able to perceive from what hand these calamities have come upon
them.

"That under such circumstances, and with this knowledge before its eyes,
this house would consider itself lost to every sense of duty towards
your majesty, and guilty of treason towards the people, if it did
not seize this opportunity of declaring to your majesty its solemn
conviction that the state is at this moment in the most imminent danger,
and that no effectual measures of salvation will, or can, be adopted
until the people shall be restored to their rightful share in the
legislation of the country; that is, to their undoubted right, according
to the true meaning of the constitution, of choosing members of this
house." This amendment, was seconded by Mr. O'Connell, and Messrs.
Western, Protheroe. Messrs. Smith and Davenport, declared themselves
favourable to its spirit, although they thought it was injudicious
to bring forward a topic of such importance as a mere amendment on an
address. Sir Francis Burdett took the same course; and in his speech on
this occasion he gave the ministry fair warning that they must either
enter into a closer connexion with the Whigs, or no longer count on
their support. Sir Francis said, that when he found the prime minister
of England insensible to sufferings and distress, painfully apparent
throughout the land; when, instead of meeting the calamity with measures
of relief, he sought to stifle every important inquiry; when he
called that a partial and temporary evil which was both long-lived and
universal, he could not look on such a mournful crisis, in which public
misfortune was insulted by ministerial apathy, without hailing any
prospect of change in the system that produced such a state of feeling.
What, he asked, could be said of the ignorance which could attribute the
distress to the introduction of machinery, and the application of steam,
that noble improvement in the inventions of man, to which men of science
and intelligence mainly ascribe our prosperity? He felt a high respect
for the abilities of the Duke of Wellington in the field; but he thought
that the noble duke did himself equal justice when he said, previous to
his taking office, that he should be a fit inmate for a lunatic asylum
if he were ever induced to take such a burden on his shoulders. In
fact, both he and many honourable members about him had long treated the
illustrious individual with such tenderness, because they felt that he
had con