A Letter Addressed to John Cartwright, Esq (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: liameHts shortened, bribery could scarcely be applied witji effect;?that the influence of corruption being thus removed, the real friends of the country would obtain the preference naturally due to worth and talents; and that, the House of Commons being so composed, every abuse would speedily be checked or thoroughly reformed. Such, Sir, were the views upon which I was led to approve the proposal of a great and radical change in the constitution of the House of Commons. I believe, that through a similar train of reasoning, my father and brother had been led, as well as many other men of distinguished worth, to the same opinions. Of the correctness of this practical conclusion, I have since seen reason to doubt?not that my feelings of abhorrence and contempt for corruption and venality have undergone any change?in these sentiments I do not fall short of those honoured relatives with whose opinions you were well acquainted: chapter{Section 4but I have had an opportunity, which they never had, of seeing the practical application of those principles from which we expected consequences so beneficial. With grief and mortification I perceived that no such advantages had resulted, as from theory I had been led to anticipate. I allude to the observations which I had occasion to make in the United States of America, where a system of represen- tatkm is established, approaching as nearly as perhaps is practicable, to the theoretical perfection at which you aim; and where that system is combined with a general diffusion of property, of itself calculated to check in a great degree the force of corruption. A very short acquaintance with the legislative proceed-, ings of America may afford conviction, that universal suffrage and frequency of election prove no bar to the misconduct o...