FLOOD’S MOTION FOR REFORM OF PARLIAMENT.
On the 4th of March, Mr. Flood, a celebrated Irish orator, moved for leave to bring in a bill to amend the representation of the people in parliament. This bill proposed to add one hundred members to the present house of commons, in a proportionate ratio to the population of each county, to be elected by resident householders. In his speech Mr. Flood boldly asserted that the members who sat in the house were not the adequate representatives of the people. He would not deny that they were the legal representatives, and he acknowledged that they were a useful and honourable council; but, to the honour of the British constitution, we were entitled to something better. Although Mr. Flood avowed that he was no friend to revolutions, and that he considered them an evil, yet it was evident that his motion arose from an innovating spirit; and as such it was opposed. Mr. Wyndham, member for Norwich, and the professed admirer of Burke, said, that if he had approved of the measure, he should still have objected to its being brought forward or adopted at the present time. Where was the man, he asked, who would advise them to repair their house in the hurricane season? Speculatists and visionaries were at work in a neighbouring country, and that, he thought, was sufficient. There was project against project, theory against theory, frontibus adversis pug-nantia. He entreated the house to wait for the event, and to guard with all possible care against catching the French infection. Pitt followed Wyndham, and he declared, “that if the motion before them were the precise resolution which he himself had formerly proposed, he should now vote against it, from a thorough conviction of its impropriety.” He recommended its withdrawal, promising, on some future day, to make the subject of parliamentary reform a ministerial measure. Fox rose to support the motion; and he affirmed, in the course of his speech, “that no season could be more proper for the commencement of repairs than when a hurricane was near and ready to burst forth.” At the same time he acknowledged that he felt convinced the opinion which he supported was neither that of the majority of the house nor of the people. Burke combated the whole scheme and all the arguments that had been adduced in support of it; and asserted that these attempts at parliamentary reform were not countenanced by the people. Other members, as Wilberforce, Granville, and Powys, spoke on the same side, and the motion was at length withdrawn. These were the only great political questions which engaged the attention of the commons during this session. All change met with such an unyielding and decided opposition, that its advocates deemed it their wisdom to remain silent. In this line of conduct they were confirmed by the good temper of the people, who wisely exhibited a disposition to submit to any little wrongs they might be called upon to endure, rather than by a refractory spirit to run the risk of incurring greater.