INTRODUCTION. PRINCIPLES OF PARLIAMENTARY REFORM-MR. CANNING LORD DUDLEY-MR. HUSKISSON-MR. WYVILL -MAJOR CARTWRIGHT. As no subject has ever, in modern times, been brought into discussion, of importance at all equal to that which opened the whole question of our Parliamentary Constitution, so none ever excited so general and so lasting an interest among all classes of the people. By the lapse of time great changes had been effected in the original structure of the representation, and changes far greater in the structure of the community represented. That which had originally been regarded as a burden from which all were anxious to escape, had become a benefit and an honour which every one was solicitous to obtain. The classes who had at first monopolized the representation of the property and population of the country, no longer alone retained this distinction, other classes, formerly scarcely existing, having grown up to influence and power. The kind of property which alone, in the early period of our history, had any existence, the land, and which alone could in those days be represented, either by conferring the right to vote, or by giving the title to sit, was now rivalled in importance by masses of other kinds of wealth formerly unknown, and justly claiming equal regard. The corporate cities and towns, which anciently were governed by the voices of their citizens at large, had become newmodelled by usurpation, which the courts of law sanctioned under the apprehension that popular election must be attended with danger to the public peace; and the whole administration of their municipal affairs being now entrusted to small bodies, generally self-elected, these too engrossed the right of returning to Parliament their representatives, who had originally been chosen by the people at large. But the greatest changes of all were in the electoral bodies. Towns formerly of importance had, in the course of time, decayed into insignificance; nay, some populous and wealthy places had become desolate and uninhabited, while all alike retained the privilege of being represented in Parliament. So that instead of the people of those places being represented, the remains of ruined houses alone sent members to the legislature to consult "circa ardua regni." At the same time, mere hamlets had grown into towns of vast importance; and on land once desert, or the site of a few straggling huts, cities had grown up of prodigious extent, numbering thousands and tens of thousands of inhabitants, and containing within their bounds half the opulence and |