338 Ch. 9. 1768 Number of electors. THE PEOPLE NOT REPRESENTED. and Aldermen were committed to Newgate; and after remaining imprisoned some days were brought to the bar of the House, and discharged with a lecture from the Speaker, who gravely told them that their crime was one, the enormity of which could not be exceeded. The Mayor and Aldermen listened to this edifying harangue with due humility; and rising from their knees at its conclusion, disposed of the seats to the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Abingdon. In a population of eight millions, there were no more than 160,000 electors. The representation of the people was merely a phrase. The people of England had for the most part no more voice in the election of the House of Commons than the people of Canada. The counties were in the hands of the great land-owners, who mostly settled the representation by previous concert. When they could not agree, or when there was a rivalry between two great families or parties, the contest which in former ages would have been decided in the field, was fought at the hustings; and at least as many ancient houses have been ruined in modern times by these conflicts, as were formerly destroyed by private war. The great feud between the houses of Lascelles and Wentworth, when they disputed the county of York for fourteen days, cost one hundred thousand pounds. Sums as large as this, and proportionally as large have frequently been lavished at elections. In 1768, Lord Spencer expended £70,000 on the borough of Northampton. The Duke of Portland CLOSE BOROUGHS. won the small county of Westmorland from the Lowthers at a cost of £40,000. The latter family afterwards recovered the undisputed possession of this as well as the adjoining county of Cumberland. Upwards of fifty villages and hamlets were each entitled to return two members to Parliament. Many of these boroughs had no constituencies, but such as were created for the purpose of an election. Some of them had no existence. Many of the small towns which could furnish a few electors were entirely under the influence of some one or two of their great neighbours, who named the members commonly without question. A gentleman would no more think of contesting Launceston or Calne, than Gatton or Old Sarum. Of the few populous towns that possessed the elective franchise, in the greater proportion, it was confined exclusively to the municipal body. And in those places where freedom of election was possible, in consequence of the qualification being almost nominal, venality in its grossest form, accompanied by brutal debauchery were for the most part exhibited. On the whole, it would perhaps be an exaggeration to say that the fifth part of the House of Commons was elected upon a fair application of the representative principle. It is a remarkable instance of the tenacity of life which belongs to established abuses, however glaring and enormous, that such a system as this should have lasted nearly a century and a half, and have at last only yielded within these few years to a national struggle which before Ch. 9. 1768 339 340 Ch. 9. 1768 Influence of boroughs. POPULAR WANT OF POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE. it could succeed was pushed close upon the verge of revolutionary violence. The immediate effects of this system were for a long time but little understood. The rigour with which Parliament interdicted the publication of its debates; the want of a daily press; the tardy and imperfect means of communication between different parts of the kingdom; the scanty diffusion of knowledge among the middle classes and even the inferior order of the rural gentry, and the dense ignorance of the mass of the people; all these circumstances saved the mean and selfish factions which infested the legislature, from exposure to public hatred and contempt. In the dearth of authentic intelligence and rational opinions of public affairs, lies and libels of the grossest character were eagerly devoured. But the nation, however ill informed upon public transactions, were well aware that the conflict between the Court and the Whig oligarchy was merely a struggle for power, in which their interests were but a secondary consideration. Burke, writing in 1770, laments 'the indifference to the constitution which had been for some time growing among the gentry.' But this very indifference, to which, in a great measure, he justly ascribes the predominance of the Court faction, was itself produced chiefly by the mean and selfish politics of the party to which the Revolution had given the undisputed ascendancy. The gentlemen of England beheld the Crown, which had ever been the object of their reverence and affection, CORRUPT STATE OF GOVERNMENT. stripped of its ancient prerogatives and transferred to a foreign race. They saw the Crown degraded, and all real authority centred in a Parliament. But instead of that august assembly which had once reigned in England, and knew how to restrain as well as vindicate the liberties of the people, they beheld a body of sordid wretches, the spurious offspring of a representative system which was itself a mockery and a fraud. The party which had the control of this vile senate, and therefore the government of the country, in their hands were the degenerate heirs of the Revolution, men who abused the power which they had derived from statesmen and patriots to the purposes of shameless and reckless faction. It was impossible that the independent gentry should view with any other feeling than that of disgust the interests of the country sacrificed or neglected amidst a constant succession of intrigues for place and power; or that they should fail to be indifferent, if they were not hostile, to a constitution which had been attended with such results. The middle classes, almost excluded from political influence, yet rapidly growing in wealth and intelligence, joined with the populace whenever an opportunity offered of expressing contempt and hatred of the government. And so alarming had the manifestation of these sentiments become, that many persons of high station and authority openly expressed their apprehensions that the political fabric was in imminent danger.d • See Addenda C, p. 394. d Lord Mansfield. 341 Ch. 9. 1768 342 Ch. 9. 1768 The people awakened, THE POPULAR PARTY AROUSED. e But happily a free constitution found in its own resources a remedy for the disease. It was not necessary that the country should perish through this internecine war between the crown and the aristocracy. A third party at this time began to rise, equally hostile to both the cabals which distracted the state, and more powerful than either. The people had happily begun to find out that they had an interest in these matters, and that they possessed the ability, if they chose to exert it, to save the institutions, which had been intended for better things, from becoming a prey to the wrangles and intrigues of courts and factions. It was not the least of the splendid services which consecrate the name of Pitt, that he resigned the government of the country when he 'could no longer administer it upon a full and entire responsibility to the people by whom it had been committed to his charge.' Those memorable words which sounded strange and uncouth in the ears of courtiers and privy councillors, sunk deep into the heart of the nation. If it was true that this incomparable statesman had been called to power by the public voice, then had the country been saved through the interposition of the people; and though they might not always find a Pitt to whom they could abandon their entire confidence and affection, it was much that they had been taught to rely upon themselves, and to assert their right of independent action. Popularity is a word of wide import. On the e Butler's Reminiscences, vol. i. |