a
republic to a mere democracy. The influence of the executive--the influence
of the government--has been daily becoming less, and more power has
consequently been vested in the hands of the people. And yet, in that
country, there is land uncultivated to an extent almost incalculable--there
is no established church, no privileged orders--property exists on a very
different tenure from that on which it is held in this country; therefore
let not the people of England be deceived, let them not imagine, from the
example of the United States, that because democracy has succeeded and
triumphed there, it will also succeed and triumph here."

[Sidenote: Reform Bill debate]

[Sidenote: Exciting elections]

[Sidenote: Tories defeated]

[Sidenote: Cobbett's state trial]

Altogether seventy-one speakers joined in the debate. In the end the
government obtained a second reading of the bill by a bare majority of one.
The opposition had made a motion to withdraw the bill. After another
prolonged debate this was carried against the government by a majority of
eight. Parliament was dissolved as both Houses were on the point of
carrying a motion asking the King not to consent to a dissolution. The
elections which followed were turbulent in the extreme. Throughout England
the reformers raised the cry: "The bill, the whole bill, and nothing but
the bill." It was then that the custom of electioneering by means of
processions and bands of music came into vogue. When the results of the
elections were announced it was found that the Tories had lost more than a
hundred seats. On the other hand a few of the most prominent supporters of
the government suffered signal defeat, notably Lord Palmerston and
Cavendish. On the Tory side, young Gladstone, then still a student at
Oxford, came into notice by his warm speech against the proposed reform.
Parliament was reopened with another hot debate on the all-engrossing bill.
It was passed to a second reading by a strong majority of 135 votes.
Scarcely had this been accomplished when the government was embarrassed by
William Cobbett's state trial for sedition. Throughout the trial the
Attorney-General treated Cobbett with marked courtesy, speaking of him as
"one of the greatest masters of the English language who had