very near as much as those who have nothing else to do. My canvass of
you was not on the 'change, nor in the county meetings, nor in the clubs
of this city: it was in the House of Commons; it was at the
Custom-House; it was at the Council; it was at the Treasury; it was at
the Admiralty. I canvassed you through your affairs, and not your
persons. I was not only your representative as a body; I was the agent,
the solicitor of individuals; I ran about wherever your affairs could
call me; and in acting for you, I often appeared rather as a ship-broker
than as a member of Parliament. There was nothing too laborious or too
low for me to undertake. The meanness of the business was raised by the
dignity of the object. If some lesser matters have slipped through my
fingers, it was because I filled my hands too full, and, in my eagerness
to serve you, took in more than any hands could grasp. Several gentlemen
stand round me who are my willing witnesses; and there are others who,
if they were here, would be still better, because they would be
unwilling witnesses to the same truth. It was in the middle of a summer
residence in London, and in the middle of a negotiation at the Admiralty
for your trade, that I was called to Bristol; and this late visit, at
this late day, has been possibly in prejudice to your affairs.

Since I have touched upon this matter, let me say, Gentlemen, that, if I
had a disposition or a right to complain, I have some cause of complaint
on my side. With a petition of this city in my hand, passed through the
corporation without a dissenting voice, a petition in unison with almost
the whole voice of the kingdom, (with whose formal thanks I was covered
over,) whilst I labored on no less than five bills for a public reform,
and fought, against the opposition of great abilities and of the
greatest power, every clause and every word of the largest of those
bills, almost to the very last day of a very long session,--all this
time a canvass in Bristol was as calmly carried on as if I were dead. I
was considered as a man wholly out of the question. Whilst I watched and
fasted and sweated in the House of Commons, by the most easy and
ordinary arts of election, by dinners and visits, by "How do you dos,"
and "My worthy friends," I was to be quietly moved out of my seat,--and
promises were made, and engagements entered into, without any exception
or reserve, as if my laborious zeal in my duty had been a regular
abdicat