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nificant boroughs, emphatically styled the rotten part of our constitution, should be lopped off, and the electors in them thrown into the counties; and the rich, populous, trading towns, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, and others, be permitted to send deputies to the great council of the nation. The disfranchising of the mean, venal, and dependent boroughs, would be laying the axe to the root of corruption and treasury influence, as well as aristocratical tyranny. We ought equally to guard against those who sell themselves, or whose lords sell them. Burgage tenures, and private property in a share of the legislature, are monstrous absurdities in a free state, as well as an insult to common sense. I wish, sir, an English parliament to speak the free, unbiassed sense of the body of the English people, and of every man among us, of each individual, who may be justly supposed to be comprehended in a fair majority.

The meanest mechanic, the poorest peasant and daylabourer, has important rights respecting his personal liberty, that of his wife and children, his property, however inconsiderable, his wages, his earnings, the very price and value of each day's hard labour, which are in many trades and manufactures regulated by the power of parliament. Every law relative to marriage, to the protection of a wife, sister, or daughter, against violence and brutal lust, to every contract or agreement with a rapacious or unjust master,* interest the manufacturer, the cottager, the servant, as well as the rich subjects of

There was a remarkable instance of the force of these observations during the late scarcity, when at the very time that it was declared in the house of commons that they had no right to meddle with the monopoly of corn, because it was interfering with the freedom of trade, they were enforcing certain regulations, to prevent the combinations of journeymen and other labourers to raise the price of their wages; as if a man had less right to dispose of his labour than of his property as he thought fit; that is, they had no right to prevent combinations of the rich to starve the poor; but they had a

the state. Some share, therefore, in the power of mak ing those laws, which deeply interest them, and to which they are expected to pay obedience, should be referred even to this inferior, but most useful set of men in the community; and we ought always to remember this important truth acknowledged by every free statethat all government is instituted for the good of the mass of the people to be governed: that they are the original fountain of power, and even of revenue, and in all events the last resource. The various instances of partial injustice throughout this kingdom will likewise become the proper subjects of enquiry in the course of the bill before the committee, such as the many freeholds in the city of London, which are not represented in this house. These freeholds being within the particular jurisdiction of the city, are excluded from giving a vote in the county of Middlesex, and by act of parliament only liverymen can vote for members of parliament, in London. These, and other particulars, I leave. I mention them now to shew the necessity of a new regu lation of the representation of this kingdom. My enquiries, sir, are confined to the southern part of the island. Scotland I leave to the care of its own careful and prudent sons. I hope they will spare a few moments from the management of the arduous affairs of England and America, which at present so much engross their time, to attend to the state of representation among their own people, if they have not all emigrated to this warmer and more fruitful climate. I am almost afraid, the forty-five Scottish gentlemen among us represent themselves. Perhaps in my plan for the improvement of the representation of England, almost all the natives of Scotland may be included. I shall only remark,

right to prevent combinations of the poor to keep themselves from starving" in other words, they are impotent to save, powerful to destroy; and equally by their power and impotence, thy aggran dize themselves, and weaken and impoverish whomsoever they please." Burke.

that the proportion of representation between the two countries cannot be changed. In the twenty-second article of the treaty of union, the number of forty-five is to be the representative body in the parliament of Great Britain for the northern part of this island. To increase the members of England and Wales beyond the number of which the English parliament consisted at the period of that treaty, in 1706, would be a breach of public faith, and a violation of a solemn treaty between two independent states. My proposition has for its basis the preservation of that compact, the proportional share of each kingdom in the legislative body remaining exactly according to its establishment. The monstrous injustice and glaring partiality of the present representation of the commons of England, has been fully stated, and is, I believe, almost universally acknowledged, as well as the necessity of our recurring to the great leading principle of our free constitution, which declares this house of parliament to be only a delegated power from the people at large. Policy, no less than justice, calls our attention to this momentous point; and reason, not custom, ought to be our guide in a business of this consequence, where the rights of a free people are materially interested. Without a true representation of the commons our constitution is essentially defective, our parliament is a delusive name, a mere phantom, and all other remedies to recover the pristine purity of the form of government established by our ancestors, would be ineffectual; even the shortening the period of parliaments, and a place and pension bill, both which I highly approve, and think absolutely necessary. I therefore flatter myself, sir, that I have the concurrence of the house with the motion which I have now the honour of making, "That leave be given to bring in a bill for a just and equal representation of the people of England in parliament.

VOL. II.

20

MR. DUNNING,

(Afterwards Lord Ashburton,)

Was born at Ashburton, in Devonshire, in 1731. After studying some time under his father, who was an attorney, he entered at the temple, and on being called to the bar, soon rose to eminence in his profession: he obtained a seat in parliament, and became one of the most distinguished members of opposition at this period. He died 1782. The following is the most brilliant display of his eloquence that I have met with; which I was at some pains to pick out from among the shreds and patches that remain of his speeches. His legal knowledge is said to have been very great: but as this is a subject which I do not understand, I must leave it to the lawyer to pronounce his panegyric in "good set terms " of their own.

On the Bill for punishing Persons suspected of being

Pirates.

He said he would not take up the time of the house, in debating the bill upon legal grounds: for where there was no reason or justice, there could be no law. Law supposes a rule, which, while it prescribes a mode of conduct, respecting either the public or individuals, defines the offence, annexes the punishment, and, besides, especially provides and directs all the intermediate steps between the charge and conviction, but more particularly, the measure and quantity of the punishment. What does this bill say? No crime is imputable, no examination of innocence or criminality is to follow. The punishment is inflicted, in the first instance, on the ground of mere suspicion.

A man may be suspected; any man may be suspected; but his guilt or innocence is entirely out of the

question; no inquiry whatever is to be made into either, as long as the present bill continues in force. He confessed there were times, in which it had been found extremely necessary to suspend the habeas corpus act; such, in particular, were two late most unnatural and unprovoked rebellions in Scotland: but then there was a necessity stated. That necessity was not denied; it was, indeed, notorious: but would any man say that was the case at present? Is there a rebellion within the kingdom? Is there a pretender claiming the crown as his legal and constitutional inheritance; and that at the expence of both our civil and religious rights-the very essence, as well as the form of our constitution? No such thing: the idea is ridiculous. Are we, on the other hand, afraid that the people of America will pass the Atlantic on a bridge, and come over and conquer us? And that their partisans lie in ambush about Brentford or Colnbrook? That, it may be presumed, will be hardly contended, even in the present rage for assertion without proof, and conclusion without argument. No, this bill, I plainly perceive, has been manufactured for other purposes. It can be stretched, and twined, and twisted, by the ingenuity of my worthy and learned friend over the way (Mr. Attorney General,) or by some of his brethren equally ingenious, to affect and reach men who never saw America, or, peradventure, the high seas, as strongly, at least as efficaciously, for the mere temporary purposes of prosecution and revenge, as if they had been caught in arms-in open rebellion.

If even ministers had contented themselves with this first ebullition of their fiery, irresistible zeal for persecution, the public might look on, with a mixture of contempt and astonishment, at the insolence and folly of the attempt; but when they go a step farther, and venture to couple it with a power untried hitherto in the annals of this country, a power including in it the most bloody species of proscription. I confess I begin to feel

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