PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

British C~njtitut;tit~
scntation. 1"Ile house of commons consist" ot· five'
hundred and forty-eight members, of whom, two
llundred arc elected by seven thou"and con,tituents:­
so that a ll1~~ority of th~se seven thousand, without
any reasonable title to superior weight or influencp
in the state, may, under certain circumstances, decide
a que .. tion against the opinion of as many millions.
Or, to place the same object in another poillt of vie\v ;
if my estate be situated in one county of the kingdOln,
I possess the ten thousandth part of a single
l~epresentati\·e; if in another, tIle thousal1dth; it in
a particular district, I may be one in twenty \'tho
choose two representatives; if in a still more f-a\roured
spot, I may enjoy the right of appointing two
Dlyself. If I have been born, or d\veIl, or have served
an apprenticeship in one to\\·n, I am represented
in the national assembly by two deputies, in the choice
of whom I exercise an actual ar.d sensible share of
power; if accident has thrown my birth, or habitation,
or service into another" town, I 11ave no representative
at all, nor more po\,,"er or cc,ncern in the
election of those "rho malie the la\v~ bv \\-hich I anl
;
governed, than if J was a subject of the Grand Seign.
ior-and this partiality ~ubsists without any pretence
whatever of merit orof propriety, to justify the pref.
erence'of one place to another. ()r., thirdly, to describe
the state of national representati()n as it exists
in reality, it may be affirmed, I believe with truth,
t!lat about one half of the house of comn1ons obtain
theIr seats if1 that assembly by the clectioll of th~
people, the otI1er hal-f by purchase, or b}.l th"e nonlination
of single proprietors of great estates.
This is a flagrant incongruity in the constitution;
but it is one of those objections which strike most.
forcible at first sight. The effect of all reasoning upon
the subject is to diminish the fin.t impression; 011
\Vllich aCCOuIlt it deserves the more attclltive exall1il1.
ation, that we ffiily be assured, before we adventure
upon a reformation, that the magnitude of the evil
justifies the danger of the experiment. III the few rc ..
nlarks tllat fol10\\1, we \\·Otll~i be tlIldcrstood, in tIle