You are in truth but our procurators to speak for us in the great council. That of right we ought to have access to those, whom we have thus chosen, and to the house, as there shall be cause to impart our desires to you, and you ought not to refuse us. That by involving our votes in yours, we had no purpose to make you perpetual dictators . Members of parliament, says the excellent Sidney, do not act by a power derived from kings, but from those who choose them. And those, who give power, do not give an unreserved power.
Members of parliament are therefore accountable to their constituents .
It is true, the constituents do not call them to an account, otherwise than by not electing them again, if they have disapproved of their conduct. Many members, he says afterwards, in all ages, and sometimes the whole body of the commons, have refused to vote, till they consulted those who sent them. That stern old patriot, in his XLIVth sect. He considers members of parliament as the servants of the public. I take, says he, what servant I please, and when I have taken him, I must, according to this doctrine, suffer him to do what he pleases.