contended, he said, that the people of England were virtually represented, and it had been carried farther; some persons had formerly said, that the people of America were in fact as much represented as the people of Birmingham; though he was free to confess, that by the present House of Commons the people were virtually represented; yet a virtual representation was only a mere succedaneum for an equal representation, and gentlemen who were so strenuous for the support of the present constitution, frequently made use of the franchise granted to freeholders by Henry the VIth, in various ways, as best suited their purpose. If they would only recollect, a freeholder of forty shillings in those days was a man of great estate; to exclude every man now from voting who had not an estate equal to forty shillings in those times, would be excluding the greatest part of the present freeholders. That the voice of the people was not to be collected from the votes of that House was plain, for in all the great questions for the welfare of the country, he had observed that the country members, who were most likely to be independent, had uniformly voted, in a proportion of five-sixths for the question, but had been overpowered by the members for the rotten boroughs, which totally defeated every good end that could be proposed. The Duke of Richmond, he said, had last year introduced a bill into the other House of Parliament for an equal representation; he could not, he owned, subscribe to all the parts of that bill, but he was convinced that the noble peer meant it for the public good; for he was not ashamed to confess that he looked upon him as the most able and fit man to bring about a reform of any that this country could boast. It had been said, that to add members to the counties would be encreasing the aristocratic influence: he owned it would; and in some measure he confessed himself a friend to that doctrine; but he would wish to be understood, at the same time, not to mean the influence of peers, but to consider the monied interest as the aristocratic part; men who had stakes to lose ought, and he trusted would be the most anxious, to preserve them. It had been suggested to him, that the army and navy ought to be excluded that House; he was of quite a different opinion; for he could wish in order to make that House perfect, that it should contain the landed, the navy, the army, the monied, and in short every interest; but it did not at present; and the city for which he had the honour to sit was so little represented, that the county in which it stood, although it contained one-eighth part of the whole number of electors of Great Britain, although it paid one-sixth part of the land-tax, and a full third of all other taxes, yet it had not more than a fifty-fifth part of the representation: certainly, no man in that House could in justice contend, that the county of Middlesex was fairly represented; but if they did, he must differ from them materially. He paid a variety of compli ments to Mr. William Pitt, for his steady attachment to liberty, and was fearful that nothing but the most imminent danger would awaken the people to a sense of their danger. He reprobated the ruinous measures of the late ministry, and declared that he wished for no other support than what would naturally come from a thorough conviction that his measures were right. The motion was opposed by Mr. Powys, Mr. Thomas Pitt, Mr. Dundas, Mr. Rosewarne, Mr. Rigby, and others. Sir Horace Mann having moved "That the other order of the day be now read," the House divided: Tellers. SMr.Yorke, YEAS Mr. Yorke, Cambridgesh. Mr. Macdonald Tellers. 161.-NOES {Mr. Byng Mr. Pitt's motion was consequently rejected. t} 141. LORD MAHON'S BILL FOR PREVENTING BRIBERY AND EXPENCE AT ELECTIONS. June 19. ON N the 23d of May, Lord Mahon obtained leave to bring in a bill for the better preventing bribery and expence in elections of members to serve in parliament. The bill was immediately presented and read a first time. It was afterwards read a second time and committed. On the 19th of June a motion was made for taking the report into consideration. Upon this occasion Mr. William Pitt warmly supported the bill. He was astonished, he said, that any gentleman should be hostile to a measure, which, in his opinion, was highly constitutional. It had been called an inno vation; it was no innovation. It referred merely to the mode of conducting a very constitutional business; a mode which had continually warred with the times; a mode which had admitted of the grossest abuses. The regulation of this was no innovation, but a restoration of the constitution. There was indeed, nothing in the bill which did not meet his fullest approbation. It was calculated to revise a number of very useful laws, which, from the relaxation of morals, had almost become obsolete. He was replied to by Mr. Secretary Fox, who, after paying every compliment to the preceding speaker, contested all his arguments with his usual ability and address. He denied, that the principle of the bill had been fairly stated by his honourable friend. He wished by no means to countenance a measure which should carry on the face of it a sort of discordance, or at least a dissimilarity of sentiment between candidates and voters. He was for cultivating the connection between the elector and elected, by all possible expedients. It was by intimacy, that character, virtue, property well occupied, had their natural influence. Why should they endeavour to circumscribe the very few privileges the electors of Great Britain retained? Was it not their business to give them every assistance for extending their franchises? And nothing could possibly enhance the natural independence of English electors, more than upon an occasion of elections, obliging their friends, or preferring to the highest honour of the country those who, in their opinion, seemed most deserving of it. Mr. Fox said he was not fond of recurring to those times when representatives were paid for their trouble by those they represented. This circumstance sounded very high with some people now. But whence did it arise? This house was then of little or no weight, in the government of the country. And those arguments which referred to such ancient usages could be of no more use, than to put the House of Commons in mind of its ancient insignificance. He said that nothing that could injure the cause of the people, had any support to expect from him; and whenever the honourable gentleman came forward with his ideas, of an equal representation, he might depend on his warmest concurrence, and firm support. This was a point in which they could never disagree. On the present bill, however, their opinions did not meet, and he had stated with great deference those reasons which made him differ from him. {Mr. Pheridan } 59. So it was resolved in the affirmative: but on the 21st, the bill being recommitted, several clauses containing the pith and marrow of it, being thrown out, Lord Mahon begged leave to withdraw the bill; which was accordingly granted. Death of the MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM. RESIGNATION OF MR. Fox. CHANGE OF MINISTRY. July 9. W HILST parliament was successfully engaged in prosecuting the most effectual measures for the security of its own independence, for healing the breaches of the constitution, and relieving the burdens of the people, a heavy calamity was approaching, which again darkened the prospect that had so happily opened to the nation. This was the loss of the Marquis of Rockingham; whose health had been for some time gradually declining, and at length sunk under the increasing weight of public cares and business. The first step taken by the Court after his death, which happened on the 1st of July, was the appointment of the Earl of Shelburne to be his successor in the treasury. Lord John Cavendish and Mr. Fox soon afterwards resigned their offices, and were followed by the Duke of Portland; by Mr. Montagu and Lord Althorpe, from the board of treasury; by Lord Duncannon and Mr. J. Townshend from the admiralty; by Mr. Burke, and by Mr. Lee the Solicitor-General. Mr. William Pitt was made chancellor of the Exchequer; Mr. T. Townshend and Lord Grantham, secretaries of state; Mr. Pepper Arden succeeded Mr. Lee; the Lord Advocate of Scotland succeeded Mr. Barré, who was removed to the pay-office; and Earl Temple was appointed to the lord-lieutenantcy of Ireland. The secession of such a weight of talents and integrity from the service of government, could not be regarded with indifference. The motives which were supposed to have actuated them, were variously represented; and some insinuations being thrown out, highly injurious to the public character of the persons concerned, the first opportunity was taken of bringing the subject to an open discussion in the House of Commons. Accordingly, on the 9th of July, a debate having arisen on a motion relative to the pension of 300ol. a-year granted to Colonel Barré, the divisions that had prevailed amongst his majesty's servants were strongly retorted on those who had formed the last, by Mr. Bamber Gascoyne, a member of the old administration; and this discord was alleged to be the more culpable at present, on account of the very critical and alarming situation of affairs. Upon this occasion, Mr. Fox rose. He said, that he had the honour to be one of his majesty's confidential servants when that grant, which was now the object of debate, was agreed to; and although he was not the person in whose department it lay to advise the King on the subject, still he held himself as responsible to parliament for the advice that was given. He considered the pension as a payment for services most honourably performed; and he by no means, on the maturest deli beration, thought that, all the circumstances considered, it was either a lavish or a misapplied grant. Having given honourable testimony to the character of Colonel Barré, and to his merits, as well as to the integrity of the noble Marquis, who, by being at the head of the Treasury, was immediately concerned in the grant now in the consideration of the House, he said, that at the same time that they acknowledged the justice of the present grant, and of another which had been alluded to in that House, the pension granted to Lord Ashburton, it was peculiarly honourable to the friends and connections of the deceased Marquis, that all the acts of his administration, which had ever been complained of in that House, had ever given rise to a motion, or had ever been alluded to in a speech, were acts of friendship to men with whom he had little or no connection; with whom he had no remarkable coincidence of sentiment; men who were not attached to him in any shape whatever; but who were distinguished by their intimacy and connection with another noble person, who made a part of that administration, and who now was to be the head of the new one. The only jobs in which the Rockingham administration were concerned, were jobs for two men, neither friendly to their persons nor principles. An honourable gentleman had said, that the grant was unwise, impolitic, and lavish, and that it was peculiarly so, in coming from men who had so loudly talked of reform, and of the necessity of public economy. To all this he could only say, that the pension now bestowed, was'a thing, in fact, contributing to public reform, for it was a reward, bestowed on a man, who had most nobly pursued the object of public reform, but who had certainly not been singular in that important matter, as it had come from an honourable gentleman who sat behind him (Mr. Burke). To reward the labours of men who had the good of the public in view, was always politic, and could not be stigmatized with the character which was due to the lavish and improvident acts of the late ministry. It was however to be observed by that House, and to be remembered by the people, that the only favours which had been conferred, and the only defalcations from that principle which had taken place during the short ministry of the Marquis of Rockingham, had all been in favour of that person and his friends who were now to form the administration of this country.. But a right honourable gentleman had particularly alluded to the present circumstances of the ministry, and to the division which had lately taken place: he had said that they resembled their predecessors in being disunited, and divided in their counsel. To this he must answer, that he had |