THE

REPRESENTATIVE HISTORY

OF

GREAT BRITAIN

AND

IRELAND:

BEING A HISTORY OF

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,

AND OF THE

COUNTIES, CITIES, AND BOROUGHS,

OF

THE UNITED KINGDOM,

FROM THE.EARLIEST PERIOD.

BY T. H. B. OLDFIELD.

"Without a parliamentary reform, the nation will be plunged into new wars:
without a parliamentary reform, you cannot be safe against bad ministers; nor can
good ministers be of use to you. No honest man can, according to the present system,
continue minister."-Pitt's Speech, 1782.

"If an Englishman," said the great Frederick of Prussia," has no knowledge of
those kings that filled the throne of Persia, if his memory is not embarrassed with that
infinite number of popes that ruled the church, we are ready to excuse him: but we shall
hardly get the same indulgence for him, if he is a stranger to the origin of parliaments,
to the customs of his country, and to the different lines of kings who have reigned in
England."-Kett's Elements of General Knowledge, Vol. II., Page 3.

IN SIX VOLUMES-VOL. IV.

London:

PRINTED FOR BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.