rr

66

gination, the very idea fixes me with rapture. No, my dear Lord, never believe that any thing is im"possible to virtue; no, if TEN SUCH AS YOU con"ceive such sentiments as your letter contains, and express them as forcibly, if you retain these sentiments, as you certainly will, when you take your "place in parliament I will not despair of seeing the "most glorious of sights, a nation freely governed by "its own laws. This I promise, that, if such a decem"virate should ever attempt to restore our constitu"tional liberty by constitutional means, I would ex"ert in their cause, such talents as I have, and, even "if I were oppressed with sickness, and torn with pain, "would start from my couch, and exclaim with Tre"bonius, if you mean to act worthily, O Romans! I "am well."I

Think, my Lord, on what must be the state of the Nation, when we cannot figure to ourselves the means, by which such a man as Sir William Jones could now gain admission into the house of Commons; while the doors of that house are thrown wide and invitingly open to every son of rapine and violence, of ignorance and vulgarity, to the plunderer of the East, and the slave-holder of the West, to the loan-hunting locust of 'change alley, and the place hunting reptile of the court, to the illiterate legislator from the shop and the warehouse, to the low minded tavern waiter, and the prosperous shoe black; even to the perjured cheat who has stood in the pillory! 2--God grant me patience while stating wrongs so intolerable! but O curse not gracious heaven my country, with patience to endure

I Memoirs 143.By referring to Wyvill's Political papers V. 1. I find among the deputies from the committees of several counties, cities and towns, for a redress of grievances, in the year 1780, the name of Lord Althorpe; as a deputy from Buckinghamshire; and that on the 20th. of March, when I, as a deputy from Nottingham, voted against an alteration in the Representation of Parliament, and for shortening the duration of parliaments, being re commended to the petitioning counties, to be made articles of their associations, his Lordship voted for that measure.

2 The examples here alluded to are so well known, it is unaccessary to be more particular.

them! the constitution knows not of wrongs without remedies and England, could she be conscious of such wrongs and not demand redress, would be fit only to crouch with other degraded nations, beneath the iron sceptre of a Napoleon! or could she, in speechless acquiescence, longer endure to behold the reins of her government in the hands of one, who, for the highest place in a system of corruption, wickedness and shame, basely bartered away the glory of standing foremost in the phalanx of patriotism and virtue, her degradation in character would be as deplorable as his own! no; reading the evil nature of the horrid system in her own grievous sufferings, and roused from her lethargy by the recent addition of insult to injury, she is preparing I trust to do herself right. Of the impossibility of her salvation, while robbed of her constitutional representation, damning were the proofs in the never to be forgotten divisions of the 8th. of April, and the 25th. of June. And equal demonstration did they afford, of whom Mr. Pitt is properly the minister, Whose voice did he on those occasions obey? Whose sentiments did he utter? Whose standard did he carry? Whose work did he do? The faction's! the fac tion's the faction's!

1.

"To govern," says Bolingbroke, "a society of free"men by a constitution founded on the eternal princi" ples of right reason, and directed to promote the "happiness of the whole, and of every individual, is "the noblest prerogative which can belong to huma

nity; and if man may be said without profaneness "to imitate God in any case, this is the case. But sure I am, he imitates the devil, who is so far from promoting the happiness of others, that he "makes his own happiness to consist in the misery of "others; who governs by no rule but that of his pas sions, whatever appearances he is forced sometimes to put on; who endeavours to corrupt the innocent, and to enslave the free; whose business is to seduce, or betray; whose pleasure is to damn; and whose "triumph is to torment. Odious and execrable as "this character is, it is the character of every prince "[or minister] who makes use of his power to subvert,

"or even to weaken that constitution, which ought to "be the rule of his government. When such a prince

[or minister] presides with superior parts, Liberty is "in the utmost peril!"

Indignant emotions have I perceive caused me to digress from the point I had in hand. I was speaking of the abuses and the acts of parliaments by which, in addition to the decay and present debility of boroughs once more robust, the constitutional use and intention of the commons house of parliament is utterly destroyed. That house might indeed remain in FORM even though England were become a province of the French empire, or had sunk beneath the despotism of a native prince, as the senate of Rome retained its FORM under her Neros and Caligulas; but its CONSTITUTIONAL use and intention have been long gone. It was a conviction of this fact that produced the patriotic exertions which commenced in 1776, and extended themselves, as I have shewn, all over the kingdom for a Reform in our representation: but necessary as was that reform to freedom and the public welfare, and certain as are the constitutional principles on which the necessity rests, it is not to be regarded as a matter of surprise, that the first efforts should have failed. It would have been more surprizing had they succeeded, considering how profound an ignorance on the subject, the deplorable effects of lost rights, then pervaded the nation, even to its highest ranks; considering also what packs of literary hounds were kept in perpe tual exercise for chasing far away from the borough inclosure" the mountain nymph, sweet Liberty;" and what volunteer packs, in hopes of court feeding, joined the cry; and considering again that the anti-reforming factions had in their hands the whole patronage of the crown, and the whole revenue of the kingdom, and could at their pleasure make that revenue just what they pleased, for extending influence, for making traitors, for rewarding apostates, and even, if their cause required it, for spreading the flames of war to the four quarters of the globe.

1 Diss. upon Parties, Ed. 1743, 112, the passage altered only by adding the word minister.

66

pa

It was from a consideration of the magnitude of the undertaking, the difficulties attending it, the little assistance to be hoped for from the wealthy, and the length of time required to establish the triumph of truth supported by mere reason, over error supported by power, which induced the author, eight and twenty years ago, to recommend to our Reformers "tience," and to point out the necessity of "perseve"rance;" and even the probability that half a century of toil might be required, so far from being a reason for relaxation or an excuse for desertion, he ever held it to be a strong motive to unrelaxing exertion; especially as the public, if once in possession of the necessary knowledge, would then be prepared to avail themselves of any favourable opportunity which might meanwhile unlooked for arrive.

He at that time thought, as he still thinks, that between an official and a parliamentary reform there is an essential difference; that the partial mischief of an individual cloud may be gradually, silently and effectually drawn away from an office by the conducting wire of an ordinary statute; but that a great nation's legislature, like an entire atmosphere, when once overcharged with abuse and corruption, threatening the life of the state, can only be purified by an irresistible burst of national indignation, of the nature of the hurricane, which suddenly visits, and overwhelms, but quickly passes over, leaving the air, lately overcharged with pestilence and death, restored to its wonted salubrity.

The gust which lately obtained us the impeachment of a minister, was I trust the precursor of one sufficiently powerful for our purpose.

1 Legislative right of the commonalty vindicated, 202. Published in 1777.

LETTER XVII.

MY LORD,

WITH regard to a house of commons that should

be actually returned as we have supposed, could it, according to constitutional intendment, be any more a representative of the people of England, than it would be a representative of the people of Indostan or of China And that I may not be thought to speak improperly of a house of commons, I beg your Grace will keep in mind that in all popular bodies, whether we advert to their description, to their proceedings, or to their character, these necessarily take from a majority their denomination. If a majority of a corporation be presbyterians, it is called a presbyterian corporation: if the majority of a club vote the election or expulsion of a member, we say it is voted by the club: if the majority of the house of commons carry a censure or an impeachment, be that majority ever so small, it is the censure or the impeachment of the house; as a statute agreed upon by a majority of the two houses with the concurrence of the king is an act of parliament: so, therefore, if a bare majority of the house of commons had not been chosen by "those whom it appeared to represent," 2 such house could not in strictness be a commons house of parliament, or the commons in parliament assembled, but in a constitutional argument would require a different denomination. Aad

I "Ths house might as well call itself the representation of France, as of the people of England." Sir G. Savile, 7th. May, 1789, "They held out their Boroughs to the best purchaser, and, in fact, "they belonged more to the Nabob of Arcot, or the Rajah of Tanjore, than they did to the people of Great Britain; and it was a fact pretty well known, and generally understood, that the "Nabob of Arcot had no less than seven or eight members in that "house." Mr. Pitt, 7th. May, 1782.

2 See the Journals of the house the 6th, of May, 1793, for a petition praying for a reform in parliament.