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(The Clerk Reads.)

"A Letter to Lord Ashburton, from Mr. Horne, occafioned by the Debate in the House of Commons, on Tuesday, the 7th of May, 1782, on Mr. Pitt's Motion for a Reform in Parliament.

66 MY LORD,

"The importance of the subject on which I address your Lordship, fufficiently dispenses with preface, introduction, apology, compliment or ornament. And the criticalness of the moment excuses hafty publication. It would be ridiculous to caft a thought on the manner of my expreffion, if the matter is useful.

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By the vote of the Houfe of Commons, on Tuesday laft, parliament, it seems, do not yet think it neceffary to take into confideration the state of representation in this country. However, my Lord, notwithstanding that vote, I am still fanguine enough to believe that we are at the eve of a peaceful revolution, more important than any which has happened fince the fettlement of our Saxon ancestors in this country; and which will convey down to endless pofterity all the bleffings of which political fociety is capable.

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My Lord, my expectations are greatly raised, instead of being depreffed, by the objections which were urged against Mr. Pitt's motion.

"One gentleman fays, He cannot fee any good purpose the motion would anfwer; for it would not affift government with a fhip, a man, or a guinea, towards carrying on the war with vigour, or towards establishing that much wifhed-for object, peace.'

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My Lord, I hope the measure will be made to produce to government both fhips and men and guineas. For they would very poor politicians, indeed, who could not, in one meafure, comprehend many purposes; and ftill poorer, who fhould mifs the present opportunity of obtaining, by this one measure of reform, every defirable object of the ftate.

"Another gentleman apprehends, that nothing less than giving every man in the kingdom a vote, would give universal fatisfaction.'

"My Lord, I trust that there are very few perfons in this kingdom who defire so improper and impracticable a measure. But if there were many, the wifdom of parliament would correct their plan, and the corrected would be well pleased at the

correction.

"Other gentlemen affert, that the conftitution, as it now ftands, has ftood for ages, without any material alteration.' My Lord, it will not be difficult to prove the contrary, by

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an eafy inquiry; and if they will begin with the laft unexampled alteration recently made, by the late adminiftration, at Saltafh, the objectors will hardly have countenance to proceed any further.

"Another gentleman, thinks the question premature, and that this is not the time.'

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Another, that the people do not defire it.'

"And another, that the people cannot, indeed, defire it at any time; becaufe they have no voice but in the House of Commons.'

"My Lord, it would be fafer for this latter doctrine, if another fumitor doctrine could be coupled with it; and if it could be proved that the people have no hands neither but in the Houfe of Commons. This virtual voice of the people of England refembles too nearly the virtual reprefentation of the people of America in the fame place, to be attended with any happy confequences.

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But, my Lord, I turn with pleafure from thefe little fbterfuges, towards what I fuppofe to be paffing in your Lordhip's mind. The end which I believe your Lordship to have, at all times in your view, is, happincfs to all beings capable of happiness; and efpecially human happinefs, as univerfally extended as poffible. But though an individual's withes may be, and ought to be, unbounded; however exalted, his actual endeavours muft ufually be limited; and, therefore, national happinefs, with the permanent fecurity of that happinefs, is the ultimate object of a patriot.

"To this end all his other objects must be confidered only as means. Even freedom itself is valuable, only as a means indifpenfibly neceffary to that end.

"My Lord, I find myself compelled to repeat these wellknown fentiments; becaufe moft of the errors of mankind, in all their puruits, arife from stopping fhort in their progrefs, and miftaking fome means for the end. We every day beheld it in the practice of the covetous, the ambitious, &c. And at this moment, I conceive it to be neceffary to war. the well-meaning patrior from the fine mistake.

"My Lord, I thall not wafle a word to flew the neceffity of a reforma in the repreientation of this country. I fall only confider the mode of reform; and endeavour to fhew, that it is not difficult to embrace every interet in the flate, and to fatisfy well-meaning men of every defeription. To this end I am compelled fift to remove the prejudices, and, . indeed juft objections, which fore perfons entertain to all the modes of reform, which have hitherto been recommended.

" My

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My virtuous and ineftimablefriend, Major Cartwright, is a ̧ zealous and an able advocate for equal and univerfal reprefentation; that is, for an equal and univerfal fhare of every man in the government. My Lord, I conceive his argument to be this: Every man has an equal right to freedom and fecurity. No man can be free who has not a voice in the framing of those laws, by which he is to be governed, he who is not reprefented has not this voice; therefore, every man has an equal right to reprefentation, or to fhare in the government. His final conclufion is, that every man has a right to an equal fhare in reprefentation.

"Now, my Lord, I conceive the error to lie chiefly in the conclufion. For there is very great difference between having an equal right to a fhare, and a right to an equal fhare. An eftate may be devifed by will amongit many perfons in different proportions; to one five pounds, to another five hundred, &c, each perfon will have an equal right to his fhare; but not a right to an equal fhare.

"This principle is farther attempted to be enforced by an affertion, that, The all of one man is as dear to him, as the all of another man is to that other.' But, my Lord, this maxim will not hold by any means; for a fmall all is not, for very good reafons, fo dear as a great all. A fmall all may be loft, and eafy regained; it may very often, and with great wiidom, be qued for the chance of a greater; it may be fo fmail, as to be little or not at all worth defending or caring for. Ibit eo qui zonam perdidit. But a large ail can never be recovered; it has been ana ing and accumulating, perhaps, from father to fon for many generations; or it has been the product of a long life of induitry and talen's; or the confequence of fome circumftance which will never return. But I am fure I need not dwell upon this. Without placing the extremes of fortune in array againit each other, every man, whofe all has varied at different periods of his life, can speak for hin felf ar.1 fay, whether the dearnefs which he held thefe different alls was equal The lowest order of men confume their all daily, as faft as they acquire it.

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"My Lord, juftice and policy require that benefit and burthen, that the thare of power, and the hare of contribution to that power, fhould be as nearly propordoned as poffible. If arift cocracy will have all power, they are tyrants, and unjuft to the people, becaufe aristocracy alone does not bear the whole burthen. If the finalleft individual of the people contends to be equal in power to the greateft individual, he too is, in his turn, unjuft in his demands; for his burthen and contribution are not equal.

"Hitherto

Hitherto, my Lord, I have only argued against the equality; fhall now venture to speak against the univerfality of reprefentation, or of a fhare in the government; for the

terms amount to the fame.

Freedom and fecurity ought furely to be equal and univerfal. But, my Lord, I am not at all backward to contend, that some of the members of a fociety may be free and fecure, without having a fhare in the government. The happiness and freedom, and fecurity of the whole, may even be advanced by the exclufion of fome, not from freedom and fecurity, but from a fhare in the government.

"My Lord, extreme mifery, extreme dependance, extreme ignorance, extreme felfithnefs (I mean that miftaken felfifhnefs, which excludes all public fenfe), all these are just and proper caufes of exclufion from a fhare in the government, as well as extreme criminality, which is admitted to exclude; for thither they all tend, and there they frequently finish.

"My Lord, I know I fhall receive no anfwer to this, butthe difficulty of drawing the line of exclufion on these accounts; and the poffibility or danger of abuse, by a pretence of thefe extremities. The bare poffibility of abufe, I hold to be no argument; the danger and difficulty I will fhew to be easily removeable.

SKETCH OF A PLAN.

"England and Wales fhall be divided into 513 diftricts. Each diftrict thall chufe one repicfentative.

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The prefent number of members for England and Wales in the House of Commons is 513. The Union with Scotland makes it improper to alter the proportion. It has not appeared that Scotland is at all diffatisfied with the fate of its reprefentation at all events it does not belong to this part of the country, but to that, to fettie their own reprefentation to their own fatisfaction.

+ The old divifion of the country need not to be departed from, but will exceedingly facilitate the divificu into diftricts, for the purpose of repre

fentation.

The public ought never to receive a benefit to the injury of an individual. Exclufive claims of reprefentation have become a fpecies of property through the connivance of the nation. Very ample compenfation, therefore, must be made, and cafily may be made, to the poffeffors of this fcandalous property.

Who are comprehended here under the defcription of native?
What provifion fhall be made relative to the rates?

The f is, with a multitude of other queftions and objections which may be propofed and offered to every part of this plan, are forefcen, and may e-fly be determined and obviated.

The number of inhabitants of England and Wales are calculated at nine millions. One fourth of that number, or 2,250,000 are estimated to Le males of the age of twenty-one years.

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Every male, native of Great Britain or Ireland, at the age of twenty-one years, and who at the time of election fhall have been rated for the space of the preceding year, to the landtax or parish rates in England or Wales, at 21. per annum, fhall be intitled to vote for a reprefentative in Parliament of that district in which he is rated.

“No election for a representative fhall be completed by a smaller number of votes than 4000-unless as hereafter provided.

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Every elector, at the time of giving his fuffrage, fhall pay into the hands of the prefiding officer 21. 2s.

"The votes for a reprefentative of each diftrict fhall be taken at a certain place, in each parifh of the refpe&tive district; so that each vote may be taken in that parish where the voter is rated. "Election for reprefentatives in Parliament fhall be annual; and at a certain time of the year.

"If at any election the number of perfons voting in the district fhall fall fhort of 4000, then all perfons in the faid diftrict, who are rated therein at 201. per annum, or upwards (and who have already voted) fhall be intitled to give a fecond vote, paying again as before 21. 2s.

"And if, after this fecond poll, the number of votes fhall still fall fhort of 4000, then all perfons rated in the faid district at 5ol. per annum, and upwards (and who have already voted in the first and second poll), fhall be intitled to give a third vote, paying again as before 21. 2s.

*

"And

If the number of members (513) be multiplied by (4000), the number of votes required for each, it will give 2,052,000,

Although a tenth part of these fhould forbear to vote, yet the future part of the plan will furnish a great overplus of the number of votes for cach district.

The manner of payment may be easily fettled, and fo as to make all improper conduct, or mistake in the payer or receiver, or in the returning officer, impoffible, as well as to prevent any poffible doubt or difputes concerning the perfon elected.

The election levy can never amount to less than four millions one hundred and four thousand pounds annually.

It is here understood, that every perfon may, if he pleafes, vote in every parish in which he is rated; and in every district.

The annual revenue to the state will more effectually fecure for ever the annual election of a parliament, than any laws for that purpose which ever were, or can be invented.

"Perhaps it may be found adviseable, after the fecond poll, to hold the election no 1 nger in parishes, but in the centre of the diftrict; the perfons who are (if neceffary) to vote after the two first polls, might better afford to go from home: all of the higher orders waiting the iffue of the election on the fpot, might proceed to the fourth, fifth, or eighth poll, as neceffary

or convenient.

"The revenue, at its lowest amount, must be certain.

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