chapters. In the first two, the author vindicates those general fundamental principles of government on which the French legiflators proceeded; and points out fuch of their civil regulations, more especially on the fubject of popular representation, as he thinks chiefly merit the notice of his countrymen, and furnish matter for their inftruction and improvement. In the next two, he illuftrates the excellence of feveral ecclefiaftical regulations made by the French Affembly, and contrafts them with those defects in our own religious establishment which have been long acknowleged, and lamented, by many worthy men, both in and out of the church; he justly extols the noble and liberal system of toleration adopted in France; and he gives fome inftances of the good effects with which it has been already attended. In the remaining chapter, Mr. Flower makes a few general remarks on the proceedings of the French Affembly, and on the writings of Mr. Burke; and concludes with an earnest and affectionate call to his countrymen, to exert themfelves in obtaining a Reformation, as the only effectual ftep to prevent and keep off a Revolution; into all the horrors of which the intemperate zeal of republicanism on the one hand, and the obftinate depravity of the legislature [our author's words,] on the other, feem equally defirous to drive us.

After expatiating on many of thofe advantages which result from the new plan of reprefentation adopted in France, Mr. Flower thus proceeds:

The last excellence which I fhall notice in the French reprefentation is, the means made ufe of to preferve the legislative body pure, and free from corruption. I fhall only mention the principal, which is, the exclufion of thofe perfons who are in poffeffion of places and employments under the crown; who receive penfions, and who are fuppofed to poffefs fuch influence, or to be under the power of influence, fo that the virtue of the legiflature may be endangered. "Minifters, and other agents of the executive power, removable at pleafure; commiffioners of the national treasury; collectors and receivers of direct contributions; fuperintendants of the collection, or management of indirect contributions and national domains, and thofe who, under any denomination whatever, are attached to the employs of the military or civil houfehold of the king"-are not fuffered, while holding fuch employments, to be members of the legislature *. "The members of the prefent national affembly, and fucceeding legislatures,-cannot be advanced to the miniftry, nor receive any offices, gifts, penfions, falaries, or commiffions from the executive power, or its agents, during the continuance of their functions, nor during two years after having finished the exercise of them +." Concerning thefe articles, I think it must ftrike every one, that they are most

* Conflitution, p. 36.

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+ Ibid. p. 53.'

admirably

admirably calculated to prevent undue influence, and to preferve the legislature pure and uncorrupt. The king's minifters, although they have admiffion into the national affembly, have places affigned them, and are always to be heard when they demand it on objects relative to their adminiftration, or when they fhall be required to give information, or even on objects foreign to their adminiftration, if the affembly thinks fit*, have no farther business with that body. The members are left to their own free choice to determine on all matters as their confciences may direct. National affairs are neither forwarded, fufpended, or negatived in the legislative body, by the ministers of the crown, who have the bufinefs of their own proper departments to attend to, and to which, by the conftitution, they are to confine themselves. Their time is employed, as it ought to be, in the fulfilling the duties of their office, and their abilities are without interruption devoted to the most honourable service, to which those of minifters can poffibly be, the fervice of their country.

If from the French, we now turn our attention to the British legiflature, what do we there behold? The firit object which ftrikes a fpectator is, that famous place in the Houfe of Commons, called the Treasury Bench. Here we find feated, the first lord of the treafury and chancellor of his majefty's exchequer, with a band of placemen, his chief fupporters, on each fide. All public bufinefs of importance is fufpended, until this great man makes his entrance. He is the grand fuperintendant and director of the house, and the bufinefs of his chief treafury fecretary (among other important objects) is to watch, and to take care that his mafter has a proper majority to fupport his meafures. That minifter is reckoned the compleateft ftatefman, who by any means whatever can belt manage the houfe, and have the largest majority of its inembers at his difpofal. If we look a little farther into the House of Commons, we hall fee an hoft of placemen and penfioners; of dependants on the crown, and on the minifters. All thefe men, from the highest to the lowest, are allowed not only feats, but votes on every occafion; they are so numerous, fo connected, and fo united, that any attempt to enforce measures which do not meet with their approbation, is almost always fruftrated. A fecret hiftory of the adminiftrations of this country, for a century paft, and of the means the major part of them have used to preferve the Houfe of Commons in due order, would be a great curiofity, and might tend to open the eyes of the public more than a thoufand arguments. It is a pity we have not a few more fuch inftructive publications, as the Diary of the late Lord Melcombe. In this celebrated performance, we have courtiers and minifters, and their various fchemes fairly and impartially expofed to view. We there find what conflitutes merit with a minifler; and are fhewn the methods by which men may reach the pinnacle of minifterial ambition. His Lordship was himself a courtier and a statefman, and he lets us occafionally into the receffes of his own heart. He informs us of the terms he made with the minifter of that day. When foliciting a place, he took care to

* Conftitution, p. 66.'

remind him repeatedly, that " He could give his majefty fix members for nothing," trufting that the minister would not forget his generofity in offering boroughs for nothing, when they were a commodity fo particularly marketable :" at the fame time, he gives us in part to understand the meaning of fuch an expreffion. "I faw (lays his Lordship) the Duke of Newcastle, and told him that in these matters [elections] thofe who would take money I would pay, and not bring him a bill; thofe that would not take money, he must pay, and I recommended my two parfons of Bridgewater and Weymouth, Burroughs and Franklin. He entered into my views very cordially, and affured me that they fhould have the firft crown livings that should be vacant in their parts, if we would look out and fend him the firft intelligence.'

In a note, Mr. Flower obferves that the above quotations from Lord Melcombe fully explain the meaning of the phrase, alliance between church and ftate. At the close of his comparifon between the French and English reprefentation, he draws the following parallel between the mode of conducting general elections in the two countries :

From the comparison which I have drawn between the French and the English representation, I have little doubt but every impartial reader will fee the neceffity of adopting, at leaft, fome of the principles of the former, in the latter. Should any one hefitate on the fubject, I must requeft his attention, while I confider the nature of a general election in one country, and in the other. Some of the enemies of a parliamentary reform, have objected to the extending the right of voting, becaufe of the riot and confufion which may attend popular elections. The fame objection might with the fame propriety be urged against every popular election. But we may be affured, that where any riot or confufion takes place, it is owing to the want of a proper mode, by which electors, however numerous, might freely, and yet peaceably give their fuffrages. I was lately at a general election at Paris, at a time when confufion of fome fort might have been expected, government being in a state of derangement, and the conftitution not being finished. Upwards of feventy thousand citizens exercifed the right of voting. dividing the city into fections, and by various excellent regulations, notwithstanding the election lafted upwards of a month, all was peace; and order reigned univerfally. So far from rioting and drunkenness, there was not even that conviviality, without which we know not how to conduct an election in England. My good focial friends, with whom I have canvaffed in this country, will pity me when I inform them, that although I was a little active in my enquiries with the citizens and electors of Paris; although there

By

• These seventy thousand active citizens chufe nine hundred electors; who elect twenty-four deputies to the affembly, as repres fentatives for the city. The number of fections into which the city is divided, and into which the primary voters are diftributed when they exercise their functions, is forty-eight. Rev.

REV. JULY 1792.

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were twenty-four deputies elected, I could not find one who gave an election dinner; nor was I able to discover one open house, where I could mingle with the citizens, and fit down to a bottle of wine, to drink fuccefs to a favourite candidate. The truth is, the French are not fond of their reprefentatives purchafing their feats, for fear they should afterwards reimburse themselves, by felling their conftituents. A general election is therefore begun, carried on and completed, without expence, throughout the kingdom.

It is with reluctance that I now turn to a general election in England; where, all circumftances confidered, it is a matter of doubt, whether the feptennial exercise of our rights is a curfe, or a bleffing. Every one must agree, that in a moral point of view, nothing can be more alarming, or more difgraceful, than the conduct of candidates and electors, at fuch a period. That corruption, which during the continuance of the Houfe of Commons is a standing pool, now fwells and rufhes forth, in a mighty, refiftlefs, overflowing torrent. Minifters, and candidates, and voters, are bought and fold, as truly, and as literally, as horfes, oxen, and fwine, in Smithfield market. Thofe perfons who have purchased estates (fold fometimes by public auction) with valuable contingencies, aliar boroughs, annexed to them, now rife into importance. The grand bufinefs of the minister of the crown, and his agents, is to fecure as many boroughs as poffible; and if a borough-holder will fell himfelf to advantage, now is the time. There are certain perfons, called jobbers, whofe bufinefs it is to watch the market, and to give information accordingly. The prices are various, according to the parties, or fituations of the different traders. The late Lord Chesterfield having met with a disappointment from fome Great man, who had promised him a feat for his fon Mr. Stanhope, writes to the latter as follows: "Since that (difappointment) I have heard no more of it; which made me look out for fome venal borough: and I spoke to a borough-jobber, and offered five and twenty hundred pounds for a fecure feat in parliament; but he laughed at my offer; and faid, that there was no fuch thing as a borough to be had now; for that the rich Eaft and Weft Indians had fecured them all, at the rate of three thousand pounds at least; but many at four thousand; and two or three that he knew at five thousand."—

In another letter his Lordship writes, "Elections here have been carried to a degree of frenzy hitherto unheard of; that for the town of Northampton has coft the contending parties at least thirty thousand pounds a fide, and has fold his borough of

to two members for nine thousand pounds." As to our corporations, where the choice is made by twenty or thirty perfons, the business is generally fettled in a pretty, fnug, quiet manner. There are generally two or three active perfons (the clergy are clever men at electioneering of all kinds-church and ftate!) who fettle the bufinefs for the rest. The majority of the members of thefe corporations are commonly purchased before hand. Those gentlemen, who by perfonal favours, or by favours to fome brother, or coufin, or relation of the electors, can oblige the most extenfively, are fure of their feats without farther trouble. Some of

thefe

thefe corporations barter their independence, as much as they poffibly can, by choofing their reprefentatives for corporators; although there are refpectable inhabitants much better qualified to manage the affairs of the town, than men who have no connection with it, but what is difgraceful; and who only vifit it twice or thrice in feven years, juft to keep up a proper acquaintance with their worthy and independent conftituents. As to our popular elections for towns, cities, and counties, when a conteft takes place, what fcenes do they generally prefent? Candidates degrading themselves by practifing all forts of meanness, and electors equally degrading themselves by practifing all forts of vice; the former often ruin their fortunes, the latter their virtue, and both their characters. Canvaffing, caroufing, intoxication, rioting, bribery, lying, and perjury, deprave and debauch the morals of the community. Here we behold Britons transformed into brutes, or rather into fomething worse than brutes: men endowed with reason, underftanding, and confcience, and profeffing Chriftianity, finking below the beafts that perish. The worthieft part of the community are often contaminated. Inflamed by party heat; family feuds, and almost irreconcilable differences are engendered between those who once lived in harmony, friendship, and affection, the one with the other. These circumftances confidered, it is not furprising, that the inhabitants of fome of our largest towns fhould quietly acquiefce in the deprivation of their right of choofing reprefentatives, or, that in other towns where a contefted election, on account of its complicated evils, is deprecated as much almost as the peftilence: the people fhould leave their reprefentatives to be chofen by the leaders of parties only, noblemen who have most interest, and who fettle the bufinefs between themselves; by which means the people remain, in fact, without any choice at all. The city of Weltminster, at the laft election, affords a ftriking illuftration of this fubject. In order to avoid a fimilar contest to that of the preceding year, in which the different candidates and their friends had spent upwards of eighty thousand pounds; and riot had ended in murder; a compromife was agreed to by the heads of the parties, which might be termed difgraceful, had it not prevented a dif graceful election. Compromifes of a fimilar kind are frequently fettled by the aristocratick leaders in different counties; and whether the people are right or wrong in fubmitting to fuch compromises, I am at a loss to determine.'

We should gladly lay before our readers feveral other extracts from this part of the work, which we are certain would be highly acceptable; and, in particular, we could with to quote what Mr. F. fays refpecting the mode to be pursued for obtaining a parliamentary reform, and an equal and frequent. reprefentation; which, as he well remarks, appeared a much more difficult work in France previous to the Revolution, than it now appears in Britain :' but these extracts would lead us beyond our limits. We must therefore proceed to that part of the author's work, which treats of ecclefiaftical matters. This

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