as much offended as any man at seeing so many of them under the direct influence of the crown, or at the disposal of private persons. Yet, I own, I have both doubts and apprehensions, in regard to the remedy you propose. I shall be charged perhaps with an unusual want of political intrepidity, when I honestly confess to you, that I am startled at the idea of so extensive an amputation.—In the first place, I question the power, de jure, of the legislature to disfranchise a number of boroughs, upon the general ground of improving the constitution. There cannot be a doctrine more fatal to the liberty and property we are contending for, than that, which confounds the idea of a supreme and an arbitrary legislature. I need not point out to you the fatal purposes, to which it has been, and may be applied. If we are sincere in the political creed we profess, there are many things which we ought to affirm, cannot be done by King, Lords, and Commons. Among these I reckon the disfranchising of boroughs with a general view of improvement. I consider it as equivalent to robbing the parties concerned of their freehold, of their birth-right. I say that, although this birth-right may be forfeited, or the exercise of it suspended in
