PITT’S REFORM BILL.
These petty and unworthy proceedings were followed by a subject more worthy the attention of the statesman. Pitt had twice failed in his attempts to reform the house of commons, but, notwithstanding, he still determined to persevere, having pledged himself “as a man and a minister,” to promote this great cause. He renewed the subject on the 18th of April, when he brought forward a plan of reform: the specific proposition of which was to transfer the right of election from thirty-six rotten boroughs to the counties and great unrepresented towns; giving a compensation in money to the owners and holders of the rotten boroughs so disfranchised; the bill also proposed to extend the right of voting in county elections to copyholders. It has been doubted whether Pitt, at this time, had any sincere desire for parliamentary reform, although he had pledged himself to exert his influence to the utmost for securing the measure. There does not seem, however, to be any good reason for this doubt; for it is a well-known fact that he brought it forward, if not in direct opposition to the wishes of the king, yet at least without his expressed approbation. Knowing the aversion which his majesty felt to disturb this part of the constitution, he laid the heads of his plan before his royal master, from whom he received this honest and candid reply;—“Mr. Pitt must recollect that though I have ever thought it unfortunate that he had early engaged in this measure, yet I have always said, that as he was clear of its propriety, he ought to lay his thoughts before the house; that out of personal regard to him, I would avoid giving an opinion to any one, on the opening of the door of parliamentary reform, except to him: therefore I am certain Mr. Pitt cannot suspect me of influencing any person on this occasion. If others choose, for base ends, to impute such a conduct to me, I must bear it, as former false suggestions.” Yet, notwithstanding the king was so cold upon the subject, Pitt brought it forward with great energy in the house. At the same time, his speech seemed to indicate that he was not sanguine of success, although he felt assured that the minds of men were more enlightened upon the subject than at any former period. He remarked:—“The number of gentlemen who are hostile to reform, are a phalanx which ought to give alarm to any individual upon rising to suggest such a measure. Those who, with a sort of superstitious awe, reverence the constitution so much as to be fearful of touching even its defects; have always reprobated every attempt to purify the representation. They acknowledge its inequality and corruption, but in their enthusaism for the grand fabric, they would not suffer a reformer, with unhallowed hands, to repair the injuries which it has suffered from time. Others, who, perceiving the deficiencies that have arisen from circumstances, are solicitous for their amendment, yet resist the attempt; under the argument that, when once we have presumed to touch the constitution in one point, the awe which had heretofore kept us back from the daring enterprise of innovation might abate, and there was no foreseeing to what alarming lengths we might progressively go under the mask of reformation.” In support of his bill, Pitt argued that the plan which he proposed was coincident with the spirit of those changes which had taken place in the exercise of the elective franchise from the earliest ages, and not in the least allied to the spirit of innovation; that so far back as the reign of Edward the First the franchise of election had been constantly fluctuating; that as one borough decayed and another flourished, the first was abolished and the second was invested with the right; that even the representation of counties had not been uniform; and that James the First in his proclamation for calling his first parliament, directed that the sheriffs should not call upon such boroughs as were ruined and decayed, to send members to parliament. But no arguments could prevail; and Pitt, having made no use of his ministerial influence to bring over converts to his scheme, was doomed to suffer a signal defeat; the bill was thrown out by two hundred and forty-eight against one hundred and seventy-four; and the premier never ventured to bring the subject before the house again. Nay, in a few years he even became a determined opponent of all change or amendment in the representation. It is from this cause, chiefly, that he is suspected of insincerity at this period: but his bosom friend, Wilberforce, at least deemed him sincere upon the subject, for he writes with reference to it in his diary, that Pitt had a “noble patriotic heart;” a sentiment to which a previous private conversation gave rise. It is in the closet, when man unbosoms himself to a friend, that his real intentions are best discovered. No conclusion can, indeed, be drawn upon the matter of Pitt’s sincerity from his subsequent opposition to parliamentary reform, for many causes may have operated upon his mind to lead him to change his line of conduct. He may have opposed it out of deference to his majesty, or he may, after some years’ experience, have seen that the machine, as then constituted, worked better under his auspices than he had anticipated. Man is a creature of change: to-morrow he may hold opinions from conviction, the very reverse of those which he holds to-day.