they considered it as a measure that ought to be adopted. He was happy that in the course of his studies, (if any thing to which he applied himself might be allowed to claim the distinguished appellation,) he should have met the public spirit and the public voice on its way. Their ideas had been the same, and therefore he thought himself justified in signing the petitions, and in offering to the consideration of the House such thoughts as arose in his mind on the subject. The people had applied to the House, and though they had not agreed in any one system of complaint, or plan of reform, yet they had all stated either errors or calamities in the administration of government, and expence, which certainly ought to be rectified, although they did not agree in the means. He had not gone along with them in all their ideas, because he did not conceive that they were all practicable or proper. Something good there was in all the petitions; and though they had prepared various plans, and had differed about the mode of redress, there were two things in which they had all agreed; and those were, that retrenchment and economy were necessary, and that the influence of the crown was become dangerous, and alarming in its extent. The last object was of the most serious importance; for it was by means of this influence that profusion and extravagance were inIt was the creating and created power; influence and profusion were mutually dependent on each other, and by their joint force and assistance were supported and increased. They declared the necessity of diminishing that influence, which had rendered the two Houses of parliament accessary to the power of the crown, instead of being a balance against it.

creased.

1

It was the duty of a wise legislature to listen to the applications and the complaints of the people. Like the skilful physician, they were to feel the pulse of the patient, and having discovered the seat and the nature of the disorder, they were to apply the remedy. They were not to withhold it, because the people were patient under suffering; or because they were clamorous. They were to

nstitution and the their motions, they When the

per season.

Couse, there were general

ery county and city of the and grave in their deportment; al: some men in that House hem with illegality in their proetings tended to disorder and conwholesome, and unfit to be suffered. to any refutation of a charge which he unded and ridiculous, he would only say, y were so or not, it became a wise and prueto attend to the reality and the body of the and not to the form or the irregularity in which This was their duty as well as their prudence y; and in attending to this, they would choose

dissipate complaint by removing the evils, than veting the heats arising therefrom. The difference seen a wise and an intemperate government was, that bone administered justice in mercy, without being inRuenced by the petulance, or disturbed by the clamours of the subject; it was not heated by the violence of resentment, nor rendered severe and obdurate by the patience of suffering. An intemperate government, on the contrary, entered into all the heats, alarms, and suspicions of the people; they whipped the infant till it cried, and whipped it for crying. When the people were submissive, the government was cruel; when they were violent, it was cowardly.

In consequence of the petitions laid upon their table, two attempts had been made to carry into execution the wishes of the people. An honourable friend of his (Colonel Barré) had introduced a plan to correct the abuses in the public expenditure, by which the money would be brought to a more speedy account, and be applied more economically to the public service. This plan, founded in wisdom and the fairest probability, was superseded by a scheme of the noble lord in the blue ribbon, who thought that a tri

bunal erected by himself, dependent on himself, and paid by himself, would answer the purpose of correcting the abuses complained of, better than any other system of regulation: and by this hopeful expedient he took from parliament their ancient, hereditary, inherent right of controuling and checking the public expenditure. He trusted, however, that the House had divested themselves of this right but for a time, and that they would, on reflection, see that they had parted with a great constitutional benefit, for a chimerical, unsubstantial good. He reprobated the conduct of the noble lord in this respect, as at once delusive and ungentleman-like. The second attempt to carry into execution the wishes of the people, had fallen upon his shoulders: it was a plan for an economical reform of many abuses in the civil department of government, and for retrenching the influence of the crown, maintained by the emoluments of useless offices, and of unmerited pensions. The House knew the circumstances and the fate of that plan. It consisted of five bills, two of which were allowed to be printed, and consequently the young members, as well as the old, were acquainted with them. The first was a bill for an economical reform of the public expence, by abolishing useless offices and unmerited pensions. The second was a bill for the better regulation of the civil-list revenue and expenditure. These two were printed and known. The other three were objects of the same nature, all forming parts of the comprehensive plan of general reform. His object was twofold; a saving in the public expences, and a reduction of the influence of the crown,

This reform he endeavoured to effect, not arbitrarily, piece-meal, and at random, but upon certain principles by which the different particulars, in which he endeavoured to effect a reformation, would be connected into one system, which should grow up by degrees to greater perfection, and be productive of still increasing benefits. He conceived that it was necessary to rescind unmerited pensions, to abolish useless places both in the court and in the state, and to inspect and controul the whole civil list. By the

scheme he had proposed, there would arise a saving to the public of 200,cool. annually, at least. But what he valued more than all this saving, was the destruction of an undue influence over the minds of sixty members of parliament in both Houses.

The minister was pleased to receive the proposition with approbation. He paid compliments to the principle, and opposed it by detail. At first, crowded houses were seen in every stage of the business, and there was an appearance of conviction on the minds of men: they had no objection to the abstract and general propositions, but when they came down to specific reform, they left him and his cause. The squeamishness of the House was such, that after swallowing those parts of the plan for which something might have been said, in respect to the use, the shew, the antiquity, or the respect, they objected to others, for which the most ingenious advocate could not advance an argument. They first dwindled off from one question, and then silently stole away from another, till at last the whole was permitted to moulder and shrink imperceptibly from the view, and he was obliged, after much fatigue, and no success, to give it up, with the mortifying reflection, that his own labours, and those of the House, had produced no benefit to his country.

He was fully aware that there were only two causes that could contribute to the success of a general plan of reform. The first and the most natural and easy was the approbation and the support of the minister. When public reform became a measure of state, and the sovereign was interested in the retrenchment of extravagance, then it became easy and secure. The other cause and occasion of success was the spirit and the perseverance of the people: when they displayed the grave and rigorous spirit of determination, and soberly applied to their representatives for the reform, which they conceived to be necessary; then it was reasonable to expect that their virtuous resolution would communicate vigour to their representatives, and animate them to their duty.

He thought it necessary to state this to the House, as a justification of himself in bringing forward the plan; for nothing could be so ridiculous and romantic as a reformer without probability and prospect. He stated, therefore, those two grounds to justify the prudence of his attempt; since, though he was not assisted by the approbation of the minister, he was seconded and supported by the spirit and perseverance of the people. At that time he was so entrenched by the petitions of the people, that he could not raise his eyes and discover the enemy that lay on the other side; now, indeed, the entrenchments were removed, the breast-work was taken away, and the enemy might view him from the top of the head to the buckles in his shoes, and he could see his enemy arrayed and armed against him. The question therefore was, whether, though it was right in the first instance, so defended, and so supported, it was right now? Whether he committed a rash and imprudent act now in bringing forward the same plan again? He asserted, that there was no imprudence in the undertaking, because there was no change in the opinion of the people. Their sentiments were undoubtedly the same, though they had not renewed their applications to the House. They might entertain the same notions of the necessity, of the expediency, of the virtue of such a reform, though they had not in the same anxious and eager manner presented their ideas upon it to the House. He believed that many gentlemen present were well convinced of the temper and the inclinations of their constituents: and though some noble lord, with a blue ribbon, on the other side of the way, remarkable for his wit and humour, might be inclined to indulge his disposition on the present occasion, and exclaim, "A fine mover of a popular bill; you who were rejected by your old constituents, and by all the people of England at a general election, and who owe your seat to my courtesy; you, to be sure, must be a fine mover of a popular bill!" From this insinuation it might be argued, that the people of England were disinclined to the reformation proposed; that his old constituents, in par