let the House of Commons be the great Reform Association. If we
are afraid that the people may attempt to accomplish their wishes
by unlawful means, let us give them a solemn pledge that we will
use in their cause all our high and ancient privileges, so often
victorious in old conflicts with tyranny; those privileges which
our ancestors invoked, not in vain, on the day when a faithless
king filled our house with his guards, took his seat, Sir, on
your chair, and saw your predecessor kneeling on the floor before
him. The Constitution of England, thank God, is not one of those
constitutions which are past all repair, and which must, for the
public welfare, be utterly destroyed. It has a decayed part; but
it has also a sound and precious part. It requires purification;
but it contains within itself the means by which that
purification may be effected. We read that in old times, when
the villeins were driven to revolt by oppression, when the
castles of the nobility were burned to the ground, when the
warehouses of London were pillaged, when a hundred thousand
insurgents appeared in arms on Blackheath, when a foul murder
perpetrated in their presence had raised their passions to
madness, when they were looking round for some captain to succeed
and avenge him whom they had lost, just then, before Hob Miller,
or Tom Carter, or Jack Straw, could place himself at their head,
the King rode up to them and exclaimed, "I will be your leader!"
and at once the infuriated multitude laid down their arms,
submitted to his guidance, dispersed at his command. Herein let
us imitate him. Our countrymen are, I fear, at this moment, but
too much disposed to lend a credulous ear to selfish impostors.
Let us say to them, "We are your leaders; we, your own house of
Commons; we, the constitutional interpreters of your wishes; the
knights of forty English shires, the citizens and burgesses of