pproaching when ministers would
be compelled to come down to the house with some measure, or to resign
their situations, and nothing was more unwise than for a government to
delay important propositions, till compelled by overwhelming majorities.
He did not wish it to be understood, however, that his vote implied he
could ever be brought to sanction the substitution of a new system of
representation for that which existed. He added:--"To a more extensive
parliamentary reform, a measure founded upon the principle of a general
revision, reconstruction, and remodelling of our present constitution, I
have always been opposed; and while I have a seat in this house I shall
give it my most decided opposition. If such an extensive reform were
effected, we might go on for two or three sessions in good and easy
times, and such a reformed parliament might adapt itself to one mode
of government on the ordinary concerns of the country; but if such an
extensive change were effected in the constitution of parliament, sure I
am that, whenever an occasion shall arise of great popular excitement
or re-action, the consequence will be a total subversion of our
constitution, followed by anarchy and confusion, and terminating either
in the tyranny of a fierce democracy, or a military despotism; these two
great calamities maintaining that natural order of succession which they
have been always hitherto seen to observe. I am, therefore, opposed to
such an extensive change and revision of our representative system." The
motion for leave to bring in the bill was negatived by a majority of one
hundred and eighty against forty.

If this bill was the most harmless modification under which reform could
be proposed, that which was subsequently brought before parliament by
Mr. O'Connell was, on the other hand, the most wild and ruinous. That
arch-demagogue moved for leave to bring in a bill to establish triennial
parliaments, universal suffrage, and vote by ballot, the foundation of
this system being this proposition--simple indeed in its nature, but
tending to anarchy--that every man who pays a tax, or is liable to serve
in the militia, is entitled to have a voice in the representation.
Lord John Russell, who took occasion of the motion to introduce certain
resolutions of his own, embracing a more comprehensive scheme of change
than his former proposal, said, that he could not consent to any of
Mr. O'Connell's scheme. Triennial parliaments might not b