Fox appears to be far more inexplicable,
on any good ground, than theirs, who propose the individual
representation; for he neither proposes anything, nor even suggests that
he has anything to propose, in lieu of the present mode of constituting
the House of Commons; on the contrary, he declares against all the plans
which have yet been suggested, either from himself or others: yet, thus
unprovided with any plan whatsoever, he pressed forward this unknown
reform with all possible warmth; and for that purpose, in a speech of
several hours, he urged the referring to a committee the libellous
impeachment of the House of Commons by the association of the Friends of
the People. But for Mr. Fox to discredit Parliament _as it stands_, to
countenance leagues, covenants, and associations for its further
discredit, to render it perfectly odious and contemptible, and at the
same time to propose nothing at all in place of what he disgraces, is
worse, if possible, than to contend for personal individual
representation, and is little less than demanding, in plain terms, to
bring on plain anarchy.
44. Mr. Fox and these gentlemen have for the present been defeated; but
they are neither converted nor disheartened. They have solemnly declared
that they will persevere until they shall have obtained their
ends,--persisting to assert that the House of Commons not only is not
the true representative of the people, but that it does not answer the
purpose of such representation: most of them insist that all the debts,
the taxes, and the burdens of all kinds on the people, with every other
evil and inconvenience which we have suffered since the Revolution, have
been owing solely to an House of Commons which does not speak the sense
of the people.
Pages:
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65