78] 
dy, formed on a principle that ex~ 
tends to the majority, can be con- 
ftitutionally adequate to the return 
of an attual reprefentative of the 
people ; and that unlefs the people 
be actually reprefented, they are not 
conftitutionally reprefented at all. 
He admitted that property, to a 
certain degree, is a neceflary ingre- 
dient to the elective power ; that is 
to fay, that franchife ought not to 
go beyond property ; but at the fame 
time it ought to be as nearly com- 
menfurate to it as poflible. Pro- 
perty, by the original principle of 
the conftitution, was the fource of 
all power, both elective and legifla- 
tive; the /ideri tenentes, including 
at that time, in effect, the whole 
property of the country, and ex- 
tending to the mats of the people, 
were the elective body. ‘The per- 
fons whom they chofe to reprefent 
them in parliament, fat in right of 
the property of their electors; and 
the barons fat in right of their own 
baronies ; thatis to fay, of their own 
property. .At that time the latter 
were not creatures of royal patent as 
now. But now that the lords are 
creatures of royal patent merely, and 
that freehold property is but a part 
of the property of the nation, the na- 
tional property is not as fully repre- 
fented as it was originally, and as 
it ought to be fill by the conftitu- 
tion.—That the contftituent body is 
alfo defective in point ‘of number, 
as well as in point of property; the 
whole number of electors being in- 
finitely fhort of what it ought to be, 
and, what is worfe, the majority of 
the reprefentatives who decide for 
the whole, chofén by a number of 
eleftors not exceeding fix or eight 
thoufand ; though thefe reprefen- 
tatives are to act for eight millions 
of people —That a new body of 
conitituents is therefore wanting ; 
a 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1790. 
and in their appointment two things 
are to be confidered ; one, that 
they fhould be numerous enough, 
becaufe numbers are neceflary to 
the fpirit of liberty ; .the other, 
that they fhould have a competent 
degree of property, becaufe that is 
conducive to the fpirit of order. 
To fupply this deficiency, both 
in the reprefentative and conftituent 
body, Mr. Flood propofed, that one 
hundred members fhould be added, 
and that they fhould be ele&ted by the 
refident houfeholders inevery county 
—refident: firft, becaufe they muft) 
be beft acquainted with every local 
circumitance; and next, becaufe they 
can attend at every place of elec- 
tion, with the leaft inconvenience 
and expence to themfelves, or to 
the candidate :—Honufeholders, be- 
caufe being matters of families, they 
muft be fuiliciently refponfible to be _ 
entitled to franchife. There is no 
country in the world, he faid, in 
which the houfeholders of it aré ~ 
confidered as the rabble—no ¢oun-* 
try can be faid to be free, where 
they are not allowed to be efficient 
citizens; they are, exclufive of the 
rabble, the great mafs of the peo- 
ple ; they are the natural guards 
of popular liberty in the firk flages 
of it—-without them it cannot be 
retained ; as long as they have this 
conftitutional influence, and till they — 
¢ 
become generally corrupt, popular — 
liberty cannot be taken away. 
In order to evince the neceffity 
of the reform propofed, Mr. Flood 
ufed the following argument: The. 
confiitution, he faid, confifts of 
three orders, one monarchical, one 
ariftocratic, and one popular; the: 
balance confifts in maintaining thé. 
equipoife between them. This ba- | 
lance was loft-in the firft part of the 
Norman zra; it was recovered itt — 
fome degree afterwards; it was im= ~ 
paired — 
4 
) 
