Such is the proposition approved by the late House of Commons,
and which I venture to think not unworthy of being countenanced
by a Whig reformer. There are many other abuses in our present
mode of elections, to which local remedies might, I think, be
successfully applied; nor is there any one more fit or more able
than yourself to conduct such measures. Undoubtedly many
obstacles would be raised to delay our progress, especially on
the part of "the presiding genius of the House of Lords." But I
am persuaded that reformers in general have never made a
sufficient estimate of the support they would receive, or set a
sufficient value on the objects they might attain, by a vigorous
attack on particular abuses.
THE CHAMPION OF REFORM
[Lord John Russell's share in carrying the Reform Act of 1832 was
celebrated by Lord Lyttleton in the following lines.]
In England's worst days, when her rights and her laws
Were spurned by a Prince of the fell Stuart line,
A Russell stood forth to assert her lost cause,
And perish'd a martyr at liberty's shrine.
The smell of that sacrifice mounted to heaven;
The cry of that blood rose not thither in vain;
The crime of the tyrant was never forgiven;
And a blessing was breathed on the race of the slain.
Dethroned and degraded, the Stuart took flight,
He fled to the land where the Bourbon bore sway,
A curse clung to his offspring, a curse and a blight,
And in exile and sorrow it wither'd away.
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