inadequate to the production of such an effect. If ever there
was in the history of mankind a national sentiment which was the
very opposite of a caprice, with which accident had nothing to
do, which was produced by the slow, steady, certain progress of
the human mind, it is the sentiment of the English people on the
subject of Reform. Accidental circumstances may have brought
that feeling to maturity in a particular year, or a particular
month. That point I will not dispute; for it is not worth
disputing. But those accidental circumstances have brought on
Reform, only as the circumstance that, at a particular time,
indulgences were offered for sale in a particular town in Saxony,
brought on the great separation from the Church of Rome. In both
cases the public mind was prepared to move on the slightest
impulse.

Thinking thus of the public opinion concerning Reform, being
convinced that this opinion is the mature product of time and of
discussion, I expect no reaction. I no more expect to see my
countrymen again content with the mere semblance of a
Representation, than to see them again drowning witches or
burning heretics, trying causes by red hot ploughshares, or
offering up human sacrifices to wicker idols. I no more expect a
reaction in favour of Gatton and Old Sarum, than a reaction in
favour of Thor and Odin. I should think such a reaction almost
as much a miracle as that the shadow should go back upon the
dial. Revolutions produced by violence are often followed by
reactions; the victories of reason once gained, are gained for
eternity.

In fact, if there be, in the present aspect of public affairs,