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P. I have purposely omitted several, for, recollect, I am speaking to you not of taxation but of royal prerogative, and administration of executive power; and I only mean to give you a brief sketch of a boundless subject, the particulars of which actually fill thousands of folios.

G. I am then to understand, that all this revenue is received and expended by the king,

P. Not in his own person, but by substitutes or deputies, to whom the administration of the executive power is entrusted by the crown.

G. How is the money disposed of?

P. A part of it is appropriated to the payment of the interest of the national debt, and a part to the payment of the civil list.

G. What is the civil list, Sir?

P. It is the list, roll, or catalogue of all expences of civil government, as those of his majesty's houshold, of the houshold of the queen and royal family, of salaries to the great officers of state, to the judges, ambassadors, private expences of the king, secret service money, pensions, bounties; in a word, of every of the king's ser

vants.

G. The civil list then, is properly the king's rcvenue, and what goes to pay the interest of the national debt is the revenue of the publick.

P. More strictly speaking, the latter is the revenue of the creditors of the publick; however, all is collected and distributed by officers of the crown.

G. So, if I receive a half years' dividend at

the bank, it is the king who pays me by the hands of one of his clerks in administration.

P. Yes. Need I enter upon the article of influence?

G. It would be no compliment to my understanding.

P. Allow me, however, to say, that the influence of the crown is an effect, which may have risen from two causes. It may have proceeded from a plan of arbitrary government, which, if so, must have been concerted long before the present generation existed; or it may have proceeded, without any such design, from a mere course of events, a set of accidents.

G. Some call this influence enormous and excessive.

P. This enormity of crown influence depends on something else. If the other two branches of legislature have equal influence, it is not enormous, for the state is safe when the component powers are in equilibrium: but if the influence of the crown preponderates so as to give irregular direction to the other two powers, then indeed it has acquired enormity.

G. What is your opinion, Sir?

P. Rather say, what is the resolution of the house of Commons.

G. All the boys at school have that by heart, that is, that the influence of the crown hath increased, is increasing, and oUGHT TO BE DIMI

NISHED.

THURSDAY.

REPRESENTATION..

P. WHEN we speak of administration, George, we speak of what is; but when we speak of representation, we speak of what ought to be

G. Why so, Sir?

P. Because administration, you see, is in effect the king's prerogative, and we would not seem to want respect for that branch of government, the executive power.

G. But representation being the people's birthright, is more immediately our own province. Is that your meaning, Sir?

P. Exactly.

G. Are you represented in parliament, Sir?
P. No.

G. Then your family, consisting of more than twenty of us, is not represented.

P. No; our parliamentary representation is not a representation of persons, but of property. G. Is your property represented, Sir?

P. No. My estates are copyhold, and leasehold, and personal estate. I have no freehold. G. It is not all property, then, that is represented.

P. No; it is property of that peculiar tenure, which we call freehold.

G. How many freeholders are there in this pa

rish?

P. About four.

G. Yet this parish consists of some hundreds. P. Yes; and I, who am not represented, was obliged to give old Sam the taylor, who botches for the labourers, who is represented, some pieces of wood to prop up his crazy freehold cottage, or else Sam's cottage would not have been represented.

G. You said you were speaking of what ought to be.

P. Excuse me for speaking first of what ought not to be.

G. You think representation then, Sir, imperfect?

P. Extremely so; and I think I see four imperfections in what we call parliamentary representation, in the nature, the subject, the mode, and the end. These are not constitutional imperfections, but accidental ones; the being of which probably originated not in design and depravity, but in a train of events. I will explain myself. G. What do you mean, Sir, by the nature of representation?

P. The properties of it.

G. What ought these to be?

P. Representation is a human creation, and was intended to be, and therefore ought to be an exact balance to the prerogatives of the other branches

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of the legislature, for by this balance the liberties of the people are preserved from encroachment.

G. It ought then to have dignity, power, revenue, and influence, that so, having the same prerogatives as the crown, and in the same degree, may be a counterpoise.

it

P. Exactly so. Accordingly the dignity of parliament, as an aggregate body, is preserved by an ascription of properties and perfections, as independence, incorruption, fidelity, magnanimity, and so on. The power of parliament is that of making laws. In regard to revenue, all supplies are raised by them; and in respect to influence, it will always be proportional to the benefits which the people derive from their representatives.

G. You allowed yesterday, that the properties ascribed to the executive power, could not be found in any mortal. Are not the properties ascribed to the legislative power of the same kind, mere suppositions of law?

P. By no means. The properties ascribed to the person are, strictly speaking, found in the executive power. Executive it is every where acting at the same time; besiegpower has ubiquity, for ing a town in the army, destroying an enemy's fleet at sea in the navy, guarding the trade in a convoy, or the coasts in a militia, distributing justice in courts of law, collecting customs in the ports, excise in warehouses, receiving and paying, rewarding and punishing at the same moment, Now as all this is the king's business, and as he executes

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