REVIEW. 13 



le^ eventually to that state of the representation which called so 

 imperiously and so necessarily for parliamentary reform ; the 

 necessity for this reform is admitted by all, the dangers of it 

 strike different minds with more or less force, but the necessity 

 and the danger would have been equally avoided had the general 

 history of municipal corporations been calmly investigated, and 

 the legal remedies for those abuses of the parliamentary repre- 

 sentation at least, been unsparingly and honestly applied. Had, 

 in short, the citizen and burgesship been restored, as matter of 

 right and not of corporate election, to the responsible inhabitant 

 householders, enrolled from time to time at the leet, the King's 

 court of the borough, where their pretensions to the character of 

 citizen or burgess might be canvassed in a constitutional manner 

 by a jury, and their right, when ascertained, duly registered, a 

 right which would carry with it the parliamentary franchise 

 according to the tenor of the King's Writ. 



We shall insert but a single extract, and that from the closing 

 page of the work, which extract, it will be seen, in moderate 

 language, points out the inadequacy of the means to the end 

 proposed by the reform bill, and suggests as much more simple 

 and effective a restoration of the parliamentary franchise to its 

 pristine state. 



" Notwithstanding the parliamentary franchise forms no part of 

 our enquiry, it is impossible to close this work without a refer- 

 ence to one portion of it which is materially connected with the 

 due formation of the lists of the burgesses. A mode of framing 

 the list of the voters has been established by the act of the legis- 

 lature, and had experience proved the practical utility of that 

 system, it would be expedient to abide by it. 



But, without any disposition needlessly to censure or complain, 

 it is impossible not to say that a more imperfect plan has rarely 

 been suggested ; and it is not immaterial to add, that it has been 

 accompanied with no small portion of expence. 



There can be no doubt but that the gentlemen who have been 

 appointed to superintend the formation of these lists, have done 

 all that knowledge, talent, and zeal could effect in the undertaking ; 

 and have, by their intercourse with the conflicting parties, tended 

 in a great degree to lessen the virulence of election disputes. 

 But it was impossible to do more than was effected by the im- 

 perfect means placed in their hands. 



The real defect in the system is, that it was intended merely 

 to form a list of voters which had never before existed in this 

 country — and, it is believed, in no other till a very recent date. 



Before this experiment was tried, the conflicting motives of 

 privilege and burden operated upon the lists which were formed 



