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tions I have made into execution, we fhall prevent prodigality; and were we to spend millions upon fuch an object, or had we done fo at an earlier period of our history, and been thereby enabled to have prevented the calamities and difgraces that have befallen the country, what cause would there not have been for folid fatisfaction and triumphant exultation? The progress of the plan will be gradual, as I do not intend it to take place instantly in its full extent, that it fhall not affect the feat of any perfon chofen for the whole Parliament. If the plan fhould be adopted in this feffion, there will be no man but who ought to be fatisfied; and in the interim till it takes effect, the People of England will have the happiness of being represented by the present House of Commons, chofen as this House has been by the free voice of the People. On chufing the next Parliament, if any borough were, after the Parliament had begun business, to petition to be disfranchised, the fitting member should vacate his feat. There is another point that I have accidentally omitted in the earlier part of my speech, and that is, my intention in counties to increase the number of the electors, as well as the number elected; but what I mean to do in this respect is extremely fimple, and totally distinct from the idea of univerfal reprefentation; I mean merely that another species of perfons of property, befides freeholders, shall also have votes for the county; I allude to copyholders, who are in moft refpects in the fame fituation as freeholders themfelves. Having stated this, I take a general view of the principle of the measure. I faid it was practicable and beneficial; that it was a principle deeply rooted in this country; that the representation, as it flood at prefent, was inadequate, and that fome amendments were neceffary; that we had leisure, and a fair opportunity for a full difcuffion of fo important a matter; but that if it should have come before, when in a moment of difficulty and distress, it would have been impoffible to have done juftice to it; that the imperfections in the state of the representation weakened the confidence the People had

in

in the representative body, and the love they ought at all times to be encouraged to entertain for the Constitution. It is to that confidence the country owes all her former ftrength, profperity, and fplendour. It is true that the country has profpered as the reprefentation ftands at prefent; but if we have profpered, we have also fuffered; bitterly and grievously suffered; fuffered for the want of this amendment, and by means of Parliaments having a boundless and unlimited confidence in a Minister, and continuing to entertain that confidence after the Minister has loft the confidence of the country. The re. prefentatives have a common intereft with their conftituents, the People of England; it becomes therefore the duty of every man in this Houfe to cement the union, and strengthen the connection between the People and the popular branch of the Legiflature. The alterations, I repeat it, would be better made in the moment of peace and reflection, than in a moment of turbulence and of public misfortune; I hope therefore that the House, by its conduct this day, will afford permanent and lasting fatisfaction to the friends of the measure of reform. The fixed and fteady principle of the propofition will lead the .House no farther: if therefore there are dangerous and alarming plans of reform in the contemplation of any wild and vifionary speculators, the best way to put an end to the dread of any danger likely to arise from fuch rafh and ill-digested innovations, would be, to adopt the motion I am just about to offer to the confideration of the House; and I fhall conclude with declaring, that I feel a degree of fatisfaction, which no other measure could ever afford me in my life, if I fhould be the humble inftrument of fecuring by this regulation, the dearest interests, and the future liberty and happiness of the People of England. I fhall now move, "That leave be given to bring in a bill, to amend the reprefentation of the People of England in Parliament."

Mr. Pitt, April 18, 1785.

After

After the many occafions on which I have before expreffed what my fentiments are on the subject of a reform in the reprefentation of the People in Parliament, I fhall not confider myself under any great neceffity of troubling the House, but there have been extraordinary circumftances attending the introduction of the prefent queftion. That I have always been a friend to the principle of the bill, is a fact which does not require to be now repeated. Whether the means taken to effect that principle are fuch as are most unexceptionable, must remain for future difcuffion, but cannot provoke my oppofition to the motion. There remains ample opportunities in the future stages of the bill, to examine and correct it; opportunities which in themselves will be the highest acquifition. In the review which has been taken of the queftion this night, there are means used to implicate the American war in the subject now under difcuffion, by fuggefting that it was fupported by the influence of burgage tenures, and that, if they had been withdrawn, that war would have had a more speedy termination. I acknowledge that it would have been in the power of the Parliament to bring that war to a period, had they confidered it as an improper one; but the manner in which it must have been done, would be fuch as I fhould little expect to hear recommended from the gentlemen on the other fide of the House. When the delay of a few days in paffing the Supplies was reprefented last year as the most heinous proceeding, what would have been the enormity of stopping, not the Ordnance Supply, as was the cafe, but all the other Supplies also, as would be the cafe in the event which might here take place. This would be a conduct worthy of a Parliament in certain fituations, and would fhew them to be fenfible of their due weight and importance in the fcale of the Conftitution, and not the inftruments of a fuperior power, kept for no other purpose but to regifter edicts, and perform an annual routine. Much has been faid of the merit of diffolving that cohesion which has been faid to fubfift in the parties in this Houfa

That

That cohefion does fubfift, is a truth in which I take too much pride, to think of denying, and from which this country derives too much advantage to be an enemy to: my connections were formed on liberal and fyftematic principles, and could not be diffolved by any regulations, while the fame union in fentiment and principles continued to cement them. When an honourable gentleman faid, that parties on one fide of the House occafioned fimilar engagements on the other, he should have confidered, that it equally applied to one as to the other : but there might be fome circumftances which might induce that honourable gentleman to look forward with eagerness to the diffolution of such attachments, if they obliged him to fupport and defend meafures in which his opinions did not correspond; if they forced him to act one way, and think another. Under fuch circumftances, it was perfectly natural that he fhould pant to be difengaged from fuch connections, and refign the load which feemed fo much to opprefs him. To that principle, which, by a diminution of the members for boroughs, tended to increase the proportion of reprefentatives for counties, I am fincerely and cordially a friend. But while I am thus explicit on the fubject of my approbation, it is but juft to mention, that there is another point to which I totally difagree. With all refpect, which I always pay to the House of Commons, and among the reft to the present House, I can perceive in it no fuperlative excellence, no just superiority which can juftify the fufpenfion of the operation of this bill. To defer for a period of years any fyftem of reform, however partial and inadequate, is by no means complying with the declared wishes of the majority of the electors of this country, whofe voice, though by no means to be acknowledged as that to which the Houfe of Commons muft conform, when they are directed by any fudden impulfe, as the opinions of a moment, fhould always be obeyed on points which the experience and confideration of years have taught them finally to decide on. The People, notwithstanding all that has been faid, have no

peculiar

peculiar obligations to this Parliament for uncommon instances of that propriety of conduct which could warrant fo implicit a reliance in it. No very flattering proofs of extraordinary attention to the rights of the People have been given by His Majefty's prefent Minifters, in their fupport of that excellent measure, the Westminster Scrutiny; and no very splendid testimony of their prudence in financial concerns, could be drawn from the Commutation Tax. This is a proceeding, the hardfhip of which they have already felt; and there are fome others now in agitation, which are not likely to turn out much more favourable. These only are the reasons the People can have for a reliance in the prefent Parliament. I do not, however, mean to fay any thing which can be conftrued into invective against them. I have before been accused of infulting them. I do not know that I did fo; but if heat should have led me at any time to say any thing which could have that appearance, I am exceedingly forry for it. There was nothing in any of thefe circumstances which could imprefs them on my memory; but I have obferved, that nothing I have ever faid in my warmest moments have ever drawn forth fo much paffion and ill temper on the other fide of the Houfe, as when I have attempted to praise them. The right honourable gentleman has, in this inftance, receded from thofe opinions which on two former occafions he feemed to maintain; and the alteration which he has now made, for the purpose of a specific plan, is infinitely for the worse. It is in vain that he endeavours to qualify the objections which the idea of innovation raises in the minds of fome, by diminishing the extent and influence of reformation. From the earliest periods of our Government, that principle of innovation, but which should more properly be called amendment, is neither more nor lefs than the practice of the Conftitution. In every fpecies of government, (for I will put abfolute monarchy out of the queftion, as one which ought never to take place in any country), democracy and ariftocracy are always in a ftate of gradual improvement,

when