-Well, it is notorious, that the people of this kingdom are not so represented as to tax themselves. The causes, which have led to this state of things, have been often pointed out. They are, indeed, well known; and we feel the sad, the fatal effects.How (for this is the only question that remains); how, then, shall we go to work to bring ourselves back to that state, in which it shall be truly said, that we are not taxed without our own consent? This is the question; and this question is answered in the Plan proposed by Sir Francis; the out-line of which plan I will now state in nearly his own words." I. "That all male inhabitants, being householders, subject to direct taxation in support of the state, church, and poor, be required to elect members to serve in "parliament.II. That each county "be subdivided according to its popula"tion; and each subdivision required to "elect one representative.—III. That "the votes be taken in each parish by the parish-officers; and all the elections "finished in one and the same day."IV. That the parish officers make the "returns to the Sheriff's Court to be "held for that purpose, at stated periods. " -V. That Parliaments be brought "back to a constitutional duration." tions choose their own Treasurer; Indeed, This, as the reader will perceive, is a mere out-line; but, here are all the great principles provided for. Taxation and Representation are here to go hand in hand. A House thus chosen would be the real representatives of the people, and would of course act for their good. As things now stand, a few wretches without principle, without property, and almost without shirts to their backs, are the choosers, nominally, of a great part of those, who have the disposal of our money, and who have the making of laws to govern us. One tenth part of every man's gross in come is now annually taken from him in one single tax; we know how great are the difficulties and distresses arising from this, added to all the other burdens laid upon us. And, is it not reasonable; sup-who, in another day, would make up the posing the constitution to say nothing at all about the matter; is it not reasonable that those who pay these enormous taxes, and endure the privations therefrom arising, should choose the persons, who are to watch over the expenditure of them? Gentlemen choose their own stewards; merchants choose their own factors; parishes choose their own Church Wardens and Overseers; all companies and associa general Return for the county, and transmit it to the Lord Chancellor, or whoever else ought to receive it; and thus would an election, through all the kingdom, take place with as little trouble and as little noise as the annual Easter Tuesday election of Church Wardens and Overseers. There would be none of that villainous oathtaking; none of that shameful drunkenness; none of those beastly scenes where pose this sort of Reform, that we should let in low people, men without any stake in the countryThis is a pretty impudent thing to say. Just as if the taking of the power of voting out of the hands of pot human nature is so degraded; we should see no hunks, speculating upon politics, drenching and gorging the most rascally part of the community, in order to get from them the sanction to plunder the honest and industrious; we should see no petti-wallopers and other vagabonds, who fogging Attornies, gallopping from town to town and from house to house, giving lessons of bribery and corruption, and that race, even more detestable than these, the electioneering parsons, would disappear from that earth to which they have so long been a plague and a curse, seeing that benefices in the Church could not, in futare, be the recompence of acts directly violating every principle of Christianity. We should hear none of those lying promises, now made by candidates to the voters; nor witness any of that base cajolery, used upon such occasions; and, which is of still greater consequence, we should hear no more of that bane of our country, called PARLIAMENTARY INTEREST, which, in plain English, means this: the trucking of the places and profits under government for votes given at elections, a traffic so common, and so little thought of, that we even hear people boasting that they carry it on. Is it, then any wonder, that our national affairs are conducted in the manner that they are? Is it any wonder, that we fail in our Expeditions? Is it any wonder, that so much imbecility and so much publicrobbery prevail? Then, again, the mischief which this hellish PARLIAMENTARY INTEREST does amongst the people is encrmous. How many families, who, had they never seen the face of a parliamentary speculator, would have been happy in the fruit of their industry, are now wasting away in poverty and expectancy? One great advantage of a Reform upon this plan would be, that it would, at once, sweep away all those Qualifications and Disqualifications, which have been introduced as palliatives of a vicious system, and which produce so much false-swearing and so many other detestable acts. Where is the man so much of a miscreant as not to be able to get what is called a Qualification to serve in parliament, as the prac tice now is? This is truly abominable, in the face of so many laws. But, what are the laws relating to elections? Just calculated to bind conscientious men, and to secure impunity to those, whose acts shew, that they are destitute of conscience. There is no danger that men without property would be elected, except in very rare instances. We are told, by those who op sell their votes, and restoring that power to the owners and occupiers of the land and the shops and the principal houses; just as if such a change would cause low men, men without estate, to be elected members. The raggamuffins, who now sell their votes to the boroughmonger, and the boroughmonger who re sells them, carry their perjury to the best market. They care not whether the purchaser be high or low, whether he have a real estate or an unpassed flemish account, whether his purchase money be his own or belongs in reality to the public; they care not who or what he is, or whether he come from India or from Hell.--Would it be thus; is it likely that it would be thus; nay, is it possible, that it could be thus, if the power of election was restored to all the owners and renters of the land and the principal houses, shutting out those who have, in fact, no property, and, amongst them, no small part of those wretches, whose bribed voices now return members to parliament? I ask, is this possible? Looking, for instance, towards my own home, where I know all those, who, in case of such Reform, would be voters, I see none who could be prevailed upon to vote for a low or worthless man. Such voters, (who would, for the most part, consist of the yeomen, the farmers, and the tradesmen) would naturally choose gentlemen of fortune and of good character. It is not in nature that they should make a different choice. The habits, the mind of men must be changed; we must suppose all the people of property in the nation to become possessed of a desire to degrade themselves, before we can suppose, that elections, after the manner proposed, would not produce a parliament composed of gentlemen of estate, of good character, and fair abilities. How, then, would such a change tend to the predominance of democracy? The great families would still have their influence, but would be unable to buy and sell the people. All estate, all wealth, but especially all real estate, must and would have its influence; and so it ought; but, it would not undermine and corrupt.In short, it is a most preposterous notion (a notion propagated by knaves for the purpose of scaring fools) that, by taking the power of electing from the worst men in the kingdom and giving it to the best men in the kingdom, we should be in danger of producing a bad choice of members, such a choice as would directly tend to the overthrow of the government. Is it to be believed; can any man bear to be told, that a majority of the people of property in England are not worthy to be trusted? Will any one say, that he believes, that a majority of the people of property in England, a majority of those who pay to Church and Poor, wish to overturn the government? No; neither Mr. Windham nor his new friend Mr. Yorke will say this, I think. Well, then, if they do not wish to overturn the government, why should they elect such men for representatives as would overturn it? Why should they?-It is useless to go on. The objection has been hatched by corruption, for the sake of deceiving the credulous and the timid. The supposition, on which it is grounded, is impudently false, those who start it being well assured, that the proposed Reform would restore to the throne its rightful dignity and prerogatives, and would pull down nothing but the boroughmonger faction. Let this plan be adopted, and there would be no need of any of those harsh and odious disqualifications that now exist. Supposing Excise-Officers, for instance, to be necessary, why should they not vote as well as other men of property? Why should they be shut out; why have a mark of opprobrium thus fixed upon them, merely because they are servants of the public appointed by the king? But, it is one of the curses of the boroughmonger system, the seat-selling system, the false-swearing system; it is one of the great curses of this system, that its notorious frauds, its flagrant robberies, its unbearable depredations upon the people, make us look upon all persons, employed under the government, as our enemies, or, at least, as having an interest inimical to our rights and liberties; and, upon this truly shocking notion those laws have been made, which shut out Excise Officers and others from the pale of elections. All these exclusions would, by the plan in contemplation, be done away for ever, and cordial harmony and mutual confidence would, after a long, long suspension, be once more restored between the government and the people. It is a constant trick with the seat-trafficking crew to cry out, that Reform would endanger the kingly government. They are a body unseen, but ever active. The wasting of the public money, in pensions and sinecures, of which we so often complain, proceeds from them, in reality, and not from the king. We see the king's minister always with a majority at his back; but, that majority is not secured without means.. I do not say, that it is purchased with cash upon the nail; that is no longer the fashion, as it appears to have been in Ireland, in the time of Swift, whose poem upon the subject, I have, by way of shewing how men wrote about parliaments in the days of our grandfathers, inserted below: no, that is no longer the fashion; but, it is notorious, that no minister can keep a majority without making his favour circulate amongst those, or, i at least, the relations and friends of those who vote with him. And, what a miserable thing is this? What a life must a minister lead, surrounded with such "friends?" Did the cares, thus created, leave him time to think of any thing else, he is prevented from doing, in many cases, what he would do; and, as to the king, what, short of an influence like this could ever have prevailed upon GEORGE III to set his hand to the grant to Mrs. For? I could mention many other acts; but this, I think, does surpass all others. What! King George the Third, in his old age, grant a pension to the very highest amount that the law permits him to go; to put his hand to a grant of such a pension to Mrs. Fox! Is there, in all England, one man who believes, that the king did that act voluntarily; and that it did not cost him many a pang? What feelings must those men have had, who thrusted such a grant under his hand; and, what a system must that be, which places a king in such a predicament? In short, I think, it cannot be doubted; I think that there is no man in his senses, who can doubt, that the Reform proposed would tend not less to the stability of the throne than to the happiness of the people; and, not only to the dry legal stability, but to the dignity and high feeling of the king and his family, who are now but too frequently confounded with those, from whom they should always be kept distinct. I have not time to extend these observations, and, it would, indeed, be of little use; for the bare stating, I think, of Sir Francis's Plan, together with just pointing out some of its effects, must be quite sufficient to convince any reasonable man, that this is what the nation now stands in need of; and, that the adoption of it, without loss of time, is necessary to prevent the catastrophe predicted by Lord Chatham, as stated in one of the passages, taken for a motto to the present Number. Perverse and self-interested men; men, who would as lief see their country enslaved from without, who would rather risk that event, and who would gladly see a military despotism established within; men, who would take either of these, sooner than yield their unjust pretensions, will spare nothing, of course, to prevent the adoption of a measure, like that now proposed, and to misrepresent the motives and to blacken the character of all those who stand forward in its support. But, still it must come; or misery unparalleled is England's doom. I have, since I last came to town, heard a person or twe observe, with, I thought, feelings of satisfaction, that," the people were nothing "against the soldiers." Nothing against the soldiers! What, then, is it supposed, that the government of England is to be maintained, and by military force, too, against the will of the people? A proposition not to be endured, under any circumstances; and, what shall we think of it, then, when applied to circumstances, wherein "the representatives of the people" are the object of military support?. Nothing against the soldiers!" It is painful to me, and it is really alarming to hear observations like these from persons of any consequence." Nothing!" Do you call it nothing to have caused all the Southern and Midland counties to have been drained of troops? Do you call it nothing to have caused an army of forty or fifty thousand men to be marched to London for the purpose of causing an order of" the "representatives of the people" to be obeyed. Do you call this nothing?- -But, I would seriously ask these persons, whether they think, that it will do to keep a military force constantly on foot for the support of the House? Whether they think, that such a thing can possibly last, for any length of time? Well, suppose then to answer in the affirmative; then I ask what will be the consequence, in case Buonaparté should, no matter where, effect a landing in this kingdom? What will then become of the military forceAnd, why should we be put to the expence of such a force? Why should the struggle between the House and the People be kept up? What is the cause ? Why should not harmony be restored; and why should not the House regain the love of the people by adopting their unanimous mea wishes (as far as they are not immediately interested in support of the borough system) for a Reform? Not a sure, called a" Reform," but which, in fact, would be no more than a measure for legalizing bribery and corruption; not a reform that shall merely regulate the market for seats; not a "Reform," which shall make us purchase the fee simple of false oaths, the venders being aware that they are not worth two years purchase; not a "Reform" that shall make any sort of compromise with corruption, and especially a "Reform” that shall take the boroughs out of the hands of the nobility and transfer them to the ready-rhinoed stock-jobbers: no, none of these: no sham "Reforms;" nothing to amuse and cajole; nothing, in substance and effect, short of the proposition of Sir Francis. And why should we not have this Reform? Why should we be discussing the question, whether the House can, or cannot, be maintained, for a permanency, by a military force? Alas! What a question is this for Englishmen seriously to discuss! It never can long be a question. I agree perfectly in the closing sentiment of the Westminster Remonstrance, namely, "that nothing but a Reform can save us from "military despotism;" but, I will not believe, that, with all the good-sense and all the public spirit that are now so visible in the people, the measure of Reform can possibly fail. I look forward to its accomplishment with nearly as much confidence as I look forward to the return of the seasons. I see few things that can retard it, and nothing by which it can be finally prevented. The recent occurrences have not created, but n.erely strengthened, the general wish for Reform; Reform is the object which alone is worthy of our anxious attention; and, in all our endeavours to work conviction in the public mind, we, never forgetting the Champion of our cause, should begin and end with SIR FRANCIS AND REFORM. WM. COBBETT. Westminster, 18th April, 1810. P. S. 19th April.—I have just taken a glance at the Debate upon Lord Ossulston's motion, relating to the murder commirted by the Life-guards' man (a happy enough association!); and,. I see, that another murder has been found to have been committed by another of these Lifeguarders, in the city; but, on thes" I must postpone further notice till my next. 609] APRIL 21, 1810.-Swift's Description of the Legion-Club. COBBETT'S Drive them down on every scull, While the DEN OF THIEVES is full; Parliamentary Debates: Quite destroy the harpies nest; The Fifteenth Volume of the above Work is in the Press, and will be published with all proper dispatch. All Communications will be carefully attended to; but it is particularly requested that they may be forwarded as early as possible. THE SIXTH VOLUME OF COBBETT'S For divines allow, that God Yet should Swift endow the schools, Parliamentary History Since the house is like to last, OF ENGLAND, Comprising the Period from the Accession of Queen Anne, in 1702, to the Accession of King George the First, in 1714, is ready for Delivery. SWIFT'S CHARACTER, PANEGYRIC, AND DESCRIPTION OF THE LEGION-CLUB. As I stroll the city, oft' I See a building large and lofty, Not a bow-shot from the College; 1736. Half the globe from sense and knowledge: Plac'd against the Church direct, Could I from the building's top Crack the stones, and melt the lead; Let the royal grant be pass'd, Let them when they once get in, Let them, ere they crack a louse, Come assist me, Muse obedient! Let us try some new expedient; Shift the scene for half an hour, Time and place are in thy power. Thither, gentle Muse, conduct me ; I shall ask, and you instruct me. See, the Muse unbars the gate! Hark, the Monkeys, how they prate! All ye gods who rule the soul! Styx, through Hell whose waters roll; Let me be allow'd to tell, What I heard in yonder Hell. Near the door an entrance gapes, Crowded round with antic shapes, Poverty, and Grief, and Care, Causeless Joy, and true Despair; Discord periwigg'd with snakes, See the dreadful strides she takes! U SUPPLEMENT to No. 16. VOL. XVII.-Price Is. [610 |