when he offers a small reward for a full purse; the bankrupt of the court became the lunatic of the court; estates mouldered away, and mansions fell down; but the fees came in, and all was well. But in an instant the iron mace of Brougham shivered to atoms this house of fraud and of delay; and this is the man who will help to govern you; who bottoms his reputation on doing good to you; who knows, that to reform abuses is the safest basis of fame and the surest instrument of power; who uses the highest gifts of reason, and the most splendid efforts of genius, to rectify those abuses, which all the genius and talent of the profession* have_hitherto been employed to justify, and to protect. Look to Brougham, and turn you to that side where he waves his long and lean finger; and mark well that face which nature has marked so forcibly-which dissolves pensions-turns jobbers into honest men-scares away the plunderer of the public and is a terror to him who doeth evil to the people. But, above all, look to the northern earl, victim, before this honest and manly reign, of the spitefulness of the court. You may now, for the first time, learn to trust in the professions of a minister; you are directed by a man who prefers character to place, and who has given such unequivocal proofs of honesty and patriotism, that his image ought to be amongst your household gods, and his name to be lisped by your children; two thousand years hence it will be a legend like the fable of Perseus and Andromeda: Britannia chained to a mountain-two hundred rotten animals menacing her destruction, till a tall earl, armed with schedule A., and followed by his page Russell, drives them into the deep, and delivers over Britannia in safety to crowds of ten-pound renters, who deafen the air with their acclamations. Forthwith, Latin verses upon this-school exercises boys whipt, and all the usual absurdities of education. Don't part with an administration composed of Lord Grey and Lord Brougham; and not only these, but look at them all-the mild wisdom of Lansdowne-the genius and extensive knowledge of Holland, in whose bold and honest life there is no varying nor shadow of change the unexpected and exemplary activity of Lord Melbourne-and the rising parliamentary talents of Stanley. You are ignorant of your best interests, if every vote you can bestow is not given to such a ministry as this.

You will soon find an alteration of behaviour in the upper orders when elections become real. You will find that you are raised to the importance to which you ought to be raised. The merciless ejector, the rural tyrant, will be restrained within the limits of decency and humanity, and will improve their own characters, at the same time that they better your condition.

It is not the power of aristocracy that will be destroyed by these measures, but the unfair power. If the Duke of Newcastle is kind and obliging to his neighbours, he will probably lead his neighbours; if he is a man of sense, he will lead them more certainly, and to a better purpose. All this is as it should be; but the Duke of Newcastle, at present, by buying certain old houses, could govern his neighbours, and legislate for them, even if he had not five grains of understanding, and if he were the most churlish and brutal man under heaven. The present state of things renders unnecessary all those important virtues, which rich and well-born men, under a better system, would exercise for the public good. The Duke of Newcastle (I mention him only as an instance,) Lord Exeter will do as well, but either of those noblemen, depending not upon walls, arches, and abutments, for their power-but upon mercy, charity, forbearance, indulgence, and example-would pay this price, and lead the people by their affections; one would be the God of Stamford, and the other of Newark. This union of the great with the many is the real healthy state of a country; such a country is strong to invincibility-and this strength the borough system entirely destroys.

* Lord Lyndhurst is an exception; I firmly believe he had no wish to perpetuate the abuses of the Court of Chancery.

Cant words creep in and affect quarrels; the changes are rung between revolution and reform; but, first settle whether a wise government ought to attempt the measure-whether any thing is wanted-whether less would do-and having settled this, mere nomenclature becomes of very little consequence. But, after all, if it is revolution, and not reform, it will only induce me to receive an old political toast in a twofold meaning, and with twofold pleasure. When King William and the great and glorious Revolution are given, I shall think not only of escape from bigotry, but exemption from corruption; and I shall thank Providence, which has given us a second King William for the destruction of vice, as the other, of that name, was given us for the conservation of freedom.

All formal political changes, proposed by these very men, it is said, were mild and gentle, compared to this; true, but are you on Saturday night to seize your apothecary by the throat, and to say to him ⚫ Subtle compounder, fraudulent posologist, did not you order me a dram of this medicine on Monday morning, and now you declare that nothing short of an ounce can do me any good?' 'True enough,' would he of the phials reply, "but you did not take the dram on Monday morning-that makes all the difference, my dear sir; if you had done as I advised you at first, the small quantity of medicine would have sufficed; and instead of being in a night-gown and slippers up stairs, you would have been walking vigorously in Piccadil ly. Do as you please-and die if you please; but don't blame me because you despised my advice, and by your own ignorance and obstinacy have entailed upon yourself ten-fold rhubarb, and unlimited infusion of senna.'

Now see the consequences of having a manly leader, and a manly cabinet. Suppose they had come out with a little ill-fashioned seven months' reform; what would have been the consequence? The same opposition from the tories-that would have been quite certain-and not a single reformer in England satisfied with the measure. You have now a real reform, and a fair share of power delegated to the people.

The anti-reformers cite the increased power of the press-this is the very reason why I want an increased power in the House of Commons The Times, Herald, Advertiser, Globe, Sun, Courier, and Chronicle are an heptarchy, which govern this country, and govern it because the people are so badly represented. I am perfectly satisfied, that with a fair and honest House of Commons the power of the press would diminish-and that the greatest authority would centre in the highest place.

Is it possible for a gentleman to get into Parliament, at present, without doing things he is utterly ashamed of-without mixing himself up with the lowest and basest of mankind? Hands, accustomed to the scented lubricity of soap, are defiled with pitch, and contaminated with filth. Is there not some inherent vice in a government, which cannot be carried on but with such abominable wickedness, in which no gentleman can mingle without moral degradation; and the practice of crimes, the very imputation of which, on other occasions, he would repel at the hazard of his life?

What signifies a small majority in the house? The miracle is, that there should have been any majority at all; that there was not an immense majority on the other side. It was a very long period before the courts of justice in Jersey could put down smuggling ; and why? The judges, counsel, attorneys, crier of the court, grand and petty jurymen, were all smugglers, and the high sheriff and the constables were running goods every moonlight night.

How are you to do without a government! And what other government, if this bill is ultimately lost, could possibly be found? How could any country defray the ruinous expense of protecting, with troops and constables, the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel, who literally would not be able to walk from the Horse Guards to Grosvenor Square, without two or three regiments of foot to screen them from the mob; and in these hollow squares the hero of Waterloo would have tɔ spend his political life. By the whole

better, or it will soon cease to work at all? It is little short of absolute nonsense to call a government good, which the great mass of Englishmen would, before twenty years were elapsed, if reform was denied, rise up and destroy. Of what use have all the cruel laws been of Perceval, Eldon, and Castlereagh, to extinguish reform? Lord John Russell and his abettors would have been committed to jail twenty years ago for half only of his present reform; and now relays of the people would drag them from London to Edinburgh; at which latter city we are told by Mr. Dundas, that there is no eagerness for reform. Five minutes before Moses struck the rock, this gentleman would have said that there was no eagerness for water.

exercise of his splendid military talents, by strong | the Duke of Wellington), says it must be made to work batteries at Bootle's, and White's, he might, on nights of great debate, reach the House of Lords; but Sir Robert would probably be cut off, and nothing could save Twiss and Lewis. The great majority of persons returned by the new boroughs would either be men of high reputation for talents, or persons of fortune known in the neighbourhood; they have property and character to lose. Why are they to plunge into mad and revolutionary projects of pillaging the public creditor? It is not the interest of any such man to do it; he would lose more by the destruction of public credit than he would gain by a remission of what he paid for the interest of the public debt. And if it is not the interest of any one to act in this manner, it is not the interest of the mass. How many, also, of these new legislators would there be, who were not themselves creditors of the state? Is it the interest of such men to create a revolution, by destroying the constitutional power of the House of Lords, or of the king? Does there exist in persons of that class, any disposition for such changes? Are not all feelings, and opinions and prejudices, on the opposite side? The majority of the new members will be landed gentleman: their genus is utterly distinct from the revolutionary tribe; they have molar teeth; they are destitute of the carnivorous and incisive jaws of political adventurers.

There are two methods of making alterations: the one is to despise the applicants, to begin with refusing every concession, then to relax by making concessions which are always too late; by offering in 1831 what is then too late, but would have been accepted in 1830-gradually to O'Connellize the country, till at last, after this process has gone on for some time, the alarm becomes too great, and every thing is conceded in hurry and confusion. In the mean time fresh conspiracies have been hatched by the long de lay, and no gratitude is expressed for what has been extorted by fear. In this way, peace was concluded There will be mistakes at first, as there are in all with America and emancipation granted to the Cathochanges. All young ladies will imagine (as soon as lics; and in this way the war of complexion will be this bill is carried) that they will be instantly mar- finished in the West Indies. The other method is, to ried. Schoolboys believe that gerunds and supines see at a distance that the thing must be done, and to will be abolished, and that currant tarts must ultimate- do it effectually, and at once; to take it out of the ly come down in price; the corporal and sergeant are hands of the common people, and to carry the measure of double pay; bad poets will expect a demand sure in a manly liberal manner, so as to satisfy the for their epics; fools will be disappointed, as they al- great majority. The merit of this belongs to the adways are reasonable men, who know what to cx-ministration of Lord Grey. He is the only minister I pect, will find that a very serious good has been ob- know of who has begun a great measure in good time, tained. conceded at the beginning of twenty years what would have been extorted at the end of it, and prevented that folly, violence, and ignorance, which emanate from a long denial and extorted concession of justice to great masses of human beings. I believe the question of reform, or any dangerous agitation of it, is set at rest for thirty or forty years; and this is an eternity in politics.

What good to the hewer of wood and the drawer of water? How is he benefited, if old Sarum is abolish ed, and Birmingham members created? But if you ask this question of reform, you must ask it of a great number of other measures. How is he benefited by Catholic emancipation, by the repeal of the Corporation and Test Act, by the Revolution of 1688, by any great political change? by a good government? In the first place, if many are benefited, and the lower orders are not injured, this alone is reason enough for the change. But the hewer of wood and the drawer of water are benefited by reform. Reform will produce economy and investigation; there will be fewer jobs, and a less lavish expenditure; wars will not be persevered in for years after the people are tired of them; taxes will be taken off the poor and laid upon the rich; democratic habits will be more common in a country where the rich are forced to court the poor for political power; cruel and oppressive punishments (such as those for night poaching), will be abolished. If you steal a pheasant you will be punished as you ought to be, but not sent away from your wife and children for seven years. Tobacco will be 2d. per lb. cheaper. Candles will fall in price. These last results of an improved government will be felt. We do not pretend to abolish poverty or to prevent wretchedness; but if peace, economy, and justice, are the results of reform, a number of small benefits, or rather of benefits which appear small to us but not to them, will accrue to millions of the people; and the connection between the existence of John Russell, and the reduced price of bread and cheese, will be as clear as it has been the object of his honest, wise, and useful life to make it.

Don't be led away by such nonsense; all things are dearer under a bad government, and cheaper under a good one. The real question they ask you is, What difference can any change of government make to you? They want to keep the bees from buzzing and stinging, in order that they may rob the hive in

Boroughs are not the power proceeding from wealth. Many men, who have no boroughs, are infinitely richer than those who have-but it is the artifice of wealth in seizing hold of certain localities. The boroughmonger is like rheumatism, which owes its power not not so much to the intensity of the pain as to its peculiar position; a little higher up, or a little lower down, the same pain would be triffing; but it fixes in the joints, and gets into the head quarters of motion and activity. The boroughmonger knows the importance of arthritic positions; he disdains muscle, gets into the joints, and lords it over the whole machine by felicity of place. Other men are as rich--but those riches are not fixed in the critical spot.

I live a good deal with all ranks and descriptions of people; I am thoroughly convinced that the party of democrats and republicans are very small and contemptible; that the English love their institutionsthat they love not only this king, (who would not love him?) but the kingly office-that they have no hatred to the aristocracy. I am not afraid of trusting English happiness to English gentlemen. I believe that the half million of new voters will choose much better for the public than the twenty or thirty peers, to whose usurped power they succeed.

If any man doubts the power of reform, let him take these two memorable proofs of its omnipotence. First, but for the declaration against it, I believe the Duke of Wellington might this day have been in of fice; and, secondly, in the whole course of the debates at county meetings and in Parliament, there are not twenty men who have declared against reform. Some advance an inch, some a foot, some a yard-but no. body stands still-nobody says, We ought to remain just where we were every body discovers that he is a reformer, and has long been so and appears infinitely

Landed proprietors imagine they have a right to the votes of their tenants; and instances, in every election are numerous where tenants have been dismissed for An exact and elaborate census is called for-vast in-voting contrary to the wishes of their landlords. In formation should have been laid upon the table of the the same manner strong combinations are made against House-great time should have been given for delibe- tradesmen who have chosen to think and act for themration. All these objections, being turned into Eng-selves in political matters, rather than yield their lish, simply mean, that the chances of another year opinions to the solicitations of their customers. There should have been given for defeating the bill. In that is a great deal of tyranny and injustice in all this. I time the Poles may be crushed, the Belgians organ- should no more think of asking what the political opinized, Louis Philip dethroned; war may rage all over ions of a shop-keeper were than of asking whether he Europe the popular spirit may be diverted to other was tall or short, or large or small: for a difference of objects. It is certainly provoking that the ministry 2 1-2 per cent., I would desert the most aristocratic foresaw all these possibilities, and determined to mod-butcher that ever existed, and deal with one who el the iron while it was red and glowing.

tills it. The intercourse between landlord and tenant should be as strictly guarded as that of the sexes in Turkey. A funded duenna should be placed over every landed grandee. And then intimidation! Is intimidation confined to the aristocracy? Can any thing be more scandalous and atrocious than the intimidation of mobs? Did not the mob of Bristol occa sion more ruin, wretchedness, death, and alarm than all the ejection of tenants, and combinations against shopkeepers, from the beginning of the century? and did not the Scotch philosophers tear off the clothes of the tories in Mintoshire? or at least such clothes as the customs of the country admit of being worn?-and did not they, without any reflection at all upon the customs of the country, wash the tory voters in the river?

the squire, anused to be pointed at, and thinking that | sesses the land should never speak to the man who all Europe and part of Asia are thinking of him and his farmers, is driven to the brink of suicide and despair. That such things are done is not denied; that they are scandalous when they are done is equally true; but these are reasons why such acts are less frequent than they are commonly represented to be. In the same manner, there are instances of shopkeepers being materially injured in their business from the votes they have given; but the facts themselves, as well as the consequences, are grossly exaggerated. If shopkeepers lose tory they gain whig customers; and it is not always the vote which does the mischief, but the low vulgar impertinence, and the unbridled scurrility of a man who thinks that by dividing to mankind their rations of butter and of cheese he has qualified himself for legislation, and that he can hold the rod of empire because he has wielded the yard of mensuration. I detest all inquisition into political opinions, but I have very rarely seen a combination against any tradesman who modestly, quietly, and conscientiously took his own line in politics. But Brutus and butterman, cheesemonger and Cato, do not harmonize well together; good taste is offended, the coxcomb loses his friends, and general disgust is mistaken for combined oppression. Shopkeepers, too, are very apt to cry out before they are hurt: a man who sees after an election one of his customers buying a pair of gloves on the opposite side of the way, roars out that his honesty will make him a bankrupt, and the county papers are filled with letters from Brutus, Publicola, Hampden, and Pym.

Some sanguine advocates of the ballot contend that it would put an end to all canvassing: why should it do so! Under the ballot, I canvass (it is true) a person who may secretly deceive me. I cannot be sure he will not do so-but I am sure it is much less likely he will vote against me, when I have paid him all the deference and attention which a representative bestows on his constituents, than if I had totally neglected him to any other objections he may have against me, at least I will not add that of personal incivility.

Scarcely is any great virtue practised without some sacrifice; and the admiration which virtue excites seems to proceed from the contemplation of such sufferings, and of the exertions by which they are enThis interference with the freedom of voting, bad as dured: a tradesman suffers some loss of trade by it is, produces no political deliberation; it does not voting for his country; is he not to vote? he might make the tories stronger than the whigs, nor the whigs suffer some loss of blood in fighting for his country; is than the tories, for both are equally guilty of this spe- he not to fight? Every one would be a good Samari cies of tyranny; and any particular system of meas-tan, if he was quite sure his compassion would cost ures fails or prevails, much as if no such practice ex- him nothing. We should all be heroes, if it was not isted. The practice had better not be at all, but if for blood and fractures; all saints, if it were not for a certain quantity of the evil does exist, it is better the restrictions and privations of sanctity; all patriots, that it should be equally divided among both parties, if it were not for the losses and misrepresentations to than that it should be exercised by one for the depres- which patriotism exposes us. The ballotists are a set sion of the other. There are politicians always at a of Englishmen glowing with the love of England and white heat, who suppose that there are landed tyrants the love of virtue, but determined to hazard the most only on one side of the question; but human life has dangerous experiments in politics, rather than run the been distressingly abridged by the flood: there is no risk of losing a penny in defence of their exalted feeltime to spare, it is impossible to waste it upon such ings. senseless bigotry.

An abominable tyranny exercised by the ballot is, If a man is sheltered from intimidation, is it at all that it compels those persons to conceal their votes, clear that he would vote from any better motive than who hate all concealment, and who glory in the cause intimidation? If you make so tremendous an experi- they support. If you are afraid to go in at the front ment, are you sure of attaining your object? The door, and to say in a clear voice what you have to say, landlord has perhaps said a cross word to the tenant; go in at the back door, and say it in a whisper-but the candidate for whom the tenant votes in opposition this is not enough for you; you make me, who am to his landlord has taken his second son for a footman, bold and honest, sneak in at the back door as well as or his father knew the candidate's grandfather: how yourself: because you are afraid of selling a dozen or many thousand votes, sheltered (as the ballotists sup- two of gloves less than usual, you compel me, who pose) from intimidation, would be given from such have no gloves to sell, or who would dare or despise silly motives as these? how many would be given the loss, if I had, to hide the best feelings of my heart, from the mere discontent of inferiority? or from that and to lower myself down to your mean morals. It is strange simious schoolboy passion of giving pain to as if a few cowards who could only fight behind walls others, even when the author cannot be found out?-and houses, were to prevent the whole regiment from motives as pernicious as any which could proceed from showing a bold front in the field: what right has the intimidation. So that all voters screened by ballot would not be screened for any public good.

coward to degrade me who am no coward, and put me in the same shameful predicament with himself? If The radicals, (I do not use this word in any offen- ballot is established, a zealous voter cannot do justice sive sense, for I know many honest and excellent men to his cause; there will be so many false Hampdens, of this way of thinking), but the radicals praise and and spurious Catos, that all men's actions and motives admit the lawful influence of wealth and power. They will be mistrusted. It is in the power of any man to are quite satisfied if a rich man of popular manners tell me that my colours are false, that I declaim with gains the votes and affections of his dependants; but stimulated warmth, and canvass with fallacious zeal; why is not this as bad as intimidation? The real ob- that I am a tory, though I eall Russell for ever, or a ject is to vote for the good politician, not for the kind-whig, in spite of my obstreperous panegyrics of Peel. hearted or agreeable man: the mischief is just the It is really a curious condition that all men must imisame to the country whether I am smiled into a cor- tate the defects of a few, in order that it may not be rupt choice, or frowned into a corrupt choice, what is it to me whether my landlord is the best of landlords, or the most agreeable of men? I must vote for Joseph Hume, if I think Joseph more honest than the marquis. The more mitigated radical may pass over this, but the real carnivorous variety of the animal should declaim as loudly against the fascinations as against the threats of the great. The man who pos

known who have the natural imperfection, and who put it on from conformity. In this way, in former days, to hide the gray hairs of the old, every body was forced to wear powder and pomatum.

It must not be forgetten that, in the ballot, concealment must be absolutely compulsory. It would never do to let one man vote openly, and another secretly. You may go to the edge of the box, and say, ' I vote

for A.,' but who knows that your ball is not put in for B.? There must be a clear plain opportunity for telling an undiscoverable lie, or the whole invention is at an end. How beautiful is the progress of man!printing has abolished ignorance-gas put an end to darkness-steam has conquered time and distance-it remained for Grote and his box to remove the incumbrance of truth from human transactions. May we not look now for more little machines to abolish the other cardinal virtues.

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placed on the north wall, and starved for their hones. ty. Judges, too, suffer for their unpopularity-Lord Kilwarden was murdered, Lord Mansfield burnt down; but voters, forgetting that they are only trustees for those who have no vote, require that they themselves should be virtuous with impunity, and that all the penalties of austerity and Catonism should fall upon others. I am aware that it is of the greatest consequence to the constituent that he should be made acquainted with the conduct of his representative; but I maintain, that to know, without the fear of mistake, what the conduct of individuals has been in their fulfilment of the great trust of electing members of Parliament, is also of the greatest importance in the formation of the power of distinguishing between the bad and the good would be at an end.

To institute ballot, is to apply a very dangerons in. novation to a temporary evil; for it is seldom, but in very excited times, that these acts of power are complained of which the ballot is intended to remedy.There never was an instance in this country where parties were so nearly balanced; but all this will pass away, and, in a very few years, either Peel will swallow Lord John, or Lord John will pasture upon Peel; parties will coalesce, the Duke of Wellington and Viscount Melbourne meet at the same board, and the lion lie down with the lamb. In the mean time a serious and dangerous political change is resorted to for the cure of a temporary evil, and we may be cursed with ballot when we do not want it, and cannot get rid of it.

But if all men are suspected; if things are so contrived that it is impossible to know what men really think, a serious impediment is created to the formation of good public opinion in the multitude. There is a town (No. 1.) in which live two very clever and re-public opinion; and that, when men acted in the dark, spectable men, Johnson and Pelham, small tradesmen, men always willing to run some risk for the public good, and to be less rich, and more honest than their neighbours. It is of considerable consequence to the formation of opinion in this town, as an example, to know how Johnson and Pelham vote. It guides the affections, and directs the understandings, of the whole population, and materially affects public opinion in this town; and in another borough, No. 2., it would be of the highest importance to public opinion if it were certain how Mr. Smith, the ironmonger, and Mr. Rogers, the London carrier, voted; because they are both thoroughly honest men, and of excellent understanding for their condition of life. Now, the tendency of ballot would be to destroy all the Pelhams, Johnsons, Rogers's, and Smiths, to sow a universal mistrust, and to exterminate the natural guides and leaders of the people: political influence, founded upon honour and ancient honesty in politics, could not grow up under such a system. No man's declaration could get believed. It would be easy to whisper away the character of the best men; and to assert that, in spite of all his declarations, which are nothing but a blind, the romantic Rogers has voted on the other side, and is in secret league with our enemies.

Who brought that mischievous profligate villain into Parliament? Let us see the names of his real supporters. Who stood out against the strong and uplifted arm of power? Who discovered this excellent and hitherto unknown person? Who opposed the man whom we all know to be one of the first men in the country?' Are these fair and useful questions to be veiled hereafter in impenetrable mystery? Is this sort of publicity of no good as a restraint? Is it of no good as an incitement to and a reward for exertions? Is not public opinion formed by such feelings? and is it not a dark and demoralizing system to draw this veil over human actions, to say to the mass, be base, and you will not be despised; be virtuous, and you will not be honoured? Is this the way in which Mr. Grote would foster the spirit of a bold and indomitable people? Was the liberty of that people established by fraud? Did America lie herself into independence? Was it treachery which enabled Holland to shake off the yoke of Spain? Is there any instance since the beginning of the world where human liberty has been established by little systems of trumpery and trick?These are the weapons of monarchs against the people, not of the people against monarchs. With their own right hand, and with their mighty arm, have the people gotten to themselves the victory, and upon them may they ever depend; and then comes Mr. Grote, a scholar and a gentleman, and knowing all the histories of public courage, preaches cowardice and treachery to England; tells us that the bold cannot be free, and bids us seek for liberty by clothing ourselves in the mask of falsehood, and trampling on the cross of truth.*

If this shrinking from the performance of duties is to be tolerated, voters are not the only persons who would recur to the accommodating convenience of ballot. A member of Parliament, who votes against gov. ernment, can get nothing in the army, navy, or church, or at the bar, for his children or himself; they are

Mr. Grote is a very worthy, honest, and able man; and, if the world were a chess-board, would be an important politician.

If there is ballot there can be no scrutiny, the controlling power of Parliament is lost, and the members are entirely in the hands of returning officers.

An election is hard run-the returning officer lets in twenty votes which he ought to have excluded, and the opposite candidate is unjustly returned. I petition, and as the law now stands, the return would be amend ed, and I, who had the legitimate majority, should be seated in Parliament. But how could justice be done if the ballot obtained, and if the returning officer were careless or corrupt? Would you put all the electors upon their oath? Would it be advisable to accept any oath where detection was impossible? and could any approximation to truth be expected under such circumstances, from such an inquisition? It is true, the present committees of the House of Commons are a very unfair tribunal, but that tribunal may and will be mended; and bad as that tribunal is, nobody can be insane enough to propose that we are to take refuge in the blunders or the corruptions of 600 returning officers, 100 of whom are Irish.

It is certainly in the power of a committee, when incapacity or villany of the returning officer has produced an unfair return, to annul the whole election, and to proceed again de novo; but how is this just? or what satisfaction is this to me, who have unquestionably a lawful majority, and who ask of the House of Commons to examine the votes, and to place in their house the man who has combined the greatest number of suffrages? The answer of the House of Commons is,

One of you is undoubtedly the rightful member, but we have so framed our laws of election, that it is im possible to find out which that man is; the loss and penalties ought only to fall upon one, but they must fall upon both; we put the well-doer and the evil-doer precisely in the same situation; there shall be no elec tion;' and this may happen ten times running.

Purity of election, the fair choice of representatives, must be guarded either by the coercing power of the House of Commons exercised upon petitions, or it must be guarded by the watchful jealousy of opposite parties at the registrations; but if (as the radicals suppose) ballot gives a power of perfect concealment, whose interest is it to watch the registrations? If Í despair of distinguishing my friends from my foes, why should I take any trouble about registrations ?Why not leave every thing to that great primum mobile of all human affairs, the barrister of six years' standing?

The answer of the excellent Benthamites to all this is, 'What you say may be true enough in the present