1

gion of the air. We hear them, and we look upon them, just as you, gentlemen, when you enjoy the ferene air on your lofty rocks, look down upon the gulls, that skim the mud of your river, when it is exhaufted of its tide.

I am forry I cannot conclude, without faying a word on a topick touched upon by my worthy colleague. I wish that topick had been paffed by; at a time when I have fo little leisure to discuss it. But fince he has thought proper to throw it out, I owe you a clear explanation of my poor my poor sentiments

on that fubject.

He tells you, that "the topick of inftructions "has occafioned much altercation and uneasiness "in this city;" and he expreffes himself (if I underftand him rightly) in favour of the coercive authority of fuch inftructions.

Certainly, gentlemen, it ought to be the happinefs and glory of a representative, to live in the ftricteft union, the closest correspondence, and the moft unreserved communication with his conftituents. Their wifhes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion high refpect; their bufiness unremitted attention. It is his duty to facrifice his repofe, his pleasures, his fatisfactions, to theirs; and, above all, ever, and in all cafes, to prefer their intereft to his own. But, his unbiaffed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened confcience, he ought not to facrifice to you;

to

to any man, or to any fet of men living. These he does not derive from your pleafure; no, nor from the law and the conftitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of ferving you, if he facrifices it to your opinion.

upon

My worthy colleague fays, his will ought to be fubfervient to yours. If that be all, the thing is in nocent. If government were a matter of will any fide, yours, without queftion, ought to be fuperiour. But government and legislation are matters of reafon and judgment, and not of inclination; and, what fort of reason is that, in which the determination precedes the difcuffion; in which one set of men deliberate, and another decide; and where those who form the conclufion are perhaps three hundred miles diftant from those who hear the arguments?

To deliver an opinion, is the right of all men ; that of constituents is a weighty and refpectable opinion, which a reprefentative ought always to rejoice to hear; and which he ought always most feriously to confider. But authoritative inftructions; mandates iffued, which the member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for, though contrary to the clearest convic tion of his judgment and confcience; these are

things utterly unknown to the laws of this land, and which arife from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenour of our conftitution.

Parliament is not a congress of ambaffadors from different and hostile interests; which interefts each muft maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but parliament is a deliberative affembly of one nation, with one intereft, that of the whole; where, not local purpofes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reafon of the whole. You chufe a member indeed; but when you have chofen him, he is not member of Bristol, but he is a member of parliament. If the local constituent fhould have an intereft, or should form an hafty opinion, evidently opposite to the real good of the reft of the community, the member for that place ought to be as far, as any other, from any endeavour to give it effect. I beg pardon for faying fo much on this fubject. I have been unwillingly drawn into it; but I fhall ever ufe a refpectful franknefs of communication with you. Your faithful friend, your devoted fervant, I fhall be to the end of my life: a flatterer you do not wish for. On this point of inftructions, however, I think it fcarcely poffible, we ever can have any fort of difference. Perhaps I may give you too much, rather than too little trouble.

From the first hour I was encouraged to court

your

your favour to this happy day of obtaining it, I have never promised you any thing, but humble and perfevering endeavours to do my duty. The weight of that duty, I confefs, makes me tremble; and whoever well confiders what it is, of all things in the world will fly from what has the least likenefs to a positive and precipitate engagement. To be a good member of parliament, is, let me tell you, no easy task; especially at this time, when there is so strong a disposition to run into the perilous extremes of fervile compliance or wild popularity. To unite circumfpection with vigour, is abfolutely neceffary; but it is extremely difficult. We are now members for a rich commercial city; this city, however, is but a part of a rich commercial nation, the interefts of which are various, multiform, and intricate. We are members for that great nation, which however is itself but part of a great empire, extended by our virtue and our fortune to the fartheft limits of the east and of the weft. All these wide-fpread interests must be confidered; must be compared ; must be reconciled if poffible. We are members for a free country; and furely we all know, that the machine of a free constitution is no fimple thing; but as intricate and as delicate, as it is valuable. We are members in a great and ancient monarchy; and we must preserve religiously, the true legal rights of the fovereign, which form the

22 SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION, &c.

key-stone that binds together the noble and wellconftructed arch of our empire and our conftitution. A conftitution made up of balanced powers must ever be a critical thing. As fuch I mean to touch that part of it which comes within my reach. I know my inability, and I wish for fupport from every quarter. In particular I shall aim at the friendship, and shall cultivate the best correfpondence, of the worthy colleague you have given me.

I trouble you no farther than once more to thank you all; you, gentlemen, for your favours; the candidates, for their temperate and polite behaviour; and the fheriffs, for a conduct which may give a model for all who are in publick sta tions.

MR.