BILL FOR EXCLUDING CONTRACTORS, ETC.
It has been seen that bills for disabling revenue-officers from voting at elections, and excluding contractors from the house of commons, had been repeatedly brought into parliament, and as repeatedly negatived. In order to acquire popularity ministers revived these bills, and they now passed with approbation and applause. And it seems to have been high time that such measures should have been adopted. In support of the former bill, the Marquess of Rockingham declared that the election chiefly depended on officers of the revenue in seventy boroughs, and that nearly 12,000 officers, created by the recent administration, possessed votes in other places. He argued that his situation, as first lord of the treasury, would be extremely uneasy if the bill were rejected, for he could not without remorse subject them through his influence to the necessity of voting against the dictates of gratitude and conscience. This was a curious argument, but it terminated the debate, and the bill passed. About the same time, also, Mr. Burke’s Reform Bill was again brought forward, and after some warm opposition in the house of lords was adopted. By this bill the board of trade, the board of works, the great wardrobe, the office of American secretary of state, and many sinecure appointments were abolished.