MASTER NEGA TIVE NO. 91- MICROFILMED 1991 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK 64 as part of the Foundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project ' x.\TTo j-j^ e: . Funded bv ilic MENT FOR ITnT HUMAMTIES R 1-3 may noi be made without pemiission from Columbia Universitv Libr:.ij^'^ COPYRIGHT STATEMENT The copyright law of the Uniled Slate? - Title 17, United wStates Code - concerns the making of phi^tocooies or other reproductions of copyrighted mateririL,. Colurnbia Uni^ cibit} [.ibraiy reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgement, fulfniment ^;^t the order would involve violation of the copyright law. AUTHOR: WINDHAM, WILLIAM TITLE: SPEECH OF THE RT.HON WILLIAM A JLjitL %^ KL' • LONDON DA TE : 1810 Restrictions on Use: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRE DEPARTMENT Master Negative # 9/ 'S03^6'S BIBUOGR AI IIIC MICROFORM TARHFT Original Material as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record \V w.... ..u». ...... Speech... in the House of commons, May. ••26th, 1809f on Mr. Curwen^s bill *for better securing the in- dcreniitr-.ce a::d ruritv of Pari! aisent ••• L •d '"a™-/ «. jv V-% V-i«- * .i 0. '•i- Ho. 7 of a vol./^ of pamphlets. 7^018 ^ FILM SIZE: 12.^-^.r^ IK'IAGI- Pi^ACEMFNT: I A IL-v'" IB TECT^NTCAT. MICROFORM DATA REDUCTION RATIO: //X DATE FII.Mi-1): FILMED B\-; RESl-ARCi I i •:' \ ' i i i ill « ^ _-_^ L^Jlll^L- INITIALS AJ^'D^ P LICATIONS. I N ( ■ ,. WOO D 1 5KI DGE. CT w ."h. A o C Association for Information and image {Management 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1100 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 Centimeter 12 3 4 T TT Inches TTT 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 mm iiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiii TTT I I T f TI I I I 3 4 1.0 %^ 2.8 1^ |||=H itt Warn 12, ILIA la 1.4 2.5 22 I.I 2.0 1.8 1.6 1.25 TTT "■II #4i MflNUFfiCTURED TO RUM STfiNDRRDS BY fiPPLIED IMRGE, INC. Kol V SPEECH, OF THE RT. HON. WILLIAM WINDHAM, IK THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, * MAY THE 26th, 1809; ON MR. CURWEN^S BILL, " FOR BETTER SECURING THE INDEPEN-. " DENCE AND PURITY OF PARLIAMENT, " BY PREVENTING THE PROCURING OR " OBTAINING OF SEATS BY CORRUPT " practices/' i( !| 1 ! ! I I I'i ^>il LONDON : PRINTED FOR J. BUDD, PALL-MALL. 1810. '•4 '.^l *M * t • V i|jt|j!!!i|i w P' i ADVERTISEMENT. The following Speech is printed, with only a few slight corrections and additions, from a copy which was prepared by a collation of the reports in the different newspapers, and is inserted in the Fourteenth Volume of Cob- bett's Parliamentary Debates. It has been republished in the present shape, for the accommodation of some gentle- men, who had been desirous of a few separate copies, which, for want of timely notice to the printer, could not be supplied when the impression was struck off for the Parlia- mentary Debates. January 1 9th, 1810. 1 n { T.C HtBMrd, Printw^-j Vittrlioffoafh-Coort, V riMMtrMt, LODdoB. J ^tmm * » '"10 ■■—■■■■" iHli. il''^ ^^T * i* -. • ' %Jt * ■' (Pll 'ill »4 si r X=: izx SPEECH, 4c. Mr. WINDHAM rofe and faid:— Sir; I am well fatis- fied to have heard, before I addrefs you, the fpeeches of the two hon. gentlemen who havelaft fat down, as thofe fpeeches will have helped to recall our attention to the queftion more immediately before us, from which the fpeech of the hon. baronet (fir F. Burdeit) had in fome meafure led us away, though not to any topics, which I mean to defcribe, or which I wilh the houfe to confider, as unconnected with the fubject. Thofe topics are indeed moft clofcly connected with it, as they are in themfelves alfo of a nature and character, to which I muft not fail hereafter to advert, and with which the houfe will I hope be duly imprefled. In the mean while, I muft fairly profefs, that upon the fubject of the queftion immediately fubmitted to us, I have found no reafon, from any thing that I have heard to night or upon other occafions, or that my own reflections or inqui- ries have furnifbed, to alter the opinions with which I took the liberty of troubling the houfe on the night on which it was firft brought forward. I equally think it a meafure ill- timed, injudicious, founded upon falfe views, falfe facts, and falfe afsumptions, calculated to produce no good in the firfl: inftance, and liable and likely to lead to the moft ferious mif- chiefs in future. B u > I l!S"'T ■>. • A o \ The whole meafure reds, ill, upoa an*afsumption, which, in the fenfe in which it li ufed,,3nd the.extent to which it is carried, I utterly deny, namely, that the tranfactions in quef- lion are corrupt; and, 2dly, upon a pofition, which is true in- deed, but of no effect or operation without the other, namely, that acts criminal ani abufive in tliemfelves, cannot be pro- tected by the length of time that they have been fuffered to prevail, or by the number or authority of the perfons, who have been found to practife them. Nobody pretends to fay, that fraud, falfehood, theft, rob- bery, the whole lift of crimes by which focicty is disfigured and injured, though co-eval and co-extenfive with fociety it- felf, are for that leafon lefs crimes, or call lefs for reproba- tion and punifliment, than they did at their firft appearance in the world. There are innumerable offences and depravities, which no authority can fupport, or fanction, but which will to the end of time pull down the character and reputation of all thofe, be they who they may, who (hall be found to h«.vc been guilty ot them* Wliat we are to inquire is, whether the afts now meant to be proceeded againft, are of that fort ? whether they are, like many others, afts which thofe who commit them know at the time to be wrong, though under tlie impulfe of ftrong temptation they may not have the virtue to abftain from them ; which degrade the perfon ib his own opinion, and would, if known, degrade him in that of others; which he is compelled to condemn at the very moment he yields to them; which are attended in the immediate inftance with injury to others ; ®r, at leaft, tend to weaken the au- thority and obfervance of fome rule, which the interefls of fociety require to be upheld ? Let us confider how the matter Hands in refpect to the nature and defeription of the fact. Let us open the pleadmgs by ftating the cafc» A mlnifter in the time of Geo. L or queen Anne, or king William, has a friend come to him, at the moment of a ge- neral election, who fay*» * I have a great intereft ia the Forougli of fuch a place. I have a large property, and I have laid out a great deal of money, there ; I have obliged, in various ways, numbers of the voters and their connec- iions ; many are dependent on me, many look up to me for favours that they have received, or favours they expect ; la ihort, I may venture to fay, that I can bring in both mem- bers. One of the feats I muft; rcferve for my fon ; but for the other I fhall be very happy to take by the hand any one whom you will recommend. I have been always, as you know, warmly attached to you and your friends ; and anxious to give every fupport in my power to a fet of men, whom I have always acted with in and out of office, and whom I re- joice to fee in their prefent fituations, becaufe I think thera in my confcience the fitteft men to whom the interefts of the country can be entrufted : I want nothing for myfelf, and ftiould be very glad to offer this feat to your friend free of all cxpencc ; but the fums which 1 have been obliged to lay out in cultivating this interell ; the property which I have been obliged to purchafe, on terms yielding but a very inadequate return in point of income ; the heavy charges incurred in fupporting th« rights of the freemen in the two laft contefts, joined to the probable expence of the prefent election, will oblige me, towards replacing in part what thefe will have coft me, to require a fum to fuch and fuch an amount, from the friend, whoever he is, whom you (hall recommend.* — The minifter fays, * I am exceedingly obliged to you : nothing could come more opportunely: I have at this moncnt, a young man, the fon of our friend Lord Such-a-One, for whoia I am moft anxious to procure the means of his getting into Parliament, not only on account of our friend his father, but because he is a young man of moft extraordinary promife, with his whole mind turned to public bufinefs, and likely to become in time one of the grcateft ornaments and fupportt of the country. His father will, I am fure, have no objection to advance the fum which you require, and which is very mo- derate ; and you will, I am perfuaded, be happy in introduc- ing into public life a young man likely to do fo much credit to your recommendation.' 1-1 i II f n ^ ;j I «♦' AH this I am taught to undcrlland iggrofsly corrupt, much in the fame way as any act of peculation or embezzlement. — I can only fay in tlic'irft inftance that I am forry for it : becaufe fome fuch things have I am afraid been done even in the beft times, and by thofe commonly accounted the beft men. I am forry to be obliged to part with fo much of the admiration which I have been accuf- tomed to feel for fuppofed virtue and character, and to con- fefs that thofe eminent men, early and recent, whom we have hitherto looked up to as patterns of virtue and the pride and ornament of the country, were little better than corrupt knaves. It is painful, 1 fay, to part with thefe convictions, and to be compelled to confefs the world Icfs virtuous than we had fuppofed it. It may be forgiven to us, therefore, if we make fome ftruggle in defence of our former opinions, and if I venture to afk, as an humble inquirer, and for the fake of information, what is the precifc nature and character of this corruption, and in what part of the tranfaction, that is to fay, with which of the parties, it is fuppofed principally to refide. As to the minifter, who is the party firft feized upon, and againft whom the charge is moft preffed, his guilt can be only derivative and dependent on that of others. He is only the go-between, the broker, the procurefs, if you pleafe, who brings the parties together : but unlefs the parties meet for fome ill purpofe, his office is innocent. Of the two remain- ing parties then, which is the moft criminal, the giver or the receiver ? the buyer or the feller? or is their guilt equal ? Let us know a little more diftinctly, what is the rule and prin- ciples which we mean to lay down. Is it meant to be ftated generally, that no place of truft and confidence, no place to which important duties are an- nexed, ftiall bedifpofed of for a valuable conlideration ? that the fale o\ a place of truft is, in all circumftances and in every ' inftance, a corrupt and criminal tranfaction ? If it is, then does both the law and the practice of various countries, and of 5 this country among others, fanction and authorife moft cor- rupt and criminal tranfactions. I would quote, in the firft inftance, the whole of the parliaments under the old monar- chy of France ; which, though not parliaments in our fenfe of the word, were of a nature to make the difpofal of feats in them for money, a proceeding, if it were wrong at all, in- finitely more wrong than the fame proceeding would be here. For the parliaments in France were judicial tribunals, courts of judicature, in which the whole civil and criminal juftice of that renowned and enlightened kingdom, was admi- niftered ; and where, in fpite of thofe vulgar national preju- dices, under which we have fometimes been thought-to la- bour, and which lead us to believe that nothing can be right or good, but what is conformable to our peculiar no- tions and inftitutions, juftice was, for the moft part, I believe, moft ably and uprightly adminiftered, and where certainly as great and eminent lawyers and jurifts have been produced, and men of as pure and unfpotted character, as are to be found in the legal hiUory of any country whatever. Yet were all the feats in thefe aflemblies, regularly, publicly, and avowedly bought and fold. So little do the effects of civil and political inftitutions, or the laws relating to them, anfwer in fact and practice to what the theories even of the wifeft and beft informed men, would previoufly pronounce of them ! That thefe tribunals, whether fuch or not as 1 have defcribed them, could not be fuch as our coarfe and narrow prejudices, or our hafty andinconfideraie theories, would lead us to fup- pofe, is demonrtrable from the fact. For no country, much lefs fuch a one as I am adverting to, would confent for ages together, that the whole fource of its juftice Ihould be pol- luted and corrupt. But to avoid all reference to inftances liable to difpute, let us only aik whether we have not, among ourlelves, appoint- ments ; which if not abfolutely judicial, are very clofely con- nected either with judicial functions, or with others not lefs repugnant to the admiflion of any thing corrupt or impure ; ©f which the fale is not only practifed, but publicly tolerated M ■■^\] i ! ;1 / « # * «• • , III* t and authorifed. In what department, too, of the flate, arc thefe offices found? In the Law, and in the Church.* hit not notorious, that part of the {alary or emoluments of our judges, the well-earned, neceflary, inadequate emoluments of our judges, arifes from the fale of places, having duties belong, ing to them connected witTi the bufinefs of their courts ? Yet does any man, on this account, impeach the integrity or pu- rity of our judges ; which is on the contrary (and defervedly) the conftant subject of our boaft ? or find ground for infinuat- ing that the functions of thefe offices are not as well performed, and the perfons filling them, at refpectable and proper perfons, as they could be, if they were appointed in any other manner ? The Church furnifhes examples likewife, which, if not di. rcctly in point, equally contradict the pofition above fup. * To thefe fhould have been added the Army. It will be cu- rious to hear a general and unqualified condemnation of the fale of places of trufl and confidence, in a country which publicly authorifes the fale of all its military commiffions, and in which the practice is defended; objectionable as it is in various re- fpects, and unknown to the ordinances of any other fer. vice; upon the ground of its being the befl method for keep- ing down the military influence of the crown. Nothing can mark more ftrongly in what a loofe, carelefs, and fummary way, upon what imperfect confideration and hal^y views, opinions are often formed and acted upon, even m matters of the highefl concern. The authors of the Bill, notwithflanding the care and thought they muft be prefumed to have bellowed upon a raeafure replete with fo many ira- portant confequences, appear totally to have overlooked this, (rather prominent) inllance. of the army. It ought at leaft to have been noticed. It is not sufficient to anfwer that the two cafes are not precifely, and at all points, the fame. What two cafes are precifely the fame ? The army is at leaff a cafe in point, in an argument which proceeds throughout on an as- fumption, that the fale of a place of trufl and confidence is in genere a corrupt act. At any rate, the difference between the two cafes is not the difference between all and none ; he. tween the mofl furious and unreflricted reprobation, an h^ ab fence of cvea a fufpicion, that there wag any thing amiis. 1*. 7 •; po(^, if laid down -to its full extent ; and in fuch a naannef as not to fhelter itfelf under the diflinction, not a very cre- ditable one, between an actual and a virtual fale. For what does any man do, who purchafes or who fells the advowfon of a living ? or who purchafes or fells the next prefcntation ? does not he, both in effect and intentionally, purchafe or fell the nomination to an ofBce of the higheft trufl and confi- dence ? and if this be morally wrong, can it cease to be go, becaufe the act of appointment is not to take place imme- diately, but is in fome degree contingent and remote ? Caa that which is corrupt and criminal if carried into effect im- mediately, become perfectly innocent, becaufe the execution of it is made to depend on an event, which, though certain, may not happen for feveral monthg ? It is impoffible, there- fore, to maintain, that the fale of feats in parliament is cor* rupt, nmply upon the principle, that it is corrupt to take a valuable confideration for a nomination to a place of trufl and confidence. The known, recognifed, authorifed, avowed practice of our own country, in departments the mofl ex- empt from any fufpicion of impurity, and where the ad- miflion of any thing incorrect would be mofl anxioufly guard- ed againfl, is in direct contradiction to fuch a pofition. We have flill therefore, to look for the ground on which either the buyer or the feller, in fuch a tranfaction as that above flated, is to be reprefented as being a man morally corrupt. In fact if their proceeding is corrupt, it will be dif- ficult, or as I fhould fay, utterly impoffible, to flop there, and not to go on and declare corrupt the very influence itfelf, by which they are enabled to carry into effect this cor- rupt bargain. If the buying and felling be corrupt, it can only be fo for reafons, which will make it corrupt to have the commodity which is capable of being fo bought and fold. This is the true feat of the grievance, as, it mufl be confeffed to be, the true place in which to apply the remedy. So long as there are perfons in a fituation to fay, I can make aii offer of a feat 'in parliament, fo long will there be per- fons to treat with them for that object, and fo lon^ will \^ til i ( * 1 Vf 4 • p •At m W ■ •. • • 1 s^ • '• • • . -• ■ ,, g - .t,„ • ■,,„ ^ ma^ns be found, for commuting in fome way or other, the influence fo pofle fled, .for confideratlbns valuable to the pof- feflbr. The only effectual Way wiM be to get rid of the in- fluence altogether. To make it penal for any one to have fuch goods in his pofleflion. This the hon. mover may be aflured is the ufe that will be made of his meafure (nay it is the juftand legitimate ufe) by thofe/ whodo not fcruplenow to oppofe it, becaufe they like to argue the queftion both ways, to be ready for either event ; and may think poflibly, that more is to be gained by procuring the rejection of it, and by the ground thereby laid for raifing a clamour againft parliament, than they can hope for from the argument and the authority which it will furnifh, towards fubverting the greater part of the influence, which property is now allowed to retain. I know how prompt the anfwer to this will be, and how triumphantly I fliall be told, that no two things can be more remote from each other, than the influence of pro- perty, the juft, wholefome, legitimate influence of property, and the fale of feats. —But let us recollect that in the prefent bufmefs, we are arguing throughout upon principle, and that it is of the nature o^ principle, to unite things the moft various and oppofite in their individual forms and circumftances. It is not a queftion, how far things may be diftinguiftied ; but how far thofe, which are na- turally diftinguiflicd, may be afllmilated and made one. Thofe who can make no diflinction between an offence againft the bribery laws, by giving money to a particular voter, and the fale of a feat, can hardly be expected todiftin- guifh between the fale of a feat, and fuch a ufe of influence as will give them the feat to fell. I am as well aware as another that there is much influence which, though ultimately to be traced to property, is so re- mote from its primary fource, has been fo changed in the gra- dations which it has pafled through, has been fo improved by fucceflive graftings, as to reuin little or nothing of its origi- i' na! character, — of the harftinefs and acerbity of the parent ftock. The case is the fame as with that paflTion in our na- ture, which though too grofs to be named, is often the fource of every thing moft delicate and fentimental ; which, as the poet dcfcribes, through some certain strainers well refin*d Is gentle love, and charms all woman-kind. All, in thefe inftances, that property may have done, is to have given to virtue the means of acting, and the oppor- tunity of difplaying itfelf ; to have furniftied the inftru- ment without which its energies muft have been ufe- lefs, and to have erected the ftage without which it would have remained unknown. I am under no apprehen- fions for the fate of influence of this fort. My hon. friend and others, notwithftanding the operation of this bill, will be at full liberty, I truft, to lay out their thoufands in acts of beneficence and bounty, in building bridges, or endowing hofpitals, in relieving the wants or advancing the fortunes of the indigent and meritorious. They may ftill enjoy, toge- ther with all the heart-felt fatisfaction, all the influenoe which will naturally arife from property fo employed ; Him portion'd maids, apprentic'd orphans blest, The young who labour, and the old who rest. But is this the only way in which property exerts its powers ? Is it always taken in this finer form of the extract oreflence ? is it never exhibited in the fubftance ? It is here that the comparifon will begin, and that the queftion will be aflced ; which the advocates of this bill^ who do not mean it to extend to the abolition of the influence of property, will do well to be prepared to anfwer ; How, if the fale of a feat or any commutation of fervices connected with fuch an object be grofs corruption, can we tolerate the influence which pro- perty gives, in biafling the minds of thofe who are to give their votei ? How a landlord, for inftance, fliould have any nore influence over his own tenants, than over thofe of ano- i.i lAtf"*". / r 10 ther man ? How a large manufacturer ftiould be able to bring to the poll more of his own workmen, than of thofe employed in the fervice of his neighbour ? How an opulent man of any defcription fpending his fortune in a borough town, (hould be able to talk of his influence among the fmaller tradefmen : or be at liberty to hint to his baker or his butcher, that, laying out every week fuch a fum with them, as he does, he expects that they fliould oblige him by giving a vote to his friend, Mr. Such-a-One, at the next election? If all this is not corrupt, upon the principles on which we are now arguing, I know not what is. What has money fpent with tradefmen, or work given to manufacturers, or farms let to tenants, to do with the inde- pendent exercife of their right, and the confcientious dif- charge of their duty, in the election of a member to fcrve them in paxliament ? A fine idea truly, that their decifion in the choice of a reprefentative is to be influenced by the con- fideration of what is beft for their feparate and private inter «ft ! or that perfons, the advocates of purity, and who will hear of nothing but flrict principle, fliould attempt to diflin- guifh between the influence which engages a man's vote by the offer of a fum of money, and that which forbids the re- fufal of it, under the penalty of lofs of cuftom or lofs of work, or of the pofleflion of that on which his wife and fa- mily muft depend for their bread ? I fliall be curious to hear in what manner, not the advocates of this bill, but the advo- cates for the principles on wljich this bill is enforced, will de- fend therafelves againft thefe queftions ; and be able to fliow, that while it is grofs corruption, grofs moral depravity, in any one who poflefles fuch influence, to connect his own in- tereft with the ufeof it, even though he fliould not ufe it im- properly, it is perfectly innocent to create thai influence by the means juft defcribed ? Or on the other hand, if fuch means are not lawful, how the influence of property is to continue, fuch as it has at all times fubfifted in practice, and been at all times confidered as lawfully fubfifling ? It is indif- ferent to me which fide of the alternative they take ; but let them be well aware that fuchis the alternativeto which they will be reduced ; and that if they contend generally, as is now done, I il' i 11 that fuch and fuch things are corrupt, becaufe they admit the confideration of intereft in matters which ought to beexclu- fively decided on principles of duty, it is in vain for them hereafter to contend that any man has a right to influence his tenants, or tradefmen, or workmen, by any other mean? at leaft than those by which he may equally influence the te- nants, tradefmen, or workmen of any other perfon ; that it to fay, by his talents j)r by his virtues, by the fervices which he may have done, and the gratitude he may have ii\spired. When I look therefore to the moral qualities of thefe acts, as independent of and antecedent to pofitive law, I am at a lofs to find what it is, either on the fcore of principle or of autho- rity, that determines them to be corrupt, or that enables us, if they are corrupt, to exempt from the fame fentence of cor- ruption nine tenths of the influence, which has hitherto been fuppofed to be attached, and legitimately attached, to property, and which, for aught that at prefent appes^rs, tl^ere is no intention of taking away. But though fuch may be the refult of an inquiry into the moral conftitution of thefe acts, there can be no doubt, that the law may render corrupt any act which it pleafes, that is to fay, the law may make any act which it pleafes illegal ; and to do, or procure to be done, an illegal act, from an interefted motive, is, I apprehend, corruption. We are to inquire therefore, in what mapner and to what degree, thofe acts, which generally speaking are not corrupt, have been rendered fo by pofitive law. And firft, without affirming or denying the fact, let us examine the conclufive- nefs and validity of the arguments, by which it has hithertq been attempted to be proved. It has been said by thofe from whom I fliould have expected better reafoning, that the cor- ruption follows of neceflTity from the laws refpecting bribery in the cafe of individual voters ; for that it is impoffible that the law fliould be guilty of fuch monftrous inconfiftency, as well as of fuch flagrant injuftice, as to puniih the poor for bri- Vf 1^ .* J bery in retail, while they fuflfer it to be practifed with impu- nity by the rich in wholefale. There is foiiiething fo wildly inconclufive in this argument as to make it difficult to fet about formally to confute it. I cannot better illuflrate its fallacy than by an argument fome- thing of the fame fort, quite as good in refpect to conclufive- nefs, and much better in refpect to point and archnefs, which 1 remember to have heard, as a boy, at a contefted election for the county of Norfolk; where one of the candidates, a mod refpectable man. had rendered himfelf obnoxious by the inclofureofa common, (a proceeding lefs familiar at that time, and better calculated therefore for a fubjcct of popular clamour) ; upon which the wit of the day was to afk, in way of dialogue, what that man dcferved who (hould fteal a goofe from a common ? and when the anfwer was given, to follow up the queilion by another, what then fhall be done to him who fleals the common from the goofe? This was very good election wit, but certainly very bad argument ; (though juft as good as that to which I have been adverting,) for what is the affinity between the two offences, fo as to juftify the con- fidering the one, as differing from the other only by being upon a larger fcale ? A man by prociiring the inclofure of a common, where fuch inclofure ought not to take place, may do a much worse moral act, with lefs temptation probably, and with far more injury to others' interefts, than by the theft of many geefe : yet who would ever dream of describing thefe as kindred acts, or propofe that the inclofer of commons, if convicted of having inclofed when he ought not, fhould be punifhed by imprifonment and whipping ? Other inftances may be cited more directly in point. There are, or have been. I believe, laws to reftrain the retail fale of fpirits. Should we think that a man argued very wifely or conclu- fively, with much fairnefs of representation or much know- ledge of the principles of legiflation, who fhould harangue at the door of an alehoufe (the only place however fit for fuch a difcourfe) againft the juflice of laws, which could punifh a publican for selling a dram to a poor wretch, who wanted it p. • * 13 perhaps to folace him under the eflfccts of cold and hunger, to whom it mufl ftand in the place of food and raiment ; while the fame law did not fcruple to permit the sale of thefe fpirits by wholefale on the part of the rich merchant or flill more opulent planter ? and (hould take occafion from thence to afk (exactly in the flile of my hon. friend) if fuch was the punifhment for felling a dram or gill, what did they deferve who fold thefe fpirits by whole puncheons and fhip-loads ? The anfwer is, that thefe acts do not ftand to each other in the relation of more or lefs, but are perfectly difparate and diffi- milar ; are productive of different confequences ; arc to be regulated by different provifions ; are fo widely separated in character, as that the one may be an object of national en- couragement, a fource of public wealth and benefit, while the other can produce nothing but mifchief, and is a practice re- quiring to be reftrained by penal ftatute. Nothing therefore can be more falfe than the inference by which it is concluded that the fale of a feat, in cafes where it can be effected, mufl be deemed corrupt, becaufe there are laws which prohibit the gift of money to individual voters. Both may be corrupt, and both may require to be prohibited : but not the one on ac- count of the other. Suppofing however the fact to be, that by fair conftruction of the law of parliament, fuch bargains as are here in ques- tion, muft be conlidered as illegal, and may in confequence be denominated corrupt : it is fo far from following that the prefent bill is therefore neceffary, that the prefumption would rather lie the other way, and the conclufion be that a new bill was not wanted ; inafmuch as it could only prohibit that which was already prohibited. In general, the precedent of any law tells as much for what it does not, as for what it does. If we have the authority of our anceftors for doing fo much, we have their authority alfo for doing no more. If they tell us, that fuch things ought to be prevented, they tell us like- wise, fo far as their practice is our guide, that the attempts at prevention ought not to be pufhed beyond a certain extent. It is undoubtedly true, that laws, right in their object, may •if I ■^Nf./ be deficient in their mean^, or that change-of times anxl cir- cumflances may rev ^ % •*^ H ** ?♦* 17 Yet wftlftiiih'i$, lUch is the'furprize excited in this coun- try by a fufpicion, even, of corruption in perfons of high rank and ftation, and fuch the commotion which any fufpicion to that effect never fails to create, that the Duke of York, a member of the royal family, the king's own fon, in full pof- feffion of his father's favour, and of the refpect and good will of the greater part of the nation, is fain to quit the fituation of Commander in Chief, which he has held with credit for four- teen years and more, and to withdraw into retirement, fooner than run the rifle of the fteps, which parliament, it was feared, would otherwife be induced to take. for^ as it is called, or the one againji ; was that which Colonel Wardle ought moft to have deprecated. If the credit of his witnefs was eftabliOied, he flood convict- ed of having made pecuniary engagements, for the pur- pose too, as it muft appear, of fuborning evidence ; and of re- fufmg afterwards to make them good. If, on the other hand, his witnefs was difbelieved ; in which cafe fhe could be confi- dered only as a woman deliberately perjured; what atone- ment or apology could he make, to the feveral parties and interefts, which had fuffered or been endangered by his pro- ceeding! (to the Duke of York, the immediate object of the attack ; to the King, whofe beft feelings had been tortured ; to the Houfe of Commons, whofe confidence had been abufed, whofe time had been mif-spent, and whofe character had been committed; to the general caufe of injured juftice ;) for hav- ing brought forward a caufe, which, in the fole material point, namely, the application of the charge to the perfon accufed, was to reft, principally if not exclufively, on the teftimony of fuch a witnefs ? And it muft not be fuppofed, that the dilem- ma, to which Col. Wardle is thus reduced, is one that can be retorted upon thofe who urge it, or be made to tell in favour of him as well as againft him. Though the conclufion be in- evitable, that if Mrs. Clarke was forfworn on the Trial, fhe V 5 not a credible witnefs in the Examination before the J i life of Commons, it does not follow e contra^ that the be- iiet of her teftimony in Court, where ffie was examined upon oith, and was fpeaking to matters that paffed in the prefence of others, implies the neceffity of believing her, when flie was not upon oath, and was delivering a teftimony, which, whe- ther true or falfe, left her equally free from the poflibilitf of detection. D I"' s \ • ■ K f, "•' !','.■* K* :s«---t^- \' y-i h U I %' 18 Can any man believe thal^itwas an infian?e'*like this which has infpired the country with i 'drftruft of its govern- ment, and excited a defire of new modelling its parliament as being too fubmiffive to the wiflies of the court ? Wemuft look to other motives and purpofes ; to ^Jrhich the prefent bill is meant to ferve as an inftrument, and for which the bufinefs of the Duke of York is made to ferve as a pre- text, being after all, it muft -be confefled, a very flimfy and forry one. Upon what principle is it that we are told, that it is to libel the people of England, to fay that there are among them thoufands and thoufands, who wiOi the deftruction of the pre- fent order of things, and who are labouring night and day to carry into effect that laudable purpofe ? And with what de- cency, it may be added, is this libel complained of by thofe, who are every day libelling this houfe, and all the higher or- ders of the ftate, in the groffeft and moft unmeafured terms ? Why is it more a libel than to fay, that there are among the people of England robbers, murderers, and houfebreakers, and offenders of all defcriptions, and who, numerous 'as they are, would foon fliow themfelves in tenfold greater numbers, if the fear of the law did not keep them down ? Are there not as powerful motives, pafTions as fierce and flrong, and in- terefts as tempting and urgent, to arm men for the overthrow of all government, as there are to incite them to depredations on private property, or any other act of violence ? There is no government, bad or good, that can boaft of owing its {la- bility (or quiet at leafl) to any other caufe, than to the diffi- culty and danger which is oppofed to every attempt to fub- vcrt it. Let but the project be eafy, let but hopes be enter- tained of its fuccefs, and thoufands will be found, who from motives of different forts, — fome from folly, and fome from wickednefs ; fome becaufe they know not what they are about, fome becaufe they do know ; fome as knaves and more as dupes ; many from motives of intereft, and more from motives of paffion ; fome becaufe they hate one part of the eftablifhment, and others becaufe they hate another ; fome If i ! l-t .« • ♦ *. 19 a$ mere fanatics, and becaufe they have entangled their under- ftandings (commonfy of the moft inferior cafl) in fpeculationi to which they are wholly unequal ; others from mere reft- leffnefs and love of fomething to do ; but far the greater part, from fome fpecies of bad paffion or other, (not excluding of courfe thofe moft„powerful and general ones, vanity and love of diftinction,) aredefirous of feeing fome great change in the order of things as they find it eftablifhed : not all of them by any means defiring a change of the fame fort or to the fame extent ; Oh, no ! but all of them a change fuited to their feveral views, and proportioned to their feveral in- terefls and fituations. My honourable friend, the author of the mcafure, and a great landed proprietor, thinks that there would be fignal ad- vantage in a change which would throw more weight into the fcale of the landed intereft. Another honourable friend of mine, likewifea great landed proprietor, is of opinion, that thofe who can only purchafe their feats, are intent upon nothing but getting back their money. To thefe are oppofed many gentlemen of the monied intereft, who fee no reafon, (nor do 1, I confefs, fee any) why they who may have paid a fum for their feats once for all, fhould be more defirous of get- ting back their money, than he who has fpent that fum, or three times as much, in a contefted popular election. I am far, too, from being convinced, from any obfervations that I have made of the conduct of men in parliament, that fuch, in point of fact, is the cafe. To my apprehenfion many of thofe who may be fufpected to have come into parliament through thefe condemned and reprobated ways, have been among the moft upright, honourable, and independent members, that parliament has had to boaft, far exceeding others that could be named, who from the money they have fpent, and the in- terefts they have ftaked, in elections pretending to be of higher account, have only brought themfelves to be the mere (laves of popular opinion, that is to fay, of their own future hopes, in the places which they reprefent. Many of the former de- fcription, from the clafs to which for the moft part they be- 1 IN * i '■ ( I ^^1 1 *. ■" i *. "•"•\. •♦ ' k: ,,ip /. 20 long, will be of opinion, probably, th^t the befl improvement would be that which confpires bcft with the general change in the circumfiances of the country, and by taking fomething from the old andobfolete privileges of the Janded arillocracy, the barbarous remains of feudal times 1 gives a free fcope to men who owe their wealth, not to dull hereditary descent, but to their own enterprize and induflry, and have grown rich by means that have at the fame time enriched, or otherwife be- nefited the country. But there is a third and more numerous clafs, (and by no means an inactive or inefficient one,) who looking with no very friendly eye to advantages which they do not fhare, and knowing to a certainty that they have neither land or money, yet fully perfuaded that they have talents, will be for levelling to the ground all thofe barriers, which have hitherto, as they ire firmly convinced, been the foleobftacies to their advance- ment, and have alone hindered thera from figuring in the firfl fituations of the ilate. The general rule will, I believe, be, that each man's opi- nions will be found to lean to that ftate of things, which he conceives to be the most favourable to his own confequence. Political confequence is probably a far more powerful, as it is a far more extenfive motive, than pro fpects of private advan- tage. The numbers may be few, who can hope to better therafelves by any change, in a pecuniary view : and thefe will of courfe be found for the mofl part among persons of no great authority from their prefent wealth or flation. But many will have in their minds , (and the higheft in rank and fortune notlefs than others,) fome fcheme of things, in which they may hope to become more confiderable in point of gene- ral confequence. And if fuch men fhould be, as they are the moft likely to be, men of ardent and daring minds, jealous df their importance, eager for diftinction, impatient of controul, lefs awed by the fear of lofs than fanguine in their hopes ot gain, materials will not be wanting for furnifhing out a revolu« tion even from among the higher orders ; in oppofition to ihat childilh notion, fo falfe even in theory, and fo contrary to all ,ip ^, ex'perience, that men will not engage in fuch enterprifes who have much to lofe ; or, as it is often cxprefTed, have a greal flake in the country. Heretofore, in fact, diflurbances in the flate were confined entirely to the clafs that had much to lofe, namely, to perfoni in the highefl rank of fociety ; and though, fince the example of the French Revolution, this limitation is done away, and the lottery of revolution thrown open even to adventurers of the lowefl denomination, yet the rich are not excluded, and we fee every day that they are not at all difpofed to exclude themfelves. For though the French Revolution exhibits the mofl ftriking example of failure, that the lovers of right could ever have wifhed to the authors of wrong; yet this failure relates only to the profefsed objects, the peace and happinefs and liberty of mankind. In other refpects, and with relation to the views and interefls of individual reformers, who, in truth and fact, trouble themfelves but little with the peace and happinefs and liberty of mankind, the example is mofl encou- raging ; and particularly with refpect to thofe, who are not likely to be deterred by perfonal rifk ; for nothing can fhow f j flrikingly the facility with which the object can be accom- plifhed, and with which men from the lowefl flations may be lifted fuddenly to the highefl. This is all that is wanted ; for give but the chance of fuccefs, even a very indifferent chance, and thoufands will not be wanting, high and low, to engage in the undertaking, and to labour with all the refllefs activity and increafing induflry with which we fee the work carrying on at this inftant. Still the means mufl be fupplied. They cannot make bricks without flraw. Even thefe reformers or revolution- ifts, numerous as they are, and flrenuous as their exertioni are, cannot make a revolution of themfelves, nor by their ut- mofl efforts throw the country off that happy bafis, on which it has refled for fo many centuries, an object of admiration and envy, and never more fo than at the prefent moment. The great raafs of the community is, no doubt, againft •i. 1 1 Hi 1: • i «4* ft* n them : but induftry and perfeverance may do much. Thofe who would never liften to fuch a propofal in its full extent, may yet be drawn in by degrees. Formerly, that is to fay, tome five and twenty years ago, the attempt was made through the medium of mere abflract reafoning. Incredible as it may feem, the idea was enter- tained, as I fliould fay, of overturning the government, but as even the authors of the attempt muft fay, of totally changing the conflitution of parliament, not by pointing out any prac- tical grievance under which men laboured, but by convincing them that the whole of the Britilh conflitution, fuch as it then exiaed, and fuch as it had exifted for ages, was an infraction upon the rights of man. The notion was new of attempting to make a great change in the practical concerns of mankind, by the mere force of metaphyfical reafoning. But wild and extravagant as fuch an attempt may be, and little, happily, as was its final fuccefs at the period alluded to, we muft not fpeak too flightingly^of it, when we recollect what fhare fuch notions had in bringing about the French Revolution, of which they oftenfibly made the baOs. At the end of twelve or fourteen centuries, the French monarchy, at the moment of its greateft mildnefs, and when all that was harfli and odious in it was daily wearing away, was overthrown, with all the circumflances which we have witnefTed, oftenfibly by the mere force of metaphyfical reafoning; and what is more hu- miliating, if not more furprifing, by metaphyfical reafoning of the moft contemptible fort I ■* This mode, however, has now loft much of its efficacy, and has got to be rather out of fafhion. In feeking to imbody the natural and unavoidable difcontents of mankind for the purpofe of overturning governments, which is the general defcription of what I ftiould underfland by Jacobinifm, it has become neceffary to have recourfe to fomeihing more folid ^nd fubftantial than mere grievances of theory, and to take the difcontents arifing from real caufes, whether the difcontents thcmfelves be reafonable or not, and then to connect thcfe as i-S. 1 #» • 23 effect and caufe, with fomething wrong, or faid to be wrong, cither in the* .frame or practice of the government. The difcontents you are^fure of; /hey can never be wanting, as long as men are men, and that fociety is compofed of various ranks and conditions, whereof fome are higher and better than others. Since the days of qui^i Mecanas, down to the prefent moment, few have ever been found, who were fo contented with their lot, whether chofen by themfelves, or caft upon them by Providence, ut ilia contenti vivant: and if they cannot be faid, laudare diver/a fequenUs, they at leaft think that their own fituation is not fo good as it ought to be, or as a little change would make it. In a country like this, where a great portion of our immenfe riches is paid in contributions to the public fervice, no man will ever think himfelf as rich as he ought to be : for though the wealth of the country has increafed in full proportion, I believe, to its burthens, that is to fay, to its expenfes ; and though there never was a time when that wealth was more evenly difFufed through all ranks and clafTes of people, yet as luxury has in- creafed at the fame time, not to fay with equal rapidity, every man may in fome fenfe defcribe himfelf as poor, inafmuch as the interval between his income and his expenditure will, as a proportionate part, be lefs than it was before. Let his wealth be what it will, if his expences increafein fuch away as to continue to prefs equally upon the bounds of his income, he will never be a bit richer, with refpect to any difpofable furplus, but will be equally under the neceffity of parting with fome article of pride or enjoyment which he wiflies to keep, whenever he is called upon for any contribution to the fervice of the ftate. It is therefore the fingular and melan- choly characteriftic of the ftate of poverty here defcribed, that it is one which riches cannot cure. In common cafes if a man be poor, give him money enough, and he is poor no longer. But here we may almoft fay, that the richer the na- tion is, the poorer it is. It is in vain that wealth is pouring in upon us from every quarter, and through an endlefs va- riety of channels; that it is not confined, as national wealth in truth never can be, to particular perfons or clafses, but is *^ '•»'-. • *% • •• If; f i! I *3 •" 24 difFufed throughout with wonderful cxactnefs ; or rather in larger meafure, in fact, to the lower and hiidflling orders; that foreigners, reforting hither, cannot behold without aston- ifhment a difplay of wealth and enjoyment, unknown at any former time, or in any other country; that we are reproached every day from the continent with our opulence and profpe- rity as contrafted with the penury and mifery of other coun- tries ; and are regarded with greedy eyes by the mafter of all the reft of Europe, as a mine of wealth, which he is longing only to get poffeflion of ; all this while, we, who know thefe things better, are full of complaints and lamentations, and reprefenting ourfelves, as an oppreffed, burthened, and above all, impoverilhcd nation. In the midft of this, there is nevertheless one remedy, which, if men could be persuaded to take it, would do'away, as by a charm, all this dreadful flate of poverty, and reftore them in an inftant to a condition of eafe and affluence. — It feems like quackery to fuppofe the exiftence of fuch a nos^ iruMt but it is explained in two words — Let every man re- folve to live with no greater meafure of enjoyments than his father did before him, than people of the fame rank and clafs did forty years ago. I do not aflc that they fliould lay out only the fame money : The fame money would not now procure the fame enjoyments : but that they fhould only require the fame enjoyments. Let thofe who formerly walked on foot, be content to walk on foot now, and forego the ufe of a horfe, when the price too of a horfe and the expence of keeping one are fo much greater. Let thofe whofe means extended no further than to the keeping a horfe, be willing to go back to that indulgence, and difpose of their gigs and whifkeys and tandems, now, too, that every article of that fort has rifen to fuch an enormous amount. Let the former riders in gigs and whiikcys and one-horfed carriages, continue to ride in them, and not afpire to be rolling about in pofl-chaifes or ba- rouches, or often both in the one and the other. By this (ira- pie expedient, purfued, mutatis mutandis, through every clafs of the community, one may venture to fay, (fpeaking • • • 25 always of perfons whofe misfortunes or imprudences have not reduced them already to actual indigence; that, nine tenths of thofe who are filling the country with their cla- mours and wailings about the diflrefles of the times, all but the holders of fixed incomes of an early date, or perfons in the lowefl clafs of labourers, will find themfelves inftantly in a flate of eafe and comfort fully able to fatisfy all the de- mands of the (late, and to lay by fomething as a future provi- fion for their families. But as the expedient, we are fure, whatever its merits may be, will never be adopted, there will for ever remain, in the feeling excited by the payment of taxes, an inexhauflible fund of difcontent, of force fufficient to produce any effect defired, provided means can be found to give it a proper di- rection. This is the great work on which the artificers of re- volution are at prefent employed. They fay to the people, you are all fenfible of the burthens under which you labour: you all diflike the payment of taxes. Now what is it that carries the taxes to this immenfe amount ? — A common man would fay, the immenfe amount of the civil and military es- tablifliments of a great empire extending over half the world; the numbers of civil officers neceflary to carry on its bufinefs in time of peace, and the armies and navies, with all their at- tendant train ofexpences, to provide for its fecurity in cafe of war. But, No, fay the band of patriots here alluded to^ the objects here ftated are, to be fure, fuch as cannot be pro- vided for but at a confiderable expence. Wars cannot be carried on, armies and navies cannot be maintained^ without money. But thefe expenfes alone might well be borne: what finks the country is the wafteful expenditure of the public money in jobs and corruption, in finecure places and penfions. It is the abufes that undo us ; the abiifes that we mull correct: and as it is parliament that fanctions, if it is not itfelf the great feat of, the abufes, it is parliament that w# mud corrct and reform. ( M I Jhr*''"jilil°''* '""T • ■''~^--' ^ V' fl i I t I (1 ) ? 'll I . \h i ! / The argument is perfeftly regular, and the conclufion inc. vitabJe, if you admit the feveral antecedent pofitions on which it is made to reft. The ftatement contains in it too all that is necefTary to give it effe£l. A willing audience will never be wanting to ftatemcnts which hold out a hope of exempting men from the neceflity of paying. Once perfuade them that all their payments and burdens are the confequence of abufe or mifmanagement in fome part of the government, and you produce a flate of feeling adequate to almoft any purpofe for which it can be wanted. Taxes and abufes, joined, generate a kind of expanlive force, that will burfl afunder even the bed compared governments. The.'abufes, too, ferve to give a dircftion to the difcontent and angry feeling, produced in the firft inftance by the taxes. They ftand in the place of the ab- ftraa rights of a few years ago, and are the lall improvement made in the machine for overturning ftates, from which it is conceived to derive a much greater heft and purchafe, than in its old form of * taxeg and the rights of man.' A number of perfons are accordingly in a conftant flate of aaive fearch, prying among the eftablifliments, and winding about like a wood-pecker round a tree, in the hopes of finding fome unfound part into which they may flrike their beaks and begin to work: but not like the honefl wood- pecker, who is only in fearch of the grubs and worms on which he may make a meal, and is at leafl indifferent as to the fate of the tree. They on the contrary only take the grubs and worms for their pretext, and have for their ultimate objeft, to open a hole, into which the wet and the rot may enter, and by which the tree, the Britifh oak, (a beautiful fhaft of I know not how many load, and the growth of ages) may decay and perifh. Did their labour really terminate in their profeflfcd purpofe, did they really mean only to pick off the vermin that prey upon the flate, the\ nncihtbe as ufeful as rooks and jackdaws to a flock of fheep : or might fhare the higher honours, which are paid, in countries infefted by locufls, to the bird that rids them of that deflruaive infca. But to merit thefe honours, 27 their endeavours mufl be direSed to far difFerent objefts, be carried on in a different manner, and be di6hited by very different motives. Let us confider what it is that is comprehended under this general head of abufes, which forms the great inflrument whereby the difcontents of a country are made fubfervient to the deflru6lion of its government ; which collefts and com- pounds the feparate elements of diffatisfaftion, to be found floating in fociety, fo as to prepare them for thofe grand ex- plofions by which flates are overthrown. By abufes is meant, I fuppofe, either the abufe of patron- age ; the granting to favour, or interefl, what ought to be granted only to merits and fervices ; or fecondly, the pur- loining, embezzling or corruptly applying the public money. Let us endeavour to afcertain how much of either of thefe fpecies of abufe exifts : how much of them is to be charged to government : and how much, in any event, is likely to be correQed by what is called a Reform of Parliament. As to the lafl of thefe heads of abufe, the purloining or em- bezzling of the public money ; by which muft be underflood the transferring, by falfc accounts or otherwife, into the pocket of the individual, what was intended for the public fervice ; I fuppofe it is hardly neccffary to fay, that the idea of fuch an offence as exifling among thofe who conflitute what can with any propriety be called the government, could be generated only in the grofs imaginations of perfons totally ignorant of the prmciples and motives by which men in fuch fituations mufl of neceffity be aftuated. It is not a queftion of their virtue or probity; but of their feelings, habits, man- ners, and prudence. They may be, as they often are, mer- cenary, felfifh, rapacious, unprincipled. But it is not in afcts ^ like thofe alluded to, that thefe difpofitions will (how them- felves, even in the perfons who feel them mofl. It might as well be fuppofed, that they could feek to enrich themfelvei \ i I t w... ■ > tt 'li by conveying away a diamond fnufF-box, or pilfering guineas out of a drawer. Nothing can prove more clearly the degree to which this is tnie, than the commotion excited, and theef- fe8s produced by any appearance of irregularity, even of a minor fort, among pcrfons in higher ftations, in tranfaflions connefted with the adminiftration of monev. With refpe6l to the abufe of patronage, one of thofe by which the interells of countries will in reality moft fufFer, I perfe611y agree, that it is Irkewife one, of which the govern- ment, properly fo called, that is to fay, perfons in the higheft offices, are as likely to be guilty, and from their opportunities, more likely to be guilty, than any others. Nothing can exceed the greedinefs, the felfifhnefy, the infatiable voracity, the profli- gate difregard of all claims' from merit or fervices, that we often see in pcrfons in high official ftations, when providing for them- felves, their relations or dependants. I am as little difpofed as any one to defend them in this conduft. Let it be reprt)- bated in terms as harfh as any one pleafes, and much more fo than it commonly is. But the evil from perfons of thij defcription is ncceflarily limited, not poffibly by their own moderation, but by the extent to which their defires are capa- ble of being carried. They can eat no more than their ftomachs can contain. The lift is fmall of thofe immediatelv conne8ed with them, nor is the number unlimited of thofe whom they may wifti to ferve from motives of vanity or in- tereft. When the leech is full, it will drop off of itfelf. But what (hall fet bounds to thofe llreams of abufe that take their rife among the people themfelves ? Let us trace the genealogy ; the birth, parentage, and education, of nine tenths of the jobs that are done in the army and navy, or in the other departments of the ftate, and fee from what they originate, and m what manner they are brought forward. A -Liuk man, »t the eve of a general eleftion, or on fome vacancy in a bo- rough or county, is addreftedby fome one who is, or, who, he^ hopes, will be his conftitucnt, fome full-grown raanufa61urer. 29 • or opulent brewer, or eminent attorney, who fays," You know my fon Tom, who is in the navy. He has been for fome time 'a lieutenant, I ftiould be very glad, if you would get him made Mafter and Commander." The candidate or member bows aflcnt, (Mr. Such-a-one is not a man tobe difobliged)he fpeaks to his friend the minifter ; theminifter fpeaks to the Firft Lord of the Admiralty, and, without further inquiry the thing is done; nobody being able to divine, of thofe who are not in the fecret, and only know our fon Tom profeffionally, for which of his good qualities or meritorious aBions he has been made, fo much out of his turn, and over the heads of fo many old and deferving officers, a mafler and commander. Here then is a complete job, p::Ting through feveral fucceffive ftages, and difgraceful enough in its progrefs to all the parties concerned in it, including the member, the minifter, and the firft lord of the Admiralty, but certainly not 31 We have already feen to what fource may be traced the greater part of the abufe of patronage, an abufe, which with the others is to be cured, I fuppofe, by the favourite remedy, '• an extcnfion of the reprcfentation, that is to fay, by multiplying a hundredfold the chief caufes to which the abufe is to be at prefent afcribed. But if of this the far greater part is found to lie in the people themfelves, who cannot otherwife be brought to fupport the very government which they thus re- proach for yielding to their venality, what (hall we fay of thofe abufes, more properly fo called, and upon which the people are much more intent, though they are really perhaps lefs important, viz. the various inftances of fraud, embezzle- ment, peculation, and impofition, by which the expenditure of the country is fwelled far beyond its natural fize, and a million or two pofTibly taken from the pockets of the people, over and above what the real exigencies of the country require? This is the part that we chiefly hear of ; and very proper it is that we fhould hear of it; but let us take care that we impute the blame to the right quarter, that we put the faddle upon the right horfe. With what approach to truth or propriety do we fpeak of thefe abufes, as abufes in the government ? Who are the per- fons whom wc mean to defignate under the name of Govern- ment ? What are the abufes complained of? and by what defcription of perfons are they committed ? Is it an abufe in the government, that is, in the members of the cabinet, and the perfons holding high offices, including if you pleafe the Parliament, that a flore-keeper, or commiffary, in the Weft Indies, or in Ceylon, embezzles the public ftores, or fends in e accounts, by which the public is defrauded ? Is it cor- [ioii n the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or in the miniftry parliament collectively, that grofs frauds are daily and hourly practifed on the revenue ; that the taxes are eluded ; that falfe returns are made; that excife and cuftom-houfe oilicers are perpetually bribed to betray their truft ; that the tril cs of officers, high and low, at home and abroad, of more denominations than can be enumerated, which an empire ill •■ tji )[ U.I «> ....^ i I n \i 1 1 > h 32 like till* h obfigcdl to employ in its fervice, are often more in- tent upon advancing their own fortunes, than upon difchara- ing their duty or guarding the interefts of the public ; and that all thofe, not being perfons in office, with whom the go- vernment muft occafionally have dealings, have no confidera- tion, but how to make the mofl they can, and to cheat the public by every means in their power? I fliould be glad to know, how many of thefe arraigners of the profufion of the government, if they had a piece of land to fell in the neigh- bourhood of a barrack or military hofpital, would limit the price they afked by any other confideration, than what they thought the neceflity of the cafe would compel government to give, or would fcruple, if they faw any profpect of fuccefs, to bribe the barrack mafter, or other officer, to betray his trufl, and contribute to give effect to their exactions. It is, in the firfl place, perfect folly to talk as if the parliament and the government, (the parliament being a body that neither in fact nor theory can know any thing of the matter, and th« government confifling of fome ten or twenty perfons, the members of the cabinet, and a few of the heads of great de- partments) can be refponfible for the individual conduct of the thoufands and thoufands of fubordinate officers and agents, who mull be employed in the public fervice, and who are dis- tributed, far and near, through all parts of a widely extended em- pire: to fay nothing of the fact,that the greater part of thefe are obtruded or palmed upon the government, by perfons not being themselves in any office, but in the flrictefl fenfe a part of the people, and who are thinking of nothing, but to ferve, by whatever means, their own friends and relations. In the next place, thefe frauds, committed by perfons within the pale of the government, are for the mofl part of a fort, that imply a confederate without. Like other acts which in the fyflem of animal life cannot well be difpenfed with, they require of ne- ceffitytwo parties. If the excifeman connives at the frauds of the brewer or the dillillcr, it is the difliller and brewer by whom he is bribed to do fo. If the cuflom-houfe officer per- mits falfe entries, and allows goods to be imported or exported without the proper duties, and thereby affords an example of 83 In abufe committed, (if any one chufe fo to defcribe it,) by orte of the government, meaning a cuflom-houfe officer, what arc we to Uy of the merchant or trader, by whofe bribe he has been induced to do this ? who* it cannot be disputed, is one of the people, and one of the people merely ; and very poffibly, with the difliller, brewer, or other trader, one of thofe who think that the country can never thrive, till a radical reform ftall have put an end to abufes. The fact is, that when the matter comes to be fearched to the bottom, it is the people throughout, who are cheating the people ; the people indi- vidually cheating the people collectively, and then finding in their own frauds and knaveries a reafon for tearing to pieces the government. How is government a party to thefe frauds ? Even in refpect to patronage ; the part in which the govern- ment, properly fo called, will be found mofl to offend ; it is not afcribing much to perfons, at the head of departments, to fuppofe, that when their own immediate connections and de- pendents are fatisfied, they would be willing to promote good men rather than bad, if they were not controlled by the infa- tiable demands of thofe, whom they cannot difoblige without renouncing the means of carrying on the public fervice, and who never think for a moment of merit or demerit, or of any thing elfe, but of providing for thofe, whom, for fome reafon or other, they wifh to ferve. So, in refpect to pecuniary abufe or wafle, it is no great compliment to a Chancellor of the Exchequer to fuppofe that he is defirous of making the taxes as productive a« poffible. We need not look to his vir* tue or fenfe of duty as a fecurity for this endeavour. His own interefl will be a fufficient pledge, and particularly that interefl which it is mofl the fafhion to throw in the teeth of public men, namely, the defire of keeping his place. The crime of government, therefore, in almofl all thefe inffances, is that of not being able, with all its efforts, animated even with the flrongefl fenfe of fel f-interefl, to prevent the crimes of others. The people in all quarters and by all opportuni* ties are preying upon the public, and then make it the re- proach of the government that it has not the power to prevent them. Such a reproach might, it is confefsed, be well found- F I * ■%/ ^/-•l V /- ' \ — *\ til 84 ed, if a failure in flie pCfformance of thit talk on the pirt of government, proceeded from neglect, remiirnefs, or want of proper zeal. But befides that intereft, as was before obferv- cd, concurs here with duty, let us see how the matter ftands, on a confideration of what would be in the power of govern- ment, fuppofing exertion to be pufhed to the utmoft. What is the fenfe of fuppofing that government muft be able to do with refpect to the public, what no man is able to do in his own affairs and family ? Who is there that can boaft to have eftabliftied a fyftem of superintendance fo complete, or to be bleffed with a fet of fcrvants of fuch rare honefty and fo attached to his intereft, as not to leave him a prey to innume- rable abufes, greater or left, in: his Aables, his flill-room, hit kitchen, his butler's pantry, in every department in (hortof his houfehold ? If this is the cafe of men acting in the ma- nagement of their own private affairs, and quickened by every motive of felf intereft, and may be predicated with truth pro- bably of every domeftic eftablifhment in the kingdom, down even to the moft limited, what (hall we fay of the reafonable- nefs of the expectation, that any zeal or ftrictness in thirty or forty perfons, (or in ten times that number,) who can be de* fcribed with any propriety as forming the executive govern- ment, fhall be able to exclude abufes from the innumerable fubordinate departments, over which they are to prefide, and which extend over half the globe? The amount of abufe, be it obferved, incident to eftablifhments, does not increafe merely with the fize of the eftablifhment, so as for the abufe in larger eftablifhments to bear the fame proportion only to the eftablifhment itfelf, as it does in fmaller ones; it rifes at a much greater rate: firft, becaufe the fuperintending power, thcflumber of perfons having a direct intereft in the well-be. ing of the whole, cannot be multiplied in the proportion of the eftablifhment : fecondly, becaufe the parts are further remov- ed from obfervation ; thirdly, on account of the complication and mixture of interefts, which increafe the combinationsiar beyond the increafe of the number of objects ; and laftly, from the greater laxity apt to prevail in refpect to frauds upon 35 large funds, compared with fomething of ftricter feeling which may be hoped for towards funds more limited. We fee every day what a total careleffnefs there is in the expendi- ture of money, which, being money of the puhlic, feems to belong to nobody. This indifference about expending, will be attended with a correfpondent want of scruple in appro- priating. As the fcale of expenditure becomes larger, the injury fuftained by the ftate from the lofs or mif-application of any particular fum becomes lefs perceptible ; and men yield with more facility to the argument, that what is great to them is little tothe country, and will never be mifsed. This is the mo- rality, I fear, of a large portion ot the nation, and I am fureis not leaft found, as far as any obfervation of mine ever went, in thofe who would pafs themfelves off as the only perfons, zealous for the rights, or authorized to fpeak thefentiments, of the people. Yet with a fyftem of public probity thus relaxed, iu the midft of a nation thus difpofed to prey upon itfelf, and upon a fcale of expenditure like that which muft of neceffity prevail in an empire extended as ours now is, it is thought a reafon for breaking up the government, that it cannot exclude abufes from our eftablifhments, to a degree which few perfons find attainable, in the management even of their own domeflic con- cerns. It is our bufinefs, no doubt, to keep thofe abufes as Jow as poffible ; and the more corrupt the public is, the more are fuch exertions neceffary ; but, let us not complain that we do not attain what is not attainable, and above all let us under- lland the fact truly, that the corruptions charged are, except in a few inconfiderable inflances, not the corruptions of the government, but the corruptions of the people which the go- vernment is unable to prevent. Having thus far examined the nature of the charges, let us inquire a little whether there is any thing which we are bound to yield to the authority of thofe, by whom they are brought forward. I do not know why the members of this houfe, or of any other body, are to ftand quietly by, and hear themfelves iligmatized collectively with all forts of opprobrious epithets, which they do not feel individually to deferve, without fo far ;''♦• -#'1-*^ /.' t\ 36 retaliating upon their revilcrs, as to afk ivith fubmiffion, who they are, who by ihus dealing out their invectives to the right and left, feem to arrogate to therafelves the character of being the only honeft men in the kingdom. We want to know a little upon what they found their pretenfions. After defending ourfelves as well as we can, we may be allowed to exert a portion of the freedom, which they fo largely take with us, and requeft to be informed, what are the pledget which they have given, what the facrifices which they hive made, as vouchers for this integrity and public fpirit. which they feem to confider as to be found no where but with them, felves ? A reputation for patriotifm feems to require for the attainment of it lefs than is neceflary for the acquifition of any other object, however trivial. Nothing feems to be requifite, but the afTurance which gets up and fays, 1 am the only honefl man, all others are rogues. Indeed, the former part of the declaration, the teftimonial given by the party to his own integrity, feems hardly to be called for : if the abufe of others be fufficiently loud and general, the honefty of the perfon himfclf is affumed as matter of courfe. No trial or examination is neceffary, no previous flock of repu- tation, no evidence from former conduct ; the trade of a pa- triot, like that of an attorney or apothecary, is of the clafs of thofe which may be fet up without capital. I ihould be glad to know, for inftance, what are the facrifices which have ever been made by the honourable baronet (fir Francis Bur- dett) as the foundation of that high tone which he afTumes with refpect to all unfortunate public men who have ever been in office. I am far from meaning to infmuate, (I have no fact to warrant the infinuation) that the honourable ba- ronet would not be ready at anytime, to make all the facri. fices to his principles that could be called for: he might or he might not: but 1 mean to fay, that none fuch having been called for, none have in point of fact been made. On the contrary it has fo happened that the honourable baronet hai got by his patriotifm, by the natural, fpontaneous. (unlooked- for if you pleafe,) effects of his patriotifm, all that many men have been willing to obtain, or have purfued without obtain. St ing, at the expencc of half their fortunes. By this no credit may have been loft to the honourable baronet, but none can be gained. Virtue can only be proved by trials and facri- ISces. A man cannot fhew his difintereftednefs by what he gets, however honeflly he may come by it. No one furely will pay fo ill a compliment to the honourable baronet, or to the country, as to give for a proof of rare and diftinguifhed virtue, that he has never afked a favour of any minifter either for himfelf or for a friend. How many might make the fame boaft ; who yet never thought of inveighing againft all the reft of the world as corrupt and diftioneft. And after all what does the boaft amount to ? With refpect to friends, the praife is rather equivocal. A man may happen to have no one, who is at once capable of being ferved by place or appointment, and for whom he is particularly anxious. And as to office for himfelf, is it known that the oflf'er was ever made to the honourable baronet? or that he himfelf ever wiflied it ? With a large fortune, and all the comforts and pleafures of life before him, he may never have thought the pride or power of office a compenfation for its cares and conftraints, or even for the privilege which he now enjoys (and is not fparing in the ufe of) of railing at thofe whofe opinions and feelings upon that point have been different from his own. The merit of facrificing office can alone bo found among thofe, for whom office has charms; and upon that principle the honourable baronet muft not be furprized, though in other refpects he will no doubt, if I look for proofs of political virtue, to be contrafted to any on his part, in quarters from which he would turn with fcorn, as from the very hot-beds of all corruption. What will the friends of the honourable baronet fay, when they hear me quote for my inftance, the conduct of Mr. Pitt f The general career of Mr. Pitt's political life, and his admi- niftration of the affairs of this country, during the great crifis in which he latterly acted, I perhaps as little approve as the honourable baronet can do ; though for reafons altogether different : but one of the very charges which many might i^ tf t A J I i ' 58 bringdgainftMr. Pitt, ^1 mean his love of power,) is the pledge of his merit in the inflance to which 1 am alluding, I mean hit refignation of power in the year i8oi. It is no reproach to Mr. Pitt to fay that he was an ambitious man. It may be fomething of a reproach, though I am afraid the fact is true that his ambition (bowed itfelf too much in love of power and office. The habits, in fact, of official life had begun fo early with him and continued fo long, that they muft have become a fort of fecond nature ; place and power were al- moft among the necefTaries of life to him ; yet with all thofe feelings upon him, original and acquired ; with a pofTeffion of power, longer enjoyed and more firmly eftabliffied than can be found poffibly in any other inftance, not excepting that of fir Robert Walpole; with a perception as quick, as man ever had, of what was likely to be ufeful or prejudicial to him in any political ftep ; Mr. Pitt did not hefitate in withdrawing from office, at the period alluded to, the moment he found it could be no longer held, but upon terms incon- fiftent, as he thought, with his duty, and derogatory from his character. It it in vain to fay, that this might not be an act of pure virtue, but be mixed up with feelings of fliame, or pride, or. policy, or others of that fort* There is no end of fuch objections ; which, after all, can make no difference here, where we are upon a queflion of (jomparifon ; fince, if admitted at all, they muft appear equal- ly on both fides of the account. It isjuft as eafy to fay, that the honourable barbnct in the courfe which he has purfued, has acted with a view to what he has got, as that Mr. Pitt on the occafion alluded to, acted with a view to what he did not get. The exact meafure of virtue that enters into any act, can be known only to the Searcher of all hearts : Wc muft be content to take for virtue what contains all the ufual indications of it, and produces all the effects. There if no reafon to fufpect the facrifice thus made by Mr. Pitt, to be lefs genuine than it purports to be. He did not facrifice what he did not highly value : and no man was more likely to forefee (what the event proved,) that minifterial power, which owes so much to the length of its contmiiance, could r 39 hardly, after an interruption, be ever completely reftored t« what it was before. The honourable baronet, I have no doubt, had the occafion been offered, would equally have (bewB that perfonal con fi derations had no weight with him, when placed in competition with the calls of duty, or even with thofe of honeft fame. But the opportunity, as far as I am aware, has never been afforded him ; and no one can be allowed to claim the fame credit for what he has only intended and believed himfelf capable of doing, as others for what they have actually done. Upon the whole of this fubject of the corruptions of the great, we may venture to fay, that be their virtue what it may, it is at leaft at par with that of the perfons by whom it is arraigned. There are very few men in public life, who could not, if they thought it worth while, if they could bring themfelves to be proud of merit fo little rare, quote inftances of facrifices which they had made — to duty, to point of ho- nour^ to eftimation of friends, to party fpirit, if you pleafe, but to fomething far fuperior to the mere fordid defire of profit or emolument, — to which the greater part of these patriotic declaimers could not only fhew nothing parallel in their own conduct, but which they would not, as far as related to themfelves, dream even to be poffible. So much for this great topic of Abiifes, which is now made the foundation ftone of the fyftem, and gives to the au- thors of the fyftem all that w^as wifhed by the philofo» pher of old, when, in order to move the world from its bafis, he afked for nothing but a place whereon to fix hi» machine. By far the greater portion of abufes, even of thofe which do finally reach the goveriftnent, proceed from the people themfelves. They are the bribes which govern- ment pays to the people, directly or indirectly, to prevent them from pulling the government to pieces. This is more efpecially exemplified in that worft and moft pernicious fpe- cies of abufes, though by far the leaft complained of, the abufa of patronage. But the great mafs of abufe, that which |. iilll ■.i' " ' Pi \l w h I '1^ 'I 40 forms nine-tenths, at Icaft, or, more probably, nincty-nintf hundredths of the whole, and which alone directly affects the pockets of the people, both begins and ends with the people, and confifts of the frauds, impofitions, embezzle* mcnts, and peculations, committed by the tribes of officers high and low ; (with the exception only of the higheft ; j who though employed under the government, can fiill, in tio ra. tional view, be confidered otherwife than as part of the peo- ple ; as well as by all thofe, who, not being in any, even the moft fubordinate office, have Rill occafional dealings with the public, or opportunities in fomc way or other of turning its intercfts to their account. The mode propofed for putting a flop to thefe abufes, is to reform the parliament ; that is to fay. to have a fcheme of re. prefeniation, in which, the elections being more popular, the parliament (hould iffue more directly from the general mafs of the people, and a larger portion of it in confequence be like- ly to confift of perfons taken from the lower orders, the country in the mean while, by the increafed number of com- petitors, and by the means through which they mud hope to fucceed, being thrown into an additional ferment. The plan, with a view to its profefTed object, cannot be faid either to promife much or to be chofen with very peculiar felicity. It is not an obvious way, for making the liquor run clear, to give a (hake to the cafk and to bring up as much as poffible from the parts neareft the bottom. Could it be believed, without proof from the fact, that men could be found feri- oufly to indulge fpeculations fo deftitute of every foundation in reafon or common fenfe ? The reform wanted, for the pur- pofes faid to be intended, is either a reform of the whole peo- ple, which it is childifli to hope, or a reform in the govern- ment, by arming it with fuch new powers, as might indeed •nfwer the end propofed, but would in the mean time be wholly incompatible with the nature of our free conflitution. There arc but three ways in which mankind can be go^ vcrned ; by their virtues, their interefts, or their fears. To 3-i int 41 be able to govern men by their fenfe and their virtues is un- queftionably the beft of all. If men will be ready always to fupport gratuitoufly what they think right, and oppofe nothing but what they confcientioufly believe to be wrong, the tafk of government would comparatively be eafy, and corruption without excufe. The minifter would have nothing to do but to choofe right meafures ; and the merit of the meafure might be expected to carry it through. But if the fact fhould be, that there are numbers who cannot be brought to fupport even what they themfclves approve, without being paid for it, and who, if they have not been fo paid, or think they can get better payment elfewhere (whether that payment confift in place, or money, or popular applaufe, or the gratification of fome malignant or felfilh paflion,) will combine and cabal, and create every fort of obftruction and impediment, there is then no other way, in a free government, for the purpofe of carrying on the public fervice, but to gain over fuch perfons by their interefts, which, in the language of the time, is to be guilty of corruption ; but a corruption furely of which the guilt cannot fairly be charged on the government. In governments indeed of another fort, fuch as that which makes fo confpicuous a figure in the prefent times, I mean the government of Buonaparte, the cafe is altogether diffe- rent ; and no more neceffity exifts for corruption under fuch a rule than in a nation of men perfectly wife and virtuous. He (Buonaparte) is under no neceffity to bribe men's con- currence to meafures that are for the intereft of the country, and has, moreover, methods far more effectual than any which free countries pofless, to prevent the abufes arifing from fraud, or peculations. A man who could hang without ceremony a cuftom-houfe officer who (hould be found con- niving at any fraud on the revenue, and hang or fend to the gallies the merchant who (liould bribe him to fuch conni- vance, may be pretty fure of confining within reafonable bounds all abufes of that defcription. The fame will be the cafe with any other fpecies of abufe. But how, in countries where conduct is free, men can.be prevented from felling II' •^•# ^ i i \ i II 42 that, which they will not confent to give, or how, where law is formal and fcrupulous, and befet on all fides with guards and defences for the protection of innocence, it can be made to retain, in all cafes, fufficient celerity for the overtaking of guilt, are problems, with which the authors of thefc com- plaints never feem to trouble themfelves. They call boldly and loudly for the fuppreflionof abufes; and if the fupprefTing abufes was the only object to be attended to, the talk would be eafy. There is a government in the neighbourhood, the fame to which I have jufl alluded, that .tells us how that work is to be done. I will pay fo much homage to Buonaparte's go- vernment as to fay, that it either is, or may be, one of the mofl free from abufes of any that ever exiiled. But will the clamourers for this falutary reformation be content to have it upon the fame terms ? We have feen already, what the na- ture of the greater part of thefe abufes is, and from what fource they fpring. And do not let us take this upon truft. Let thofe who doubt, go into the inquiry, and examine, one by one, the inflances in which they complain that the public money has been transferred wrongfully into the pockets of individuals, or the public patronage perverted, and fee what the utmoft extent is of that portion, which has been appropri- ated to the interefts of minifters, or of thofe for whom they were perfonally anxious. Upon this iffue we may fuffer the queftion to reft, confi- dered as part of a general fyftem, which aims at a great change in the conftitutiou (a fubverfion of it as I ftiould fay) under the name of reform, and grounds the neceffity of fuch reform upon the extent and number of the fubfifting abufes. It re- mains only that we fay a few words upon the more narrow view of the fubject as introduced by the honourable mover. The direct end and object of the motion, as we collect from fome paffages in his fpecch,|hc fpecific effect which ha means to produce, is that of erecting a barrier to the too great influx into this houfe of the monied intereft. The means propofcd arc fuch u cannot but beap|)rovcd, if the dcfcription of them i.i i 43 be true, viz. that they confift entirely in the correction of a practice which is in the higheft degree corrupt. The confe- quences, as ufual in all cafes where new remedies are ad- vertifed, are to extend far beyond the removal of the imme- diate complaint, and to benefit the conftitution in a thoufand different ways. It happens whimfically that the primary ob- ject of the mover, (a pretty important one, and requiring, one fhould think, a good deal of nice confideration), namely the altering the balance between the landed and the monied intereft, fccms to be no object at all with thofe to whom the motion is principally addreffed, and not much indeed to the honourable mover, if we may judge by the fraall portion which it has occupied of his fpeech. It flips in almoft by parenthefis. It is loft and hid, in the fplendourof the incidental advantages which the motion is to bring with it, in the confidence it is to reftore, the unanimity it is to infpire, the heats it is to allay, the effect it is to have in filencing gainfayers, the foundation it is to lay of a new and glorious era, from the commencement of which nothing will be known throughout the country but one fpirit of loyalty and patriotifm, and a determination to live and die by the conftitution. What a pity that profpects fo bright, and which my honourable friend contemplates with fuch un- fpeakable fatisfaction, (hould be fo foon obfcured ! Never was hope fo fanguine, fo fuddenly blafted! It is nipped in its firft bud. It does not live to the fecol^d reading. It is configned to the tomb almoft at the moment of its birth. i( Oh just beloved and lost, admired and mourned !' This medicine, which was to produce fuch wonderful ef- fects, which was to operate like a charm, fo comfortable in the ftomach, fo exhilarating to the fpirits, fo reftorative of all the vital functions, has totally falfified the firft affurance re- fpeciing it, namely, that it would be very pleafant to the tafte. What it may be in the ftomach, or afterwards, we cannot well fay ; for thofe for whofe fpecial ufe it was intended, who were to feize it fo greedily, find it fo little pleafant that they will not fuffer it to remain within their lips ; but fpit it out upon % " 4 ■' V ♦j %aii^j" ^^\ ■"I u 11 1 1 44 the hands of my honourable friend, at the very moment when he is in the act of adminiflering it. Much ufeful inflruction and information may be derived from this fact as well to my honourable friend as to ourfelves. My honourable friend, I hope, will learn a leflbn, of great utility to all reformers, to diftruft a little the more remote confequences of their meafures, when they fee how liable they are to error, even in thofe which they expect to take place immediately. The houfe, it is hoped, will learn this diftruft with refpect to the meafure now propofed. It is no great recommendation of any medicine that its effects are totally miftaken by the perfon who advifes it. All our confidence in the phyfician is already loft. The only certain knowledge which we have, as yet, of the meafure, is, that it will not do what the honourable mover prrdicted of it. It will not fa- tisfy thofe, who at prefent inveigh againft the abufes of the fyftem, and contend that it ought to be reformed. On the contrary, they fay that this meafure, unlefs accompanied with others far more extenfive, will only make things worfe. I have already endeavoured to fliow that the practice meant to be corrected, has no crime in it abftractedly confidered ; that it is not a malum in ic. It is culpable only as it may be made so by law, or as it may practically be found to produce effects injurious to the public intereft. When opinion out of doors is urged as a reafon for adopting it, the anfwer is, that opinion out of doors, fuch as is here in queftion, is a very bad reafon for adopting any meafure, inafmuch as there can hardly be a worfe criterion of what is really for the public benefit; and that, after all, the public opinion does not call for this meafure feparately and unaccompanied with certain others, which the honourable mover himfeU would declare that he does not wifh to fee take place. The inducements, therefore, to a compliance with the prefent motion lie in a very fniall compafs indeed. They are limply its own merits ; for, as to the fplendid incidental confequences dwelt upon with fuch rapture by the honourable mover, they are all at an >l 45 end already. There will be no fatisfaction produced. What is called the public will not thank you for the meafure, other- wife than as it may be made a fubjcct of triumph and a ftep- ping-ftone to other objects. The objections to it on the other hand, are the dangers of this triumph, and of thofe other objects to which it is meant to lead. Upon the refult of thefe oppofite confiderations, firft exa- mined feparately, and then compared together, 1 have no he- fitation in earneftly conjuring the houfe not to adopt the mo- tion. The practice complained of has subfifted at all times, without any ground to fufpect, or any fufpicion being in fact entertained, that, according to the difcovery now made, it has been fapping and undermining the conftitution- The reafons in fupport of the meafure now propofed for the abolition of the practice are perfectly unfatisfactory and inconclufive. We know the mifchievous ufe intended to be made of it ; and there can hardly indeed be any thing more mifchievous in the firft inftance, than the yielding to public clamour, what we do not feel that we are yielding to truth and reafon. THE END. T. C. Hansard, Printer, Peterborough-Court, Heel-»ireei, London. ^ • 'fe'^ l^-hf* .^i. h i*.M m '****^. I '(Li h m i^i'. ,.&.:.-™ >*-»-■ -#'' >.,-«««#«? j!*sa€S- " '^•aiSWiwoV <\