strength and far less odium under the name of influence. An influence which operates without noise and violence; which converts the very antagonist into the instrument of power; which contains in itself a perpetual principle of growth and renovation; and which the distresses and the prosperity of the country equally tend to augment, was an admirable substitute for a prerogative, that being only the offspring of antiquated prejudices, had moulded in its original stamina irresistible principles of decay and dissolution. The ignorance of the people is a bottom but of a temporary system; but the interest of active men in the state is a foundation perpetual and infallible."

Mr. Burke therefore, in page 66, speaking of the same court party, says:

"Parliament was indeed the great object of all these politicks, the end at which they aimed as well as the instrument by which they were to operate."

And pursuing the subject, in page 70, proceeds as follows:

"They who will not conform their conduct to the publick good, and cannot support it by the prerogative of the crown, have adopted a new plan. They have totally abandoned the shattered and old fashioned fortress of prerogative, and made a lodgement in the strong hold of parliament itself. If they have any evil design to which there is no ordinary legal power commensurate, they bring it into parliament. There the whole is executed from the beginning to the end; and the power of obtaining their object absolute; and the safety in the proceeding perfect; no rules to confine nor after reckonings to terrify. For parliament cannot with any great propriety punish others for things in which they themselves have been accomplices. Thus its control upon the executory power is lost; because it is made to partake in every considerable act of government, and impeachment, that great guardian of the purity of the constitution, is in danger of being lost even to the idea of it.

"Until this time, the opinion of the people through the power of an assembly, still in some sort popular,

led to the greatest honours and emoluments in the gift of the crown. Now the principle is reversed; and the favour of the court is the only sure way of obtaining and holding those honours which ought to be in the disposal of the people."

Mr. Burke, in page 100, observes with great truth, that the mischiefs he complained of, did not at all arise from the monarchy, but from the parliament; and that it was the duty of the people to look to it. He says, "The distempers of monarchy were the great subjects of apprehension and redress, in the last century; in this the distempers of parliament.

Not the distempers of parliament in this year or the last, but in this century, that is, its settled habitual distemper. "It is not in parliament alone that the remedy for parliamentary disorders can be completed; and hardly indeed can it begin there. Until a confidence in government is reestablished the people ought to be excited to a more strict and detailed attention to the conduct of their representatives. Standards for judging more systematically upon their conduct ought to be settled in the meetings of counties and corporations, and frequent and correct lists of the voters in all important questions ought to be procured."

"By such means something may be done since it may appear who those are that by an indiscriminate support of all administrations, have totally banished all integrity and confidence out of publick proceedings; have confounded the best men with the worst, and weakened and dissolved, instead of strengthening and compacting the general frame of government."

I wish it was possible to read the whole of this most important volume-but the consequences of these truths contained in it were all eloquently summed up by the author in his speech upon the reform of the houshold.

"But what I confess was uppermost with me, what I bent the whole course of my mind to, was the reduction of that corrupt influence which is itself the perennial spring of all prodigality and disorder; which

1

loads us more than millions of debt; which takes away vigour from our arms, wisdom from our councils, and every shadow of authority and credit from the most venerable parts of our constitution.

The same important truths were held out to the whole publick, upon a still later occasion, by the person now at the head of his majesty's councils; and so high, as it appears, in the confidence of the nation. * He, not in the abstract like the author before you, but upon the spur of the occasion, and in the truth of what had just been declared in the house of commons, came to, and acted upon resolutions which are contained in this book. Resolutions pointed to the purification of a parliament, dangerously corrupted into the very state described by Mr. Paine. Remember here, too, that I impute no censure to Mr. Pitt. It was the most brilliant passage in his life, and I should have thought his life a better one, if he had continued uniform in the support of opinions which it is said he has not changed, and which certainly have had nothing to change them. But at all events, I have a right to make use of the authority of his splendid talents and situation, not merely to protect the defendant, but the publick, and to resist the precedent, That what one man may do in England with approbation and glory, shall conduct another man to a pillory or a prison.

It was the abuses pointed out by the man before you, that led the right honourable gentleman to associate with many others of high rank, under the banners of the duke of Richmond, whose name stands at the head of the list, and to pass various publick resolutions, concerning the absolute necessity of purifying the house of commons; and we collect the plan from a preamble entered in a book. "Whereas the life, liberty and property of every man is, or may be, affected by the law of the land in which he lives, and every man is bound to pay obedience to the "And whereas, by the constitution of this kingdom the right of making laws is vested in three estates, of king, lords and commons, in parliament assembled, and the consent of all the three said estates, comprehending the whole community, is necessary to make laws to bind the whole community. And whereas the house of commons represents all the commons of the realm, and the consent of the house of commons binds the consent of all the commons in the realm, and in all cases on which the legislature is competent to decide.

"And whereas, no man is, or can be actually represented who hath not a vote in the election of his representative.

" And whereas it is the right of every commoner of this realm (infants, persons of insane mind, and criminals incapacitated by law, only excepted) to have a vote in the election of the representative who is to give his consent to the making of laws by which he is to be bound.

"And whereas the number of persons who are suffered to vote for electing the members of the house of commons, do not at this time amount to one sixth part of the whole commons of this realm, whereby far the greater part of the said commons are deprived of their right to elect their representatives; and the consent of the majority of the whole community, to the passing of laws, is given by persons whom they have not delegated for such purposes; and the majority of the said community, and to which the said majority have not in fact consented by themselves, or by their representatives.

"And whereas the state of election of members of the house of commons, hath in process of time so grossly deviated from its simple and natural principle of representation and equality, that in several places the members are returned by the property of one man; that the smallest boroughs send as many members as the largest counties, and that a majority of the representatives of the whole nation are chosen by a number of votes not exceeding twelve thousand."

These, with many others were published, not as abstract, speculative writings, but within a few days after the house of commons had declared that no such rights existed, and that no alteration was necessary in the representation. It was then that they met at the Thatched House and published their opinions and resolutions to the country at large. Were any of them prosecuted for these proceedings? Certainly not, for they were legal proceedings. But I desire you as men of honour and truth, to compare all this with Mr. Paine's expression of the ministers touching parliament with his opiate wand, and let equal justice be done. That is all I ask. Let all be punished or none. Do not let Mr. Paine be held out to the contempt of the publick upon the score of his observations on parliament, while others are enjoying all the sweets which attend a supposed attachment to their country, who have said the same things, and reduced their opinions to practice.

But now every man is to be cried down for such opinions. I observed that my learned friend significantly raised his voice in naming Mr. Horne Tooke, as if to connect him with Paine, or Paine with him. This is exactly the same course of justice; for after all he said nothing of Mr. Tooke. What could he have said, but that he was a subscriber with the great names I have read in these proceedings which they have thought fit to desert.

Gentlemen, let others hold their opinions and change them at their pleasure. I shall ever maintain it to be the dearest privilege of the people of Great Britain to watch over every thing that affects their good government, either in the system or in the practice; and that for this purpose the press must be free. It has always been so, and much evil has been corrected by it. If government finds itself annoyed by it, let it examine its own conduct, and it will find the cause. Let it amend it, and it will find the remedy.

Gentlemen, I am no friend to sarcasms in the discussion of grave subjects, but you must take writers according to the view of the mind at the moment.