STATE OF PARTIES.
The session just closed had broken up the alliance which enabled ministers to retain office; and as this alliance, whilst it lasted, seemed to widen the breach between them and their ancient friends, they were destined, in the ensuing elections, to meet with a formidable opposition. To oust the ministry was the avowed object of the Whigs, and whoever professed the same object was their friend. The hostility of the Tories rested on different grounds from that of the Whigs, but it was equally formidable. The ministry, therefore, was forced to an election in face of the combined opposition of the two parties—by playing off one of which against the other it had flattered itself with being able to retain its power. Yet the opposition was not stated on any special ground. The manifestoes of the Whigs attacked it on the ground of incapacity; but in what they were incapable was not shown. The Duke of Wellington was said by them to be a domineering soldier, unfitted to conduct alone the government of the nation, yet determined to surround himself with men of mean capacity and dependent spirit, who would act as the unreflecting instruments of his will. Such were the views put forth by the Whigs, and though the offended Tories did not deliberately act in union with them, yet their influence operated in the same direction—namely, to overthrow the ministry. This general spirit of opposition suddenly gained an addition of strength by a revolution in France. The ministers of Charles X., discovering that the new elections increased the number of their opponents, broke through the fences of the constitution, with a determination to establish a species of Prussian government, in which the material interests of the people should dominate over those that are intellectual and political. A royal ordinance abolished the liberty of the press; cancelled the existing system of representation; and fashioned for the kingdom a new system of election, which would produce a chamber of deputies more subservient to the royal will. Paris rose in arms against these decrees, and the rabble overcame the troops. Charles X. and his descendants were then excluded from the throne by the deputies then in Paris, and the French crown was presented by them at the same time to the Duke of Orleans. This revolution in France was followed by another in Belgium, where a national congress declared Belgium an independent state, excluded the house of Orange from the throne, and set themselves about the election of a new king. These events were hailed in England by the Whigs with applause, as the dawning of a new and glorious era in the history of man. Public meetings were held to pass resolutions commending the spirit with which the Parisians had shaken off encroaching despotism, and deputations were sent to congratulate them on their triumph. The people of England were especially called on to remark how little they had to fear from military power, since the citizens of Paris and Brussels had been able to set it at defiance. It was also stated that they were clearly entitled to be heard in the government, since it was in their power to make the government what they chose. The excitement produced by these events, indeed, acted in the elections very unfavourably to ministers; and it had also the effect of bringing forward the question of parliamentary reform in a much more prominent and remarkable shape than it had yet assumed. The force of example was now added to the existing motives for change, and the notion of transferring the privileges of a corrupt borough to an unrepresented place, or giving the elective franchise to a populous town, was discarded. A wild and indiscriminating change was abroad. Meetings, petitions, and addresses were got up on every hand, advocating extensive alterations in our representative system, all of which, however vague and indeterminate in their respective conditions, tended to confer the elective rights on a much larger proportion of the people than had hitherto enjoyed them. Threats were even uttered that a refusal of these rights would lead to a general convulsion, in which the privileged orders might possibly be forced to yield more than was required. As a natural consequence of these menaces and demands, disturbances took place throughout the country. Lurking incendiaries wreaked their vengeance on property, the destruction of which only tended to aggravate the prevailing distress. Night after night they lighted up conflagrations, by which a large quantity of grain, and even of live stock, was consumed. Bands of men, also, still more daring than the incendiary, attacked machinery of all kinds, particularly thrashing machines, the use of which became so unpopular that insurance-offices refused a policy to those who kept them on their premises. The military force was increased in the disturbed counties, and a proclamation was issued, offering a reward of five hundred pounds for the conviction of an incendiary. A special commission, also, was ordered to proceed into those counties where the outrages were committed. The first offenders that were seized, being tried before county magistrates, met with lenity, from commiseration for their starving condition. But this only increased the evil; and, therefore, the government resolved to quell the riotous proceedings by the strong arm of the law. They were aided in this work by the yeomanry and fanners, who, mounting their horses and scouring the country, aided the civil officers in the discovery and apprehension of offenders.