IN the beginning of the present century, (anno 1701, 12 W. III.) a sensible and loyal Writer drew up a small Tract of political information, which he intitled — ‘THE CLAIMS OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND essayed in a Letter from the Country.’ But, before the Tract was printed, the Author had the satisfaction to hear, that the Claims, he had asserted, were in many respects established by a new Act of the Parliament then sitting; which sea­sonable attention to the People's Rights he most gratefully acknowledged in a Post­script to his Letter.

The Act of Settlement, by virtue of which the present Royal Family succeeded to the Crown of these Realms, was the Statute, which then so happily (in the opinion of that Writer) ‘secured THE CLAIMS OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.’

It is intitled, ‘ An Act for the farther Limitation of the Crown, and better se­curing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject;’ — and accordingly contains [Page 4]eight very excellent Articles of Limitation, agreeable to ‘ the Claims of the People of England;’ which, it seems, were en­acted, ‘ with the unanimous Concurrence of both Houses of Parliament,’ for the ex­press purpose of ‘ securing our Religion, Laws, and Liberties.’

One of these Articles ordained—"That" ‘— all matters and things relating to the well governing of this Kingdom, which are properly cognizable in the Privy Coun­cil by the Laws and Customs of this Realm, shall be transacted there, and all Resolu­tions taken thereupon shall be signed by such of the Privy Council as shall advise and consent to the same.’ ^‖

And by another of these Articles it was ordained — ‘ That no person, who has an Office, or Place of profit, under the King, or receives a Pension from the Crown, shall be capable of serving as a Member of the House of Commons.’ ^*

[Page 5]But, as the Parliament was at that time invested with the dangerous unconstitutio­nal power of a triennial duration without Re­election, it was impossible that the Elected (who thereby acquired a temporary indepen­dency of the Electors, and, of course, too ma­ny of them, a separate interest of their own) could long continue real Representatives of the People's Claims; and, consequently, these two most excellent provisions against undue influence were unhappily repealed, a very [Page 6]few years afterwards, in the 4th year of Queen Anne (c. 8.) Which amply proves, that the most salutary provisions for ‘ the Claims of the people’ cannot be securely established under triennial or septennial Par­liaments; and, of course, that the antient usage of sessional ELECTIONS is a Claim, of all others the most essentially necessary for our welfare.

Since the fatal repeal above mentioned, the prevalence of undue influence hath so rapidly and enormously increased, that the ever-loyal Citizens of London thought it their duty, in the year 1770, to bear testi­mony against it; and accordingly they assert­ed, in a public declaration to the King him­self, that "the" (then) ‘ House of Commons did NOT represent the people.’ ^†

Subsequent Facts have demonstrated the absolute necessity we are now under to claim and promote an unequivocal abolition of all undue Influence in Parliament.

Measures, the most unrighteous, as well as the most ruinous that could have been de­vised, [Page 7]have been adopted and carried on under a pretended sanction of parliamentary Authority, ^§ which have involved both King and People (whose true interests are inseparable) in the most alarming difficul­ties: and the ostensible Agents in the mis­chief have obstinately persevered to the ut­most extension of ability, until public Di­sasters, and a happy preventive incapacity of their own, (their Heads and Funds being equally exhausted of council and resource,) have compelled them to make a temporary retreat; though the nu­merous [Page 8]Corps of Placemen, Pensioners, Contractors, &c. occasionally procured them a shameful Majority almost to the last!

Hence it is evident that the Corruption of Parliament is the real source of all our national calamities and grievances, which cannot therefore be relieved by a mere change of Ministry.

The Minority in Parliament hath once before, in the memory of most men, be­come the Majority; and the worthy Op­posers of bad measures were indulged with a temporary administration of public Affairs, until the secret efficient Cabinet could reco­ver from the surprise and dismay of their former defeat in Parliament, and, by a renewed exertion of their undue influence, were able to shackle the new Administra­tion with the rueful alternative, either to abandon their newly-acquired dignities, or else to adopt such measures as must effec­tually deprive them of the people's confi­dence; after which they were contemp­tuously compelled (one by one, or as it might best suit the purposes of the reigning system of undue influence) to yield up their places for the emolument of the more pliant creatures of the secret faction.

[Page 9]It would be madness for Englishmen, af­ter such galling experience, to neglect their just and indispensible Claim to some imme­diate and effectual precaution against similar delusions. To trust another new Adminis­tration, without insisting at the same time on a constitutional limitation of power, by a free uninfluenced Representation of the Commons, may be dangerous to our very existence as an independent Kingdom!

The reduced circumstances of the Na­tion cannot admit the risque of another such credulous experiment!

It is therefore become absolutely neces­sary, for the security both of King and Peo­ple, (which includes the true interest of all parties,) that the just "Claims of the Peo­ple" be satisfied in an immediate Restora­tion of the antient legal and responsible Go­vernment, by a Revival of the two repealed Articles of the Act of Settlement, above recited, and by a Revival also of that most excellent Statute for SESSIONAL PARLIA­MENTS, passed in the 4th of K. Ed. III. c. 14. declaring, "that a Parliament" (meaning a newly-elected Parliament, as the writs of those times incontestably demon­strate) ‘ shall be holden every year once, and more often if need be.’ But this indispen­sible [Page 10] Right and Claim of the People (for the Act itself is no more than an authentic De­claration, or Acknowledgement, of an antient Right) cannot have complete effect without totally repealing an Act of the 8th year of K. Hen. VI. (cap. vii.) which, on false pretences, (whereby it is rendered unwor­thy the title and dignity of a Statute,) dis­franchised at once by far the greatest part of the English Nation, by robbing them of their BIRTHRIGHT, ^‡ the inestimable Right [Page 11]of voting for Representatives in Parliament, without which they cannot properly be esteemed Freemen, because the Laws, their BIRTHRIGHT and most valuable Property, may be changed, suspended, or entirely with­drawn from them, without their consent; whereas, in antient times, they enjoyed not only the privilege of voting, in plen Countie, (i. e. the full County-court or Parlia­ment of each County,) for the Knights of the Shire, but frequently also for the Citi­zens [Page 12]and Burgesses, elected in their respec­tive Counties; whereby the Equality of Representation was then preserved; and may again be happily restored by some such equitable mode of transferring the represen­tation of depopulated or notoriously venal Bo­roughs to the Decision of their respective County courts. Which method of equalising Representation deserves preference to all others, because it is not liable to the odious charge of innovation, but, on the contrary, is authenticated by long-continued usage and legal Precedents of ancient times: and the same may be said of all the other changes already recommended in this Address.

By these approved and tried means, the just claims of the people may be amply, as well as easily, established; and the happy ef­fects of such a perfect Reformation would be security and support to any virtuous Ad­ministration: for it would prevent their just measures from being impeded and clogged by the secret machinations of any private Cabal, or Cabinet Faction, that might otherwise be efficient without Responsibility; and it would also exclude the interested op­position of needy unprincipled persons, who at present can introduce themselves into P—l—m—t (if they can but find credit for [Page 13]the purchase-money) merely for the pur­poses of private interest! a Trade as dishonourable to themselves as it is baneful to the Nation; for the Representation of many Boroughs is now commonly esteemed a mere pecuniary property, and, as such, has in many instances been either notoriously bought and sold; or else is holden at the ab­solute disposal of single Individuals, (Peers and other overgrown Landholders,) for the dangerous purpose of enhancing their own personal consequence! An "undue Influence" this (in whatsoever hands it is lodged) that is most detestably disgraceful to the Nation as well as fundamentally derogatory to the validity of every legislative Resolution! and, what is still more alarming, will completely ruin the Kingdom, if the constitutional Re­medies here proposed are not speedily a­dopted.