*

NOTE.

I have not scrupled to express myself strongly on this subject,
perceiving what use is made by the Opposite Party of those resolutions
of the House of Commons. In support of my opinion I quote the following
from the 'CARLISLE PATRIOT' of the 14th of February, premising, with the
Author of the Letter from which it is extracted, that by far the
greatest number of opulent Landholders are Members of the upper House,
and that the richest subjects are some of its Peers:--

'The Peers of Great Britain, stripped as they now are of the overgrown
importance which they derived from the Feudal System, have made no
acquisition of political influence to compensate for the loss of it, by
an increasing extension of patronage, either collectively or
individually, like the crown; nor have the various circumstances
operated upon their body in any considerable degree, which have effected
such a radical and powerful accumulation of consequence and importance
in the Lower House. Add to this, that the general sentiment or feeling
that commonly exists between them and the body of the people bears no
analogy to the vivid principles of affectionate loyalty that tend so
strongly to secure and guard the person and rights of the King, or the
reciprocal sympathy of congenial interests that acts and directs so
powerfully betwixt the Commons and the Community in general. On the
contrary, the spirit that exists betwixt the Peers as a collectively
distinct body, and the people at large, is a spirit of _repulsion_
rather than of attraction. In a corporate light, they are viewed with no
sentiments of kindly affection, and therefore upon the supposition of a
political contest betwixt them and either of the other two Estates, they
would inevitably labour under the disadvantage of carrying it on against
all the force of the prejudices, which to a great extent always directs
popular opinion; hence, amidst all the contests and straggles which have
agitated or convulsed the Kingdom since the Reign of Henry the Seventh,
the political importance of the Peers, considered as an Estate of
Parliament, has been rather diminished than increased; and were such a
democratical House of Commons as our modern Patriots so loudly call for,
to be efficiently formed, the constitutional equilibrium of our envied
public system would be infallibly destroyed, and the spirit of our
Legislative Body, which in a great measure awards influence in
proportion to property, c