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ments to one side. The mode of corruption may be changed, butcorruption itself will remain, as long as there is so much publicwealth to be distributed, and so many public honours to be dis-posed of, among the members of the House of Commons andtheir connections.

“ The manner of electing the members of the House of Com­ mons , and the time for which they are to be elected, are subjectson which men’s minds are much divided; I consider them asmatters of importance, only so far as they contribute to the intro-duction of honest and independent members into the House , andto the keeping them so whilst they sit there. And hence I amnot one of those who stickle for the abstract right of every indi-vidual having a vote in the election, nor for the ancient practiceof having a new parliament elected every year, provided the in-tegrity of parliament could be obtained by other means. I freelyown to you, that I fear this end will never be obtained to anysalutary extent by any means. Other means however of doingall that is possible, may perhaps be thought of, less obnoxious tocavil and misconstruction, than either the extension of the rightof voting to every individual, or the restriction of the duration ofparliament to a single year.

“ With respect to any influence, which I may be supposed tohave, either in the university or county, it is too small to be men-tioned, even if my situation would allow me to exert it with pro-priety, in the manner I did on a former occasion, when the cala-'mity of the American war gave it an energy which it could nothave now. I shall not, however, be backward in embracing anyopportunity of signifying my intention to concur with those who,