dained to regard the narrow limits of practicability. He asserted, that the people of England felt no real griev ance; but that their passions had been excited by in cendiaries, who had been sent into the different counties to promote the business of petitioning for a reform of parliament. But though petitions had been transmitted requesting a reform, yet they made no specific charges of criminality or grievance.

An appeal was made to ancient times, when our constitution was virtuous, and an anxious wish was expressed, that the true spirit of our government should be restored He was however at a loss to recollect the period when there existed a virtuous and uncorrupted representation. Under what prince, and in what æra, were we to look for those happy, those chaste, those halcyon days? The country might indeed labour under a disease; but he wished that be. fore the physicians should prescribe for it they would establish and explain its prognostics. The constitution had lasted long, and he believed it would last much longer, unless it was tampered with. Politicians might be compared to quacks; and in the present case their behaviour was not more absurd than that of the doc. tor, who, meeting in the street a lame man, should say to him, "Good God, sir, how came you by that leg-It is shorter than the other-I wonder how you walk with it?" The lame man might naturally enough reply, "I was born with my leg in this condition. The infitmity is a natural one, and does not prevent me from doing my duty as a citizen, churchwarden, clergyman, or mili tia officer. I can walk, dance, and jump, notwithstand. ing my lameness; and have been able to do so these twenty years." "Your case, however (resumes the quack) is critical and unseemly. I must take I must take you under my direction. I must break your leg in order to cure it." In this light, he confessed, the resolutions which had been read struck his understanding. It was ridiculous to offer advice and remedies where they were neither

asked for nor wanted. To give way to jealousies on the subject of representation, was to court difficulties without necessity; and to new model the fabric of our liberties, was to sport with a trust the most invaluable. He professed himself to be as independent as any man could be; his love of his country was sincere and strong; and he was ready to sacrifice his life for its support. But he would by no means consent to involve the kingdom in danger from a vain expectation of advantages, or from a preposterous indulgence in hopes that were never to be realized.

MR. T. PITT.

INTIMATED his dread of changes, and an apprehension lest any encouragement should be given to those impracticable plans of reform which were floating on the public. He expressed a strong disapprobation at the madness of theorists. But though he was an enemy to visionary speculations, he was friendly to reforms upon constitutional principles; and he could not but bestow his assent to resolutions which held forth specific remedies upon practical grounds. They involved no new principles, rescinded no ancient rights arbitrarily, and established no dangerous precedents. The county members were no doubt the most respectable part of the representatives of the people; and it would certainly be an improvement on the constitution to augment their number. He acknowledged, however, that the measure should be cautiously carried into execution; and that the augmentation of new knights should not be too great. The constitution was a system so nice and so complicated, that its mechanism required to be touched with the greatest skill. It was his opinion, that the resolutions VOL. II.

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pointed at an increase of members that would render the house of commons too bulky and unwieldy for busi ness. It seemed to him that the addition of one member to each county in England and Wales was sufficient. To overshoot the mark would tend to mischief and calamity. He admired the limited monarchy under which we lived; and he could desire nothing more anxiously than that all its checks should remain unimpaired. There was danger in giving too much power to the people, as well as to the prince. It was a pleasure to him to observe that the resolution did not meddle with the burgage tenures; for these he considered as fortresses against the influence of the minister. Yet from the peculiarity of his situation he was sensible that by this opinion he would expose himself to the charge of selfishness. As a proof however of his sincerity, he was ready to make a voluntary sacrifice of his borough to save the rest. It was of little consequence to the nation whether he or his posterity should have a seat in the house of commons, provided the constitution should be confirmed in its strength and purity.

LORD NORTH.

CONSIDERED the mere touch of so venerable a fa bric as the constitution, though for the purpose of amend ing it, to be a matter of dread and apprehension. It was impossible to conceive an attempt of a more deli cate nature. It was to tamper with a fabric which was the boast of Britons, and the admiration of nations. It became Englishmen to pause and to reflect deeply be fore they entered upon so awful an undertaking. The idea that the constitution was disordered, was a fancy;

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and to treat it as diseased, without any evidence of the distemper, was a phrenzy.

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He called for proofs of any weakness that required to be repaired. Of real and consuming disorders he had heard nothing. Undue influence and corruption were indeed great evils; but they were natural and unavoidtable. able. He deplored them as misfortunes and calamities but they could not be effectually guarded against, any more than convulsions and earthquakes. He saw no reason for complying with the resolutions. The sense of the great body of the people of England was not contained in the petitions which had come from a few counties and boroughs. Even the sense of the counties and boroughs which had sent petitions, was not expressed in them. The petitions were framed and subscribed through the hot zeal and the passionate folly of individuals who had been seized with the disease of reformation. He would not vote for the addition of a hundred knights, nor for fifty, nor for one. Those who were fond of beginning innovations should look forward to the point at which they were to terminate. Innovation, like the gravity of a weight in sinking, once begun, would carry all before it. Destruction and ruin would ensue. To seek a remedy when there was no disease, was itself a distemper. When the puny voice of a few discontented individuals breaks in upon the tranquillity of a vast and contented multitude, it is difficult to repress an emotion of indignation or scorn. The balance of the constitution would be infringed and violated by the addition of members for the counties. It would give a decided superiority to the landed interest over the commercial. It would tarnish the beauty of the house of commons, which, like the general fabric of the British legislature, provides and preserves a due poise between the great interests of the empire; the landed, the commercial, and the monied. They were not the deputies, but the representatives of the people. They were to be governed by their own discretion, and not by humours and

faction. They must not sacrifice the venerable palladium which ages has sanctified, because there had arisen a wild spirit of project; a spirit which had no real foundation, and which was only supported by declamation and surmise.

It was not true that the house of commons had not a full and proper weight. His political life was a proof that it had. Before he was honoured with office he had been in parliament. It was parliament that made him a minister. It was among the commons that he was first known. He came among them without connection. It was to them that he was indebted for his rise; and they had pulled him down. He had been the creature of their opinion and their power: his political career was of consequence a proof of their independence. The voice of the commons was sufficient to remove whatever was displeasing to the sentiments and wishes of the country; and in such a situation to parade about a re formation, was idle, unnecessary, dangerous, and inex pedient.

MR. BEAUFOY.

CONTEND

ONTENDED, that it was unconstitutional to treat with contempt the petitions of the people. The situation of the times called for a reform. The representation of the people was partial and inadequate. The theory of the constitution acknowledges general rights, but in practice éstablishes incomplete and local privileges. The theory of the constitution supposes a due connection between the people and their representatives; but its practice derides altogether that connection. It is to the want of an impartial and full representation of the people that all the national evils which have arisen of late years were