are carried.

I proceed in the next place to the aristocracy. The house of peers is
simply a combination of persons in one common interest. No better reason
can be given why a house of legislation should be composed entirely of
men whose occupation consists in letting landed property, than why it
should be composed of brewers, of bakers, or any other separate class of
men. What right has the landed interest to a distinct representation
from the general interest of the nation? The only use to be made of its
power is to ward off the taxes from itself, and to throw the burden upon
such articles of consumption by which itself would be least affected.

I proceed to what is called the crown. It signifies a nominal office of
a million sterling a year, the business of which consists in receiving
the money. Whether the person be wise or foolish, sane or insane, a
native or a foreigner, matters not. The hazard to which this office is
exposed in all countries is not from anything that can happen to the
man, but from what may happen to the nation--the danger of its coming to
its senses.

I shall now turn to the matter of lessening the burden of taxes. The
amount of taxation now levied may be taken in round numbers at
L17,000,000, nine millions of which are appropriated to the payment of
interest on the national debt, and eight millions to the current
expenses of each year.

All circumstances taken together, arising from the French revolution,
from the approaching harmony of the two nations, the abolition of court
intrigue on both sides, and the progress of knowledge in the science of
governing, the annual expenditure might be put back to one million and a
half--half a million each for Navy, Army, and expenses of government.

Three hundred representatives fairly elected are sufficient for all the
purposes to which legislation can apply. They may be divided into two
or three houses, or meet in one, as in France. If an allowance of L500
per annum were made to each representative, the yearly cost would be
L15,000. The expense of the official departments could not reasonably
exceed L425,000. All revenue officers are paid out of the monies they
collect, and therefore are not in this estimation.

Taking one million and a half as a sufficient peace establishment for
all the honest purposes of government, there will remain a surplus of
upwards of six millions out of the present current expenses. How is this
surplus to be disposed of?