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by this victory, and the feducing dominion of venal influence ftole upon us in its ftead, beftowing a more fatal authority than ever exifted in the moft arbitrary periods of government. The crown, inftead of being balanced and curbed in this houfe, had, during the greater part of this century, erected its ftandard within thofe walls, and thrown the privileges of the people into the fcale of the prerogative, to govern the nation at pleafure. So far was the houfe of commons from being any controul upon it, that it was the great engine of its power. Appearing to act with the confent of the people, through their reprefentatives, yet in fact carrying on a fyftem which the most abfolute prince in our history could not have faftened upon England for centuries paft. The celebrated judge Blackftone, with all his leanings to the crown, had confeffed, that fuch a fyftem could not have been intended by our patriot ancestors, who ftruggled to curb the prerogative, but by an unaccountable want of forefight had established a principle more dangerous in its ftead. So faid lord Chatham, fir G. Saville, and lord Camden; fo, laftly, faid the right honourable gentleman himfelf (Mr. Pitt), and he would not have faid fo in vain, had he honourably perfevered in that glorious courfe, which was the pledge and promife of his youth to his country and to the univerfe. Mr. Erskine declared, that he did not bring this to the memory of the houfe for the purpofe of perfonal infult and mortification, but to add the authority of the minifter's understanding to the other great ones he had cited. He begged the house to judge of his opinion then, as it ftands on record" Whatever al

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terations time may have introduced, this character can never be suftained unlefs the house of commons be made to bear some stamp of the actual difpofition of the people at large. It would be an evil more natural and tolerable, that it should be infected with every epidemical phrenfy of the people, as this would indicate fome confanguinity, fome fympathy of nature with their conftituents, rather than be wholly unmoved by their opinions and feelings. By this want of fympathy they would cease to be a house of commons; for it is not the derivation of the power of that house from the people which makes it, in a diftinct fenfe, their reprefentative. For the king is the reprefentative of the people, fo are the lords, and fo are the judges; all are their trustees as well as the commons, because no power is given for the fole fake of the holder; and, although goverument certainly is an inftitution of divine authority, yet its forms, and the perfons who adminifter it, originate from the people. A popular origin cannot, therefore, be a popular reprefentative, which belongs equally to all parts of government, and in all forms. The virtue, fpirit, and effence of a house of commons confift in its being the express. image of the feelings of the nation. It

was not inftituted to be a controul upon the people, as of late it had been taught, but a controul for them. A vigilant and jealous eye over executory and judicial magiftracy an anxious care of public, money- an ear open to public complaint-thefe are the true characteristics of an houfe of com

mons.

But an addreffing boufe of commons, and a petitioning nation; a boufe of commons full of confidence, when the nation is plunged in defpair: in the utmoft harmony with minifters

whom

whom the people regard with abhor rence; who vote thanks when the public opinion calls upon them for impeachment; who are eager to grant, when the general voice demands reckoning and account; who in all disputes between the people and adminifration decide against the people; robe punish their diforders, but refufe to inquire into their provocations, this is an unnatural, a monftrous ftate of things in this conflitution." "And this (continued Mr. Erfkine) is the degraded and difgraceful state of this affembly at this moment. There was a time, when the right honourable gentleman admitted this to be the truth. He confeffed, during the American war, what he now denies, in order to maintain the caufe of his own war. It had been faid, that the American was at first the war of the people; it was fo, as every act of government would be popular which began from the people's repréfentatives, inftead of the crown. The crown fecures all the men of influence, property, and confideration in parliament, and they carry the people with them until they are brought at laft to their fenfes by calamity and impending ruin. By the crown having in its hands the management of our mighty revenue, together with the manner in which the members of the house were elected, the house of commons had totally loft its original office and character as a balance aginft the crown. By the concurrence of accidents, rather than by the operation of permanent caufes, great events of the world were brought to pafs. The feeds of reformation came up at firft but flowly, but they had been carefully gathered and re-fown by the right honourable gentleman himself." That which a man foweth shall he alfo reap." It was

in vain, at the head of a corrupt government, that he now endeavoured to reprefs the doctrines which himself had propagated, or to extinguish the popularity of a reform in parliament, without which he had himself folemnly maintained that the liberties of this nation were undone. The only cure for the evils of government was, to make it what it had been in the days of our fathers, when it preferved the freedom of the people, and was crowned with their love and veneration. Upon that found principle, Mr. Grey had brought forward his former motion in the year 1793, which Mr. Erfkine faid he confidered it his duty to second, as he was now feconding the motion of this night; that they then thought as they thought yet, that the only mode of giving a fafe direction to a fpirit turbulent in the demand of liberty, was to give to Englishmen the fubftantial bleff ings of their own government. The fureft antidote against those visionary and dangerous theories which conftantly fpring up from the heat of revolutionary movements, was to hold out to the people the real advantages which the British conftitution it its native purities was calculated to beftow-to raise a standard, around which the lovers of English liberty might proudly rally, which would fecure allegiance, not by terror (which always fails in the moment of peril), but by the enjoyment of folid happinefs, by the return of lenient laws, of perfonal fecurity, and the poffeffion of the fruits of their own industry, which now were squeezed to the very husks by the grinding machinery of an overwhelming revenue. This was the propofition fet forth, and rejected. The right honourable gentleman, not contented with aP 3

poftatifing

poftatifing from the principles he had often profeffed, refifted them in a fpirit and language of the lof tieft pride and arrogance, which had fince received their juft rebuke in difgrace and humiliation but unfortunately this once great nation had alfo been humbled and degraded. The caufe of reform was to be put down, and all who maintained it were to be ftigmatifed, perfecuted, and oppreffed. The reformers had mixed with their caufe an enthusiasm for the liberties of France, and for that reafon the liberties of France were to be crushed. But the infolence with which the changes of the rif ing world were denounced within thofe walls, was an awful leffon to mankind. It had taught us, that there was an arm fighting against the oppreffors of freedom, ftronger than any arm of flesh, and that the great progreffions of the world, in fpite of the confederacies of power and the confpiracies of corruption, moved on with a fteady pace, and would arrive in the end at a glorious confummation. The object of minifters, it feems, was to maintain the fubordination of the laws, to uphold public credit, and preferve the regular fyftem of things. What had been the confequence? In this new mode of fupporting monachicaleftablishments, they had abfolutely changed and were hourly changing into republican eftabiifhments the whole face of the earth; in fup. port of public credit, they had broke the bank; in purfuit of public order they were driving Ireland, as America formerly was driven, to feek emancipation in the arms of France; and if the prefent fyftem was not overturned, England would fhortly be what Ireland was."

We regret that it is not within the limits of this work to prefent

to our readers the whole of Mr. Erfkine's fpeech; the fubftance of its remaining part was an examination whether the plan propofed by Mr. Grey was likely to produce the practical benefits we defired; and if it was, whether the prefent was a fit moment for making any alteration in the conflitution of our government? Refpecting the former, Mr. Erfkine was clearly of opinion that it would be beneficial; the house of commons, he faid, ought to emanate from the people, and this plan attained the object with fafety; the representation of land would continue, only be more equally extended and widely dif fufed. No good reafon could now be affigned for excluding copy" holders from the right of voting; their eftates only differed from freeholds in the mode of conveyance, and the privileges of lords were no longer what they had been in feu. dal times. They were not privi leges of property, but merely connected with authenticity of title. Leafeholders of a certain value, and for a certain term which amounts to property, were in the fame fituation. Inhabitants and householders paying fcot and lot, through all their ranks and gradations, completed the fyftem of rational reprefentation. How could a people be better defcribed? Who would pretend to fay, that the mafters of families, houfeholders, every one of whom had fome relation, fome tie, fome members of a little circle round his fire-fide to whom he was attached, had no ftake in the public fare, and were unworthy to enjoy political rights? Such a body of conftituents would, to a confiderable extent, remove the difgraceful practices which elections now exhibited. Suffrages were fometimes bartered for money, for a place, for a ribband,

a ribband, for the moft trifling confiderations To remedy thefe abuses, make the electors vote each in their particular parishes: they would then come with calmnefs to exercife the most important of political privileges, and weigh maturely upon whom they were to devolve the guardianship of their civil rights. Such a plan would have all the advantages of univerfal fuffrage with out any of its defects; properly speaking, indeed, it was a univerfal right of fuffrage, becaufe all who were not included in it might be faid, without a figure, to be virtually reprefented. All the people in their various degrees were reprefented, if not perfonally, in the perfons of their fathers or their neareft kindred, and bound in every feeling as well as every intereft which arose out of social existence to fup. port an affembly proceeding from fuch an univerfal national will; whereas the perfonal inclufion of every individual might give an undue influence inconfiftent with the true fpirit of independent elections. Mankind have a right to be wellgoverned, but they can have no right to infift upon any mode incompatible with the very end propofed. The fyftem laid before the houfe was practicable; it had no tendency to diforganife fociety, or to shake the establishments of the nation.

Mr. Erskine then difcuffed his laft point" was the prefent a moment fit for making any altera tion in the government." He profelfed to think it fingularly and critically feasonable, and that thofe who denied it would lay the fame hold on profperity if the fame motion were propofed on the return of peace. That which men were determined to oppofe from a cor. rupt interest in abufe, they would

equally oppofe at all times, though diffimilar occafions would be alternately ufed as pretences. It had been the opinion of the celebrated Mr. Burke (whofe extraordinary talents had fince been fo mifem; loyed in fupporting prejudices, and diffufing errors which had been fatal to all Europe)-it had once been his opinion, that the criterion which more than all the reft diftinguifhed a wife government from an administration weak and improvident was this, well to know when and in what manner to yield what it was impoffible to keep. Early reformations were amicable compromifes with a friend in power. Late were terms impofed upon a conquered enemy. Early reformations are made in cool blood; late are made in a state of inflammation. In fuch a ftate the people fee in government nothing refpectable; they will look at the grievance, and they will look at nothing elfe: like a furious populace provoked by the abuses of a house of ill fame, they no longer think of regulation; they go to work the fhorteft way; they abate the nuifance, they pull down the edifice." This, faid Mr. Erfkine, is a fort of epitome of universal history;.above all, of the times we live in. From the rejection of these maxims of policy and prudence, the governments of Europe fall into ruin by fudden violence, instead of being infenfibly altered by peaceable reformation. To this caufe the inde pendence of America is to be afcribed: in the beginning the fought only the reasonable privileges of a dependent com.nunity; we refufed to look at her grievances while they were curable, and America was feparated from us for ever. He protested he faw no alternative between an immediate re

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form and a revolution involving
this country in blood and perdition.
We were now in the moft perilous
predicament; government called
upon the people for greater exer-
tions than at former times; bur-
dens which appeared infupportable
and impracticable even in fpecula-
tion, were now to be endured, and
carried into effect: this must be
done by affection or coercion, and
this was the moment for the choice.
"Grant, (faid he) to the people
the bleffings of the conftitution, and
they will join with ardour in its
defence; raife a ftandard, around
which the friends of freedom may
rally, and they will be attracted by
the feelings of confidence and of at-
tachment. It will unite all who
are divided, and create a general
fpirit to bear up againft the cala.
mities impending."

Mr. chancellor Pitt ftated his reafons for giving his decided negative to the motion. The honourable gentleman, he faid, who had introduced it had disclaimed very diftinctly, and as far as he went very fatisfactorily, all those abstract principles of imprefcribable right on which thofe without doors had refted the propriety of their demand, and upon which alone they would be contented with any fpecies of parliamentary reform; but in difclaiming thefe views upon the fubject, he had not stated all the confiderations by which the conduct of a wife statesman was to be regulated, and the judgment of an upright fenator to be guided. The queftion was not, whether fome alteration might not be attendel with advantage, but whether the degree of benefit might be worth the chance of the mifchief it probably or poffibly might induce. The danger of introducing an evil of a much greater magni

tude than that we were defirous
to repair must be confidered, and
how far it was prudent to give an
opening to principles which aimed
at nothing lefs than the annihila-
tion of the conftitution.

The learned gentleman (Mr. Er-
fkine) had remarked fomewhat in-
fidiously, "that those who former.
ly fupported parliamentary reform,
had fown the feeds of eagerness for
it, which were now difplayed;"
to which he answered, that it was
no inconfiftency to forego a prefent
advantage for a future benefit, or
to avoid impending evils: was it
not better to endure fome little in-
convenience rather than hazard the
annihilation of a fyftem under
which this country had flourished
in its profperity, by which it had
been fupported in its adverfity, and
acquired energy and vigour to re-
cover from the diftreffes which it
had endured?

This moderate reform was propofed, to feparate those whom fuch a plan would fatisfy, from men who would be fatisfied with none; but who by this means would only Men who labour with more fuccefs to fubvert the whole constitution. could treat parliament as ufurpation, and monarchy as an invasion of the rights of man, would not receive that reform which was not a recognition of their right, and which they would conceive as vitiated if conveyed in any other fhape. Mr. Pitt affirmed, that there was no call upon the houfe to adopt this meafure, in order to fatisfy men friendly to moderate reform, for fuch men had not expreffed any with upon the fubject. Before the practical expediency was difcuffed, the practical neceflity must be established. The war with France, the inroads upon the conftitution. the profu. fion of public expenditure, were

the

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