1826.] New Parliament. 7 
pared with what is expended in carriages and tavern-entertainment. 
The whole of this prodigal expenditure, the whole of these dreaded 
and indeed disgusting tumults,"may be avoided ; the unpopular employ- 
ment of the military be spared; and the lives of the thoughtless * mul- 
titude’ saved. 
. But my Lord, the reformer, would check bribery. How? By 
extending the time of petitioning against an act of bribery from fourteen 
days—by the way, was any tiring ever so outrageously contemptuous as 
those fourteen days ?—to eighteen months. And why eighteen months ? 
Oh, the corrupt elector would never be influenced by so remote a chance 
of emolument. But he might; and therefore why not extend the pe- 
riod through the whole existence of the parliament? or rather, why 
these laws against bribery at all? If Lord John know any thing 
a 
of these matters, he should know that such laws will and must be 
evaded—things only get into more and more worthless hands, and the 
eunning of, the parties more sharpened. 
_ We have still a few words on candidates. The dearth of candidates 
has been unusually great. ‘ No Popery’ has yelled in vain. ‘If you 
do not listen to your clergy, you will have the Pope among you,’ was 
the appalling denunciation of a well-known minister on the Leicester 
hustings, and denounced we trust in vain. No new candidate, we believe, 
has found the cry to answer. What, on the other hand, will be the result 
of Catholic exertions in Ireland, we have yet to learn. Perhaps consi- 
derable. But as to a dearth of candidates, only extend the right of 
suffrage, and reduce the expense of elections, by collecting votes 
parochially, and you will have them in abundance. Throw open the 
gates to men of all classes, not of all ages—not to boys of 21, but men 
of 30, or we should rather say 40, as in France—and abolish ¢ qualifi- 
cations; but do not tempt them with freedom from arrest. Talents, 
knowledge, industry are the things that are wanted, not weight of 
purse. Why is any man to be excluded from the possibility of serving 
his country, on the widest stage of utility, because he has not £300 or 
£600 a year of /anded property ? Nay, the absurdity of the restriction 
is shown by the impunity with which it is occasionally neglected. 
Many conspicuous members are well known to have had no such legal 
ualification. Why, again, is another—able and well-educated—ex- 
cluded, because he is in orders ? Oh, but the clergy are better employed 
_ in professional duties. Very well, exclude those who are beneficially 
employed ; but why exclude all—those who have no cure, nor any 
chance of a cure: now, too, when streams of naval and military officers 
have flooded the church, and the numbers of the clergy exceed the 
benefices three or perhaps fourfold ? 
_ But we have not quite done with the composition of parliament : inter- 
nally it requires some little reformation. Exclude, first of all, all place- 
_ men, except the members of the cabinet, who should have seats ex-officio, 
ich will do away with the necessity of Treasury-boroughs. Resolutely 
disqualify every man whose name is to be found in the sinecure or pen- 
sion lists. Keep your committees to their duties by suffering none to vote 
who do not attend the sittings ; prevent solicitations upon private bills, 
and particularly subject these private bills to the scrutiny of a distinct 
and unconcernedcommittee. Assemble early in the day, though it may oc- 
easionally inconvenience the lawyers ; and do not by your preposterously 
