acts not as a specific, but as an alternative. Its operation is
powerful, indeed, and certain, but gradual and indirect. The
business of government is not directly to make the people rich;
and a government which attempts more than this is precisely the
government which is likely to perform less. Governments do not
and cannot support the people. We have no miraculous powers: we
have not the rod of the Hebrew lawgiver: we cannot rain down
bread on the multitude from Heaven: we cannot smite the rock and
give them to drink. We can give them only freedom to employ
their industry to the best advantage, and security in the
enjoyment of what their industry has acquired. These advantages
it is our duty to give at the smallest possible cost. The
diligence and forethought of individuals will thus have fair
play; and it is only by the diligence and forethought of
individuals that the community can become prosperous. I am not
aware that His Majesty's Ministers, or any of the supporters of
this bill, have encouraged the people to hope, that Reform will
remove distress, in any other way than by this indirect process.
By this indirect process the bill will, I feel assured, conduce
to the national prosperity. If it had been passed fifteen years
ago, it would have saved us from our present embarrassments. If
we pass it now, it will gradually extricate us from them. It
will secure to us a House of Commons, which, by preserving peace,
by destroying monopolies, by taking away unnecessary public
burthens, by judiciously distributing necessary public burthens,
will, in the progress of time, greatly improve our condition.
This it will do; and those who blame it for not doing more blame
it for not doing what no Constitution, no code of laws, ever did
or ever will do; what no legislator, who was not an ignorant and
unprincipled quack, ever ventured to promise.