mebody said, was like his father in having closets within
cabinets and cupboards within closets. When the debates on the regency were
at their height we have Burke's word that he was not admitted to the
private counsels of the party. Though Fox and he were on friendly terms in
society, yet Burke admits that for a considerable period before 1790 there
had been between them "distance, coolness and want of confidence, if not
total alienation on his part." The younger Whigs had begun to press for
shorter parliaments, for the ballot, for redistribution of political power.
Burke had never looked with any favour on these projects. His experience of
the sentiment of the populace in the two greatest concerns of his
life,--American affairs and Indian affairs,--had not been likely to
prepossess him in favour of the popular voice as the voice of superior
political wisdom. He did not absolutely object to some remedy in the state
of representation (_Corr._ ii. 387), still he vigorously resisted such
proposals as the duke of Richmond's in 1780 for manhood suffrage. The
general ground was this:--"The machine itself is well enough to answer any
good purpose, provided the materials were sound. But what signifies the
arrangement of rottenness?"

Bad as the parliaments of George III. were, they contained their full share
of eminent and capable men; and, what is more, their very defects were the
exact counterparts of what we now look back upon as the prevailing
stupidity in the country. [v.04 p.0833] What Burke valued was good
government. His _Report on the Causes of the Duration of Mr Hastings's
Trial_ shows how wide and sound were his views of law reform. His _Thoughts
on Scarcity_ attest his enlightenment on the central necessities of trade
and manufacture, and even furnished arguments to Cobden fifty years
afterwards. Pitt's parliaments were competent to discuss, and willing to
pass, all measures for which the average political intelligence of the
country was ripe. Burke did not believe that altered machinery was at that
time needed to improve the quality of legislation. If wiser legislation
followed the great reform of 1832, Burke would have said this was because
the political intelligence of the country had improved.

Though averse at all times to taking up parliamentary reform, he thought
all such projects downright crimes in the agitation of 1791-1792. This was
the view taken by Burke, but it was not the view of Fox, nor of Sheridan,