n those days.
He had been a violent opponent of the Catholic Relief Bill; but from the
moment that measure was carried had become as fiery and reckless a
reformer.[108] On the 18th of February, 1830, he proposed that a
committee should be chosen by ballot to take a review of all boroughs
and cities in the kingdom, and report to the Secretary of State for the
Home Department those among them which had fallen into decay, or had in
any manner forfeited their right to representation on the principles of
the English constitution as anciently recognised by national and
parliamentary usage. The Home Secretary was to be bound immediately to
act on this report, and to relieve all such places from the burthen of
sending members to parliament in future, and the vacancies were to be
supplied by towns which had hitherto been unrepresented. All
parliamentary representatives were to be elected by persons "paying scot
and lot." He further proposed to extend the right of voting to all
copyholders and leaseholders, and to place the representation of
Scotland on an equal footing with that of England. The members were to
be chosen from the inhabitants of the places for which they were
returned, and were to be paid for their services according as they were
borough or county members. The former were to receive two guineas a day
each, and county members four guineas; why the latter were to be
estimated at double the value of the former does not seem clear. Mr.
Brougham, although ready to vote for this somewhat extraordinary
measure, "because much of what it proposed to do was good," recommended
that a merely general resolution that reform was necessary should be
substituted in its place. Lord Althorp moved an amendment accordingly on
the terms suggested; but both the amendment and the original motion were
negatived.

On the third reading of what was then known as the "East Retford" bill,
the first attempt was made in parliament by O'Connell to introduce a new
principle into the representative system of the country, viz., that the
votes of the electors should be taken by ballot. Only twenty-one members
voted for O'Connell's motion, among whom the names now most familiar to
us are those of Lord Althorp, Sir Francis Burdett, and Mr. Hume.

The most ultra-Conservative, however, of our day, who thinks that the
representation of the people has already been carried far enough, will
scarcely credit the fact, that in those days constituencies such as