that wish shall be disappointed, I, for the last time, give my
most hearty assent to this noble law, destined, I trust, to be
the parent of many good laws, and, through a long series of
years, to secure the repose and promote the prosperity of my
country.

When I say that I expect this bill to promote the prosperity of
the country, I by no means intend to encourage those chimerical
hopes which the honourable and learned Member for Rye (Mr
Pemberton.), who has so much distinguished himself in this
debate, has imputed to the Reformers. The people, he says, are
for the bill, because they expect that it will immediately
relieve all their distresses. Sir, I believe that very few of
that large and respectable class which we are now about to admit
to a share of political power entertain any such absurd
expectation. They expect relief, I doubt not; and I doubt not
that they will find it: but sudden relief they are far too wise
to expect. The bill, says the honourable and learned gentleman,
is good for nothing: it is merely theoretical: it removes no
real and sensible evil: it will not give the people more work,
or higher wages, or cheaper bread. Undoubtedly, Sir, the bill
will not immediately give all those things to the people. But
will any institutions give them all those things? Do the present
institutions of the country secure to them those advantages? If
we are to pronounce the Reform Bill good for nothing, because it
will not at once raise the nation from distress to prosperity,
what are we to say of that system under which the nation has been
of late sinking from prosperity into distress? The defect is not
in the Reform Bill, but in the very nature of government. On the
physical condition of the great body of the people, government