1819 June 4.

To Erskine

ult o

Lett. 6. E. Anti Reformist

§.1. Introduction

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4. Having these[?] and your endeavours with the Tories in administration to engage them to destroy us in whatever form of law may be most proper in the event of our taking any measures for the framing in any sort of concert any petitions having reform for their object, the next task assigned by Your Lordships genius to Your Lordship’s eloquence is the persuading us, that the presentation of Petitions, so as they be but respectful ones, {is} a course that affords us a trustworthy promise of producing the desired effect: that the presentation of such petitions is a course that the people may safely take – that it is the only course which towards the end in question they can take – and that it affords a promise of being productive of the desired effect /it is in the nature of the case a promising one/. Short title. {By Petitions,} if respectful {reform will be produced. or Respectful Petitions will produce Reform: or From Respectful Petition will come Reform} /Reliance on respectful Petitions prescribed. Your Lordship having previously employed Your Lordship’s influence in the endeavour to consign to timely destruction before the presentation of any such petitions those by whom they would have been presented.

5. But though the presenting of these petitions, after we /by those who/ have been killed for attempting to get them up /signed/ is the only course which the people themselves can take for producing reform and thus saving themselves, and though it is at the same time a promising one, yet it is not the only means that affords a promise of being productive of that desirable effect. For the production of it by the act of the Parliament itself, and that a “ spontaneous” one, is another. Short title – Reform will spontaneously be produced by Parliament, or Parliament will spontaneously reform itself. Reliance on spontaneous reform by Parliament prescribed.