1819 June 18

To Erskine

ult o

Lett. 7. Whigs Anti Reformists

§ 2. Pos. I. Desire impossible

Number of self-sacrifice?

5

2

250

29

/Since the Irish Union/ Three hundred and twenty men would /will/ have been the number necessary to secure a persevering majority till the change were effected, since the Irish Union: 279 before that period. Not to speak of 329 or 279, has there ever been a time when under the circumstances above stated at the hands of so much as a tenth part of the number the persevering /perseverance in the/ disposition to make the requisite sacrifice in question could with any tolerable portion of reason be looked for could be regarded as being in any degree worth mentioning probable?

If M r Oldfields numbers be objected to, take those of the Whigs of 1793 associated under the name of the Friends of the People. Supported as it is by individual statements – by lists of seats with the names of the Patrons by whom they are filled, this is the authority I have employed, had it extended to Ireland /were it not that it Ireland was not included in it/ had Ireland been included in it: but the date being by six or seven years anterior to that of the Irish Union, Ireland was not, would not have been included in it.

True it is that {whatsoever be the case at the present time} at the time at which those speeches of Pitt the second and M r Grey were respectively made namely those speeches by which the interference of the people in bodies was spoken of as the only means of sincerity the numbers stated as the proportionable numbers by the self-stiled Friends of the People are the proper numbers. These are

1 By /By the Treasury/ returned by nomination and influence together 7

2. By 70 Peers d o for English and Welsh seats 163

3. By 91 Commoners for d o

139

Together 309

4 Omitted of which the same account might have been given, Scotch 45

354

Deducted from 558 the same total numbers of seats

this number of 354 leaves as and for the number of seats not

stated as being filled either by nomination or by influence 204