MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 213 



soon all this might be done. By making elections 

 simple, candidates would be spared the expense of 

 a canvass, and drunkenness and the base, wicked 

 effects consequent thereon might be avoided. This 

 business through the whole kingdom might be done 

 in a few days, by summoning the electors (as soon 

 as the candidates were nominated) to attend at the 

 several polling places, to vote by ballot or otherwise 

 as might be determined. The public should only be 

 addressed through the medium of the newspapers. 

 What a real honour would it be to be thus elected ! 

 What a saving of expense ! What can any gentle- 

 man, after spending thousands in the present mode, 

 say for himself: Does he expect to be repaid, 

 somehow or other, by the nation ? or, has he 

 lavished away such sums for the "honour of the 

 thing," and thus robbed his own family by waste- 

 ful expenditure ? 



While sentiments of patriotism were entertained 

 in our country, clouded, indeed, by fears of an 

 opposite tendency, as noticed before, the attention 

 of all was drawn aside to view the confederacy of 

 despots directed to shackle the understandings of 

 mankind, and to keep them in slavery and degra- 

 dation. Would any man in his senses, in the 

 present enlightened state of the civilized w r orld, 

 have thought this possible ? And yet, as a finish, 

 they have called it the " Holy Alliance." My 

 most fervent prayer is, that no king of the British 

 Isles \vill ever keep such company ; but that our 

 sovereigns will ever stand firm, uncontaminated 

 by the infectious effluvia of arbitrary power, upon 

 this proud ground this soil fitly tilled, but only 

 wanting some weeding to render it perfectly ready 

 to produce a rich crop of liberty. 



