Crown, I do not wonder at his often meeting with a violent opposition. The length of the term makes any such compromise as I have mentioned impossible; which of course creates him antagonists amongst those who are only ambitious of the honor; and the expectation of advantage creates him antagonists among those who are resolved to make their market. This generally begets a violent opposition, and if the antagonist be one of the latter sort, he generally has recourse to bribery; for as he is resolved to sell, he makes no scruple to purchase, if he thinks he can purchase for less than he may sell.

"These, Sir, are the causes why we find such violent contests about elections to septennial Parliaments; and as all these causes would cease the moment we made our Parliaments annual, I think it is next to a demonstration, that in elections for annual Parliaments, there could be no violent opposition, and much less any bribery or corruption. Therefore if we have a mind to restore the practice of those virtues, for which our ancestors were so conspicuous, and by which they handed down to us riches, glory, renown, and liberty, we must restore the custom of having Parliaments not only annually held, but annually chosen. It was a regulation restored and established by one of the greatest and wisest Princes that ever swayed the sceptre of this kingdom; and no one can say that this regulation is inconsistent with the state of war we are now in, or may be in at the end of the present Parliament; for I am far from pretending to determine that the war will be sooner at an end. On the contrary, I am afraid it will last much longer, unless we be obliged to put an end to it by an inglorious peace; but this can make no difference, for when the first law for annual Parliaments was passed by EDWARD III., the kingdom was in a most violent ferment, on account of seizing the Queen Mo

ther

ther and her favorite MORTIMER; and when the second law for the same purpose was passed by that Prince, he could not be said to be in a state of perfect tranquillity; for though the war in France had some time before been brought to a happy period by the treaty of Bretigny, yet the war in Bretagne continued, and even that treaty remained, as to many parts of it, unfulfilled.

the

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"Having mentioned two laws passed in the reign of EDWARD III. for establishing annual Parliaments, perhaps some gentlemen may imagine, that the first law which was passed in the 4th year of that King's reign, had run into desuetude, and that therefore it became necessary to revive and enforce it by the new law for the same purpose, which was passed in the 36th year of his reign; but this,' Sir, was not the reason that made it necessary to pass a new law for that purpose. Our lawyers have always been ingenious in contriving how to evade the most express laws, especially when by such an evasion they could favor power of the Crown. The words of the first law were that A Parliament shall be holden once a year, and oftener if need be.' A man of common understandiug would conclude from these words that, by this law, the King must hold a Parliament once a year at least, and that he might hold it oftener, if he found it necessary; but the lawyers found out that the words if need be related to the first part of the law, as well as the second, and that therefore the sense of the law was, that a Parliament shall be holden once a year, if need be, or oftener, if need be; by which they left it in the power of the Crown to hold a Parliament as often or as seldom as they pleased, and thereby rendered the law of no manner of effect. Therefore to prevent the Crown's taking advantage of this evasion, a new law was made in the 36th year of that King, who never refused to grant his subjects what

laws

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laws they thought necessary for securing their liberties, by which it was enacted, That a Parliament shall be holden every year.' This set the invention of our lawyers again to work, and they were not long in finding a new evasion; for in the very next reign, the method of prorogation was introduced, and by that means our liberties were even then brought into the utmost danger; for a Parliament chosen by illegal methods, and continued by a prorogation, surrendered our liberties into the hands of the Crown; and if the Bill now proposed be not agreed to, some such Parliament may again do the same, or something that is tantamount, with this difference, that the Crown has now a regular well-disciplined army to support its incroachments, and the people have neither arms nor discipline for enabling them to rescue their liberties out of the hands of such a King, and such a Parliament.

"When we consider this, Sir, we ought to be the more jealous of the independency of our Parliaments; because if our liberties should be given up by a dependent Parliament, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for the people to rescue them by arms, as they did in the reign of RICHARD II. This makes me the more sanguine for the Bill now proposed, and for this reason, among many others, I conclude with seconding the motion."

Sir WM. YONGE, the secretary at war, was the only member of administration who attempted to reply; and the question was negatived by a majority of 145 to 113.

In thirteen years after, another motion was made for shortening the duration of parliaments, but so feebly urged as to be negatived almost without the formality of a debate.

VOL. I.

Alderman

Alderman SAWBRIDGE's frequently renewed efforts on the like tendency deserve to be remembered as proofs of his zeal, if not of his energy or genius.

The Duke of RICHMOND also prepared, and offered to the Upper House, in the session of 1780, a bill for the reform of Parliament, founded on the bases of annual election and universal suffrage; but which was afterwards dropped, probably as a measure little calculated for the discussion of the House of Peers.

But in May 1782 Mr. PITT brought forward with equal policy, and address a motion for the appointment of a committee to inquire into the state of the representation of the people in parliament. He began with an apology for undertaking a task so extensive, and which required abilities and experience so much greater than his; but having said this, he would trust to the indulgence of the House, and believe, that the importance of the subject, to which he meant to call their attention, would induce them to treat it with the utmost seriousness and respect. The representation of the Commons in Parliament was a matter so truly interesting, that it had at all times excited the regard of the most enlightened; and the defects which they had found in that representation had given them reason to apprehend the most alarming consequences to the constitution. It would be needless for him in the present moment to recal to the memory of the House the many occasions, upon which he and others in an anxious struggle with a minister, who laboured to exert the corrupt influence of the Crown in support of an inadequate representation of the people, maintained the necessity that there was for a calm revision of the principles of the constitution, and a moderate reform of such defects as had imperceptibly and gradually stole in to deface, and which threatened at

last

last totally to destroy the most beautiful fabric of government in the world. Upon these occasions, they were unsuccessful in their efforts, on account of that corrupt influence of which he had spoken; but at last he thanked God, the voice of the people had happily prevailed, and we were now blessed with a ministry, whose wishes went along with those of the people for a moderate reform of the errors which had intruded themselves into the constitution; and he was happy to see there was a spirit of unanimity prevalent in every part of the kingdom, and also in every part of that House, which made the present day the fittest for undertaking this great task. The ministers had declared their virtuous resolution of supporting the King's government by means more honorable, as well as more permanent than corruption; and the nation had confidence in the declarations of men, who had so invavariably proved themselves the friends of freedom, and the animated supporters of an equal and fair system of representation. That the frame of our constitution had undergone material alterations, by which the commons house of Parliament had received an improper and dangerous bias, and by which indeed it had fallen so greatly from that direction and effect, which it was intended, and ought, to have in the constitution, he believed it would be idle for him to attempt to prove. It was a fact so plain and palpable, that every man's reason, if not his experience, must point it out to him. He had only to examine the quality and nature of that branch of the constitution ast originally established, and compare it with its present state and condition. That beautiful frame of government which has made us the envy and admiration of mankind, in which the people were entitled to hold so distinguished a share, was so far dwindled and departed from its original purity, as that the representatives ceased in a great degree

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