the principle laid down for
his own guidance by a colleague of Mr. Burke above fifty years before,
and indignantly repudiated by that great political philosopher, as
proceeding from an entire misapprehension of the rights of a
constituency and of a member[214] of Parliament. He told the electors of
Bristol that "when they had chosen their member, he was not a member of
Bristol, but a member of Parliament; and that if the local constituent
should have an interest, or should form an opinion, evidently opposite
to the real good of the rest of the community, the member for that place
ought to be as far as any other from any endeavor to give it effect;"
that a representative "owes to his constituents, not his industry only,
but his judgment, and betrays instead of serving them, if he sacrifices
it to their opinion." And in so saying he carried with him the
concurrence and approval of all his contemporaries whose sentiments on
such a question were entitled to weight.

In the States-general of France each member was, by the original
constitution of that body, a delegate, and not a representative. He
could not even remonstrate against the most oppressive grievance of
which the previous instructions of the constituent body had not
instructed him to complain; and this limitation of his duties and powers
was, undoubtedly, one very principal cause which led to the
States-general so rapidly falling into utter disrepute. It was no light
thing to take a step which had a tendency to bring down the British
Parliament to the level of the despised and long-disused States-general.
And it is the more necessary to put the case in a clear and true light,
because at the present day there is an evident disposition on the part
of constituencies to avail themselves of Peel's conduct in this instance
as a precedent, in spite of his protest against its being so regarded,
and to fetter their representatives with precise instructions; and a
corresponding willingness on the part of candidates to purchase support
at elections by a submissive giving of pledges on a variety of subjects,
so numerous as to leave themselves no freedom of judgment at all. On the
great majority of subjects which come before Parliament, a member of
Parliament, if he be a sensible and an honest man, has a far better
opportunity of obtaining correct information and forming a sound opinion
than can be within reach of any constituency, whose proneness to
misjudge is usually in exa