to contradict a minifter; and I obferved in the last house of commons, that it seemed to be thought very improper to commence any business of importance, unless the minifter were present. Indeed, the manner in which the house often waited for his appearance, as if they could do nothing but under his direction, appeared to me to be very unsuitable to the dignity of a British House of Commons: I hope, that the honour of the house, and of the nation, will be more attended to in the préfent Parliament; and that the reprefentatives of the people will be of opinion, that they have a right, and that it is their duty, to do the business of the public, whether the minister of the crown chooses to be in his place, or not; and that they will be much more inclined to receive the inftructions of their conftituents, than to attend to the dictates of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

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ONE circumftance, which deferves attention in our late Parliaments, and efpecially the laft, is the extenfion of the feffions to fo late a feafon of the year, that the generality of the members have wholly quitted the bufinefs of the houfe, long before the clofe of the feffion, in order to retire to their seats in the country. The fifth feffion of the laft Parliament was not clofed till the 11th of July, and the fixth not till the 11th of August. But this extenfion of the feffion to fo late a period, though in a constitutional view it may, unless in a cafe of real emergency, be regarded as a confiderable evil, is a great advantage to a minifter who wishes to carry any improper bills through the two houses. As moft of the independent members have then ceased to give their attendance, the minifter has an opportunity of carrying his most `obnoxious measures, in thin houses, with much

much more facility, than if the feffion were closed at an earlier period of the year. This is probably the real cause of the sesfion being extended so far into the summer; for otherwise, it would certainly be more convenient for the members, and better for the public, that the Parliament should affemble at the beginning of November, and then enter upon bufinefs, than have the feffion extended to July or August. But placemen and penfioners are obliged to attend even in the dog-days; and if the more independent members are in a remote part of the country, or too far from the metropolis to attend the Parliament, the bufinefs of the minifter will not be neglected, whatever may become of the business of the public. Mr. Pitt's first Tobacco bill was paffed in August, 1789. Indeed, though the feffions of Parliament have lately been carried fo far into the year, fo

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little attention has fometimes been paid to the real interefts of the nation, that the people have had reafon to rejoice when the Parliament broke up; because no additional impofitions could be laid upon the public, nor any new laws paffed to the injury of the conftitution, till the commencement of another feffion.

Or the various objects, which feem proper to engage the attention of a new Parliament, one of the most important is,

a REFORM OF THE REPRESENTATION

of the people in the house of commons. Mr. Pitt once made ftrong profeffions, of great zeal for fuch a reform. But these profeffions are now forgotten, and this zeal has no longer any existence. Indeed, the plan of a parliamentary reform, which was proposed by Mr. Pitt, never appeared to me to be a good one; and that it was not fo, I know to have been the opinion

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of many, who had thought much upon the fubject. But whatever the merits of his plan might be, he has now totally abandoned it. When a motion was made

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by Mr. Flood, in the last feffion of the last Parliament, for leave to bring in a bill "to amend the prefent representation of "the people in the house of commons," Mr. Pitt manifefted an extreme diflike to any difcuffion of the subject, and even applauded fome of the most contemptible fophiftry that was ever delivered in parliament, which was then advanced with a view of convincing thofe members, who could not diftinguish between the groffeft fallacies and found reafoning, that there was no occafion for any reform whatever.

WHEN nine tenths of the people of this country have no votes in the elections of members of Parliament, when fo great a part

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