31 Dec r 1809

Parl y. Reform

Abbot

or 15

15

14

In my view of the matter as so often stated, this circumstance, if indeed it be a mischief is of all the mischiefs /ill effects/ resulting from the actual composition of Parliament one of the least mischievous. In my eyes The grand mischief of mischiefs is the state of habitual dependence /state of dependence and high[?] obsequiousness/ on the sinister will of the King and his regent in which in a number sufficient on all ordinary occasions to constitute a majority and thus exercise the power of the House, are holden: in comparison of this state of things, the practice in question - being a practice which contributes not in any perceptible way any more to encrease than to decrease the extent of that general dependence does not present itself to my view as mischievous.