JOHN WILKES.* 1727-1797. ON MOVING FOR LEAVE TO BRING IN A ALL wise Governments and well-regulated states I wish, sir, my slender abilities were equal to a thorough investigation of this momentous business; very diligent and well-meant endeavours have not been wanting to trace it from the first origin. The most natural and perfect idea of a free government is, in my mind, that of the people themselves assembling to determine by what laws they choose to be governed, and to establish the regulations they think necessary for the protection of their property and liberty against all violence and fraud. Every member of such a community would submit with alacrity to the observance of whatever had been enacted by himself, and assist with spirit in giving efficacy and vigour to laws and ordinances which derived all their authority from his own approbation and concurrence. In small inconsiderable states, this mode of legislation has been happily followed, both in ancient and modern times. The extent and populousness of a great empire seems scarcely to admit it without confusion or tumult, and therefore, our ancestors, more wise in this than the ancient Romans, adopted the representation of the many by a few, as answering more fully the true ends of government. Rome was enslaved from inattention to this very circumstance, and by one other fatal act, which ought to be a strong warning to the people, even against their own representatives here the leaving power too long in the hands of the same persons, by which the armies of the republic became the armies of Sylla, Pompey, and Cæsar. When all the burghers of Italy obtained the freedom of Rome, and voted in public assemblies, their multitudes rendered the distinction of the citizen of Rome, and the alien, impossible. Their assemblies and deliberations became disorderly and tumultuous. Unprincipled and ambitious men found out the secret of turning them to the ruin of the Roman liberty and the commonwealth. Among us this evil is avoided by representation, and yet the justice of this principle is preserved. Every Englishman is supposed to be present in Parliament, either in person or by deputy chosen by himself; and therefore the resolution of Parliament is taken to be the resolution of every individual, and to give to the public the consent and approbation of every free agent of the community. According to the first formation of this excellent constitution, so long and so justly our greatest boast and best inheritance, we find that the people thus took care no laws should be enacted, no taxes levied, but by their consent, expressed by their representatives in the great council of the nation. The mode of representation in ancient times being tolerably adequate and proportionate, the sense of the people was known by that of Parliament; their share of power in the legislature was preserved, and founded in equal justice; at present it is become insufficient, partial, and unjust. From so pleasing a view as that of the equal power which our ancestors had, with great wisdom and care, modelled for the commons of this realm, the present scene gives us not very venerable rains of that majestic and beautiful fabric, the English constitution. As the whole seems in disorder and confusion, all the former union and harmony of the parts are lost and destroyed. It appears, sir, from the writs remaining in the king's remembrancer's office in the exchequer, that no less than twentytwo towns sent members to the Parliaments in the 23d, 25th, and 26th, of King Edward I., which have long ceased to be represented. The names of some of them are scarcely known to us, such as those of Canebrig and Bamburgh in Northumberland, Pershore and Brem in Worcestershire, Jarvall and Tykhull in Yorkshire. What a happy fate, sir, has attended the boroughs of Gatton and Old Sarum, of which, although ipsæ periere ruinæ, the names are familiar to us; the clerk regularly calls them over, and four respectable gentlemen represent their departed greatness, as knights of coronation represent Aquitaine and Normandy! The little town of Banbury, petite ville grand renom, as Rabelais * "A clear, correct, able, and eloquent speaker." says of Chinon, has, I believe, only seventeen Hazlitt. electors, and a chancellor of the exchequer. Its influence and weight, on a division, I have often seen overpower the united force of the members for London, Bristol, and several of the most opulent counties. East Grinstead too, I think, has only about thirty electors, yet gives a seat among us to that brave, heroic lord, at the head of a great department, now very military, who has fully determined to conquer America, but not in Germany. It is not, sir, my purpose, to weary the patience of the House by the researches of an antiquarian into the ancient state of our representation, and its variations at different periods. I shall only remark shortly on what passed in the reign of Henry VI. and some of his successors. In that reign, Sir John Fortescue, his chancellor, observed that the House of Commons consisted of more than 300 chosen men. Various alterations were made by succeeding kings till James II., since which period no change has happened. Great abuses, it must be owned, contrary to the primary ideas of the English constitution, were committed by our former princes, in giving the right of representation to several paltry boroughs, because the places were poor, and dependent on them, or on a favourite overgrown peer. The landmarks of the constitution have often been removed. The marked partiality to Cornwall, which single county still sends, within one, as many members as the whole kingdom of Scotland, is striking, and arose from its yielding to the Crown in tin and lands a larger hereditary revenue than any other English county, as well as from this duchy being in the Crown, and giving an amazing command and influence. By such acts of our princes the constitution was wounded in its most vital parts. Henry VIII. restored two members, Edward VI. twenty, Queen Mary four, Queen Elizabeth twelve, James I. sixteen, Charles I. eighteen; in all seventy-two. The alterations by creation in the same period were more considerable; for Henry VIII. created thirty-three, Edward VI. twenty-eight, Queen Mary seventeen, Queen Elizabeth forty-eight, James I. eleven; in all 137. Charles I. made no creation of this kind. Charles II. added two for the county, and two for the city of Durham, and two for Newmarket-on-Trent. This House is at this hour composed of the same representation it was at his demise, notwithstanding the many and important changes which have since happened; it becomes us therefore to inquire, whether the sense of Parliament can be now, on solid grounds, from the present representation, said to be the sense of the nation, as in the time of our forefathers. I am satisfied, sir, the sentiments of the people cannot be justly known at this time, from the resolutions of a Parliament, composed as the present is, even though no undue influence was practised after the return of the members to the House; even supposing for a moment the influence of all the baneful arts of corruption to be suspended, which, for a moment, I believe they have not been, under the present profligate administration. Let us examine, sir, with exactness and candour, of what the efficient parts of the House are composed, and what proportion they bear on the large scale to the body of the people of England, who are supposed to be represented. The southern part of this island, to which I now confine my ideas, consists of about five millions of people, according to the most received calculation. I will state by what number the majority of this House is elected, and I suppose the largest number present of any recorded in our journals, which was in the famous year 1741. In that year the three largest divisions appear in our journals. The first is that on the 21st of January, when the numbers were 253 to 250; the second on the 25th day of the same month, 236 to 235; the third on the 9th of March, 242 to 242. In these divisions the members of Scotland are included; but I will state my calculations only for England, because it gives the argument more force. The division, therefore, I adopt, is that of January 21st; the number of members present on that day were 503. Let me, however, suppose the number of 254 to be the majority of members who will ever be able to attend in their places. I state it high, from the accidents of sickness, service in foreign parts, travelling, and necessary avocations. From the majority of electors in the boroughs which returned members to this House, it has been demonstrated that this number of 254 members are actually elected by no more than 5723 persons, generally the inhabitants of Cornish and other boroughs, and perhaps not the most respectable part of the community. Is our sovereign, then, to learn the sense of his whole people from these few persons? Are these the men to give laws to this vast empire, and to tax this wealthy nation I do not mention all the tedious calculations, because gentlemen may find them at length in the works of the incomparable Dr Price, in Postlethwaite, and in Burgh's "Political Disquisitions." Figures afford the clearest demonstration, incapable of cavil or sophistry. Since Burgh's calculation, only one alteration has happened; I allude to the borough of Shoreham, in Sussex; for by the Act of 1771, all the freeholders of forty shillings per annum, in the neighbouring rape or hundred of Bramber, are admitted to vote for that borough, but many of the old electors were disfranchised. It appears, likewise, that fifty-six of our members are elected by only 364 persons. Lord Chancellor Talbot supposed that the majority of this House was elected by 50,000 persons, and he exclaimed against the injustice of that idea. More accurate calculators than his lordship, and the unerring rules of political arithmetic, have shown the injustice to be vastly beyond what his lordship even suspected. When we consider, sir, that the most important powers of this House, the levying taxes on, and enacting laws for five millions of persons, is thus usurped and unconstitutionally exercised by the small number I have mentioned, it becomes our duty to the people to restore to them their clear rights, their original share in the legislature. The ancient representation of this kingdom, we find, was founded by our ancestors in justice, wisdom, and equality. The present state of it would be continued by us in folly, obstinacy, and injustice. The evil has been complained of by some of the wisest patriots our country has ever produced. I shall beg leave to give that close reasoner, Mr Locke's ideas, in his own words. He says, in the treatise on civil government: "Things not always changing equally, and private interests often keeping up customs and privileges, when the reasons of them are ceased, it often comes to pass, that in Governments where part of the legislature consists of representatives chosen by the people, that in tract of time this representation becomes very unequal and disproportionate to the reasons it was at first established upon. To what gross absurdities the following of a custom, when reason has left it, may lead, we may be satisfied, when we see the bare name of a town, of which there remains not so much as the ruins, where scarce so much housing as a sheep-cot, or more inhabitants than a shepherd, is to be found, sends as many representatives to the grand assembly of law-makers, as a whole county, numerous in people and powerful in riches. This strangers stand amazed at, and every one must confess, needs a remedy." After so great an authority as that of Mr Locke, I shall not be treated on this occasion as a mere visionary, and the propriety of the motion I shall have the honour of submitting to the House will scarcely be disputed. Even the members for such places as Old Sarum and Gatton, who I may venture to say at present stant nominis umbræ, will, I am persuaded, have too much candour to complain of the right of their few constituents, if❘ indeed they have constituents, if they are not self-created, self-elected, self-existent, of this pretended right being transferred to the county, while the rich and populous manufacturing towns of Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, and others, may have at least an equitable share in the formation of those laws by which they are governed. My idea, sir, in this case, as to the wretched and depopulated towns and boroughs in general, I own is amputation. I say with Horace, Inutiles ramos amputans, feliciores inserit. This is not, sir, the first attempt of the kind to correct, although in an inconsiderable degree, this growing evil. Proceedings of a similar nature were had among us above a century past. The clerk will read from our journals what passed on the 26th of March 1668, on a bill to enable the county palatine of Durham to send two knights for the county, and two citizens for the city of Durham. [The clerk reads.] In a book of authority, "Anchitell Grey's Debates," we have a more particular account of what passed in the House on that occasion. He says that "Sir Thomas Meres moved, that the shires may have an increase of knights, and that some of the small boroughs, where there are but few electors, may be taken away; and a bill was brought in for that purpose." "On a division the bill was rejected, 65 to 50." This, however, alludes only to the bill then before the House, respecting the county and city of Durham. I desire to add the few remarkable words of Sir Thomas Strickland in this debate, because I have not seen them quoted on the late important American questions: "The county palatine of Durham was never taxed in Parliament, by ancient privilege, before King James's time, and so needed no representatives; but now being taxed, it is but reasonable they should have them." Such sentiments, sir, were promulgated in this House even so long ago as the reign of Charles II. I am aware, sir, that the power de jure, of the legislature to disfranchise a number of boroughs, upon the general grounds of improving the constitution, has been doubted; and gentlemen will ask, whether a power is lodged in the representative to destroy his immediate constituent? Such a question is best answered by another: How originated the right, and upon what grounds was it gained? Old Sarum and Gatton, for instance, were populous towns when the right of representation was first given them. They are now desolate, and therefore ought not to retain a privilege which they acquired only by their extent and populousness. We ought in everything, as far as we can, to make the theory and practice of the constitution coincide, and the supreme legislative body of a state must surely have this power inherent in them. It was de facto lately exercised to its full extent by this House in the case of Shoreham, with universal approbation: for near a hundred corrupt voters were disfranchised, and about twice that number of freeholders admitted from the county of Sussex. It will be objected, I foresee, that a time of perfect calm and peace throughout this vast empire is the most proper to propose internal regulations of this importance; and that while intestine discord rages in the whole northern continent of America, our attention ought to be fixed upon the most alarming object, and all our efforts employed to extinguish the devouring flame of a civil war. In my opinion, sir, the American war is, in this truly critical area, one of the strongest arguments for the regulations of our representation, which I now submit to the House. During the rest of our lives, likewise, I may venture to prophecy, America will be the leading feature of this age. In our late disputes with the Americans, we have always taken it for granted that the people of England justified all the iniquitous, cruel, arbitrary, and mad pro ceedings of administration, because they had the approbation of the majority of this House. The absurdity of such an argument is apparent; for the majority of this House, we know, speak only the sense of 5723 persons, even supposing, according to the constitutional custom of our ancestors, the constituent had been consulted on this great national point as he ought to have been. We have seen in what manner the acquiescence of a majority here is obtained. The people in the southern part of this island amount to upwards of five millions; the sense, therefore, of five millions, cannot be ascertained by the opinion of not six thousand, even supposing it had been collected. The Americans with great reason insist that the present war is carried on contrary to the sense of the nation, by a ministerial junto, and an arbitrary faction, equally hostile to the rights of Englishmen and the claims of Americans. The various addresses to the throne from the most numerous bodies, praying that the sword may be returned to the scabbard, and all hostilities cease, confirm this assertion. The capital of our country has repeatedly declared, by various public acts, its abhorrence of the present unnatural civil war, begun on principles subversive of our constitution. represented in Parliament; that the metropolis, which contains in itself a ninth part of the people, and the counties of Middlesex, York, and others, which so greatly abound with inhabitants, should receive an increase in their representation; that the mean and insignificant boroughs, so emphatically styled the rotten part of our constitution, should be lopped off, and the electors in them thrown into the counties; and the rich, populous, trading towns, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, and others, be permitted to send deputies to the great council of the nation. The disfranchising of the mean, venal, and dependent boroughs, would be laying the axe to the root of corruption and treasury influence, as well as aristocratical tyranny. We ought equally to guard against those who sell themselves, or whose lords sell them. Burgage tenures, and private property in a share of the legislature, are monstrous absurdities in a free state, as well as an insult to common sense. I wish, sir, an English Parliament to speak the free, unbiassed sense of the body of the English people, and of every man among us, of each individual who may be justly supposed to be comprehended in a fair majority. The meanest mechanic, the poorest peasant Our history furnishes frequent instances of the and day-labourer, has important rights respectsense of Parliament running directly counter to ing his personal liberty, that of his wife and the sense of the nation. It was notoriously of children, his property, however inconsiderable, late the case in the business of the Middlesex his wages, his earnings, the very price and value election. I believe the fact to be equally certain of each day's hard labour, which are in many in the grand American dispute, at least as to trades and manufactures regulated by the power the actual hostilities now carrying on against of Parliament. Every law relative to marriage, our brethren and fellow-subjects. The proposal to the protection of a wife, sister, or daughter, before us will bring the case to an issue, and against violence and brutal lust, to every confrom a fair and equal representation of the tract or agreement with a rapacious or unjust people, America may at length distinguish the master, interest the manufacturer, the cottager, real sentiments of freemen and Englishmen. I the servant, as well as the rich subjects of the do not mean, sir, at this time, to go into a state. Some share, therefore, in the power of tedious detail of all the various proposals which making those laws which deeply interest them, have been made for redressing this irregularity and to which they are expected to pay obediin the representation of the people. I will not ence, should be referred even to this inferior, intrude on the indulgence of the House, which I but most useful set of men in the community; have always found so favourable to me. When and we ought always to remember this important the bill is brought in, and sent to a committee, truth, acknowledged by every free state-that it will be the proper time to examine all the all government is instituted for the good of the minutiæ of this great plan, and to determine on mass of the people to be governed; that they the propriety of what ought now to be done, as are the original fountain of power, and even of well as of what formerly was actually accom- revenue, and in all events, the last resource. plished. The journals of Cromwell's Parlia- The various instances of partial injustice throughments prove that a 'more equal representation out this kingdom will likewise become the prowas settled, and carried by him into execution. per subjects of inquiry in the course of the bill That wonderful, comprehensive mind embraced before the committee, such as the many freeholds the whole of this powerful empire. Ireland was in the city of London, which are not represented put on a par with Scotland, and each kingdom in this House. These freeholds being within the sent thirty members to Parliament, which con- particular jurisdiction of the city, are excluded sisted likewise of 400 from England and Wales, from giving a vote in the county of Middlesex, and was to be triennial. Our colonies were then and by Act of Parliament only liverymen can a speck on the face of the globe; now they cover vote for Members of Parliament in London. half the New World. I will at this time, sir, These, and other particulars, I leave. I mention only throw out general ideas, that every free them now to show the necessity of a new regulaagent in this kingdom should, in my wish, betion of the representation of this kingdom. My actly according to its establishment. The monstrous injustice and glaring partiality of the present representation of the commons of England, has been fully stated, and is, I believe, almost universally acknowledged, as well as the necessity of our recurring to the great leading principle of our free constitution, which declares this House of Parliament to be only a delegated power from the people at large. Policy, no less than justice, calls our attention to this momentous point; and reason, not custom, ought to be our guide in a business of this consequence, where the rights of a free people are materially interested. Without a true representation of the commons our constitution is essentially defective, our Parliament is a delusive name, a mere phantom, and all other remedies to recover the pristine purity of the form of government established by our ancestors, would be ineffectual; even the shortening the period of Parliaments, and a place and pension bill, both which I highly approve, and think absolutely necessary. I therefore flatter myself, sir, that I have the concurrence of the House with the motion which I have now the honour of making, "That leave be given to bring in a bill for a just and equal representation of the people of England in Parlia inquiries, sir, are confined to the southern part EDMUND BURKE* 1730-1797. PROTESTANT DISSENTERS' RELIEF [NOTWITHSTANDING the fate of the Dissenters' Mr BURKE rose and said: I assure you, sir, that the honourable gentleman who spoke last but one, need not be in the least fear that I should make a war of particles upon his opinion, whether the Church of England should, would, or ought to be alarmed. I am very clear that this House has no one reason in the world to think she is alarmed by the bill brought before you. It is something extraordinary that the only symptom of alarm in the Church of England should appear in the petition of some Dis *“Ignorant, indeed, or negligent of the art of adapt-senters, with whom I believe very few in this ing his reasonings and his style to the capacity and taste of his hearers, but in amplitude of comprehension and richness of imagination, superior to every orator, ancient or modern."-Macaulay. "By far the greatest man of his age, not only abounding in knowledge himself, but feeding, in various directions, his most able contemporaries; assisting Adam Smith in his 'Political Economy,' and Reynolds in his 'Lectures on Painting.""-Wordsworth in Diary of Thomas Moore. "In Burke we have for the first time a deliberate retrospect of what society, in its ordinary and normal shape, has done for the human race, heightened by all that passion and rhetoric can do to recommend it to our approval. Just as the revolutionist in his dog matism displays all the littleness and the intractibility of an ecclesiastic, so Burke communicates to his philosophy of society something of the depth and fervour of religion. The State, according to his solemn figure, which reflects alike the mode of thought of the great statesman and philosopher of Rome, and of our own English philosophical divines, is an emanation of the Divine will... Burke stands unapproachably the first of our political orators, and, indeed, in the very first rank as a writer and a thinker. . . . Alike for language and method, he stands, for practical purposes, absolutely alone."-E. J. Payne, M.A., in Burke's Select Works. |