Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/390

376 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1846- and the neglect or delay of which has been detrimental to the country, and kept open controversies which ought long ago to have been settled. In this class must be placed the proposal made by Locke King, for an amendment of the land laws by facilitating transfer and abolishing the law of primogeni- ture. The motion was made on the 2ist of March, 52 voting for it, and 1 10 against. By far the most important part of the work of the Radical party at this time was that directed to the cause of national education, which they sought to promote in many ways and by various instrumentalities. The movement in Parliament had been prepared for, as usual, by discussion and agitation in the country. It is the old story over again. The members of privileged classes ; the holders of hereditary power ; the proprietors of vested interests ; the ecclesiastics of a dominant sect ; all the people to whom social or political progress means inconvenience and loss of personal power or influence, are constantly talking about the rashness and inexperience of Radical politicians, and the danger of sub- mitting the destinies of the country to the direction of the mob. It is well to appeal from this cry of interested prejudice to the facts of history and the teachings of experience, from which we learn that there is scarcely a measure which has tended to improve the moral, social, or intellectual condition of the nation ; any course of policy which has given material plenty, social and political liberty to the people; or infused the principles of justice and the influence of conscience into our foreign policy ; which has not been originated by Radical teachers, accepted by the unrepresented masses, and at last forced by agitation upon Parliament and Government. This was the case with regard to the legislation which freed the material food of the people, and it was so with respect to that more important intellectual food which elevates the morals and vivifies the mind. The peer and the priest, whilst they declared that ignorance ought to debar the many from political power, yet held that knowledge was a dangerous instrument to place in the hands of the people. So they