A BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX ΤΟ THE PRESENT HOUSE OF COMMONS. CAREFULLY COMPILED BY JOSHUA WILSON, M.A. Magna Mater Virúm. CORRECTED TO MARCH, 1806. London: PRINTED for RICHARD PHILLIPS, No. 6, Bridge-street, Price 9s. 6d. in Boards, or 10s. 6d. bound in Red. [By J. Adlard, Duke-street, and R. Taylor and Co. Shoe-lane.] ADVERTISEMENT.. IT T will, perhaps, be considered by some as presumptuous, to present a work of this kind to the public; but it is humbly hoped, on the other hand, that its obvious utility may serve as some apology for so arduous an undertaking. The Editors, without being biassed by the spirit of party politics, have endeavoured to exhibit such a register of the present respectable occupants of St. STEPHEN'S CHAPEL, as shall, in some measure, satisfy the curiosity of their friends or constituents, and indeed of the world at large, without gratifying the malice either of their rivals or their enemies. A candid, and, it is to be hoped, an accurate account, of the principal speakers will be found here; but the difficulties attendant on the attempt to furnish correct biographical notices of so numerous a body, must readily occur to every one, and some allowance will, doubtless, be made for casual and involuntary deviations. While the work was in the press, a great change took place in the political hemisphere, and occasioned several mistakes for the correction of which, the reader is referred to the pages immediately following the Introduction, in which are also enumerated the offices obtained, and the employments lost, by several of those members whose names occupy the early part of the Alphabet. In respect to the lists of Divisions, printed at the end of the work, it is difficult, if not impossible, to give an account totally exempt from error. Those now presented to the public have been carefully compared with others, and may fairly lay claim to the negative merit of being the least incorrect of any hitherto published, INTRODUCTION. AL I. OF PARLIAMENT. LL free nations have been accustomed to debate, either by themselves or their representatives, on public affairs; and this grand privilege was always the peculiar pride and boast of our German ancestors. The parliament of the present day is but a different name for the Wittena-Gemote of the ancient Saxons. Traces of this more modern institution have been discovered by some of our legal antiquaries, anterior to the Conquest; and although all the northern nations appear to have possessed deliberative assemblies, in many respects similar, yet ours is the sole remaining institution in Europe in which those two essential characteristics of a free state-liberty of speech, and the right of contributing or withi:olding supplies-are still preserved and maintained. An intermediate body, endowed with the power of enacting laws, has been known time immemorial in this kingdom, and may be considered as coeval with the nation itself*. The term parliament, as ap * It is recognized by historians, in the times of our Saxon ancestors, under the several names of, 1. Michel-Synoth, or Great Council; |