the extension of a principle. It had not refused, for
instance, the disfranchisement of the forty-shilling freeholders. But
the present bill would not even add permanently to the members of
the house; he proposed that in future cases of disfranchisement,
the franchise should be allowed to drop altogether, instead of being
transferred. The whole measure seemed to him incapable of alarming the
most timid person, and it ought to be received with willingness by the
sternest opposers of innovation. When he looked at other countries, the
wisdom and policy of the measure was still more imperiously forced on
his conviction. We could not shut our eyes to the fact that a collision
between royal authority and popular resistance was rapidly approaching
in France, though all must regret that some compromise was not
contemplated which might save society from its consequences. It was for
us, then, to profit by the warning, and awaken in time to a perception
of the nice mechanism of our own representative government. It behoved
all who were lovers of liberty without disorder, and of peace without
slavery, to watch anxiously at such a period; endeavouring so to
accommodate our system to altered times and circumstances, as to render
it worthy of the respect and affection of the people. The constitution
itself supplied us with the means; we had only to use its own renovating
principles. Its fabric was not, as some supposed, that of a Grecian
temple, perfect and complete in all its parts, which could not suffer
alteration without the destruction of its symmetry; it was rather like
a Gothic building, susceptible of enlargement, consistently with the
integrity of its ornaments and the security of its duration. The views
on which this bill was founded were repeated and enforced by Lord
Sandon, General Gascoyne, Dr. Lushington, and Messrs. Huskisson, Bright,
and Brougham. All of these members did not go to the same lengths as
Lord John Russell, but all admitted that it was desirable the towns in
question should be represented. Some would give them members only as a
sequel of the disfranchisement of corrupt boroughs. Mr. Huskisson, who
delivered his last speech on parliamentary reform, said that he would
have been better pleased to have been able directly to transfer the
franchise of East Retford to Birmingham; but as the late decision of the
house had rendered that impracticable, he would support the motion.
He observed that the time was fast a