1819 May 11

To Erskine

ult o

Lett 6. Whig Anti Reform

Barnstaple Debate

10 May 1814

2

The cup of that Circe – the flesh-pots of that Egypt.

What is become of Sir Francis Burdett. Why was he not there to bring all those same opinions which have been declared to be his &c

H. of Commons Debate on the Barnstaple Disfranchising Bill 10 May 1819. Morn g Chron 11 May.

The worthy Alderman Washbourne[?] has no confidence in the rabble: his confidence in respectable men seems to be entire: and by respectable men he means rich ones.

The seat of my confidence is the reverse. My confidence bestows itself preferably on the rabble. On any constitutional question I should have beyond comparison more confidence in 658 men taken by lot from the rabble of Westminster than in the 658 men that compose the population of the Honourable House.

My reason is a very simple one: the rabble are out of the reach of every particular interest distinct from and opposite to the universal interest: the 658 Honourable Gentlemen those who are still more Honourable than Honourable Gentlemen included are every one of them within the ashes /hottest fire/ of their particular interests – the greater part of them acting notoriously in subjection to it.