member more shamelessly and shockingly corrupt; it would increase his dependence on those who could best support him at his election; it would wrack and tear to pieces the fortunes of those who stood upon their own fortunes and their private interest; it would make the electors infinitely more venal; and it would make the whole body of people, who are, whether they have votes or not, concerned in elections, more lawless, more idle, more debauched: it would utterly destroy the sobriety, the industry, the integrity, the simplicity of all the people; and undermine, I am much afraid, the deepest and best laid foundations of the commonwealth.

Those, who have spoken and written upon this subject without doors do not so much deny the probable existence of these inconveniences, in their measure, as they trust for their prevention to remedies of various sorts, which they propose. First, a place bill; but if this will not do, as they fear it will not, then they say we will have a rotation, and a certain number of you shall be rendered incapable of being elected for ten years. Then for the electors, they shall ballot; the members of parliament also shall decide by ballot; a fifth project is the change of the present legal representation of the kingdom. On all this I shall observe, that it will be very unsuitable to your wisdom to adopt the project of a bill, to which there are objections, insuperable by any thing in the bill itself, upon the hope that those objections may be removed by subsequent projects; every one of which is full of difficulties of its own, and which are all of them very essential alterations in the constitution. This seems very irregular and unusual. If any thing should make this a very doubtful measure, what can make it more so than that, in the opinion of its advocates it would aggravate all our old inconveniencies in such a manner as to require a total alteration in the constitution of the kingdom? If the remedies are proper in a triennial, they will not be less so in septennial elections; let us try them first; see how the House relishes them; see how they will

operate in the nation; and then, having felt your way and prepared against those inconveniences

The honourable gentleman sees that I respect the principle upon which he goes, as well as his intentions and his abilities. He will believe, that I do not differ from him wantonly, and on trivial grounds. He is very sure, that it was not his embracing one way, which determined me to take the other. I have not, in newspapers to derogate from his fair fame with the nation, printed the first rude sketch of his bill with ungenerous and invidious comments. I have not, in conversations industriously circulated about the town, and talked on the benches of this House, attributed his conduct to motives low and unworthy, and as groundless as they are injurious. I do not affect to be frightened with this proposition, as if some hideous spectre had started from hell, which was to be sent back again by every form of exorcism, and every kind of incantation. I invoke no Acheron to overwhelm him in the whirlpools of its muddy gulf. I do not tell the respectable mover and seconder, by a perversion of their sense and expressions, that their proposition halts between the ridiculous and the dangerous. I am not one of those, who start up, three at a time, and fall upon and strike at him. with so much eagerness, that our daggers hack one another in his sides. My honourable friend has not brought down a spirited imp of chivalry to win the first atchievement and blazon of arms on his milk-white shield in a field listed against him; nor brought out the generous offspring of lions, and said to them- not against that side of the forest, beware of that-here is the prey where you are to fasten your paws; and seasoning his unpractised jaws with blood, tell him- this is the milk, for which you are to thirst hereafter. We furnish at his expence no holyday, nor suspend hell, that a crafty Ixion may have rest from his wheel; nor give the common adversary, if he be a common adversary, reason to say, I would have put in my word to oppose, but the eagerness of your allies in your social war was

head of June, Lord George Gordon presented the petition from the Protestant Association, praying for the

of the act lately passed in favour of the Papists. Above sixty thousand of the petitioners accompanied his lordship to the lobby of the House. Lord George said, he had before him a petition, signed by nearly 120,000 of his majesty's protestant subjects, praying for a repeal of the act passed the last session in favour of Roman Catholics. His lordship then moved to have the said petition brought up. Mr. Alderman Bull seconded the motion, and leave was given accordingly. The petition being read was ordered to be referred to the consideration of a committee of the whole House. Lord George Gordon then moved, that the House do now resolve itself into a committee, to consider of the said petition: this was seconded by Mr. Alderman Bull. Upon which a motion was made; and the question being put, that the House do now adjourn, it passed in the negative. Then the main question being put, the House divided: the Yeas were directed to go forth: but not being able to do so, on account of the tumultuous crowd in the lobby; and the serjeant at arms attending the House having informed the House, that it was not in his power to clear the lobby; the Speaker directed him to send for the sheriff and other magistrates of the county of Middlesex and city of Westminster, to attend the House immediately. And after some time, several justices of the peace of Middlesex and Westminster attending accordingly, they were called in, and directed by the Speaker to restore peace and good order. The House then divided:

Yeas 7: Noes 192. After which the House adjourned to the 6th, upon which day, notwithstanding the alarms of particular members on account of the multitude, about two hundred members attended in their places. Mr. Buller made several observations as well upon the alarming conduct of the populace, as the measures which had been taken by government to prevent the dangerous effects of the popular outrage; after which he moved some resolutions; one being an assertion of their own privileges; the second, for a committee to enquire into the late and present outrages, and for the discovery of their authors, promoters, and abettors; the third, for a prosecution by the attorney-general; and the fourth, an address to his majesty for the reimbursement of the foreign ministers, to the amount of the damages they had sustained by the rioters. Upon this occasion,

MR. BURKE made a very animated speech upon the alarming and dangerous proceedings of the populace. He was extremely severe against those who were capable of misleading the people to such violent outrages against the laws and constitution of their country, as well as against reason, justice, and humanity, and he dealt his censure with vehemence against government, for that relaxed state of the police, which could no longer protect even legislature itself from violence and insult at their very gates. In short, he felt so much for the debased dignity of parliament

*«This day a detachment of foot-guards took possession of Westminster-hall, the doors of which they at last closed to prevent the mob entering there: several members of both Houses who walked down on foot were thus prevented from getting into the House for a considerable time, among whom was Mr. Burke, who was presently surrounded by some of the most decent of the petitioners, who expostulated with him on his conduct, in abetting Sir George Savile's motion for the Roman Catholic bill: Mr. Burke in his defence said, he certainly had seconded the motion for the bill, and thought himself justified in so doing; he said, he understood he was a marked man, on whom the petitioners meant to wreak their vengeance; and therefore he walked out singly amongst them, conscious of having done nothing that deserved their censure in the slightest degree, having always been the advocate for the people, and meaning to continue so. Mr. Burke at last got rid of his troublesome interrogators." London Chronicle.

at that moment, that he lost all temper, and bitterly lamented the fate of such times, when those who pretended to be the advocates of freedom, were establishing the most wretched slavery, and exhibited the unhappy prospect which was then at their gates a bludgeoned mob, and an armed soldiery! He lamented in the most melancholy terms, the dreadful necessity that obliged the military power, the notorious bane of liberty, to be called in, to defend not only the freedom, but the very existence of parliament !

Mr. Fox also lamented the necessity of calling in the assistance of the military, which he attributed solely to the weak administration of public affairs. He reprobated, in terms equally as warm as those of Mr. Burke, the promoters of the riots; the violence of which would degrade us, he said, in the eyes of Europe; for the world would see, that those men who were at the head of administration, were incapable of governing the affairs of a state.

The resolutions were agreed to.

June 19.

An address of thanks, in answer to his majesty's speech respecting the riots, being this day moved,

Mr. BURKE took occasion to declaim with unusual vehemence against the authors and abettors of the late riots, whom he termed a set of deluded fanatics, and spoke in support of the bill they riotously petitioned against, as an act that was founded in the true wisdom of parliament, and therefore ought not to be repealed at the dictatorial requisition of a lawless rabble.

June 20.

The House resolved itself into a committee of the whole House, to take into consideration the numerous petitions against