Napoleon wrested from him a sovereignty on earth, he, to clear the account to the satisfaction of the high contracting parties, has excluded him from heaven: surely the punishment is sufficient for the crime, although some may object by saying that this will have no effect on the Emperor, as perhaps he never expected to get there. Leaving your readers to form their judgment on this point, I will resume the remaining part of the subject at a future opportunity; but shall for the present conclude with sentiments of the greatest respect for your principles and character,

Your humble servant,

London, Oct. 8.

DIOGENES.

ON THE NECESSITY OF EXCLU DING PLACEMEN FROM THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

SIR,

I beg leave to trouble you with a few observations on that part of Mr. Burdon's letter, contained in your Review for September; entitled "On the nature and necessity of Parliamentary Reform," which urges the necessity of permitting the eleven cabinet ministers to hold seats in the house of Commons.

Mr. Burdon in his remarks seems to have been employed pretty much like Penelope in doing and undoing: he observes," all placemen and "pensioners should be excluded from (c parliament, except the eleven ca"binet ministers." The retaining the eleven cabinet ministers in parliament, would in my opinion render abortive all his other plans of reform, and leave the root of corruption to sprout and shoot out its poisonous branches as strong and as gross as ever. He further observes,—“ Although it has been contended that no person holding an office under "the crown, should be a member

" of the house of Commons, yet as "this has never been the practice, "and many inconveniences would

attend its strict execution, I am "of opinion that we ought to comply "with necessity in opposition to

66

theory." Here Mr. B. seems to have forgotten the title of his subject. I would ask him, whether in a reform of parliament, (such a reform as the country stands in need of,) it will be possible to avoid introducing some theoretical principles; or whether he considers (which I do not) that the constitution as it now stands, by a recurrence to its primitive establishment, is equal to answer all the purposes of reform. We have sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the constitution, whatever wisdom was displayed in its construction, (and which certainly does discover to the nation and the world at large, that it is possible to combine the liberty of the subject with the power of the rulers,) was in many parts left unguarded, and afforded an opportunity to corrupt and ambitious men to deface it, and to prevent its operation; and of which they have since taken the most de plorable advantage. A useful reform will therefore operate so as to restore the constitutional fabric to its original state, and to place those guards about it which shall be able to check the assaults of its corrupt enemies; and this cannot be doné without introducing such regula tions, the necessity of which although they may be of a theoretical nature, are manifest from the inconveniences and evils which the kingdom now labours under, from the defects and abuse of the present constitution. But Mr. B. soon after informs us, that "when the law was "passed to keep out all placemen "and pensioners, a cabinet council

mere theory.In the next sentence Mr. B. unravels the whole web of his reform, by observing," But 66 now, when it is known that all the public measures of government originate from that body, it would "be attended with much loss and "detriment to the nation, that they "should not be allowed to prepare and defend their measures before "the great council of parliament." Alas! Sir, you have sunk this poor, little "great council of parliament" into the most insignificant and contemptible body of men imaginable; lower even than a parish vestry: there the overseers are obliged to attend to the regulations of the vestry the collection of the rates, and the due performance of its orders, which it may by its public measures establish, must be faith fully reported: but here is the great council of the nation suffering all the public measures of government to originate from eleven of its members, while the representatives of the people, are, like schoolboys, to re ceive their lessons from these cabinet pedagogues! The public measures have indeed too long originated from this body; too long have they prepared and defended them before parliament; (such a one as it is :) their measures have robbed the people of their rights; plunged the nation into a dreadful gulph of misery, taxation and poverty, and produced the downfal of those powers who in an evil hour were by different means Influenced to join them; while at the same time our enemies hold them in extreme derision and contempt, but in no more than they deserve. These cabinet rulers have defended their measures before the great council of parliament; they have sunk the treasury in their defence; and their corrupt supporters have been laden with the spoils of their country! But what security does Mr. B. point out, to prevent a recurrence of these evils, or to prohibit the mi

VOL. VI.

nisters of the crown from controuling the house of Commons, while they are suffered to retain their seats with the whole revenue at their command? Does he suppose that such a reform in parliament as he proposes, would operate so as materially to check the lust of gain, and power in the individuals which might compose that assembly; or that his little, neat regulations in the qualifications of electors and candidates, would be sufficient to prevent his "eleven cabinet ministers," from exercising a corrupt influence in the house? We all know, as well as Mr. B. " that "it has not been the practice to ex"clude them," and that from the want of the practice, the evils which the nation complains of have arisen; and further, that in not attending to it, we shall continue to suffer till every branch of the constitution, and the whole nation will be in the utmost danger. Cabinet ministers will prepare the same sort of measures, and defend them by the same corrupt means; our sinecure place and pension list will be as long as it is now, and the house of Lords will continue to be crouded with men, whose exaltation should make an honest man almost ashamed of the title of a Lord! But why should all the public measures of government originate in the cabinet; and what is the great council of parliament about all the while? Have the representatives of the people nothing to do but to make speeches, and divide the house?

Mr. B. places individual consequence above the dignity and solemnity of the house of Commons.

"For no man" (he remarks) " of

respectability would accept of a "situation, which compelled him. "to wait like a servant."-Are then the representatives of the people to consider it as an act of condescension in the persons appointed to official situations, to come when called for? The dignity of a pure house

3 B

of Commons is equal to that of the throne; it is the VOICE OF THE PEOPLE, the appointment of GOD himself, and creates an awe equal to the importance of its office. No individual, however high his personal elevation, ought to consider it as degrading, to attend to its commands: on the contrary, his being appointed a confidential servant of so great and dignified a body, exalts him above his own private, and per

sonal character.

"But ministers are servants of the crown, and not of parliament," That is very true, and for that reason a proper reform will give the house of Commons such a controul over the supplies granted by parliament, as to prevent that shameful, and prodigal waste of the public revenue, which has so long existed to the disgrace and injury of the nation. There is no meaning in Mr. Burdon's further observations about the house of Commons, "tyrannizing over ministers."They deserve the respect and deference due to their appointment, and they will acquire that respect and deference in their official situations, under the august assembly whose commands they must obey. To conclude; if we mean to reap permanent advantages in a reform of parliament, we must exclude from the house of Commons, the eleven cabinet council with placemen and pensioners altogether.

STEPHEN LEach.

Whitchurch, Oct. 18.

expensive wars that are to be found in the history of England, the American war, and the present, it is by no means an exaggerated statement to say, that the present depravity and depression of the nation, are in a great measure to be attributed to the corrupt state of the popular representation. The great cause of the frequency of war among civilized nations, is the facility with which statesmen find it possible to gratify their ambitious propensity, and that love of power and dominion which though natural to all men, is most readily indulged in exalted stations. The corruption of parliament, which has since the revolution been carried to a greater extent than at any for mer period, has given to the ministers of a limited monarch, a power hardly known to the agents of despotism. The most essential of the laws that guard our liberty they have not dared to touch, except for a short period; but with our property they have been as free as if it had been their own; and by the forms of a parliament, have taken more from us than HENRY VIII. or CHARLES I. by the direct mode of prerogative. The means by which they have accomplished this invasion of our comforts and possessions will be found in the progress of that stream of corruption, which when first put in motion is small and gentle, but as it rolls along, gathers strength and vigour, till at length it bears all before it, like the impe

tuous torrent.

The late war which nothing but

EFFECTS OF THE PRESENT STATE OF REPRESENTATION.

The effect which the state of parliamentary representation, has had on the political and moral state of the nation, is hardly comprehended by superficial observers. Yet considering that to this cause is to be attributed the two most bloody and

have originally sanctioned, was undertaken by Pitt to overthrow the French revolution, and preserve the regular governments on the conti nent from its effects; and yet it has not only been the ultimate cause of their subversion, but of such a change in this country, as no man twenty years ago could have foreseen or conceived. The influence

which one individual frequently has in directing the opinions and conduct of a whole nation, is sufficiently proved both by history and recent experience: it is an influence that can in no case be legitimate, and in few beneficial. The mind of Pitt was incessantly bent on power and pre-eminence; and having failed to become the leader of the nation under a reformed system, he resolved to usurp and engross all the authority of the state under the old one. The French revolution, which went far beyond his ideas of reform, afforded him a pretence, and an opportunity for adopting and exercising those arbitrary principles which were most congenial to his nature; and had the constitution, or the temper of the people permitted it, he would have transformed the government from a limited, to a despotic monarchy. For this design no man was ever better suited both by inclination and talents; he hated that any man should differ from him in opinion; and whoever dared to do so, he was sure to persecute, or to treat with contempt. He was greatly endowed by nature with a power to command all those whom he had attached to him by fear or interest; and he disdained to conciliate those who opposed him, either by gentle ness or artifice:--he possessed a species of eloquence calculated to confound even where it failed to convince; and those who fancied they understood what he meant, gave him credit for sound wisdom, when he acted only upon short sighted policy. His whole administration was a series of deception, tyranny and oppression that however is at an end; but he has entailed other evils on the nation which I doubt will not so easily be got rid of: he carried the system of espionage to a greater height than it was ever know before, which has had a fatal effect on the morals of the middle classes by creating in some suspicion and

mistrust, and in others a profligate indifference to public opinion. The corruption of parliament no man felt less shame about, nor more openly practised, so that he suffered no man to vote against him, whose vote he could command and yet this was not the worst feature of his political character; for such was his disregard of money, that he neither cared for his own nor that of the nation. Indeed it might be said that he had no private purse, for he lived upon other people, and died in their debt.Of the national purse he was equally regardless, so as never to consider in any measure he undertook, either how much it cost, or how the money was expended :hence the enormous load of debt which he added to the public oppression.

The weight of taxation having left the middle ranks little means of saving, they have become more profligate, and regardless of expence than any other people in the world: they were once the most sober and industrious. The spirit of speculation was at no time higher than during the administration of Pitt; for the facility of getting money by loans gave to commercial men an eagerness and avidity for gain which thirty years ago was unknown, even to the commercial world.--All petty gains are now despised; every thing tends to make men, and to keep them great at the expence of the poor; every one aims at being rich on a sudden, and all live as if they had acquired the riches they are only aiming at; tradesmen and shopkeepers neglect their own houses for places of diversion, and their wives are all fine ladies. In the town of Newcastle fifty years ago, the law-mcn of the place did not know how to sit on a commission of bankruptcy: this is a remarkable fact, yet well established, and now there are two or three bankrupts in every week's gazette; and this is not