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us, as the phrase is, on the part of some of those who are the loudest in asserting our right to a free and unfettered choice of our representatives. Every one must see, at once, that what I now allude to is,

In the first place, the use which has been made of mere PARTY distinctions on this occasion; and,

In the second place, the attempt to dictate to us by a junto of mere lawyers.

On both of these points I would entreat my brother electors to be most watchfully on their guard.

With regard to the first of them, it is quite manifest that, by engaging in any party contest, we have nothing whatever to gain, while, on the contrary, we have much to lose by it. PARTY is defined, by one of our best writers, to be, "The madness of the many for the gain of the few ;” and, in my mind, there cannot be a better definition of it. No doubt, there will always be a "few" in every community (and among us these have almost invariably been MEN of the LAW) who have a plain interest in the excitement of party spirit, and in giving to everything the character of a party struggle. They find this the readiest means of acquiring power and importance, and, perhaps, of obtaining some advantages of a more questionable kind; and I can, therefore, easily understand their zeal in raising the storm of political violence. Party politics with them are, in fact, a trade; and every season of tranquillity and good order is, of course, just the stagnation of it. But I would ask any man of my own condition of life-any merchant, shopkeeper, tradesman, or artizan-any one, in short, whose livelihood depends on his honest and regular industry-how he expects to profit by engaging in a party contest; and whether, in doing so, he does not, in truth, become the mere tool of those who make use of every occasion of political excitement as the means of their own advancement? If any of those to whom I now speak will only tell me of a single advantage which they have ever reaped from this kind of political warfare, I am silent; but I am certain that none of us have ever found anything to result from it, but loss of time, loss of temper, idle habits, and the inconvenience and mortification which are the sure consequences of these.

Besides, there is no reflecting person who can fail to see that the interests of our order essentially depend on a state as different as possible from that which is produced by the violence of party strife. The prosperity of trade, and of every branch of industry, depend on the maintenance of that sound and healthy condition of society, wherein the various classes of the community are bound together by the golden chords of mutual kindness and good will: and need I say how it is that this union is most effectually broken? how distrust, dislike, and jealousy, are most infallibly introduced, where we ought to find the feeling of mutual dependence, the sense of mutual benefits, and that mutual confidence which is the only cement by which society can long be held together? Assuredly it is by the prevalence of party spirit. This it is what in Ireland, at this moment, carries war into every tradesman's house, by combining the different parties in that unhappy country in

an avowed resolution to deal with no political opponent. And though I by no means apprehend that such a state of things can ever take place here, yet, if we would avoid any approach to it, for God's sake, let us be on our guard against the evil from which it has there arisen.

But, admitting the truth of all this, some of our electors may still ask, Are we so entirely to dismiss party feelings, as to have no regard to the political opinions of our future representatives? or, in plainer language, are we not to consider whether they have been friendly or adverse to the great measure of Reform? Now, I would answer this question according to our good old Scotch fashion, by asking another question in return-Do you mean that there should be no end of the state of ferment and agitation which has attended the progress of the Reform Bill, and of the stagnation of trade, the suspension of enterprise, and depression of honest industry, which have thence arisen? Do you seriously wish to perpetuate a state of things which is deplored by all, save those who, like the lawyers, thrive on the distresses of the times? If you do so, then, though the Reform question is now settled, and though the distinction between Reformers and Anti-Reformers is therefore a mere name, by all means keep up that distinction to the last, in all the bitterness of party spirit! But if, on the other hand, you desire to return to that state of tranquillity and good order, and to that cordiality between the various classes of the community, in which alone the merchant, the shopkeeper, or the mechanic, can thrive and prosper, and which would give us a fair chance of reaping any benefits which the Reform Bill may be calculated to yield; then must the first step towards this be an oblivion of all the angry feelings which have arisen during the agitation of the great question which is now set at rest. Upon this plain view of the subject it is, that in giving my own vote, I shall not ask myself whether such a man be a Reformer or an Anti-Reformer, but simply, whether he is a man whose business talents, integrity, and independence, make him a fit representative for this place; and I would. earnestly caution my brother electors against those who would persuade them to act on any other than this plain and rational principle. When any one asks me the question which is so perpetually dinned in our ears at present-Would you vote for a person who was opposed to the Reform Bill? My answer is, that I have found many of the opponents of that measure as upright and honourable, and liberal in all their dealings, as any of its friends; that I therefore make no doubt that their opposition to it was honest and conscientious, and that I cannot see the wisdom, but, on the contrary, can plainly see the egregious folly, of depriving the country of the services of the best men among us, merely on account of an honest difference of opinion, and that, too, on a question that is now settled. Besides, I must fairly confess, that it appears to me that much of the safety of the country must, in ordinary times, depend on those who, like the AntiReformers, entertain a jealousy of all great and sweeping changes, even though they should sometimes carry this feeling to excess. Such men can, at the utmost, merely delay a little the introduction of those new measures

which are truly beneficial—thus affording time for the mature and deliberate consideration of them, while they form our best safeguard against reckless and mischievous innovation. And to apply this remark to our present political situation, I would ask from whom may we expect the most steady and effectual resistance to any change on the state of things which is now established, and which we all of us so fervently desire to be permanent, but from those who have lately shewn their reluctance to incur the risk of departing from that system which our forefathers had transmitted to them? This is a point which I think has been too little attended to, and I would earnestly press it on the notice of all who have a due sense of the responsibility of the duties which have lately been confided to them.

With regard to the attempt which I have mentioned, to dictate to us by a junto of Edinburgh lawyers, I am tolerably certain that all my readers will cordially join me in the few remarks which I have to make upon it. The arrogance and presumption of lawyers have always been proverbial; and it is certain, that of all lawyers on the face of this earth, the most insufferably arrogant and presumptuous are those of Edinburgh. There are, I believe, in this metropolis and its suburbs, about one hundred thousand persons engaged in various pursuits and employments, in no way connected with THE LAW, but whose daily prayer it is, or ought to be, that they may keep clear of it. And yet, from the way that matters are managed among us, one would suppose that the whole of this vast mass of industry, respectability, wealth, and intelligence, belonged, by a kind of hereditary vassalage, to the men of quirks and quibbles; and that there was neither talent, nor knowledge, nor the capacity of judging in any thing that concerns the rights of a free citizen, to be found, save within the four walls of their Parliament House! This has often been a subject of complaint among our respectable citizens; and never, surely, was there more reason to complain of it than at present. A legislative measure is enacted, conferring the elective franchise on ten or twelve thousand persons; and forthwith, as if there was not one of that number fit to walk without leading-strings, we have a manifesto from three or four of our sages of the law, enjoining us by no means to engage our votes until they may vouchsafe to inform us who are the fit and proper persons for our representatives! And in the exercise of this self-constituted right to think and act for their fellowcitizens, who, I pray you, are the men whom they introduce to us as the "fit and proper" persons to represent the various and important interests of this city? Why, two of their own fraternity-two lawyers! And as if this were not enough, the one of them is a servant of Government, and, of course, therefore, cannot possibly be an independent member; and the other a pensioner (for what services no one has ever yet informed us) to the tune of two thousand a-year! Then, as it would be hard if our neighbours of Leith were not to share in the fatherly protection under which it is thus our happiness to exercise our newly acquired rights, our kind friends of the Parliament House have, in due time, a member ready for them also; and who is he? A LAWYER of course; and almost equally of course

a SINECURIST! Nay, our legal friends do not even limit their kind offices to the people of Edinburgh and the neighbourhood, for witness their ASSOCIATION for the protection of tenants against their landlords, which we think may be fairly regarded as the very consummation even of Parliament House impudence. A few paltry Edinburgh lawyers and writers, with hardly enough of land among them to make a common-sized potatoe garden, presume to tell the whole landed interest of Scotland, that their interference is necessary in order to protect the tenantry-against whom? Why, against their own best friends! We could, perhaps, understand an association of the gentry of Scotland, in order to protect their tenantry against those HARPIES of the Law, who, in bad times, are always so ready to prey upon them; but an association of lawyers to protect any class of human beings whatever, is, we confess, what we cannot comprehend. The old story of the wolf guarding the flock, is nothing to such protection as this!

Such is a part, and only a very small part of the recent proceedings of our LEGAL DICTATORS; and it is only of a piece with the whole of their conduct ever since I remember anything of public affairs in this city and surely there is no man of common spirit among us can fairly consider the matter without being heartily ashamed of it. Can anything be more degrading than for the metropolis of Scotland to be held in thraldom by a set of mere lawyers?—men whose very trade it is to mislead instead of honestly directing us-whose character in their profession mainly depends on their dexterity in confounding truth and falsehood; who are so far from having any interest in the welfare of the community, that they never thrive half so well as in times of general distress and calamity; who are so far from having any fellowship in our views and feelings, that they would desire nothing better than to see the rest of the world divided into two great classes-the insolvent debtors and the merciless creditors to whom a bankruptcy, which, perhaps, spreads ruin among hundreds, presents nothing but the promise of a rich harvest of writers' and lawyers fees! It would be unworthy of Edinburgh to submit to the dictation of any set of men; but that we should so long have bowed our necks to a set of LAWYERS, does seem to me to be most humiliating, and it is a subject to which I shall probably often recur in the progress of the present work.

Reform has now been granted, and the distinction between Reformers and Anti-Reformers, as these words have hitherto been used, is at an end. Henceforth the dispute lies not between those who demand and those who resist Reform, but between those who think that, with this great change, the course of innovation, with its consequent agitation and distress, should cease—and those who are anxious to prolong it by the proposal of new and sudden changes in trade, by violent convulsions in commerce and in government, attacks upon property of all kinds, and the introduction of Annual Parliaments, Ballot, or Universal Suffrage.

It is evident there exists no natural connection between the support of Reform, and this infinite series of ulterior changes; but, on the contrary,

a principle of opposition. Reform was asked and granted as the means of resisting farther changes, of tranquillizing the country, restoring the natural and equable flow of business, and harmonizing the different ranks of society. If a farther attempt is now to be made to continue this state of feverish excitement, with all its attendant evils of diminished trade and increasing distress-if, in short, the promise of tranquillity, held out by Reform, is to be evaded or broken, and the CONSTITUTION of GREAT BRITAIN subjected to a course of change which threatens to leave it, at no distant period, a mere historical recollection—it is clear that the warmest Reformers are at last bound to come forward in its defence, and we are sure they will do so.

Between those who conscientiously opposed Reform because they doubted whether so rapid an extension of popular rights was really the best means of restoring the healthy tone of the body politic, and those who advocated it, from a belief and a wish that a boon so extensive would produce that effect— that it would be the "be all and the end all" of agitation and change, we do not see that impediment should now exist to a cordial union. Those who were most in favour of Reform must, on reflection, come to see that there are many respectable, many honest and honourable men among those who were among their opponents. They must see that the benevolent master, the generous landlord, the charitable and active citizen, might be enlisted in the ranks of Opposition from considerations, not of personal interest, but of sincere and conscientious doubt as to the expediency of the measure; while the Conservative party must equally be aware, that among the supporters of Reform were many of the active, the industrious, the moral, the orderly, the religious, who looked on Revolution with no less horror than themselves, and who, in fact, agreed with them in all great leading points, though they might differ as to the expediency of the means for producing their common end.

It is true, that, during the clamorous discussion of the Reform question, the voices of this reasonable party, these Conservative Reformers, as they might be justly termed, were little heard; their numbers and importance were overlooked; they were scarcely known even to themselves. But now that a little rest and breathing time is at last allowed us, we are persuaded both will soon be felt; and that it is, in truth, upon the manner in which this large, influential, and honest party (if that word can be applied to those who are of no party but that of truth) shall exercise the franchise bestowed upon them, and the line of conduct which they may adopt, that the fate of this country, for good or evil, will depend.

We feel convinced, that there are many among the religious, moral, and industrious of our fellow-citizens, to whom such inquiries, carried on in a spirit of candour, without regard to the pretensions of any party, and conveyed in plain and familiar language, will be agreeable, and who feel the want of some publication as the vehicle of their opinions, and a source of instruction as to their duty in such matters. In our country, where religion has long made her peculiar home, and spread its

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