82

conduce to restore the independence of Parliament , have receivedauthentic information, that the general allegation of the saidpetition, and of many other petitions from various counties, cities,and boroughs, respecting the influence of the executive govern-ment over the representatives of the people, hath been taken intoconsideration, and admitted by the Honourable the Commons ofGreat Britain in Parliament assembled to be just and well founded;and whereas the said Commons have resolved, that the increasedand increasing influence of the Crown (or in words to that effect)ought to be diminished; and whereas this very important resolu-tion was followed by other resolutions, tending to a laudablereform in the expenditure of public money, and to the establishingthe independence of Parliament on the mostt lasting foundations:the Committee, taking these and other circiumstances into theirmost serious consideration, and being desirous of showing all properrespect to the deliberations, and of placing a due reliance on thediscretion and integrity of the representatives of the people, dofor these reasons decline, for the present, proposing any plan ofassociation, sincerely trusting that the House of Commons , havingmade so noble a beginning, will be animated with a proper zeal topersevere in deserving the highest confidence, and the warmestthanks, of their constituents and fellow-subjects. The Committeeare thoroughly sensible that from the vicissitudes incident to allhuman establishments, the civil constitution of this country hathsuffered in the course of less than a century some change, andthat it doth at present stand in need of some reform ; but whetherthat reform may be best accomplished by recurring to triennialParliaments ; by disfranchising the lesser boroughs ; by increasingthe number of the Knights of the Shires; by regulating the ex-