The Sun.
London, England, 1831-03-04 00:00:00

tleman, of all others, the Hon. Member for Newport,
should be so nice respecting attornies. Of all men, the
Hon. Gentleman had least reason to -be restive on this
point. By the Bill of the Noble Lord, the elective fran-
chise would be thrown into the hands of that class who
ought to possese it,—namely, of people of a certain de-
gree of property, and of those who had the greatest
hold upon the higher claSses.... This was as good and as
proper a basis of representation as could be proposed.—
He could net understand why so many Honourable
Members had expressed their surprise when the measure
bad been proposed. Did those who heard him know
what the plan of Reform had been which Mr. Pitt had
proposed to that House? Mr. Pitt lead proposed to leave
out 160 Members from the House, and to take away and
disfranchise 36 boroughs ; and nobody had objected to his
scheme upon the grounds of its being a revolutionary mea-
sure. When Mr. Pitt had changed his opinions as to Par-
liamentary Reform, and when Mr. Grey, in the year 1797,
had brought forward in that House his project of reform.
ing the representation of the people, Mr. Pitt did not ob-
ject to Mr. Grey's scheme, or to any part of it, upon
' the ground of its being revolutionary. All he had said
was, that it would not do, just at that time, to make such
a change, but his own opinions were too well known for
hint to obj ct to the motion on the ground of its hieing in-
consistent with the Constitution. The Learned and Hon.
Member for Boroughbridge had even quoted Mr. Fox in
support of his opinion. Mr. Fox, in speaking of the pro-
cession of the Goddess of Reason at Nottingham, had
merely said, that had he been there, he should have looked
to the security of the skirts of his coat, and he objected to
the people of Nottingham being deprived of their rights
on account of the disturbances that had taken place
in that town. The opinion was pelf. ctly compatible
with any scheme that should give the franchise of Not-
ting,hatn to the adjoining hundred, or take it away from it.
Mr. Fox, speaking of Mr. Grey's plan of Reform in 1797,
had sa'd, that the plan might be called a radical Reform
—that 'it changed without the destruction of any esta-
blished right,—it restoted what had been injured by abase
and reinstated what time had Mouldered away. No man
could complain of genuine property being assailed, and he
used the expression genuine property to distinguish it from
what was called property, but which was not genuine.
As far, then, as Mr. Fox's opinions went as authority,
he had shown that they were direely opposed to those of
the Hon. Member for Code Castle (Mr. Bankes.) He
could excuse a little warmth upon such an occasion, and
he should even say with a French author, that he never
knew a kingdom lost so gaily, for, as Caesar hail said on
one occasion, that he fought not for victory, but for'exist-
ence, those who opposed Reform
.might make the same
exclamation. He did not mean to say that gentlemen of
a certain description would be excluded from the House if
a Reform took place. The anti-reformers had shown such
resolute and able advocacy of a worthless and sinking cause,
—they had evinced such ability in support of what was
odious, and such courage in defence of what' was weak
and contemptible,—that he could not help thinking
they would be found hereafter among those whom a free
constituency would choose for the advocacy of their rights.
He bad said before, and he now repeated it, that he did
not think that by this or any plan of Reform the com-
plexion of the House as to the Members returned to it
would be much changed. The motives, however, that
sent men into it would be totally different—(lean).—
Let Parliament he reformed,—let it be restored to its an-
cient constitutional principle, by the plan now proposed by
the Noble Lord, the Paymaster-General of his Majestys
forces, they would still have the best men in that House
that constituents could find, for the support of their inte-
rests anal the defence of their rights. He would beg
those whose disputed this to tell him whether they really
thought that there was any peculiar and egregious igno-
rance in the people of England, or in any people, to make
them unable to judge of those who were best able to serve
them. The people had wisdom enough to get the best
at-ilities they could obtain for every purpose, and they
would likewise get the best they could to serve them as
Members of Parliament. He was not aware that the
people of England, in contradistinction to the people of
the boroughs, had shown any such peculiar marks of igno-
rance and folly ; lie was not aware of their possessing any
peculiar quality which incapacitated them for the impor-
tant trust which they were called upon to exercise. He
well knew that wherever he could discover a popular con-
stituency, he could discover something like adequacy
to the great duties it called forth, and the first
and most indispensable of all qualities in such cases
was honesty,—a quality that appeared to have been
entirely forgotten or lost sigdt of by those who
talked so much of introducing clever men into that House.
--(Hear, hear.)—lt was scarcely possible to believe that
any gentleman was sincere when he expressed an appre-
hension that a system of public rectitude and intelligence in
electors would give vice and ignorance an ascendancy in
the choice of representatives, and that a system of perjury,
and bribery, and corruPfron, was essential to the success
of virtue and knowledge. Why should such a feverish
anxiety upon this subject be. expressed? With respect to
men of talents, doubtless capacity was one of the necessary
qualifications of a Member of Parliament; but he had seen
as many instances since he had been in Parliament of ra-
pacity being used in a wrong as in a right direction.
Who, in the name of wonder, would approve of any sys-
tem or scheme that sent men of talent into that House, if
these gentlemen of talent were placed there under circum-
stances that rendered it probable that they would do more
of harm to the country than good ?—(Cheers.)—lf
he
ran over the list of the clever men, he could show the
House that the necessity was to make men speak honestly
the sentiments of their constituents; or to retire from the
representation. If a MeMber 'of Parliament differed from
his patron, he thought it necessary to take off his hat,
make his bow, and retire from his seat. He thought it
necessary to consult his patron's views and opinions, and
this, in, his (Mr. Ilobloniie's) opinion, was the best of
all answers to what was called virtual representation.
There was no such thing as virtual representation with
a patron. The patron must be listened to,—lie must
and would be obeyed : he would hear of no nonsense
about virtual representation. Sir W. Jones bad re-
marked that virtual representation was actual fully.
The Hon. Member for Oxford had said, there was no
necessity for a Member's consulting his constituents, and
that he would go on in the stern path of what he deemed
his duty, in spite of any constituents whatever. This
ought not to be the principle upon 'which Members should
lie returned to that House ; nor was it a principle upon
which any patron of a borough ever put his Member into
the House. He saw no danger whatever in the plan pro-
posed by the Noble Lord, although an alarm had been
sounded, as it always had been sounded, whenever any
great moral changes had been attempted to be introduced.
At the time of the religions Reformation, the historian
Robertson said, that those who opposed the Reformation
took care to spread an alarm, that certain evil dispositions
were riding about the world to overthrow all that was esta-
blished and to undermine all religious systems. This, they
said, was not owing to any thing above the earth or under
the earth, but owing to the sinister influence of the stets.
At present alarms were equally spread ; but he (Mr.
Hobhou-e) thought there was no danger, except from
those who opposed Referm. The danger proceeded from
that cold, blared, selfish sect of politicians—if politicians
they could be called—who, in spite of all past expe-
rience, when truth pressed her Fght upon the whole nation,
were still left in ignorance and sunk in corruption.. They
woulihratlier that the whole State should be lost for ever,
than that they should resign one of their pi try interests, or
forego one of their much-cherished prejudices.—(Hear,
hear.) If any cries of alarm were spread, they would
be the organs of that alarm, but he trusted that
there was in the country a good sense as well
as a temperate feeling, which would not permit any
use being made of such fears. If those with whom he
agreed in opinion had been accused of appealing to the
fears of the people, lie must accuse the gentlemen oppn-
elte, not of appealing to the fears of the people, but of
doing what was infinitely worse—they had appealed, by
the worst of artifices, to the fears and selfish passions of
those whom they called the aristocracy of the country.
The Hon. Metnber for Newport (Mr. Horace Twiss), in
his speech, had advised gentlemen to look after their rents;
another gentleman had sounded an alarm upon the secu-
rity of tithes; and another had exclaimed, that if the
Reform were carried, there would no longer be security
for property of any sort. —(Cheers.) When such gen-
tlemen talked to him of appealing to the feats of the people
he had a right to taunt them of appealing to the fears of
that class which seemed to think that they possessed their
itited propertyvery
yl
people
jaiuttlsitltiai
yur without
esa.ani
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onagtitlitnet feelingsquoted,ba(ioof,
Theyinterest
never to benefit, e
provedfit,
npisietirypeossetotohasveervea,snyb,y—dnis;:tratehrii..
people of England—not those for whom he was appealing
d
ppoais.reol whoaettaeylif tinnhe btweree:yr_ileritiohn:
ireello• theireLel:sreeobelofepikarfedpeople,
theoep
rllnieepe,rfg,i,rrgteieeh:lis.yai
otttsostiganti
nh :ritmeel eactrpseo.nprnryerrisitsillil
in-
clination d
nthoiskeoebo
dewFilif:idiiitnnithahontoteaiofoittisenh.,
speak the voice of millions, but he spoke the sentiments
of his own heart ; and having received the same educa-
tion, being born on the same soil, and having the same
recollections and the sante wishes as the gentlemen whom
lee addressed, he did believe that he spoke the voice of the
people ; and lie did hope that a great majority of that House;