PART IV.

From the commencement of the Ministerial campaign, under the banners of the new coalition, there was no respite allowed. The fire of incessant agitation was kept up by the Revolutionist-Reformers' Press and Demagogues, in the previously tranquil city of Bristol.

Mr. Protheroe, one of the present Members, thus addresses the freemen by letter, previous to the last election :

"Whether that settlement shall take place through Reform or through Revolution,-whether we shall at once reap the peaceful fruits, or be forced to win them through tempestuous agitation, will depend upon the promptness and decision with which the national will is declared." Now this is no hasty passage thrown off in the heat of oratorical confusion, but a deliberate appeal to the people, that if they could not reap "the peaceful fruits," they must "win them through tempestuous agitation ;"-it was a deliberate stab to the Constitution, that thus set the will of the rabble, "declared with promptness and decision," above the deliberation and decision of the Three Estates of the Realm. Had Mr. Protheroe a prophetic view of the intentions of the Revolutionists when he asked the Freemen, "Is the city of Bristol blotted from the map of England ?"

On another occasion, he informs an excited multitude, that the Aristocracy are engaged in a struggle "to obtain corrupt and obnoxious power, asserting their right to

treat their dependants as slaves, without freedom of will or conduct." Of the Church he thus speaks:

"A Church timidly clinging to venerable abuses, instead of sagaciously yielding to the fair and reasonable requirements of an enlightened and investigating era." Was it possible that Mr. Protheroe was ignorant of the exact nature of those requirements-did he not know to what specimens of the labours of "the investigating era," the people would consider themselves directed? They had but to refer to their local Press for information, and they would find it in the same sheet with the praises of Mr. Protheroe. He knew that the "twopenny trash" and black lists were in their hands.

At his election, without comment upon the iniquity, he tells the mobs that the Duke of Wellington had been "exposed to the hootings and execrations of the populace." He does not tell them undeservedly so; and why then should not they extend their hootings and execrations to the respectable Tories of Bristol, who had been so liberally called "robbers, and plunderers, and wicked?" It was but a natural transfer-and the minds of the Bristol populace were equal to it.

After the Bill had been rejected, and with all due constitutional form rejected-when it would have been judicious in a Member for the City to have allayed the consequent ferment, he prefers renewed agitation :

"It is not a matter of so much importance (he says) that the voices of gentlemen should be heard, as that a demonstration should be made of the decided, unaltered, unchangeable will of the people. (Cheers, and cry of "the Square.") In the mean time, he hoped the Lords would learn a little more virtue from the people

for whom they legislate. With regard to ulterior measures, in case of the bill being again rejected, he did not contemplate the necessity of any, so confident was he that the bill would pass; but as the subject of resisting the taxes had been touched upon, he would say that it was their duty at this moment to support the King and his Ministers, and not desist from meeting and petitioning till the Bill was secured; if it should be again rejected, to that evil day they would leave the adoption of further measures." (Cheering.)

This is very extraordinary language from a Member of Parliament to the people. The Lords learning virtue from them!! Their decided will!! What if that will had been expressed not to pay taxes-the expression of which will has been declared by high legal authorities to be treasonable-what then?-he will "leave to that evil day the adoption of further measures." What further measures-the refusal to pay taxes? Is this the meaning? Is this the alternative recommended from a Member of Parliament to his constituents ? This is a point that required the clearest speaking, for it required reproof-there ought to have been no mistake—and there was no mistake. "The people" understood it well-and were they thus taught to respect the laws? This was indeed to kindle a flame that would reach the Custom-house and Excise, when they should come to their "further operations."

He is particularly cheered in his very gross attack on the Bishops. "Of the Bishops he would speak in mercy, their day was nearly gone by." (Loud and continued cheers.) But thinking this going somewhat too far, he adds the insulting explanation, "He

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wished not to be misunderstood. He spoke in a different sense from what the meeting supposed. He meant that their seats would be soon supplied by men of greater piety, and better acquainted with the spirit of the times." "Men of greater piety!" Their "impiety" in voting against the Bill, as the resolution of one Reform meeting termed it! Is Reform the idol of the Member for Bristol and his particular constituents? But more,-he looks forward to the day when "the Church of England would possess members worthy to be associated with the enlightened gentlemen who had addressed them today." " Was it wise, in a city possessing so many Churches and Clergy, a Cathedral, Bishop's Palace, and Deanery, and Prebendal Houses, to charge the Clergy with impiety before the people, converting their flocks into acrimonious judges, that they were at that time unfit, unworthy to associate with the enlightened gentlemen who had addressed them? And who were they?Dissenters and a Roman Catholic Priest! with whom, then, the Church was not worthy to associate; but they would, under Whig Administration, be made to associate!! Here is a source for future agitation,-and the public were ostentatiously told that Mr. Protheroe was in the confidence of the Ministers. "He would again assure them that if any obstacle should be presented to the Bill, he should call upon his constituents for their further co-operation. The Lords had not only insulted the Commons of England, by their insane proceedings, with regard to this bill, but they had put a stop to many other good measures." ("Down with them.") Down with them, as a matter of course, the people would cry, when they were thus said to be rather fit to be chained in Bedlam, than to sit in the House of Peers,-a con

stituted estate of this realm. Is there nothing revolutionary in this?-and is there no separation among Mr. Protheroe's constituents,-the old Whigs from the new? Then, he assures the people, that when the Reform Bill shall have passed,-"The funds which had been provided for the support of the poor and needy would no longer be applied to electioneering purposes. Toryism was a ravenous bird-it had exhausted the Treasury of the State."

Is this respectable, that the Member for the City should charge the Vestrymen of the several parishes with applying the money provided for the poor and needy to electioneering purposes? It is difficult to persuade one's self that Mr. Protheroe did not know this was, in all its bearings, a calumny; if he did not know it to be false, he was consummately ignorant where he ought to have been informed; and what is worse, mischievous in his ignorance. Here, however, "the people" are directed against the Tories, of whom were the most respectable of the city, as ravenous robbers of the Treasury. Should the rabble by any accident set fire to the houses of the Tories, would Mr. Protheroe's "people" put out the fires? Mr. Protheroe had given these most respectable and hitherto influential inhabitants an ill name, and reason to fear" ulterior operations."

However extraordinary these extracts may seem, Mr. Protheroe will, in the course of this Narrative, again appear upon the Revolutionary stage, but the particular part, in which he will be found to shine, is reserved, until the Narrative reaches the immediate transactions of the Riots.