don it; he must be very ignorant of the state of every
popular interest, who does not know that in all the corporations, all
the open boroughs, indeed in every district of the kingdom, there is
some leading man, some agitator, some wealthy merchant or considerable
manufacturer, some active attorney, some popular preacher, some
money-lender, _&c., &c.,_ who is followed by the whole flock. This is
the style of all free countries.

Multum in Fabia valet hic, valet ille Velina;
Cuilibet hic fasces dabit, eripietque curule.

These spirits, each of which informs and governs his own little orb, are
neither so many, nor so little powerful, nor so incorruptible, but that
a minister may, as he does frequently, find means of gaining them, and
through, them all their followers. To establish, therefore, a very
general influence among electors will no more be found an impracticable
project than to gain an undue influence over members of Parliament.
Therefore I am apprehensive that this bill, though it shifts the place
of the disorder, does by no means relieve the Constitution. I went
through almost every contested election in the beginning of this
Parliament, and acted as a manager in very many of them; by which,
though as at a school of pretty severe and rugged discipline, I came to
have some degree of instruction concerning the means by which
Parliamentary interests are in general procured and supported.

Theory, I know, would suppose that every general election is to the
representative a day of judgment, in which he appears before his
constituents to account for the use of the talent with which they
intrusted him, and for the improvement he has made of it for the public
advantage. It would be so, if every corruptible representative were to
find an enlightened and incorruptible constituent. But the practice and
knowledge of the world will not suffer us to be ignorant that the
Constitution on paper is one thing, and in fact and experience is
another. We must know that the candidate, instead of trusting at his
election to the testimony of his behavior in Parliament, must bring the
testimony of a large sum of money, the capacity of liberal expense in
entertainments, the power of serving and obliging the rulers of
corporations, of winning over the popular leaders of political clubs,
associations, and neighborhoods. It is ten thousand times more necessary
to show himself a man of power than a man of integrity, in almost al