amount of capital that the emigrants carried out with them. They took a mere pittance. What is it, then, that has effected the change? It is simply this, you placed the Englishman, instead of the red man, upon the soil; and the Englishman, intelligent and energetic, cut down the forests, turned them into cities and fleets, and covered the land with harvests and orchards in their place.

I am convinced, Sir, that this question of limiting the hours of labor, being a question connected, for the most part, with persons of tender years, -a question in which public health is concerned, and a question relating to public morality,—it is one with which the State may properly interfere. Sir, as lawgivers, we have errors of two different kinds to repair. We have done that which we ought not to have done; we have left undone that which we ought to have done. We have regulated that which we ought to have left to regulate itself; we have left unregulated that which it was our especial business to have regulated. We have given to certain branches of industry a protection which was their bane. We have withheld from public health, and from public morality, a protection which it was our duty to have given. We have prevented the laborer from getting his loaf where he could get it cheapest, but we have not prevented him from prematurely destroying the health of his body and mind, by inordinate toil. I hope and believe that we are approaching the end of a vicious system of interference, and of a vicious system of non-interference.

114. REFORM, THAT YOU MAY PRESERVE, MARCH 2, 1831.-T. B. Macaulay.

TURN where we may, - within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, "Reform, that you may preserve!" Now, therefore, while everything at home and abroad forebodes ruin to those who persist in a hopeless struggle against the spirit of the age; now, while the crash of the proudest Throne of the Continent is still resounding in our ears; now, while the roof of a British palace affords an ignominious shelter to the exiled heir of forty Kings;* now, while we see on every side ancient institutions subverted, and great societies dissolved; now, while the heart of England is still sound; now, while the old feelings and the old associations retain a power and a charm which may too soon pass away; now, in this your accepted time, now, in this your day of salvation, take counsel, not of prejudice, not of party spirit, not of the ignominious pride of a fatal consistency, but of history, of reason, of the ages which are past, of the signs of this most portentous time. Pronounce in a manner worthy of the expectation with which this great debate has been anticipated, and of the long remembrance which it will leave behind. Renew the youth of the State. Save property, divided against itself. Save the multitude, endangered by their own ungovernable passions. Save the aristocracy, endangered by its own unpopular power. Save the greatest, and fair

*Charles the Tenth, of France.

est, and most highly civilized community that ever existed, from calamities which may in a few days sweep away all the rich heritage of so many ages of wisdom and glory. The danger is terrible. The time is short. If this bill should be rejected, I pray to God that none of those who concur in rejecting it may ever remember their votes with unavailing regret, amidst the wreck of laws, the confusion of ranks, the spoliation of property, and the dissolution of social order.

115. MEN ALWAYS FIT FOR FREEDOM.-T. B. Macaulay.

THERE is only one cure for the evils which newly-acquired freedom produces, and that cure is freedom! When a prisoner leaves his cell, he cannot bear the light of day; he is unable to discriminate colors, or recognize faces; but the remedy is not to remand him into his dungeon, but to accustom him to the rays of the sun. The blaze of truth and liberty may at first dazzle and bewilder Nations which have become half blind in the house of bondage; but let them gaze on, and they will soon be able to bear it. In a few years men learn to reason; the extreme violence of opinion subsides; hostile theories correct each other; the scattered elements of truth cease to conflict, and begin to coalesce; and, at length, a system of justice and order is educed out of the chaos. Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no People ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim! If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may, indeed, wait forever!

116. THE REFORM BILL A SECOND BILL OF RIGHTS, JULY 5, 1831. — Id.

THE whole of history shows that all great Revolutions have been produced by a disproportion between society and its institutions; for, while society has grown, its institutions have not kept pace, and accommodated themselves to its improvements. The history of England is the history of a succession of Reforms; and the very reason that the People of England are great and happy is, that their history is the history of Reform. The great Charter, the first assembling of Parliament, the Petition of Right, the Revolution, and, lastly, this great measure, are all proofs of my position, are all progressive stages in the progress of society, and I am fully convinced that every argument urged against the step we are now called upon to take might have been advanced with equal justice against any of the other changes I have enumerated. At the present moment we everywhere see society outgrowing our institutions. Let us contrast our commerce, wealth, and perfect civilization, with our Penal Laws, at once barbarous and inefficient, the preposterous fictions of pleading, the mummery of

fines and recoveries, the chaos of precedents, and the bottomless pit of Chancery. Here we see the barbarism of the thirteenth century coupled with the civilization of the nineteenth; and we see, too, that the barbarism belongs to the Government, and the civilization to the People. Then I say that this incongruous state of things cannot continue; and, if we do not terminate it with wisdom, ere long we shall find it ended with violence.

I fear, that it may be deemed unbecoming in me to make any application to the fears of Members of this House. But surely I may, without reproach, address myself to their honest fears. It is well to talk of opposing a firm front to sedition. But woe to the Government that cannot distinguish between a Nation and a mob! woe to the Government that thinks a great and steady movement of mind is to be put down like a riot! This error has been twice fatal to the Bourbons; it may be fatal to the Legislature of this country, if they should venture to foster it. I do believe that the irrevocable moment has arrived. Nothing can prevent the passing of this noble law, this second Bill of Rights. I do call it the second Bill of Rights; and so will the country call it, and so will our children. I call it a greater charter of the liberties of England. Eighteen hundred and thirtyone is destined to exhibit the first example of an established, of a deep-rooted system, removed without bloodshed, or violence, or rapine, -all points being debated, every punctilio observed, the peaceful industry of the country never for a moment checked or compromised, and the authority of the law not for one instant suspended.

117. PUBLIC OPINION AND THE SWORD, OCT. 10, 1831.-T. B. Macaulay.

Ar the present moment I can see only one question in the State, the Question of Reform; only two parties - the friends of the Bill, and its enemies. No observant and unprejudiced man can look forward, without great alarm, to the effects which the recent decision of the Lords may possibly produce. I do not predict, I do not expect, open, armed insurrection. What I apprehend is this—that the People may engage in a silent but extensive and persevering war against the law. It is easy to say, "Be bold; be firm; defy intimidation; let the law have its course; the law is strong enough to put down the seditious." Sir, we have heard this blustering before; and we know in what it ended. It is the blustering of little men, whose lot has fallen on a great crisis. Xerxes scourging the waves, Canute commanding the waves to recede from his footstool, were but types of the folly. The law has no eyes; the law has no hands; the law is nothing nothing but a piece of paper printed by the King's printer, with the King's arms at the top-till public opinion breathes the breath of life into the dead letter. We found this in Ireland. The elections of 1826- the Clare election, two years later - proved the folly of those who think that Nations are governed by wax and parchment; and, at

length, in the close of 1828, the Government had only one plain alternative before it - concession or civil war.

-

I know only two ways in which societies can permanently be governed by Public Opinion, and by the Sword. A Government having at its command the armies, the fleets, and the revenues of Great Britain, might possibly hold Ireland by the Sword. So Oliver Cromwell held Ireland; so William the Third held it; so Mr. Pitt held it; so the Duke of Wellington might, perhaps, have held it. But, to govern Great Britain by the Sword- so wild a thought has never, I will ven

ture to say, occurred to any public man of any party; and, if any man were frantic enough to make the attempt, he would find, before three days had expired that there is no better Sword than that which is fashioned out of a Ploughshare! But, if not by the Sword, how is the people to be governed? I understand how the peace is kept at New York. It is by the assent and support of the People. I understand, also, how the peace is kept at Milan. It is by the bayonets of the Austrian soldiers. But how the peace is to be kept when you have neither the popular assent nor the military force, -how the peace is to be kept in England by a Government acting on the principles of the present Opposition, I do not understand.

66

Sir, we read that, in old times, when the villeins* were driven to revolt by oppression, when the castles of the nobility were burned to the ground, when the warehouses of London were pillaged,— when a hundred thousand insurgents appeared in arms on Blackheath, when a foul murder, perpetrated in their presence, had raised their passions to madness, when they were looking round for some Captain to succeed and avenge him whom they had lost, just then, before Hob Miller, or Tom Carter, or Jack Straw, could place himself at their head, the King rode up to them, and exclaimed, I will be your leader!" And, at once, the infuriated multitude laid down their arms, submitted to his guidance, dispersed at his command. Herein let us imitate him. Let us say to the People, "We are your leadwe, your own House of Commons." This tone it is our interest and cur duty to take. The circumstances admit of no delay. Even while I speak, the moments are passing away, the irrevocable moments, pregnant with the destiny of a great People. The country is in danger; it may be saved: we can save it. This is the way - this

ers,

is the time. In our hands are the issues of great good and great evil - the issues of the life and death of the State!

118. A GOVERNMENT SHOULD GROW WITH THE PEOPLE, DEC. 16, 1831.- Id.

It is a principle never to be forgotten, that it is not by absolute, but by relative misgovernment, that Nations are roused to madness. Look at our own history. The liberties of the English people were, at least,

A word derived from the Latin villa; whence villani, country people. The name was given, in Anglo-Norman times, to persons not proprietors of land, many of whom were attached to the land, and bound to serve the lord of the manor.

is much respected by Charles the First as by Henry the Eighth, - by James the Second, as by Edward the Sixth. But did this save the crown of James the Second? Did this save the head of Charles the First? Every person who knows the history of our civil dissensions knows that all those arguments which are now employed by the opponents of the Reform Bill might have been employed, and were actually employed, by the unfortunate Stuarts. The reasoning of Charles, and of all his apologists, runs thus: "What new grievance does the Nation suffer? Did the People ever enjoy more freedom than at present? Did they ever enjoy so much freedom?" But what would a wise and honest counsellor have replied? He would have said: "Though there has been no change in the Government for the worse, there has been a change in the public mind, which produces exactly the same effect which would be produced by a change in the Government for the worse. It may be that the submissive loyalty of our fathers was preferable to that inquiring, censuring, resisting spirit which is now abroad. And so it may be that infancy is a happier time than manhood, and manhood than old age. But God has decreed that old age shall succeed to manhood, and manhood to infancy. Even so have societies their law of growth. As their strength becomes greater, as their experience becomes more extensive, you can no longer confine them within the swaddling-bands, or lull them in the cradles, or amuse them with the rattles, or terrify them with the bugbears, of their infancy. I do not say that they are better or happier than they were; but this I say, they are different from what they were; you cannot again make them what they were, and you cannot safely treat them as if they continued to be what they were."

This was the advice which a wise and honest Minister would have given to Charles the First. These were the principles on which that unhappy prince should have acted. But no. He would govern, - I do not say ill-I do not say tyrannically; I say only this, - he would govern the men of the seventeenth century as if they had been the men of the sixteenth century; and therefore it was that all his talents, and all his virtues, did not save him from unpopularity - from civil from a prison from a bar-from a scaffold!

war

119. REFORM IRRESISTIBLE. - T. B. Macaulay. Dec. 16, 1831.

SIR, I have, from the beginning of these discussions, supported Reform, on two grounds: first, because I believe it to be in itself a good thing; and, secondly, because I think the dangers of withholding it to be so great, that, even if it were an evil, it would be the less of two evils. I shall not relinquish the hope that this great contest may be conducted, by lawful means, to a happy termination. But, of this I am assured, that, by means lawful or unlawful, to a termination, happy or unhappy, this contest must speedily come. All that I know of the history of past times, all the observations that I have been