st the whole class of revolutionary writers Pitt inveighed
in the most bitter terms; asserting that they were labouring might
and main to bring about an imitation of the revolution in France. Fox
replied to Pitt, and in allusion to the applause which the minister's
speech had gained, he observed that he felt additional difficulty
in delivering his sentiments. He knew, he said, that the words
"parliamentary reform" were very unpopular in the house of commons, but
he believed that the public regarded them in a very different light, and
that unless something were done to quiet the minds of the people there
would be a difficulty in preserving the public tranquillity for any
length of time. He had never, he continued, been so sanguine on the
subject as the right honourable gentleman who had just spoken, but he
was more consistent, for early in life he had formed an opinion of the
necessity of some parliamentary reform, and he was still convinced of
that necessity. The danger which then existed to the liberty of the
people existed still, and the necessity for reform in Parliament, so far
from diminishing had increased more than ever since the last session
of parliament. Fox said that the opinions of that house were often at
variance with those of the people; instancing, by way of illustration,
the Russian armament, which had been carried by a ministerial majority,
notwithstanding the public voice was hostile to such a measure. The
people of England, he remarked, were at this moment paying the expenses
of an armament for which they never gave their consent, and as far as
that went, they were paying their money for not being represented in
parliament. Fox, in conclusion, made some indefinite remarks on the
books recently published upon principles of government; ridiculed the
idea of danger from innovation in the constitution of England, and
warmly applauded the principles of the French revolution, expressing his
belief that the accounts received of the calamities of the French and of
the defectiveness of their present form of government were maliciously
exaggerated. Burke rose to reply to Fox, and in doing so he loudly
declaimed against the political societies of the day. The object at
which some of them aimed, he said, might not be altogether bad, and the
motives of many individuals might be innocent, but the way they went to
work was decidedly wrong. The sense of the people had not been taken
on the subject, nor had any specifi