LETTER BY LORD MACAULAY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 268, 14 June 1867, Page 3

LETTER BY LORD MACAULAY.

The following letter 1 .yJ Lord Macaulay, hitherto unj nblished, is,' though v. rittc-n nearly 21 years ago, slid so.appropriate at this time, and other wise so characteristic, that it will he . read With geaircid interest. It was addressed to one of his constituents, his lordship being at the time member* fer Tdinhurgh, in reply to a letter referring to some remarks made by Mr

Macaulay in Airliamcnt. The petition referred to in the letter was the monster Chartist yctitjon.ioasth ‘gpfAoOO,ooo sign azures, presented 'ey Dr Duncomhe in July, 1842. In accordance ■with the request in thy opening sentence, the letter' wasfSibtprhitcii .if the timehut there isno reason that U should not ho so now : “TO MR I*. ASDERSON, 21,' I.OTHI AN-STIIEET, .. . EDXXBIT.UH. “ Albany, London, February 25, 1810. “Sir—Sptliijtg can ixo.. more temperate and proper than'your letter. * I have great pleasure in answering it- promptly and frankly. Byt I mii'st beg that you Vlll ‘not serut what 1 write to the newspapers. 11 You do not at all shake my opinion-- on deed you confirm it. You tell mo that most of those who put thciy namgs to the petition presented by Dr Duucombc did not know what it contained.. Now, 1 need not remind you that this was no Common petition. It was described as tlie national petition, as the manifesto of the unrepresented millions. It was carried to Westminster with extraordinary pomp. The procession of banners ami devices stretched more than a mile. A very unusual motion was made’on’that occasion in the House of Commons. It was proposed that the petitioners should be heard by their deputies at our liar. 1 think, therefore, that this was a document of very great importance—a document which no man ought to have subscribed without understanding its purport. You assure me, however, that the hundreds of thousands who signed this solemn confession of political, faith had never looked at it. it was so long, you say, that they could' not read it. Why, ten minute; work Lave sufficed for the purpose. But ten minutes, it seems/ would have been more than these people, who wanted ns to put the whole government into, their ~ hands, “could spare for the consideration of a matter so grave. Rather than take the trouble of’informing themselves, they sot their hands to any atrocious absurdity that was put before them by a demagogue in whom they reposed an unmerited confidence. Observe, it is you, not I, who say all this. I give full credit to 'your statement. But what is the inference ? Is it not this, that many, very many, of our industrious, well-meaning, fellow-countrymen are not at present qualified to exercise political functions with advantage to themselves and to the community ? And observe that it is for this very class that the Chartists claim, not a share of power, but the whole government of the state. 1 % For, if universal suffrage were established, such persons as those who signed the national petition without knowing what it was, would form the majority of every constituent body, and would return not ten members of I’arliamcut, or a hundred, but all the six hundred and fifty-six ! Gan a man of sense like you doubt on what candidates the choice of such electors would fail? Canyon doubt that they would give their votes, as they gave their signatures, in blind reliance on leaders ? You say that our present legislators have committed errors. No doubt all Governments err, for all Governments are Composed of men, and 'you can no more make perfect Governments out of such im perfect, materials than you can make a marble palace out of bricks, but between the errors into which cur Parliaments have'too often fallen and Ihe errors of the Chartists, there is, in my opinion, a great distinction. The"errors of our ■Parliaments, however -great, have not been such as to kill the'very root of national prosperity. On the contrary, you would, 1 apprehend? admit that there is a'gcneral tendency towards improvement.; that civilisation advances, that science makes constant progress; that many abuses which were in full force within our own memory have disappeared, or are fast disappearing—that, in short, most of the changesAvliich arc made are changes for the better. I therefore, though 1 do not think our present system perfect, look on it with hopoj and with complacency. But the Chartist system, as sot ; forth in the natiouaFpetition, would, I am oer--1 tain, in no longtime, reduce us to a depth of i misery and degradation of which it is not easy ito form an idea, It would make Great Britain in three generations, as barbarous an Island as Madagascar- The only chance of escape would lie that some Cromwell or Napoleon might lie aide to establish a vigorous, orderly, military despotism. But I must stop. “I am, Sir, your faithful servant, “T. B. MACAULAY.