to obviate the difficulty of assembling the whole population. "There are three ways of enacting and confirming those laws, which are obligatory on the country in general.

"1. By a General Assembly of Cymru Paramount, that is, a general assembly of the heads of clans, and families, and freeholders from all the districts, territories. kingdoms, and departments of the Cymry For Cymru Paramount denotes but one country, one nation And this court shall make, abrogate, or amend laws, according as occasion shall require, by general opinion, judgment, and assent."

rate ratification of Cymru Paramount; and a law so ratified will be the law of every country, territory, kingdom, court, place of worship and district; and equal in force as if it had been coufirmed by a General Assembly; and requires no appeal to the constitutional law of the country. For the constitutional law says, It has had the assent and consent of Cymru Puramount, and therefore it is establishe l. For if no appeal be made within the three years and three days, it shall be held that country, and district, clan, and allied clan, ratify it, since shall have thus been lawfully proclaimed Do one can plead ignorance of that which as to time and place, whether in a sove reign dominion, an inferior kingdom, or separate government; and the opportunity and power of opposing it, or suggesting amendment, has been given."

"The second is by a confederate Assem bly of a country or territory. That is to say, when the court of the government of a country or territory unanimously desires a new law, or the amendment, or There are three National Sessions by abrogation of a law; notice of it shall be privilege in the island of Britain. 1. The given, by proclamation, to all the courts Session of the Bards, which is the most anwithin the territories of Cymru Paramount, cient in dignity. 2. The Session of Counin order that such law may be amended, enacted, or abrogated, as it shall in justice try and Lord. That is to say, a court of or reason be deemed requisite, Thus the law, consisting of a general assembly of process shall be carried on, through all the judges, and constitutional assessors. And S The Session of Union and Maintenance. courts and clans, till their decision be That is to say, a session of country and known, and their common assent be ob-district, consisting of rulers, chiefs of claus, tained, without opposition, and without oband men of wisdom, from country and disjection. When this is obtained, the courts and sessions shall be advertised, by procla- laws, to be observed in, or between, countrict, for the purpose of enacting general mation, of the time when the three years try and district, or adjoining country, by of notice shall terminate; and the Confe- and with the assent and consent of country derate Assembly shall meet at the end of the three years. This is called GORSEDD and country, ruler and ruler, and the agree GYFALLWY, and it shall go on through allment of privilege and privilege, for the the governments, and its decision be equi-bind all parties. No weapon is to appear sake of peace and justice. And this shall valent to that of the general assembly of drawn in these sessions, or within their Cymru Paramount." limits, or during their continuance." Triad 59. p. 280.

“The third mode of enacting or abroga- | ting a law, by the full authority of country and clan, is by provisional proclamation and advertisement of it, until there be a Confederate Assembly. That is to say, that whatever be the intention as to a law, it is necessary in order to ratify such intention, that it be publicly proclaimed, for one year and a day, by cry of country and district, in every court and place of worship; every fair, and market, and every other regular meeting of country and district, until the decision of every court, country, and district be obtained, together with such amendments, or corrections, as may be ap; proved of by country and district, and there is no farther opposition. And when this is known, it is again to be proclaimed, as before, for one year and a day; until the time of a confederate Assembly; the proclamation continuing in all for the space of three years. Thus it will be a confede

Now, we ask, what could be the nature of the law, and what the state of society, when three years might be allowed to elapse between the proposition of a public regulation and the enactment of it, by universal consent? What resemblance has this slow process to the telegraphic dispatch necessary on many points submitted to a British parliament of our own day ?

Neither is it clear, that the right of sanctioning by a vote any law intended to be cominon, was possessed by every individual without exception; for we are told, by the same authority, (the Anci every Welshman had ent Triads) that " a right to a freehold possession of five acres of land."

should be compelled to lose le or limb fored worth more than forty shillings per ananother. He ought therefore to be left to his own will (on this respect;) and if he takes the sword in his hand he is called Brudd. e. feeble, and his privilege is that only of those who are so called." Triad 244. page 316.

second thoughts, would not wish should return, as it would throw the whole power of representation into the hands of those persons, or bodies, who were rich enough to pay for it; and thus wealth would be the criterion of right!

whether he be an in, or an out, whether a peer, or a commoner, whether wishing for place and pension, or already enjoying his share of the loaves and fishes, the iniquity, is equal without distinction of person.

We have already dated this book Now, we would not be understood to palliate the crime of corruption in the about the beginning of the French Rechoice of representatives; but we de-volution: it was then comprized in two precate a remedy which may prove volumes; it is now much enlarged, and worse than the disease. Let it be re- greatly improved by introducing varicollected, that the privilege of choosing ous particulars from the Population members of parliament has not secured Returns; such as, the number of the those boroughs, marked by our author people, their employments, their proas rotten, from decay; that the absence portionate poor-rate, &c. These addiof that privilege has not prevented tions shew the relative population of places not long ago mere deserts, or vil- counties and places; and not their lages, scarcely honoured with a name, magnitude merely,but also their strength from becoming great towns, equal to and importance. cities that if these places had enjoyed the right of election, they would never have been chosen by their creators for the scenes of their industry; and that, if they were now endowed with that right, they would soon, in all probability, be reduced to their original state of desert, or insignificance, and become as rotten, in their turn, as those which are so vehemently impugned by Mr. Oldfield.

These volumes afford matter for eurious speculation: for instance-How many counties, having formerly wit nessed the evils of obstinately contested elections, have agreed to choose members supported by different interests? Perhaps, on examination, it would be found that full two-thirds of the counties in England have taken refuge in compromise. Now we cannot say, with Mr. D. But, Mr. Oldfield, in his fury for re- therefore they are not represented, at all: for, we venture to assert, that if formation is guilty of gross partiality; for, if an unfortunate borough is under they choose wise and moderate men the controul of Lord A. who supports and no other should be chosen— that they will rarely embrace extremes, the present Ministry, the author employs the whole energy of his style to unless on violent party questions. They brand it with the foulest epithets cha-will, if men of sense, consider themracteristic of slavery and corruption: selves as sent by their constituents to while another, which is equally under the Grand Council of the nation to givẹ the controul of Lord B. who is in present advice, to assign reasons for their ade opposition, passes uncensured; and vice given, and to promote the interests some places formerly enthralled by of their country, at large; not those of Lord. C. (a courtier) have been it a narrow party, intent only on power, and willing to sacrifice the whole comseems, restored to liberty, by the premunity to the despicable interests of ■ dominant influence of Lord D. (a patriot.) Now, this restoration to liberty, factious portion of it. by whatever name a partizan, invoking the freedom of election, may please to call it, is in our view, neither more nor less than a change of tyrant: but, a change of tyrant is not the same thing as a deliverance from tyranny.

We say, whatever nobleman-no matter for his party-interferes in a popular election, the guilt is exactly the same: and whoever commits an election fraud,

This we say of county members; and much the same may be said of members returned by bodies corporate, in conse quence of compromise. We look not at the party; we look at the men: if they be honest, intelligent, virtuous, in good repute among their constituents, they will do their country justice and for that justice the nation is obliged to them: can greater honour be desired? If they

be fools, their adherence to party will not make them wise: if they be knaves, never yet was party the cure for knavery.

those boroughs, the proprietors of which sell them, as a marketable commodity; we abandon their owners to all the vile epithets in Mr. Oldfield's vocabulary ; they shall find no protection from us. ders; but let him be impartial, and On these let him dart his fiercest thunstrike the offender, whatever be his

that the population is spread in a manner which departs too widely from the tion contribute most considerably to the representation. As masses of populaNational Treasury, so they ought, by ture of their property; for, in our opitheir agents, to watch over the expendinion, as in that of our antient ancestors, taxation and representation ought to be inseparable.

The chief object of censure by Mr. O. is the enormous influence of the crown; and this, possibly, may be judged on by a circumstance, to which the writer has given no prominent situation. What-colours. Neither shall we affect to deny, ever be the complexion of the ministry, whether Whig or Tory, reputed partizans of liberty, or of despotism, every ministry finds itself obliged to have recourse to this influence. If it be so nefarious as some affirm, how happens it, that popular ministries, supported by the voice of the people, understood to be favourites of the nation, &c. &c. cannot do without this wicked influence? Why do not they resign it? They even go so far as to say, they find it hardly enough; barely enough: alone, it is a mere feather in the balance.

When our ancestors had no other property than land and arms, the Agricultural and the Military interests were represented: when Christianity was established, the interests of the Church was added in the national Council.

The House

We at this day, have innumerable other interests-the Manufacturing interest,-the Commercial interest,-the Shipping interest,-the East India interest,-the West India interest,-the Colonial,-the Bank, &c. &c. of Commons, to be a genuine representation of the nation, should be an epitome of all these: but, if population alone were the basis of representation, how could these interests be represented? which of them would seat a single member? Yet taxation bears heavily on these, and if representation be inseparable from taxation, these have a right to be represented.

But, the influence of the peerage is complained of, because it seats a number of presumptive heirs among the representatives of the people. Yet none can point out a better school, in which to initiate into public life, young men, peers expectant, hereafter to become permanent legislators. Here they learn, that rank is no security for respect, or respectability: that the exertion of talents alone, affords claim to distinction: that if they desire honours, they must earn them; a public senate, like death, levels all gradations. Here, too, they witness the unrestrained disposition of their countrymen, and learn to know the people over whom they are hereafter to preside. Here they form Let this be well weighed: at present, connections, which connections carried into the Upper House, amply compen- Directors of our great public Companies, our Manufacturers, our Merchants, the sate afterwards, for any influence ex- do form part of the Parliament, and they erted over them by their fathers, while do from time to time, furnish that infor they were members of the Lower House.mation to Parliament, which only such In short, this very defect, if it be persons, habitually intimate with these one, proves a connecting link, by which institutions, can furnish. Would it be the two Houses exert a mutual influence wise and politic to expel all these? And, on each other, to their infinite advan- for what places are they usually returntage, and the House of Commons mayed? For what places have the men who be said, in a manner, to have its repre- afterwards became our most famous sentatives in the House of Lords. As to Statesmen, made their entrée in the House of Commons? Who first seated William 2 K

VOL. IV. No. 24. Lit. Pan. N. S. Sept. 1.

Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham, Charles structive as amusing, and some of them Fox, &c. &c. may demand, on the score of merit, a Now, if political parties be so equi-place in our pages. poised that the majority of the counties, The venality of the rotten boroughs, as of the cities, of the boroughs, compromise they are appropriately styled, in choosing their votes, if the opposition can com- their representaves, has long been a submand an equal number of votes with theject of complaint; and deserves not only ministry, as individuals, if the opposi- the attention of the legislative body, but of the community. tion can bribe as high, and play off as Of this there appeared a striking inmany deceptions as their adversaries, in stance. Admiral Cornish, one of the Election matters, which all the world members for the borough of Shoreham, knows to be true,-how is the public budying in the course of the preceding year, siness to be conducted in the representa- an election came ou for another representtive Senate? By what means shall theative, when the returning officer, knowing wisest counsels be brought to maturity? the mejority of the electors to be both There must be a preponderating division; and happily, there is always a number of upright, intelligent, well-informed, high-minded men, who support right, from whatever quarter proposed, and who, in effect, govern the kingdom, by governing the Public Officers, and the ruling Powers. Every Session of Parliament witnesses the influence of these, on public propositions. They follow the Minister, so far ;---if he advance a step beyond that line, they are found in the rauks of opposition. They are well acquainted with Parliamentary tactics, but they usually despise them. Their cha-fits were divided. For this offence a bill racters, and generally, their opinions, are known before hand, and the chiefs of the mighty war of tongues, cannot depend on finding these among their followers, unless in a direct approach to the clear and determinate good of their Country.

Fuman institutions afford but the choice of evils; if a superior recommend a candidate to the people, whom he knows to be a man of sense and edu

cation, and hopes to be a man of honour and principle, an outery is immediately raised against influence; and the people are said to be "sold like cattle in a stall." Are the people themselves then competent judges of the qualifications of candidates, who offer their services in most humble terms? Do they never raise unworthy men to stations becoming the worthy only? In short, do the people never sell themselves, or corrupt the candidate from whom they expect to be corrupted? or as some express it, do they not tempt the devil to tempt them? Mr. O.'s volumes afford many instances of this vendition, they are equally in

bribed and perjured, returned a candidate
with only thirty seven votes, in preference
to one who had eighty-seven. For this
abuse of power, as it was deemed, he was
called before the house of com.hons, when
he made such discoveries as overwhelmed
his enemies with shame and confusion.
From his information it appeared, that
the greater part of the freemen of Shore-
ham had formed themselves into a society,
under the name of the Christian Club,
with the pretended view of encouraging
acts of charity and beneficence, while it
was no better than a mart of venality.
The borough was sold to the highest bidder,
and when the election was over their pro-

was brought in, incapacitating eighty-one
of the freemen of Shoreham froni vonng
at elections, and for extending the right of
voting to the contiguous hundreds. The
uation applauded the spirit and constitu
tional tendency of this bill, which was d
supported in the house by the unanimous
and zealous concurrence of all parties.

"The Christian Club," &c. but, we believe that its title at full length was "the Christian Club, for preserving the purity of Election." So readily can fine names be found to conceal foul doings! So easily is religion itself made a stalking horse for irreligious motives. pretensions, and practices.

Nor is this specimen without a paral lel; let the reader reflect on Mr. O's history of

BARNSTAPLE.

The ancient history of this borough is given in the first volume of this work. p. 61, where it is proved to have been a Saxon borough, and to have sent members to the parliament, or witena gemote, of the Saxons, in the time of king Athelstan. This right was accordingly recognized by king Ed