sh constitution,
we were entitled to something better. Although Mr. Flood avowed that he
was no friend to revolutions, and that he considered them an evil, yet
it was evident that his motion arose from an innovating spirit; and as
such it was opposed. Mr. Wyndham, member for Norwich, and the professed
admirer of Burke, said, that if he had approved of the measure, he
should still have objected to its being brought forward or adopted at
the present time. Where was the man, he asked, who would advise them to
repair their house in the hurricane season? Speculatists and visionaries
were at work in a neighbouring country, and that, he thought, was
sufficient. There was project against project, theory against theory,
_frontibus adversis pug-nantia_. He entreated the house to wait for the
event, and to guard with all possible care against catching the French
infection. Pitt followed Wyndham, and he declared, "that if the motion
before them were the precise resolution which he himself had formerly
proposed, he should now vote against it, from a thorough conviction
of its impropriety." He recommended its withdrawal, promising, on some
future day, to make the subject of parliamentary reform a ministerial
measure. Fox rose to support the motion; and he affirmed, in the course
of his speech, "that no season could be more proper for the commencement
of repairs than when a hurricane was near and ready to burst forth." At
the same time he acknowledged that he felt convinced the opinion which
he supported was neither that of the majority of the house nor of the
people. Burke combated the whole scheme and all the arguments that
had been adduced in support of it; and asserted that these attempts at
parliamentary reform were not countenanced by the people. Other members,
as Wilberforce, Granville, and Powys, spoke on the same side, and the
motion was at length withdrawn. These were the only great political
questions which engaged the attention of the commons during this
session. All change met with such an unyielding and decided opposition,
that its advocates deemed it their wisdom to remain silent. In this line
of conduct they were confirmed by the good temper of the people, who
wisely exhibited a disposition to submit to any little wrongs they might
be called upon to endure, rather than by a refractory spirit to run the
risk of incurring greater.

EAST INDIA AFFAIRS.

On the 31st of March Mr. Dundas presented to the house an acco