taken a good deal of pains, and expended,
as I hear, a considerable sum of money.

41. Among the circumstances of danger from that piece, and from its
precedent, it is observable that this is the first petition (if I
remember right) _coming from a club or association, signed by
individuals, denoting neither local residence nor corporate capacity_.
This mode of petition, not being strictly illegal or informal, though in
its spirit in the highest degree mischievous, may and will lead to other
things of that nature, tending to bring these clubs and associations to
the French model, and to make them in the end answer French purposes: I
mean, that, without legal names, these clubs will be led to assume
political capacities; that they may debate the forms of Constitution;
and that from their meetings they may insolently dictate their will to
the regular authorities of the kingdom, in the manner in which the
Jacobin clubs issue their mandates to the National Assembly or the
National Convention. The audacious remonstrance, I observe, is signed
by all of that association (the Friends of the People) _who are not in
Parliament_, and it was supported most strenuously by all the
associators _who are members_, with Mr. Fox at their head. He and they
contended for referring this libel to a committee. Upon the question of
that reference they grounded all their debate for a change in the
constitution of Parliament. The pretended petition is, in fact, a
regular charge or impeachment of the House of Commons, digested into a
number of articles. This plan of reform is not a criminal impeachment,
but a matter of prudence, to be submitted to the public wisdom, which
must be as well apprised of the facts as petitioners can be. But those
accusers of the House of Commons have proceeded upon the principles of a
criminal process, and have had the effrontery to offer proof on each
article.

42. This charge the party of Mr. Fox maintained article by article,
beginning with the first,--namely, the interference of peers at
elections, and their nominating in effect several of the members of the
House of Commons. In the printed list of grievances which they made out
on the occasion, and in support of their charge, is found the borough
for which, under Lord Fitzwilliam's influence, I now sit. By this
remonstrance, and its object, they hope to defeat the operation of
property in elections, and in reality to dissolve the connection and
communication of