d repelling injuries, and avenging insults!
Say at once that you disapprove of the present Members, and would have
others more to your own liking; you have named your Man, or rather
necessity has named him for you. Your ship was reduced to extremities;
it would have been better to abandon her--you thought otherwise; will
you listen then while I shew that the Pilot, who has taken charge of the
vessel, is ignorant of the soundings, and that you will have cause to be
thankful if he does not prove very desperate in the management of the
helm?

The Lands of England, you will recollect, Gentlemen, are originally
supposed to be holden by grants from the King, our liege Lord; and the
Constitution of the Country is accordingly a mellowed feudality. The
oldest and most respectable name for a County Representative is, KNIGHT
OF THE SHIRE. In the reign of Queen Anne it was enacted, that every
Knight of the Shire (the eldest sons of Peers and a few others excepted)
shall have a clear estate of Freehold or Copyhold to the value of L600
per annum. The same qualification continues to be required at this day;
and, if the depreciation of money and other causes have injuriously
affected the _Letter_ of the Statute, the _Spirit_ of it has not only
been preserved in practice, but carried still higher. Hence we scarcely
scruple to take for granted that a County Representative is a man of
substantial landed property; or stands in such known relation to a
conspicuous Estate that he has in it a valuable interest; and that,
whoever be the possessor, such Estate may be looked upon as a pledge for
his conduct.

The basis of the elective Franchise being property, the legal condition
of eligibility to a seat in Parliament is the same. Our ancestors were
not blind to the _moral_ considerations which, if they did not suggest
these ordinances, established a confidence in their expediency. Knowing
that there could be no _absolute_ guarantee for integrity, and that
there was no _certain_ test of discretion and knowledge, for bodies of
men, the prudence of former times turned to the best substitute human
nature would admit of, and civil society furnished. This was property;
which shewed that a man had something that might be impaired or lost by
mismanagement; something which tended to place him above dependence from
need; and promised, though it did not insure, some degree of education
to produce requisite intelligence. To be a Voter required a fixed
Pr