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who have as much right to confidence as their adverfaries; that the freeholders of Middlesex, if they could not choose Mr. Wilkes, might have chofen any other man, and that he trufts we have within the realm five hundred as good as he; that even if this which has happened to Middlefex had happened to every other county, that one man fhould be made incapable of being elected, it could produce no great change in the parliament, nor much contract the power of election; that what has been done is probably right, and that if it be wrong it is of little confequence, fince a like cafe cannot eafily occur; that expulfions are very rare, and if they fhould, by unbounded infolence of faction, become more frequent, the electors may eafily provide a fecond choice.

All this he may fay, but not half of this will be. heard; his opponents will ftun him and themfelves with a confused found of penfions and places, venality and corruption, oppreffion and invafion, flavery and. ruin.

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Outcries like thefe, uttered by malignity, and echoed by folly; general accufations of indeterminate wickedness; and obfcure hints of impoffible defigns, difperfed among thofe that do not know their meaning, by those that know them to be falfe, have difposed part of the nation, though but a small part, to pester the court with ridiculous petitions,

The progrefs of a petition is well known. An ejected placeman goes down to his county or his borough, tells his friends of his inability to ferve them, and his conftituents of the corruption of the govern.

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government. His friends readily understand that he who can get nothing, will have nothing to give. They agree to proclaim a meeting; meat and drink are plentifully provided; a crowd is easily brought together, and those who think that they know the reason of their meeting, undertake to tell thofe who know it not. Ale and clamour unite their powers, the crowd, condensed and heated, begins to ferment with the leven of fedition. All fee a thousand evils, though they cannot show them, and grow impatient for a remedy, though they know not what.

A fpeech is then made by the Cicero of the day; he fays much, and fuppreffes more, and credit is equally given to what he tells, and what he conceals. The petition is read and univerfally approved. Those who are fober enough to write, add their names, and the reft would fign it if they could.

Every man goes home and tells his neighbour of the glories of the day; how he was confulted and what he advised; how he was invited into the great room, where his lordship called him by his name; how he was careffed by Sir Francis, Sir Jofeph, or Sir George; how he eat turtle and venifon, and drank unanimity to

the three brothers.

The poor loiterer, whofe fhop had confined him, or whofe wife had locked him up, hears the tale of luxury with envy, and at laft inquries what was their petition. Of the petition nothing is remembered by the narrator, but that it fpoke much of fears and apprehenfions, and fomething very alarming, and that he is fure it is against the government; the other is convinced that it must be right, and wishes

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he had been there, for he loves wine and venifon, and is refolved as long as he lives to be against the go

vernment,

The petition is then handed from town to town, and from house to house, and wherever it comes the inhabitants flock together, that they may see that which must be fent to the king. Names are easily collected. One man figns because he hates the papift; another because he has vowed deftruction to the turnpikes; one because it will vex the parfon; another because he owes his landlord nothing; one because he is rich; another because he is poor; one to fhew that he is not afraid, and another to fhew that he can write.

The paffage, however, is not always fmooth. Those who collect contributions to fedition, fometimes apply to a man of higher rank and more enlightened mind, who, instead of lending them his name, calmly reproves them for being feducers of the people.

You who are here, fays he, complaining of venality, are yourselves the agents of thofe who, having estimated themselves at too high a price, are only angry that they are not bought. You are appealing from the parliament to the rabble, and inviting those who scarcely, in the most common affairs, diftinguish right from wrong, to judge of a question complicated with law written and unwritten, with the general principles of government, and the particular cuftoms of the House of Commons; you are fhewing them a grievance, fo diftant that they cannot fee it, and fo light that they cannot feel it; for how, but by unne

ceffary

ceffary intelligence and artificial provocation, should the farmers and fhop-keepers of Yorkshire and Cumberland know or care how Middlefex is reprefented? Inftead of wandering thus round the county to exafperate the rage of party, and darken the suspicions of ignorance, it is the duty of men like you, who have leifure for inquiry, to lead back the people to their honest labour; to tell them, that submiffion is the duty of the ignorant, and content the virtue of the poor; that they have no skill in the art of government, nor any interest in the diffentions of the great; and when you meet with any, as fome there are, whofe understandings are capable of conviction, it will become you to allay this foaming ebullition, by fhewing them that they have as much happiness as the condition of life will eafily receive, and that a government, of which an erroneous or unjust representation of Middlefex is the greatest crime that intereft can discover, or malice can upbraid, is government approaching nearer to perfection, than any that experience has known, or history related.

The drudges of fedition wish to change their ground, they hear him with fullen filence, feel conviction without repentance, and are confounded but not abashed; they go forward to another door, and find a kinder reception from a man enraged against the government, because he has just been paying the tax upon his windows.

That a petition for a diffolution of the parliament will at all times have its favourers, may be easily. imagined. The people indeed do not 'expect that one House of Commons will be much honefter or

much

much wifer than another; they do not fuppofe that the taxes will be lightened; or though they have been fo often taught to hope it, that foap and candles will be cheaper; they expect no redrefs of grievances, for of no grievances but taxes do they complain; they wish not the extenfion of liberty, for they do not feel any restraint; about the fecurity of privilege or property they are totally careless, for they fee no property invaded, nor know, till they are told, that any privilege has fuffered violation.

Least of all do they expect, that any future parliament will leffen its own powers, or communicate to the people that authority which it has once obtained.

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Yet a new parliament is fufficiently defirable. The year of election is a year of jollity; and what is ftill more delightful, a year of equality. The glutton now eats the delicacies for which he longed when he could not purchase them, and the drunkard has the pleasure of wine without the coft. The drone lives a while without work, and the fhop-keeper, in the flow of money, raifes his price. The mechanick that trem. bled at the presence of Sir Jofeph, now bids him come again for an answer; and the poacher whofe gun has been seized, now finds an opportunity to reclaim it. Even the honeft man is not displeased to see himself important, and willingly refumes in two years that power which he had refigned for feven. Few love their friends fo well as not to defire fuperiority by unexpensive benefaction.

Yet, notwithstanding all these motives to compliance, the promoters of petitions have not been fuccessful. Few could be perfuaded to lament evils

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