date

18 June 1811 Parl. Reform On
18 June 1811

Parl. Reform

On S.C. N o 3

3

M r S.C. is so perfectly at his ease, that if between him and me any expence /disbursement/ be incurred in the article of thought, I fear it must lie the whole of it or thereabouts upon me. In support of /For the approbation bestowed by law upon/ this moderate plan the only reason I can find, is - that he is not averse to it. Upon this same moderate plan my disapprobation /disapproval/ is all I can find to /what I can not but/ bestow: but for the grounds and reasons of this disapprobation I am not a loss I have not far to caste.

Expressed in the simplest terms My reason is that, if in any degree, it will not in any considerable degree put the House /the body in question/ in possession of the stock of endowments in question in any greater degree than at present.

In favour of this reform plan of his, thus it is that I am unable to find any thing that seems destined to serve in the character of a reason. But what comes it must be confessed to about /nearly/ the same thing in favour of non-reform I have succeeded in glancing[?] a loose observation or two, the object of which as far as they can be said to have any, seems to be that of their arriving in that character.

The case is, that the worthy gentleman, such is his good fortune is extremely /altogether/ well satisfied with things exactly as they are: and if they were but as he supposes them to be than[?] enough, he would have more reason to be satisfied with them, than as it seems to me /in my view of the matter/ he has at present.
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  • Title: [18 June 1811 Parl. Reform On]
    Description: 18 June 1811

    Parl. Reform

    On S.C.s (Moderatists) Catechism.

    1

    Under the signature of S.C. (Times 17 June 1811) you have favoured us with N o 3 of a Dialogue which the author stiles[?] a Catechism - a Reform Catechism. Catechism is not a title /denomination/ I should have /no more/ expected to see prefixt to it /than Creed or Collect/: but about this /on this point/ there will not be any dispute between us: but if it be agreable to him /such being his choice/ I will not seek to disturb him in the possession of it.

    Till this third which I presume is the last, of his Numbers, I was at a loss to know what he was and what he would be at. I now perceive that he is in profession at least a […?] to use an expression of his own, and which I must acknowledge to be not an unapt one, a reformist, and in expence[?] to pursue the same principle of nomenclature, a moderatist.

    It is my […?] /For my part/, as is already known to those to whom my catechism is known, I am an immoderatist: an appellation I am no more ashamed of than the Gueux, or Beggars, the authors /prime movers/ of the insurrection of the Lowlanders was commenced[?] against Spanish tyranny in the 16 th Century were of theirs.

    To the praise of moderation, in so far as in such a case moderation affords motive for just praise, Your {cases[?]} /M r S.C./ it must be confessed has given /secured to/ himself the fullest title. “I should not” (says he, for this /such/ is his conclusion) “be averse to the moderate plan brought forward by M r Pitt in 1785:” no: I dare answer for him nor yet to the absence of all plans of reform, whatever, such excepted as like there would have been abuse and mischief where they found it, without diminution at any rate, if not without encrease.
  • Title: [18 June 1811 Parl. Reform On]
    Description: 18 June 1811

    Parl. Reform

    On[?] S.C. N o 3

    2

     Add here S.C.s indifference will prevent any warmth in the dispute

    “Allowing copyholders to vote as well as freeholders”, - “buying up as many of the decayed boroughs as might be worth the expence” - such /these/ according to S.C.s account of them were all the changes comprized in M r Pitt’s reform plan: these at any rate are all that he approves of, with the exception /after the addition/ of one of his own which consists in raising the qualification, and that to such a degree as to deprive persons /men/ of the elective franchise in numbers /a number/ greater than the number of those to whom he would impart it.

    Cui bono? of what use would all this be? What are the ends it aims at? how is it that in the character of a set of men it is conducive to /promises to/ that end.

    But In the first place what are the ends it aims at? None at all that I can see, none are mentioned by S.C. none are mentioned: none at all can I find for it.

    Placing in that supreme assembly /seat of government/ in the highest attainable degree in that seat of government the endowments necessary to good government these are the objects which in my Catechism I ventured to /took upon myself to/ bring to view in the character of ends. How far the arrangement which at the same time /on the same occasion/ I ventured to bring to view in the character of means promises to be conducive to these ends is a question on which your readers have already been invited to pronounce.
  • Title: [18 June 1811 Parl. Reform On]
    Description: 18 June 1811

    Parl. Reform

    On S.C. N o 3

    6

     Add community of interest and consequent community of […?]

    {Thus in my view of the case /matter/ /of it/ - stands the case /matter/ so far as concerns such of these persons of the first character and consequence as are in or in league with administration at and for the time being.}

    But in addition to these excellent persons, as against whom, according to the description given of these by S.C. every thing in the way of which should be either mischievous or useless “(besides the check which one House of Parliament has over the other” (a sort of check which by S.C. himself is upon this occasion not inaptly put into a parenthesis) “we are never without an opposition” (it seems /says he/) “to keep {(please to observe to keep not that do keep}) “a constant watch over the Ministers, and who being themselves candidates for power can only hope to obtain it by professing more purity of principle than their rivals, and are themselves as narrowly watched by their rivals as when they change situations.”