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"Reform that you may preserve"

Extracts from a speech by Thomas Babbington Macaulay, 2 March 1831

In 1830, a Whig government led by Earl Grey was elected on a platform of parliamentary reform. The legislation finally became law on 7 June 1832 after a long and bitter campaign both in parliament and throughout the country. At the forefront of the popular campaign were the Political Unions.

This speech shows the thinking of many MPs - that it was necessary to pass some limited reform in order to exclude the working classes from the constitution. It was thought that the 'lower orders' were unfit to exercise the franchise [that is, to be allowed to vote], although these people were very active in campaigning for the Reform Bill. Macaulay continued to support the legislation throughout its progress in parliament.

The Minister's principle is plain, rational and consistent. It is this - to admit the middle classes to a large and direct share in the representation, without any violent shock to the institutions of our country [...] I say, Sir, that there are countries in which the condition of the labouring classes is such that they may safely be entrusted with the right of electing members of the Legislature. If the labourers of England were in that state in which I, from my soul, wish to see them - if employment were always plentiful, wages always cheap - if a large family were considered not as an encumbrance but as a blessing - the principal objections to universal suffrage would, I think, be removed [...] But unhappily, the lower orders in England and in all old countries are occasionally in a state of great distress [...] We know what effect distress produces, even on people more intelligent than the great body of the labouring classes can possibly be. We know that it makes even wise men irritable, unreasonable and credulous; eager for immediate relief, heedless of remote consequence [...] and that it blunts their judgment, that it inflames their passions, that it makes them prone to believe those who flatter them and to distress those who would serve them [...]

I hold it to be clearly expedient that, in a country like this, the right of suffrage should depend on a pecuniary qualification. Every argument, Sir, which would induce me to oppose universal suffrage, induces me to support the measure which is now before us. I oppose universal suffrage because I think it would produce a destructive revolution. I support this measure because I am sure that it is our best security against revolution [...]

I support this measure as a measure of reform; but I support it still more as a measure of conservation. That we may exclude those whom it is necessary to exclude, we must admit those whom it may be safe to admit. At present we oppose the schemes of revolutionists with only one half, with only one quarter of our proper force. We say, and we say justly, that it is not by numbers, but by property and intelligence that a nation ought to be governed. Yet, saying this, we exclude from all share of government vast masses of property and intelligence, vast numbers of those who are the most interested in preserving tranquility and who know best how to preserve it. We do more. We drive over to the side of revolution those whom we shut out from power. Is this a time when the cause of law and order can spare one of its natural allies?

Turn where we may - within, around - the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, "Reform, that you may preserve", [...] Pronounce in a manner worthy of the expectation with which this great debate has been anticipated, and of the long remembrance which it will leave behind. Renew the youth of the State. Save the multitude, endangered by its own ungovernable passions. Save the aristocracy, endangered by its own unpopular power. Save the greatest, and the fairest and most highly civilised community that ever existed from the calamities which may in a few days sweep away all the rich heritage of so many ages of wisdom and glory [...]