“Is it madness or meanness which clings to thee now?
Were he God—as he is but the commonest clay,
With scarce fewer wrinkles than sins on his brow—Such
servile devotion might shame him away.
Ay, roar in his train! Let their orators lash
Their fanciful spirit to pamper his pride.”
I am afraid I have occupied much time with this famous trial. Had I told you the evidence in the least detail I should only have inspired disgust. Nor should I have selected the subject except for a special reason.
Though no results immediately followed, even though George IV recovered his popularity in a measure,—for he was a very clever and could be a very charming man,—yet the very fact that the bill was introduced into the House of Lords ranged public opinion against that branch of the Legislature as nothing previously seemed to have done. It brought about the time when the days of the aristocracy as the sole influence in government were to be numbered. Peers were no longer to be allowed the enormous privileges they had enjoyed. They had ranged themselves on the side of the throne in an unjust cause,—not because they cared for the King,—but because they considered their interests and his to be identical. The Reform Bill of 1832 was the answer of the English middle class to the Bill of Pains and Penalties of 1820.
FOOTNOTES:
[25] Disraeli’s “Sybil” gives a scathing portraiture of the great Whig families in his sketch of the career of the Earls of Marney.