1800. ] 
But, without the affiftance of the camel, 
this can hardly ever happen. ‘ 
Never was there a point of time, in 
which fo favourable an oppoitunity oc- 
curred of putting this project in execu- 
tion, as at prefent, when Great Britain is 
in poffeffion of the Cape. Whether fhe 
retain this conquett at the next general 
peace, or not; ftill, to give this ufeful 
animal to that country, isan acticn worthy 
of the Englith nation; who would thus 
Jeave behind them a lafting memorial of 
their. generofity and enterprifing fpirit. 
And how trifling would be the expence of 
tran{porting a couple of camels from Mo- 
gador, or any other convenient place, if 
¢ mpared with the great advantages which 
we may reafonably hope will enfus from 
trying the experiment ?—Avnd, furely, fuch 
an undertaking is perfeétly conformable 
to the (pirit of a government, which, at 
an immente expence, tran{planted the pro- 
ductions of the South-fea iflands into its 
colonies in the Weit-Indies; where the 
inhabitant of Jamaica, repofing under the 
fhade of his bread fruit-tree, will blefs the 
memory of the beneficent monarch who 
beftowed on him this moft precious of 
gifts. The great obftacles, which hinder 
the progreflive improvement of the human 
race, may often be removed by very ca‘y 
means: and it is always meritorious to 
excite attention to fuch as appear likely 
to produce the defired effeét.— The above 
propofal may then claim indulgence, fhould 
it even, for the prefent, remain a mere 
project. 
~<a 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE THEORY OF 
REPRESENTATION; BEING $0 MUCH 
OF THE DECREE PROMULGATED 
22 Dec. 1789, BY THE NATIONAL 
ASSEMBLY OF FRANCE, AS CONCERNS 
ITS DELEGATIV2E CONSTITUTION, 
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH aND 
ANNOTATED. 
[The following Comments tend chiefly to 
‘ evolve the Theory of Delegation: they 
were moftly put to Paper on the Author’s 
return from France, in the Summer of 
1790, which accounts for their being 
hooked to an exploded Sytem ; having 
fince been fteadily compared with the 
Turns of the political Wh-el, they are now 
with the lefs Reiuétance made known. J 
I. HE kingdom fhall be divided anew 
| into 83 fhires, for its better re- 
prefentation and adminiftration. 
Is not a fyftem of geographical nomencla- 
ture poffible, which thould facilitate the re- 
membrance of names and fites ? Might not 
A Contribution to the Theory of Reprefentation, &c. 
953 
mountains, rivers, towns, provinces, be con- 
nected by radical and dittinguithed by infleGive 
fyllables ? Lhus, in North- America, we may 
find the mountain Kentuck, the river Ken- 
tucky, the town Kentuckion, and the pro~ 
vince Kentuckia, In the impofition of neq 
names, in the limitation of meq diviGions, 
ought not fuch a fyftem to be kept in view ? 
Would re&ilinear divifions, coinciding pre- 
cifely with degrees of longitude and latitude, 
be for all purpofes as convenient as natural 
boundaries ? . 
If. Each fhire thall be divided into 
trithings*, not fewer than three, nor more 
than nine, to be limited by the advice of 
the provincial delegates. 
An argument may he offered for preferring 
that fize of fhire, which fhall depute three 
reprefentatives, to a fize adapted for deputing 
one, two, or four, namely this. If the ma- 
jority in favour of a given party be in each 
fhire but of a fingle vote among the people, 
this will in the meeting of their three de- 
legates produce a majority of two to one in 
the legiflature; confequently the difficulty of 
refifting, or the tendancy to acquiefce in, the 
will of a mere majority of the people, will 
always by thefe means be very great: where- 
as, if one, two, or four deputies were nomi- 
nated by the rival fa€tions, and each party ° 
had its half of the reprefentation to marfhal 
under, every popular faction would divide | 
the conftituted authorities in the fame pro- 
portion as it divides the people, which could 
not but be dangerous to public tranquillity 
under a form of government where the na« 
tional reprefentation were the feat of au- 
thority. 
Ill. Each trithing fhall be divided into 
hundreds of about twelve {quare miles, 
It deferves notice that the fmaller any of 
thefe divifions, the more certain is refdent 
individual wealth of influencing the ele@ions ; 
and the larger any of thefe divifions, the ' 
more certain is public opinion of bearing 
down before it theinfluence of individual 
wealth: For the influence of wealth isin pro- — 
portion to the contiguity 5 operating on the 
chapmen it can patronize, or the inferiors it 
can countenance—it diminifhes rapidly- with 
diftance ; whereas the influence of opiaion is ° 
equally intenfe at every diftance from the fo- 
cus. fen of riches then have an interef in 
{mall, and men of letters in large fhares. 
iV. The cle&tion of reprefeniatives thall 
be made by fhire. 
V. In the chief town of each fhire there 
fhall be a fhire-court. 
VI. In the chief-town of each trithing 
there fhall be a fubordinate trithing- 
court. 
Vil. In each parifh, borough, or town- 

* Trithing (whence corruptly Riding ) means 
the f{ubdivifion of a county, and is derived 
from Trithe, a third part. 
fhip 
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