reduced to the alternative above alluded to; is there a GENTLEMAN but would feel disgust at the disgraceful conditions imposed on such men, or would any man of sane intellects pretend to maintain, that it would not be a public calamity that such men should be excluded from the House of Commons, because, forsooth, they could not please a body of such electors? For, as we have stated above, the necessary consequences of this plan of Reform would be, that by increasing the number of the voters, which is to be brought about by lowering the qualification necessary to constitute a voter, our reformers would eventually exclude the characters above alluded to, from the power of offering themselves: and this as effectually, as if they were precluded by a positive vote from sitting in the House of Commons. And thus we might have again a Parliamentum indoctorum, the evil of which was so forcibly felt in the single instance which we read of, that it was never permitted to recur again: a sufficient reason, it is humbly conceived, for not making another experiment of the effects of it.

But, as it is absolutely necessary for the public good, the only criterion in a public question, that the worthy characters that we have just mentioned should be found in every Parliament; so, in addition to the right which such places as Old Sarum, &c. claim, (a right which no wise man will ever wish to see violated by the existence of such boroughs, as are out of the reach of the popular grasp ;) it is plain that an accommodation arises to the community, as they open a door to men of retired habits of life and thinking, by which they can, without the harassing inconveniences of a canvass, become members; in which situation they may bring forward more wisdom and knowledge for the public good, than almost any other description of members may have had an opportunity of acquiring. And

in this part of the scheme of the Reformers, we discover the same spirit of sacrificing the public to their own private ends, that we have already traced in many other instances. But, though they may not choose to confess it, it is obvious that they feel the weight, the power, the influence that such men possess, as guardians of the state; and consequently would gladly remove them out of their way. And if their purpose be what few can doubt; the overthrow of the laws of the land, we can scarcely blame them; their antipathy is natural; and, in proportion as the veneration of the wise and good attends such men, will that antipathy increase.

We have already said that the choice of the people, when left to themselves, but rarely, if ever, falls on such men as can be of service in promoting the interests of the empire. We may add that, however such men may have affected to be the friends of the people, they have generally sought only their own private interests. We will suppose one of this description becomes the minister of the day, raised to that

painful pre-eminence' by the voice of the people, who have made the welkin ring with acclamation that at last their wishes were gratified; their prayers were heard; their idol is raised; the man of the people is minister. The people will now enjoy that which before they could only contemplate as a phantom, Liberty; for corruption is now no more!!! What are his measures? Are the rights of the people and the grievances under which he has repeatedly told them that they groan, the peculiar objects of his care? No: as soon as he is warm in his seat, and the gazette has announced that his friends and partizans are all placed in battle array to support him ;-he brings in a bill,'

'A Bill for the regulation of the affairs of India. We speak from fact.

the obvious effect of which is to invest the House of Commons, which House of Commons he could always by means of this bill contrive to have in his interest, with such powers and patronage as would enable him to set at defiance the Crown, the House of Lords, the people and every recognised power in the state. So much for the leaders of the people; the men of the people, the enemies of corruption, the virtuous patriots.

Hectore!

Quantum mutatus ab illo

And now what is the consequence? that which reason points out would be the consequence; the people, his former friends, and among them many persons of real worth, who, in an evil hour, had given the patriot credit for honesty, indignant that they had been duped by an impostor, desert him. He is driven from the helm, and retires, amidst the hoots and hisses of all, to disgrace brought on him by himself; a disgrace which all his subsequent pains and exertions were never able entirely to do away.

If thou beest he-but O how fall'n-how chang'd
From him who, in the happy realms of light,
Cloth'd with transcendent brightness, didst outshine
Myriads though bright!

We adduce not this as a single instance; the infirmity is epidemical among that class of men who call themselves the men of the people! If this be any extenuation of the apostasy, the manes of the patriot are welcome to it.

It requires no great sagacity to foresee what would be the proceedings of a Parliament chosen by such voters and formed of such members as have been described; a Parliament from which learning and talent for business would be excluded; from which every man who held an

office in the state, would, because all such would be considered as under influence, be deemed unfit to have the confidence of the people. If the measures of government were attacked, and attacked they certainly would be, without any reference to merit or demerit, who would be there to defend them? who would be present to answer any charge?-a solitary Chancellor of the Exchequer,—or, perhaps, he might be permitted to be aided by a few,— half a score at the most of his colleagues, who would be doomed to endure the storm of popular frenzy; and to abide the tumultuous decision of those, who were wholly unable to judge of the merits of the case before them; to judge what was fittest, or even what was practicable! With such a tribunal, what man could ever expect justice, and without that security, what man would be rash enough to accept an office? Or would any one say that the affairs of the nation can be conducted on such plain and obvious principles as the generality of mankind can comprehend? Were the experiment but attempted to be made, the united empire would soon feel its inability to contend against even the meanest potentate that might draw his sword against her. Or where is the man who would or could, whatever might be the powers of his understanding, accept an office, on the terms of popular favor only ?-arbitrio popularis aura.-Many measures will a minister be compelled to adopt, that may, to the indiscriminating observer, have an ungracious aspect; but which, when thoroughly understood, may be found highly advantageous to the community, or, if not productive of positive advantage, may be defended on the ground of necessity;-yet of this advantage or of this necessity, very few have it in their power to form an accurate judgment; and pride and prejudice may influence the decisions of those who may not be precluded by ignorance. To comprehend the expediency of measures may

require intimate knowledge of the intentions of other states or of the resources of our own; its funds, its population, its manufactures, its virtues, and its vices; and what is of no less importance, the state of popular feeling.

We do not give this as a new axiom in politics. The authority of antiquity might be quoted to support it. Nothing is more easy than to censure any measure, that the wisest minister ever planned; the difficulty is to devise those measures that may be least objectionable; and in proportion, as the number of objects which demand the attention is increased, so much greater must that difficulty be.

But we are told that there exists an influence from without, which destroys the independence of the House of Commons, and which the Reform proposed could do away; the influence of peers and opulent men, exerted in procuring the election of persons whom they wish to provide for or promote, or where some interest of their own is concerned. Yet even here we do not feel the trepidations of our opponents. In this interference, we as frequently see the person so put in, enlist under the banners of the popular party, as under those of the government; the inclinations of the peer who procured such persons to be elected, generally determining which side the member thus returned shall take; in which cases it frequently happens that the people gain one more advocate; so that what is lost by influence in one instance, is compensated by what is gained in another, and thus no injury is sustained. And to the honor of our nobility and great men be it stated, it has frequently happened that the nation has been indebted for some of the wisest' and best men that ever held a seat in its councils, to this, I will venture to say, salutary influ

'The late Mr. Pitt sat for Appleby, by the assistance of a Peer of the realm.