and pensions, of
the enormity of the Civil List, of the excess of taxes, nor of any one
matter that substantially affects the nation; and from some conversation
that has passed in that Society, it does not appear to me that it is
any part of their plan to carry this class of reforms into practice. No
Opposition Party ever did, when it gained possession.

In making these free observations, I mean not to enter into contention
with this Society; their incivility towards me is what I should expect
from place-hunting reformers. They are welcome, however, to the ground
they have advanced upon, and I wish that every individual among them may
act in the same upright, uninfluenced, and public spirited manner that I
have done. Whatever reforms may be obtained, and by whatever means,
they will be for the benefit of others and not of me. I have no other
interest in the cause than the interest of my heart. The part I have
acted has been wholly that of a volunteer, unconnected with party; and
when I quit, it shall be as honourably as I began.

I consider the reform of Parliament, by an application to Parliament, as
proposed by the Society, to be a worn-out hackneyed subject, about which
the nation is tired, and the parties are deceiving each other. It is not
a subject that is cognizable before Parliament, because no Government
has a right to alter itself, either in whole or in part. The right,
and the exercise of that right, appertains to the nation only, and the
proper means is by a national convention, elected for the purpose, by
all the people. By this, the will of the nation, whether to reform or
not, or what the reform shall be, or how far it shall extend, will be
known, and it cannot be known by any other means. Partial addresses, or
separate associations, are not testimonies of the general will.

It is, however, certain, that the opinions of men, with respect
to systems and principles of government, are changing fast in all
countries. The alteration in England, within the space of a little more
than a year, is far greater than could have been believed, and it is
daily and hourly increasing. It moves along the country with the silence
of thought. The enormous expence of Government has provoked men to
think, by making them feel; and the Proclamation has served to increase
jealousy and disgust. To prevent, therefore, those commotions which too
often and too suddenly arise from suffocated discontents, it is best
that the general