date

7 Jan y 1810 Parl y Reform
7 Jan y 1810

Parl y Reform

Ch. 10. III. Seat Traffic

'.1

4

4

2 Another ill-grounded observation is - that as there is a somewhat which he has bought, so there is a somewhat which he is ready to sell - to sell and that for as much as he can contrive to get for it.

What this somewhat is that on this occasion he is to be understood as having bought does not seem to be very distinctly /determinately/ settled. What he has really bought is the seat: i.e. the right of sitting in the House with the same privileges as those possessed by other members during that parliament. But the which is the plain truth not answering /coming up/ to the purpose, some other supposed subject of purchase is lent instead of it: his constituents for example, or the whole country or empire, according to the occasion or /and/ the purpose. If in /as composing/ the character of the immediate objects of sale his votes, with or without speeches, are in view, the interests of his fellow subjects are in a plain sense, his fellow subjects themselves in a figurative sense, meant to be designated /indicated/ as the ultimate objects.

As to why he is to make the most of it? - the answer is - Oh, because this is a " traffic", and so he is a trader: and it is the way of a trader when in the way of his trade he buys any thing, it is with the intention of selling it for as much as he can get for it.

But with the same reason every man who has a coat on his back and pays for it may be said to be a trader. He buys his /the/ coat: and if a man's buying the seat - the parliamentary seat he sits in be evidence of his intending to sell either that or any thing else by means of it, then a man's buying a coat is evidence of his intending to sell coats or at least that coat.
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    '.2. Objections insufficient?

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    The objections to the purchase and sale of seats - the "traffic" in seats as it has been called - the venality of seats these /this/ objections so far I mean as they apply to this mode of coming into Parliament in contradistinction to the /any/ mode of coming in by court interest /favour/ ministerial interest /favour/ or individual favour - in contradistinction in a word to any other mode than that of free election for a county or a populous and perfectly open borough - is founded on confusion of ideas and misapplication of words.

    1. The term venality being without impropriety applicable to the seat, is by a confusion of ideas improperly applied to the man who sits in it.

    In fact, on occasion of this transaction neither to this man nor to any other does /is/ the term venality applicable with any sort of reason.

    But if it were, it is to the seller of the seat and not to the purchaser /buyer/ that it would be applicable. To the seller if to either it would be applicable: for though he does not sell himself outright, that is whatever services of whatever kind it may at whatever time be /lie/ in his favour to render, what he does sell is the /a/ service, viz. the service which he renders to the buyer in placing him in the seat.