session, the corps called the _king's friends_ made a hardy attempt, all
at once, _to alter the right of election itself_; to put it into the
power of the House of Commons to disable any person disagreeable to them
from sitting in Parliament, without any other rule than their own
pleasure; to make incapacities, either general for descriptions of men,
or particular for individuals; and to take into their body, persons who
avowedly had never been chosen by the majority of legal electors, nor
agreeably to any known rule of law.

The arguments upon which this claim was founded and combated, are not my
business here. Never has a subject been more amply and more learnedly
handled, nor upon one side, in my opinion, more satisfactorily; they who
are not convinced by what is already written would not receive
conviction _though, one arose from the dead_.

I too have thought on this subject: but my purpose here, is only to
consider it as a part of the favorite project of government; to observe
on the motives which led to it; and to trace its political consequences.

A violent rage for the punishment of Mr. Wilkes was the pretence of the
whole. This gentleman, by setting himself strongly in opposition to the
court cabal, had become at once an object of their persecution, and of
the popular favor. The hatred of the court party pursuing, and the
countenance of the people protecting him, it very soon became not at all
a question on the man, but a trial of strength between the two parties.
The advantage of the victory in this particular contest was the present,
but not the only, nor by any means the principal object. Its operation
upon the character of the House of Commons was the great point in view.
The point to be gained by the cabal was this; that a precedent should be
established, tending to show, _That the favor of the people was not so
sure a road as the favor of the court even to popular honors and popular
trusts_. A strenuous resistance to every appearance of lawless power; a
spirit of independence carried to some degree of enthusiasm; an
inquisitive character to discover, and a bold one to display, every
corruption and every error of government; these are the qualities which
recommend a man to a seat in the House of Commons, in open and merely
popular elections. An indolent and submissive disposition; a disposition
to think charitably of all the actions of men in power, and to live in a
mutual intercourse of favors with th