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I would in vain attempt adequately to describe the spec- Rioting in the tacle which presented itself when we reached the declivity of city the hill, close to St. Andrews Church. The other house and magazines of Mr. Langdale, who, as a Catholic, had been selected for the blind vengeance of the mob, situated in the hollow near the north end of Fleet Market, threw up into the air a pinnacle of flame resembling a volcano. Such was the beautiful and brilliant effect of the illumination that St. Andrews Church appeared to be almost scorched by the heat of so prodigious a body of fire; and the figures on the clock were as distinctly discernible as at noonday.

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Finding it altogether impracticable to force our way further down Holborn Hill, and hearing that the Fleet prison had been set on fire, we penetrated through a number of narrow lanes behind St. Andrews Church, and presently found ourselves in the middle of Fleet Market. Here the same destruction raged, but in a different stage of its progress. Mr. Langdale's houses were already at the height of their demolition: the Fleet prison, on the contrary, was only beginning to blaze, and the sparks or flaming particles that filled the air fell so thick upon us on every side as to render unsafe its immediate vicinity. Meanwhile we began to hear the platoons discharged on the other side of the river, towards St. George's Fields, and were informed that a considerable number of the rioters had been killed on Blackfriars Bridge, which was occupied by the troops. On approaching it we beheld the King's Bench prison completely wrapt in flames. It exhibited a sublime sight.

Sir Samuel Romilly was one of the most high-minded, patriotic, and useful public men of his time. What he tells in his journal of his difficulty in obtaining and keeping a seat in the House of Commons, and what appears in the two letters from Francis Horner to him and to Sydney Smith, throws a strong light on the bad methods of election of members of parliament, on its failure to represent the people of the country, and on the opportunities for corruption it offered. These extracts refer

392. Extracts

from the memoirs of Sir Samuel Romilly

June 27, 1807

The king interested in the purchase of seats for members favorable to the ministry

to a period somewhat later than 1784, when Pitt strove to introduce the reform of parliament, but the conditions were just the same at that time, and in fact had long been so, and remained unchanged well into the nineteenth century.

I shall procure myself a seat in the new parliament, unless I find that it will cost so large a sum, as, in the state of my family, it would be very imprudent for me to devote to such an object, which I find is very likely to be the case. Tierney, who manages this business for the friends of the late administration, assures me that he can hear of no seats to be disposed of. After a parliament which has lived little more than four months, one would naturally suppose that those seats which are regularly sold by the proprietors of them would be very cheap; they are, however, in fact, sold now at a higher price than was ever given for them before. Tierney tells me that he has offered £10,000 for the two seats of Westbury, the property of the late Lord Abingdon, and which are to be made the most of by trustees for creditors, and has met with a refusal. £6000 and £5500 have been given for seats with no stipulation as to time, or against the event of a speedy dissolution by the king's death or by any change of administration.

The truth is, that the new ministers have bought up all the seats that were to be disposed of, and at any prices. Amongst others, Sir C. H., the great dealer in boroughs, has sold all he had to ministers. With what money all this is done I know not, but it is supposed that the king, who has greatly at heart to preserve this new administration, the favorite objects of his choice, has advanced a very large sum out of his privy purse.

This buying of seats is detestable; and yet it is almost the only way in which one in my situation, who is resolved to be an independent man, can get into parliament. To come in by a popular election, in the present state of the representation, is quite impossible; to be placed there by some great lord, and to vote as he shall direct, is to be in a state of complete

dependence; and nothing hardly remains but to owe a seat to the sacrifice of a part of one's fortune.

It is true that many men who buy seats do it as a matter of Existing pecuniary speculation, as a profitable way of employing their 'corruption money they carry on a political trade; they buy their seats. and sell their votes. For myself, I can truly say that, by giving money for a seat, I shall make a sacrifice of my private property, merely that I may be enabled to serve the public. I know what danger there is of men's disguising from themselves the real motives of their actions; but it really does appear to me that it is from this motive alone that I act.

After almost despairing of being able to get any seat in par- May 9, 1808 liament, my friend Piggott has at last procured me one; and the duke of Norfolk has consented to bring me in for Horsham. It is, however, but a precarious seat. I shall be returned, as I shall have a majority of votes, which the late committee of the House of Commons decided to be good ones; but there will be a petition against the return, by the candidates who will stand on Lady Irwin's interest, and it is extremely doubtful what will be the event of the petition.

...

The terms upon which I have my seat at Horsham will be May 12, 1808 best explained by a letter I wrote to Piggott to-day after the election was over, and which I am glad to keep a copy of. It is (at least so much of it as relates to this subject) in these words: "Though there is no danger that I should have misunderstood you, yet it may be as well to say, while it is fresh in both our recollections, what I understand to be the extent of my engagement. If I keep the seat, either by the decision of a committee upon a petition, or by a compromise (the duke and Lady Irwin returning one member each, in which case it is understood that I am to be the member who continues), I am to pay £2000; if, upon a petition, I lose the seat, I am not to be at any expense."

The two letters which follow tell the same story, one of the loss of a pocket borough, by the writer, Francis Horner; the other, the failure of Romilly to be elected in Bristol, a borough of a very limited franchise. His

friend Horner urges him to secure membership through a close borough, which, as has been seen, he had done in a previous session of parliament.

393. Francis My dear Sydney:

Horner to
Sydney
Smith (Octo-

ber 11, 1812)

I received your letter at Taunton the other day, where I was attending the sessions.

As to parliament, I have no seat, because Lord Carrington, to whom I owed my last, has to provide for a nephew who has come of age since the last election, as well as for his son-inlaw, who, being abroad, loses his seat for Hull; and because I have not money or popularity of my own to obtain a seat in the regular and desirable way. I need not own to you, for you would guess as much, that it is some mortification to me to be thrown out of the course, and that I shall indulge myself with regretting that I shall no longer have the opportunity of trying to be useful in the immediate concerns of the public. . . FRA. HORNER.

394. Francis My dear Sir:

Horner to Sir

Samuel
Romilly
(October 15,
1812)

I feel very painfully our disappointment at Bristol. What annoys me most at present is my uncertainty about your coming into parliament at all. I hope you will not decline a seat, if any of those who have boroughs should (as I cannot doubt they will) put it in your power. I know your objection to that mode of holding a seat in the House; but as long as the representation continues on its actual footing, I cannot agree that a man who knows that he can serve the public ought to refuse that opportunity of serving them. While I take so great a freedom as to express this to you, from my earnest anxiety to see you again in the House of Commons, I can at the same time assure you that I should not hold this opinion if I entertained the least doubt that such a step could in any degree affect your public or parliamentary reputation. I shall regard it as one of the greatest public losses, if you are not in the House this parliament; I trust you will not, by refusing a close borough, compel us to impute that misfortune to yourself. Believe me, my dear sir, with much attachment,

Very sincerely yours,

FRA. HORNER.

VI. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE WARS OF NAPOLEON

The well-known essay by Burke, in the form of a letter to a French gentleman, from which the following extracts are taken, represents the feeling of a great number of thoughtful men in England concerning the French Revolution. It should be said that Burke misunderstood and misjudged much of what was best in

that great movement.

on the

French
Revolution

Abstractedly speaking, government, as well as liberty, is 395. Extracts good; yet could I, in common sense, ten years ago, have from Burke's Reflections felicitated France on her enjoyment of a government (for she then had a government), without inquiry what the nature of the government was, or how it was administered? Can I now congratulate the same nation upon its freedom? Is it because liberty in the abstract may be classed amongst the blessings of mankind, that I am seriously to felicitate a madman, who has escaped from the protecting restraint and wholesome darkness of his cell, on his restoration to the enjoyment of light and liberty? Am I to congratulate a highwayman and murderer who has broken prison upon the recovery of his natural rights? . . .

blessing

When I see the spirit of liberty in action, I see a strong Liberty is not principle at work; and this, for a while, is all I can possibly always a know of it. The wild gas, the fixed air, is plainly broke loose; but we ought to suspend our judgment until the first effervescence is a little subsided, till the liquor is cleared, and until we see something deeper than the agitation of a troubled, frothy surface. I must be tolerably sure, before I venture publicly to congratulate men upon a blessing, that they have really received one. Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver; and adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings.

I should therefore suspend my congratulations on the new The accomliberty of France until I was informed how it was combined paniments of liberty with government, with public force, with the discipline and obedience of armies, with the collection of an effective and well-distributed revenue, with morality and religion, with solidity and property, with peace and order, with civil and social

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