and carts like beasts of burden; that hulks, exclusive of clothing, fuel, and men are kept by the parish authorities, lodging. separate from their wives, in order to Such, then, is the picture that onceprevent them from having children; happy England presents under this Parthat men are ranged in rows and sold liament that works so well. Every one for length of time at various prices of these evils; all the feebleness of the by the parish officers; that the labour-country; all its embarrassments; all ing people are so poor that they are the uncertainty in which merchants, unable to pay the fees on their marriage, manufacturers, traders, farmers, and and that, therefore, it is now the univer- even landowners are placed; all are sal practice for them to cohabit before- directly traced to acts and votes of the hand in order to induce the parish- Parliament. To them the nation owes officers to pay the expense of the mar- its poverty and its misery; to them it riage in order to ensure a father to owes the swelling of the jails, the crimes maintain the child; that the prisons and immoralities of the people; to them have lost their terror; that the labourers it owes that the Russians are in Turkey, are so much worse off in their own the French in Africa, the Americans in dwellings than the felons are in the Mexico; to them it owes that a hundred jails, that they commit crimes with a and thirteen privy councillors swallow view of bettering their lot by getting up annually more than goes to the into jail! maintenance of thirty-two thousand laScores of other facts, equally illus-bourers' families, consisting of 160,000 trative of our degraded situation, might persons; to them it owes that the two be mentioned; but these which I have families of Grenville and Dundas have, stated here have all been stated in evi- during the last forty years, swallowed dence given before the House of Com-up more in sinecures and pensions than mons itself; and even after these state- it has cost to support the whole of the ments had been made, the audacious civil government of America during that son of the green-room had the impu- period; to them it owes that the soldier's dence to say that the House worked fat horse and the soldier cost as much well, and that, too, amidst the roaring as goes to the maintenance of five lacheers of the House. Amongst the con- bourers' families consisting of twentysequences of this state of things, are, five persons; to them it owed the a prodigious increase of the number and slaughter of the people at Manchester, size of the jails, produced by an in- and to them it owes the fires that are crease of the number of crimes. The blazing in Kent. What more, then, Parliament, instead of ascertaining and need be said; though volumes might removing the cause of the evil, has be written upon the subject; though a been continually, incessantly, adding to bare enumeration of the several evils, the severity of the laws; till at last, this and of the sufferings of the people would additional severity has produced a defi- fill a volume, and a large volume, too; ance of the laws even with those ad- what more need be said to prove the fact ditional severities; and at the very that a reform of this Parliament is necesmoment when I am writing, neither sary? If any-thing more were needed, property nor person can be said to be and indeed this alone would be enough, safe in some of the most important look at the miseries arising from the counties in the kingdom. From one choppings and changings in the value end to the other of England, there is of the currency; look at the state of a degree of resentment, of bitterness, property embarked in commerce, manua vindictive feeling prevalent in the factures, and agriculture; look at the breasts of the working people, which is anxiety of all proprietors; see industry the natural produce of the well-known paralyzed, skill, care, and foresight, fact, that the honest labouring man is rendered of no avail; see even frugality not allowed more than half as much as bilked of its natural benefits; behold the convicted felon in the jail or the human affairs rendered uncertain and human life a burden; all the produce withholding the substance of reform; of the acts and votes of this Parliament; amongst all the schemes that will be and then, hope if you can, young men, tried to cajole and deceive the people; hope, if you can, that the country in amongst all the great variety of projects which you are beginning life, and the that will probably be presented to our happiness and honour of which can view; it is hardly possible to guess at never be separated from your own; what precise point of shadow, shutting hope, if you can, that that country, for out the substance, the projectors will which it is your duty, if necessary, to rest; but, let us suppose, that, alarmed shed your blood, can ever again know at present appearances; let us suppose greatness, happiness, or peace, until that, bearing in mind the deeds of the this Parliament be reformed. working people of Paris and of Brus2. Of what description ought the sels, and estimating the effect of those Reform to be? Having brought our- deeds upon the minds of the mass of selves to the thorough conviction, at the people in England; let us suppose which conviction indeed ninety-nine hun- that, at last, and at this eleventh hour, dredths of the people had arrived long it be resolved to do something; and ago, that a Reform of the Parliament let us even suppose that it be in the is necessary, the next question to be midst of daily-increasing dangers reanswered, is, that which I have just solved to abolish the infernal boroughs asked; namely, of what description the of every description, and to give the reform ought to be. Things have now people their fair choice, only confining come to that pass, that some sort of the right of voting to householders. reform will be proposed, I dare say, even by the minister himself. It is said that this will be the case; but, to hope that he will propose the sort of Reform which the circumstances of the nation require, would be to be one's own dupe. Be this as it may, however, it becomes me, it is my duty indeed to lay before you my opinions upon the subject; to state to you distinctly my plan of Reform, or, more properly speaking, the plan which I think the nation ought to insist upon. To suppose that the country is going to be contented with the pitiful project of giving two members to Birmingham, and two to each of three other great towns, would argue almost insanity. The thing is scoffed at even by those who have been forward 3. to talk of a moderate reform; and if the bawling lawyer who has put himself forward as the hero of this project, be not frightened from it before the day of trial, he will become the byword and scoffing-stock even of the clowns in the villages, who, clownish as they are, all understand the matter 4. too well to be imposed upon by means like these, even for one single moment. It is hard to say what, amongst all the contrivances that will be hatched for the purpose of giving the name and This is a great deal too much for any man to suppose; but let us suppose it, for the argument's sake; let us suppose that they are, at last, willing to give a vote to every man that occupies a house, whether he pay direct taxes or not. Then, this does not satisfy me. It ought not to satisfy you, and it will not give peace and happiness and freedom to the country. The reform which would be just, and which you ought to demand, is as follows: 1. 2. That a new Parliament shall be chosen every year. That every man, having attained the That no man shall be excluded, elected; and that each member be 5. That the mode of choosing the members be by ballot. livings; then these are all "innovations;" and will our adversaries abolish these innovations? If they will, we shall be disposed to negociate on the subject. Here is a string of innovations! Why, this is "turning every thing Do our opponents refer to a period topsy-turvy," as that sensible man, more recent? Then are not the approProsperity Robinson, said, when he was priation of the property of guilds and bragging of the wisdom of the measures fraternities; are not the taking of these of the House which soon afterwards from the several cities and towns, and produced the PANIC. Even some sin-giving them to the aristocracy, an incere reformers, such as the MARQUIS of novation? Is it not an innovation to BLANDFORD, and the "OLD LAWYER" unite two or three parishes in one, of Edinburgh, and especially that pro- amalgamate the produce of the livings, found and pelted gentleman, who yields, giving the produce to one man, instead in point of sincerity, to nothing on this of three, and making the people walk side, or even on the other side, of the Styx; three miles to church instead of one? even he, though still seeing the turnips Coming lower down, and looking at and the cabbages in vision, will cry out, another species of property, is it not an "What monstrous innovations! Things innovation to take from the king his totally unknown to our fathers." Grant-landed estate, to divide that estate ed; granted, Burdett; not, however, amongst the aristocracy, and to make unknown to that spirit of justice, that the king a sort of pensioner maintained careful protection of the people, for out of the taxes raised upon his people? which the laws and usages of our fathers Talk of innovations, indeed! is it not provided. We are in a STATE OF notorious that England never knew INNOVATION. The laws of our fa- of parliaments that were not annual till thers are not in existence, excepting in the aristocracy made the revolution of small and ineffectual part. Those laws 1688? Were not triennial parliaments knew of no such thing as taking a an innovation; and when they had been man's property, or punishing his person, solemnly enacted, was it not a barewithout a trial and conviction by his faced innovation to make those septenpeers or equals. In nine cases out of nial parliaments, to which we are still ten, if not ninety-nine out of a hundred, subjected? When did the laws of the trial by jury has been abolished, and England, or any laws in the world, the conviction, as well as the punish- ever provide, until the reign of George ment, left entirely to the discretion of the Fourth, for the transportation of men men appointed and removable at the for being in pursuit of a pheasant, parpleasure of the ministers of the day. Is tridge, or hare? Is it no innovation to not this an innovation? Talk of inno- transport men from Ireland without vations, indeed; talk of the constitu- trial by jury? Is it no innovation to tion! To what period do our oppo- punish a man as a felon for taking au nents refer? Do they refer to a period apple off a tree? Is it no innovation to of ancient date? Then the possession cram a man into prison, or to fine him of the abbey-lands; the possession of without trial by jury? aye, and to senCovent-garden, for instance, by the tence him to hard labour, too, for the Duke of Bedford; the appropriation of mere trespass of treading upon a field, the tithes by married parsons ; the while the rich man who comes with compelling of the people in general to horses and hounds, and with license maintain the poor, instead of those poor to sport, is protected against the operbeing maintained out of the tithes and ation of that law? Is it no innovation other revenues of the church; the to take from the small rate-payer the throwing of the church-rates upon the weight of his vote at a vestry by giving people, instead of causing the churches a plurality of votes to the rich rateto be repaired out of the fruit of the payers? Was it mo innovation to take What! shall the young man, he who has a life of study or of labour before him; he whose mind is most free and independent; he who is under the least restraint; he who has no landlord, no customer, to bias his judgment; he who is unbound by those ties which are so apt to make a man palter with his duty; he on whose strength, agility, and courage, the defence of the laws must always depend; shall he have no voice in the choosing of those who are to make the laws which are to affect him during his forty or fifty years of life, while the man who has, comparatively, few years of life remaining, is to have such voice? from the overseer of the poor the power present circumstances demand. Talk of relieving the wretched paupers, to of voting being confined to tax-payers, take that power almost wholly from the indeed! Who does not pay a tax? magistrate also, to lodge the power in What that goes on the body of any the rich men of the parish, and to au- man or goes into his mouth does thorize those rich men to take a hire- not pay a tax? Why, then, even if ling stranger, even a foreigner, and you adopt that principle, is any sane that foreigner a negro or a Swiss, if they man of credible character to be exchoose, invest that foreigner with the cluded from the right of voting? There sole power of relieving the poor, and is no argument that any one can offer on pay him a salary out of the money the side of such exclusion which is not raised for the relief of those poor? demolished by reason in a moment. Were not these innovations on the Act of Queen Elizabeth, which act was, in fact, the terms of a compact between the labourers of England and their sovereign, the act being in compensation for what the labourers had lost by the appropriation of the church property by the aristocracy? Is it not all innovation, from the top to the bottom? Are not power-of-imprisonment laws, gagging laws, laws to put us half to death for laughing at the parliament; are not the standing army in time of peace; are not the barracks; are not the drums' eternal rumble, and the trumpets' eternal squall; are not the military and naval academies; are not the soldiers at the bank and the playhouse; is not the coast-blockade, is not the hellish excise; is not PEEL's gendarmerie, the money to pay which is collected along with the poor-rates; and what is the bank, and what is the debt, and what is the paper-money, and what are the forgery-laws which have shed such rivers of blood; what are these but monstrous innovations on the laws of our righteous and merciful forefathers, whose very religion forbade the existence of these horrible things? Well, then, shall we be told of innovations? These innovations have all been made by this same Parliament; and cannot it make one little innovation more? Cannot it make one little innovation without fainting away? Faint, or faint not, it will be made. We are, as I said before, in a state of innovation. We have been brought by degrees into a state wholly different from that in which our forefathers lived; and we, without any reference to that state, are to do that which the But upon what principle, upon what show of reason or of justice, are you to call upon a man to come out and serve in the militia; to come forth in the defence of his country and of the laws; to assume the military garb, to submit to military discipline, to be punished for desertion or disobedience of orders; upon what principle are you to call a man forth, compel him to quit his aged parents, his wife and his children, and to risk his life, when, but the day before, you have refused to let him vote at an election upon the ground that he has no stake in the country? This is monstrous impudence; the bare thought must fill every young man with indignation! He is old enough and wise enough to fight for your stake in the country; but too young and too thoughtless to be deemed to have a stake himself to be fought for. If you will have it to be property, every man has a property in his labour, which is the basis of all property. What! is a house, the rent of which is 50 shillings a year, to give a man a right to vote, and is the plough-able men that the country affords ; man, for instance, who has seven or there is a government whose laws are eight pounds a year of wages, over and the wisest in the world, or that the above his keep, not to have a vote? In world ever saw; that government sends short, every objection to this universal ten ambassadors to the European courts, suffrage is so full of absurdities; it is so far surpassing, in point of talent, any repulsive to reason, and so offensive to ten that all those courts together could the conscious worth of man, that it pick out; under that government the never can be sustained except by a population of the country has increased, tyranny that can be supported by the within the forty-two years, from three sword. One objection that has been millions to twelve; under that governstated to universal suffrage is this; that, ment, which had scarcely a single gunif labourers and journeymen were left boat at starting, a navy has grown up to choose the representatives in par- to threaten to be the rival of that of liament, they, being the greatest num- England herself. Under that governber, would choose men of their own de- ment a mercantile marine has been scription; would choose ploughmen created surpassing that of any three and shoe-makers and tinkers and the nations, England left out; and, under like. They who urge this objection by that government, in the whole of the no means believe what they say: they forty-two years there has been but one know that it is contrary to the very nature of man that this should be the case. They know that when poor men are going to law, they do not employ miserable pettifoggers if they can avoid it; these objectors know, that, when a poor man breaks his leg, he gets the surgeon, and not the horse-doctor, to set it; they also know, from experience in private life, that, whenever the working people have to choose some one to manage the affairs of any considerable number of them, they always choose the man of the most talent and integrity that they can find; and this is so natural, that it would be perfectly monstrous to suppose that the contrary would ever be the case; and, when every man felt that he was deeply interested in what would be done in Parliament, would he not choose to represent him the man whom he thought most likely, from his ability as well as his integrity, to watch over his interests there? single riot, and that against excise-laws, in the passing of which the people thought that their representatives had surpassed their power. Here, then, is an answer to all the objections against universal suffrage; and, indeed, those objections are founded in nothing that is tenable. To tell a man that you will have the service of his body; that his body shall be at your command to defend your house and land; to tell him that it is his duty to come out and risk his life in the service of the country, and to refuse him, at the same time, a vote, upon the pretence that he has no stake in the country, is something so impudent, so insolently audacious, as to admit of no appropriate answer except by blows. With regard to the fourth proposition; namely, that there be no pecuniary qualification required for members; what argument can be necessary other than the bare observation, that But, in this case, and as to this par- the people themselves are the best judges ticular objection, we have the most of whom they ought to choose. The complete answer in the experience of residence of three years in the county the United States of America. There is not absolutely necessary; the age of the general government is representa- twenty-one years would hardly be netive, from the top to the bottom; there, with exceptions too trifling to mention, the suffrage is universal; there the people have, for two and forty years, that is to say ever since the government was established, chosen the most cessary either; for there would be no fear of a whole people of a county choosing such boys as we now see in both the Houses of Parliament; it being notorious that many of them are returned before they be of age, and do not |