extensive correspondence with the committees of associations formed in various counties; and shortly afterward, finding that his ideas of the legal duration of Parliaments did not coincide with those of several of the committees, he forwarded a printed circular letter to the petitioning counties, cities, and towns, addressed to their respective general meetings; in which he strenuously maintained the doctrine of "annual Parliaments, or more often if need be," in opposition to the proposal which had issued from the general meeting of the county of York, under the influence of the Rockingham party, in favour of triennial Parliaments "Alpha Among his Manuscripts appears an betical List of Public Meetings for Parliamentary Reformation, to which Books were sent, and Letters written to each Committee, by G. S." The list contains the names of forty-one general meetings, and their respective chairmen-such was his unrelaxing assiduity, in the prosecution of every measure which he conceived to be conducive to public good t. *This letter, and the several tracts last mentioned, were likewise collected at a later period (1797), and printed, with some others, under the general head mentioned in a note in p. 264, viz. " Legal Means of Political Reformation."— See Catalogue. The interest attached at all times to this subject, will, perhaps, justify the record of the following "List of Public Meetings for Parliamentary Reformation." Berks....................... General Richard Smith. The effect of his protest was different in different Bristol.......... Bridgewater. Bucks.... John Chubb, Esq. Cambridge............................ Thomas Bond, Esq., Mayor. Cambridgeshire......... Duke of Rutland, and Lord Duncannon, Chairman. Carnarvon........ Sir Thomas Kyffin, Chairman. Chester County......... The Hon. Mr. Tollermache. Derbyshire...... Nigel Bowyer Cresley, Esq., High Sheriff. Denbighshire............ Francis Gyffin, Esq. Devonshire....... Dorset......... Flint.. ...... Sir Thomas Acland, and Lord Viscount Courtney, Chairman. Anthony Chapman, Esq. The Rev. Mr. Randolph Ekins. The Dean of St. Asaph, the Rev. William General Meeting of Sir Richard Rycroft. Gloucestershire......... Sir George Onesiphorus Paul. ......... Hampshire......... Hertfordshire.. Herefordshire............ Thomas Phillips, Esq., Chairman. Kerby, Esq. Scott, Esq. Huntingdon .............. Richard Reynolds, Esq. Kent. London. ............................... Lord Mahon, and James Sharp. Robinson, Esq. John Searle, Esq., Chairman. (No Meeting.) Somerset.... .......... The Hon. Colonel Somerville. Thomas Maynard, Esq., Chairman of the General Meeting. Mr. Green; Duke of Richmond. Mr. Bourdieu. Honourable Charles Fox. John Awdry, Esq. Gregory Elsley, Esq. counties; all, however, accepting his communications with friendly candour*. In the city of London his opinions had obtained considerable influence, owing to the co-operation of his brother James; and the success which there attended them, probably led him to the more extensive measure of a circular letter †. * His own memorandums notice some partial effects of this correspondence. MS. 1780. January 1.-Sent to the chairman of the York⚫shire committee the little tract "On a more Equal Represen'tation of the People;" also, an extract from my " Declaration ' of the People's Right to Annual Parliaments." On the 21st, at a meeting of the committee, they were presented to all the 'members present. On the same day, several resolutions were 'passed, to which were added two articles, occasioned by the ' receipt of those books-viz. to promote regulations for 'shortening the duration of Parliaments, and for obtaining a 'more equal representation of the people. On the 27th, received a letter from the chairman, thanking me, by the ' desire of the committee of sixty-one, for the tract, in a very 'handsome manner. 'I received thanks also from several other county committees ' afterwards, on the same account. 17th January.-Received a letter from Wm. Morland, Esq., ' one of the committee for Surrey, informing me of the objec'tions which had been made by some persons to Annual Parliaments. 22d March. I wrote to Mr. Morland a full answer to all 'those objections.' + MS. April 8, 1780.-I drew up a warning against the Yorkshire proposition for triennial elections, and also against the aristocratical interest of both parties, in opposing the 'ancient parliamentary constitution of this kingdom. This warning my brother, James Sharp, read to the City Committee ' at Guildhall, which prevented their adopting the Yorkshire Of the only two remaining notes which he has left on the subject, the first has been already alluded to: - MS. 17th April.-Called on Sir Grey Cooper, Secretary of the Treasury, to urge the pressing 'necessity for the Ministry to adopt the true means ' of political reformation, now that they had a 'majority against them ;-that a change of measures ' would give more real satisfaction to the nation than 'a change of men. 'To this he replied, "he did not conceive that "annual Parliaments ever were the constitution, "but only that a Parliament should sit every year "" once." 'I told him, the original writ demonstrated the contrary.' MS. 25th April, 1782.-Alderman Townsend ' and Lord Fitzmaurice (son of the Earl of Shelburne) called here, and assured me that a Com'mittee of Parliament would be appointed, to 'proposition, for a term not exceeding three years; and my 'brother James procured a strongly worded resolution in favour ' of annual Parliaments, and more often if need be. 14th. I formed a Circular Letter to several County Meetings, in twelve propositions against triennial elections. Gave a copy of it to my brother, James Sharp, for the Common 'Council.' 'consider the means of Parliamentary Reformation, ' and to print their Reports for consideration another year *' Some few minutes, at the periods of 1778, 1781, and 1782, give a faint air of probability to the notion of Mr. S. having been authorised, on the part of America, in the efforts which he made to procure a reconciliation between England and her * Mr. Sharp's opinions on the legal reform of Parliament were noticed a few years since in the House of Lords, as a subject of regret, on account of the sanction which they appeared to give to some delusive notions of the present time. They will, however, be found on examination to have been formed on essentially different grounds. In a letter (on the duration of Parliaments) which he addressed to a Member of one of the Committees above spoken of, and which forms one of the distinct tracts in his work, "On the Legal Means of Political Reformation," his candour was, as usual, predominant. "If I have made any error," he says," or misrepresentation in either of my tracts, let the objectors point it out, and they will find me not backward to submit to truth, for that is my duty to God and man." His arguments in those tracts appear wholly founded on points of fact; and if he was mistaken in those points, a demonstration of that error would have been all that was necessary to detach him wholly from his side of the question. In every questionable point, his admiration of the English Constitution dictated to him research into the positive doctrine of the law, and adherence solely to what he believed to be so ascertained. His principle was highly laudable: there is no safer guide to the assertion of our public rights, than the study of their history. |