haps in many instances, culpable misrepre sentation,

It has been well observed, that it is of importance to public happiness that the opinious of the people should not be misled upon points essential to the constitution, This is a wise and salutary maxim on all occasions, but it becomes peculiarly indispensable if at any time appeals are made to the people, and their intervention is attempted to be used in order to effect a change in the state,

Some persons, who conceive a radical reform in the representation to be necessary, have boldly assured the people that it is to be contended for as their right, and that the injustice of withholding it is the cause of heavy taxes and many other grievances, all of which would be remedied by a restitution of ancient privileges, which still continue their unalienable birth-right. They are told, that the genuine constitution of Parliament has degenerated, and that the measures proposed are no more than a restoration of its original principles and pu

rity; that there is nothing of innovation in them; and that they consist only in "a recurrence to those laws and that constitution, the departure from which has been the sole cause of that accumulation of evils which we now endure *"

Some years ago, the "restitution of the universal right of suffrage" was distinctly insisted upon by persons of great weight, whether considered in their general characters, or in respect of the extensive popular influence their recommendation was calculated to produce: such assumptions, it is conceived, are not warrantable from the evidence of our histories, and are calculated to mislead the public mind upon a subject of deep and universal importance.

r

1. The author entertains as little doubt as any person of the existence of some great improprieties in our representation; but he is prepared to deny, that for that reason, the whole structure of the system is to be over

*Sir F. Burdett's Speech in the House of Commons, 15th June 1809.

thrown; or because bribery and influence are still occasionally to be found unpunished in our elections by the evasion of the laws made against them, that therefore the people are to be told, it is necessary for them to "exercise their inherent and undoubted right of reviewing the whole plan of delegation, and, by recurring to the first principles of our constitution, again to establish it upon its ancient foundation of equity and right reason *."

Although a considerable time has elapsed since these doctrines have been very notoriously promulgated, still they are carefully kept alive; and lately the House of Commons was divided by Sir F. Burdett upon a proposition of reform grounded on the same mistaken premises of reference to 'ancient

* See Report of Sub-Committee of Westminster, May 1780; and Plan for taking the Suffrages of the People, &c. signed T. Brand Hollis; together with a resolution of thanks for the same in July 1780, signed C. J. Fox.Wyvill's Political Papers.

The two addresses of the Yorkshire Committee to the electors of Great Britain, drawn up with the utmost art, participated cautiously in that view.-Ibid.

and supposed

rights of the constitution.' Universal suffrage is the only point that is changed in the positions now maintained; and even that right, as it was called, is scarcely abandoned in substance, while a claim to the elective franchise is persisted in to the extent that was then avowed.

By thus displaying a wrong view of facts, and disseminating unfounded statements of rights, the people are taught to believe that they are deprived of privileges, and subjected to a worse government, and to more heavy grievances, than would otherwise be experienced. Under such delusive impressions, inculcated on the least informed and most numerous orders of men, the appeals that have been made to excite a popular feeling of animosity against the House of Commons and the Government, seem to merit the reprobation of all well-minded members of society, as misdoings of the most pernicious tendency, and of no common magnitude.

That there are defects in the present system of representation, will not generally be

denied; but all considerate persons will probably agree, that a correct view of the causes, nature, and amount of the disorder is necessary in order to discover and suggest a suitable remedy. If the latent operation of time has occasioned changes in the habits, the prejudices, and the conduct of men; if the materials, as it were, of which society has been formed, have undergone an alteration; if there be in fact dilapidations in the structure of the House of Commons, arising from such changes or any other cause; and if reparation with practical improvement, not wild theoretic change, be intended;-in proportion as we may be impressed with the affirmative of these propositions, so much, it is conceived, will the necessity appear of a temperate and correct view of the facts belonging to, and connected with a subject thus highly important, and perhaps equally difficult.

It has long been a prevailing fashion to extol the wisdom of our ancestors; and certain views of " the founders of our constitution" are sometimes referred to as differing much from the situation in which the country is