ill long trial has proved them an incumbrance,
than that they should be too hastily changed; but this consideration
need not prevent the avowal of an opinion, which every practical
Statesman will confirm, that, if the property of the Peers were not,
according to the will and by the care of the owners, substantially
represented by Commoners, to a proportionate extent under their
influence, their large Estates would be, for them, little better than
sand liable to be blown about in the desart, and their privileges,
however useful to the country, would become fugitive as foam upon the
surface of the sea.--(_See Note_.)

I recollect a picture of Diogenes going about in search of an honest
man. The philosopher bore a staff in one hand, and a lantern in the
other. Did the latter accompaniment imply that he was a persevering
Spirit who would continue his labour by night as well as by day? Or was
it a stroke of satire on the part of the painter, indicating that, as
Diogenes was a surly and conceited Cynic, he preferred darkness for his
time of search, and a scanty and feeble light of his own carrying, to
the bounteous assistance of the sun in heaven? How this might be with
Diogenes, I know not; but assuredly thus it fares with our
Reformers:--The Journal of some venal or factious scribbler is the black
and smoky lantern they are guided by; and the sunshine spread over the
face of a happy country is of no use in helping them to find any object
they are in search of.--The plea of the degraded state of the
Representation of Westmoreland has been proved to be rotten;--if certain
discontented persons desire to erect a building on a new plan, why not
look about for a firm foundation? The dissatisfied ought honestly to
avow, that their aim is to elect a Man, whose principles differ from
those of the present Members to an extreme which takes away all hope, or
even wish, that the interest he is to depend upon should harmonize with
the interest hitherto prevalent in the County. Every thing short of this
leaves them subject to a charge of acting upon false pretences, unless
they prefer being accused of harbouring a pharisaical presumption, that
would be odious were it not ridiculous. If the state of society in
Westmoreland be as corrupt as they describe, what, in the name of
wonder, has preserved _their_ purity? Away then with hypocrisy and
hollow pretext; let us be no longer deafened with a rant about throwing
off intolerable burthens, an