Æolus sits upon his lofty tower
And holds the sceptre, calming all their rage;
Else would they bear sea, earth, and heaven profound
In rapid flight, and sweep them through the air.
—Virgil’s Æneid, book i., lines 56–59.
[Note 2], [p. 73].—Only so much of London was represented as was included in the territory of the Corporation—scarcely more than one square mile in the heart of the metropolis. The other portions of the city, Westminster, Southwark, Paddington, Chelsea, etc., were subsequently enfranchised as individual boroughs.
[Note 3], [p. 73].—The condition of representation in Scotland before the passage of the Reform Bill was worse than that in England. The county franchise consisted of what were known as “superiorities,” which were bought and sold like stocks in open market. The County of Argyll, for example, with a population of 100,000 had only 115 electors, of whom 84 resided outside the county, and were known as “out voters.” The city and borough franchise was vested in the town-councillors, who constituted a close corporation, with the right of electing their own successors. Edinburgh and Glasgow, the two first cities in Scotland, elected their representatives in this way, each having a constituency of thirty-three persons. See May, “Con. Hist.,” Am. ed., i., 284.
[Note 4], [p. 81].—The revolution of 1830 resulted in a complete change in political affairs both in Belgium and in France. The restoration of the Bourbons and the doctrines of the Holy Alliance led to the general policy of repression. This policy culminated in July, 1830, with the publication of five ordinances issued by Charles X. of France. These ordinances, which were an audacious violation of the constitution, suspended the liberty of the press, dissolved the newly elected Chamber of Deputies, changed the system of election and reduced the number of representatives, convoked the two Chambers, and appointed a new Council of State from the extreme Royalist party. The city was thrown into immediate revolt, and within four days the royal palace was in the hands of the mob. On the 2d of August the king was obliged to abdicate in favor of Louis Philippe. The revolution outside of France made itself felt chiefly in Belgium, where, as the result of a violent struggle, the friends of liberal government succeeded in adopting a constitution modelled after that of England.
[Note 5], [p. 86].—Sir Robert Peel, in his argument in opposition to the bill, had urged that Pitt, Fox, Canning, Brougham, and Macaulay himself had been brought into Parliament from nomination boroughs.
[Note 6], [p. 87].—There were two memorable instances during the short political experience of Socrates, to either of which Macaulay may have referred. In B.C. 406 he was a member of the Senate and one of the Prytanes, when he refused to put an unconstitutional question to vote on the trial of the six generals, though all of the other Prytanes were against him. Amid great political uproar he persisted in holding out, and thus prevented the required unanimity. The other instance was his refusal to obey an unconstitutional order of the Thirty Tyrants to arrest Leon the Salaminian. See Plato, “Apol. Socr.,” c. 20; and Grote, “Hist. of Greece,” viii., 200.
[Note 7], [p. 88].—Reference is made to the repeal of the Oath of Supremacy Act, by which, in 1829, Irish Roman Catholics otherwise qualified were admitted to the rights of franchise. In order to prevent too large an influx of new voters into political power, the forty-shilling condition of rating was raised to a ten-pound condition. Mr. O’Connell was twice elected for Clare before he could be admitted to Parliament.
[Note 8], [p. 91].—Sir Robert Peel, in the early part of his career, had attached himself to the Tories, and had been elected to the House by the University of Oxford, with the expectation that he would be the successful champion of Toryism. When the Irish question, under the lead of O’Connell, first assumed formidable proportions, Peel was ardently opposed to the project of emancipation. In the course of the debate, however, his opposition weakened, and he finally, on coming into the ministry, became the champion of the cause which he formerly opposed. Macaulay possibly hoped to draw him into a similar course on the Reform Bill,—at all events to weaken the force of his opposition to it. He was not successful; but, as we shall hereafter see, Sir Robert pursued a nearly identical course in regard to the Corn Laws.