of parliamentary reform. In private life, among his friends, his acquaintance, and even before strangers, he endeavoured to make converts. The press, as usual, was recurred to, for the pupose of diffusing his sentiments; the labours of the "Constitutional Society" were regularly and uniformly directed to the same end; and in the association, denominated the " Quintuple Alliance," he warmly and successfully advocated this cause.

In 1782, he addressed a pamphlet on this subject to his friend Mr. Dunning, now become lord Ashburton, a title which he well merited, on account of his great talents, his uniform attachment to the constitution, and his many splendid virtues.

It was entitled, "A Letter on Parliamentary Reform, containing the Sketch of a Plan." At this critical period, sharp sighted and doubtful of events as he assuredly was, yet the subject of these memoirs appears to have been so far misled by appearances, as actually to believe, "that we were on the eve of a peaceful revolution, more important than any which has happened since the settlement of our Saxon ancestors in this country; and which," it is added, "will convey down to endless posterity all the blessings of which political society is capable."

On this, as on all similar occasions, the author contends against universal suffrage, "as an improper and impracticable measure." In opposition to the doctrine of his "virtuous and inestimable friend major Cartwright," who is here supposed to maintain that every man has a right to an equal share in the constitution, he asserts, "that there is a very great difference between having an equal right to a share, and a right to an equal share."

"Justice and policy," says he, "require that benefit and burthen, that the share of power, and the share of contribution to that power, should be as nearly proportioned as possible. If aristocracy will have all power, they are ty rants, and unjust to the people; because aristocracy alone does not bear the whole burthen. If the smallest individual of the people contends to be equal in power to the greatest individual, he, too, is in his turn unjust in his demands; for his burthen and contribution are not equal.

"Hitherto, my lord," continues he, "I have only argued against the equality: I shall now venture to speak against the universality of representation, or of a share in the government;. for the terms amount to the same.

"Freedom and security ought surely to be equal and universal. But I am not at all back

ward to contend, that some of the members of a society may be free and secure, without having a share in the government. The happiness, and freedom, and security of the whole, may even be advanced by the exclusion of some, not from freedom and security, but from a share in the government.

"My lord, extreme ignorance; extreme selfishness; (I mean that mistaken selfishness which excludes all public sense;) all these are just and proper causes of exclusion from a share in the government, as well as extreme criminality, which is admitted to exclude; for thither they all.tend, and there they frequently finish."

According to the plan here propounded, England and Wales are to be divided into five hundred and thirteen districts, each of which is to be entitled to choose one representative; so that the usual number of members shall be strictly adhered to. Every male inhabitant of Great Britain or Ireland, at the age of twenty-one years, and who, at the time of election, shall have been: rated for the space of the preceding year to the land-tax, or parish rates in England or Wales, at two pounds per annum, shall be entitled to vote for a representative of that district in which he is so rated.

Each elector, at the time of giving his suf

frage, shall

pay

into the hands of the presiding

officer, two pounds two shillings.

Each vote is to be taken in that parish, where the voter is rated; while elections shall be annual, and at a certain time of the year.

If the number of persons voting in the district shall fall short of four thousand, then all persons in the said district, who are rated therein at twenty pounds per annum, or upwards, (and who have already voted), shall be entitled to give a second vote, paying again as before. And the same, in a similar case; with those rated at fifty pounds, one hundred pounds, two hundred pounds, &c., the last of which shall be entitled to give a fifth vote.

Out of this "election levy" every represen tative shall receive four hundred pounds from the presiding officer of the respective district; the remainder shall be paid into the exchequer; and each deputy, before he is permitted to take his seat in parliament, shall produce a voucher from the exchequer, for at least eight thousand pounds, and for as much more (exclusive of four hundred pounds) as shall have been paid by the voters at his election.

Instead of being jealous of the legitimate piivileges of the reigning princes, the author observes, that "the prerogative of the crown,

which is glorious to the monarch and beneficial to his subjects, they will place (as it ought to be placed) high, brilliant, and independent.A great weight at bottom can bear a great weight at top."

We

Such was the scheme proposed by our author; he, however, displayed no obstinate attachment to it, for he afterwards most readily adopted the opinions of Mr. Pitt, and ingenuously preferred the plan of that gentleman to his own. now find him, indeed, most cordially cooperating in all the measures of that youthful statesman, whose accession to power was a subject dear to his hopes; for he fondly hailed that happy moment, as auspicious to the best interests of the empire. Neither the one nor the other was desirous of making any rash or improvident experiments, on a constitution contemplated by both as a master-piece of human wisdom; but, on the contrary, they were actuated solely by a generous wish to restore a decrepid body-politic to that original state of vigour, of which it had been bereaved by the innovating hand of time.

The nation, too, was at this moment prepared for some great change, in consequence of recent events. A long, impolitic, and unfortunate war, had alarmed their pride. The useless expenditure of so much blood and treasure, had opened