The liberty of the Press, is without doubt, liable to abuse, so is every privilege we enjoy, as men or as subjects, but, if it be once admitted that the abuse of any privilege by a few individuals, is a sufficient reason for withdrawing it from the Public at large, all their privileges as free men will be successively forfeited:—If, indeed, Government had not been possessed of sufficient means for remedying the apparent disorders, they had had a decent apology for resorting to new measures, and restrictive expedients; but, when the Revd. Author acknowledges the competence of the powers vested in Ministers, originally to suppress such assemblies, he according to our apprehension, (though perhaps, not designedly,) censures their conduct in neglecting to do so. That seats in the House of Commons, are to be purchased, is as notorious as the sun at noon day, according to a noble member of the present Administration, who is reported, in the public papers, to have made use of this expression, on being convicted of bartering or attempting to barter a seat in that house, for a Writership in the East India Service:—it is no less confidently affirmed, that, in many instances, Boroughs (intended to return representatives of the commercial part of the Empire) are become the properties of private individuals, who either appoint their own Members (with this particular proviso, that they shall vacate their seats, unless they vote agreeably to the will of the individual appointing them) or without hesitation sell them to the best bidder:—it even, sometimes happens, that the Aristocracy of a county (by which I mean the proprietors of great landed estates) consult together, how many votes each of them can command (for they conclude that every tenant must vote according to the direction of his landlord) and proceed to put in nomination such candidates, as may have secured the weightiest interest with themselves, who are generally successful; whether are they then, the representatives of the people, or of a few individuals constituting this Aristocracy?—Are these practices consistent with the Constitution? or rather is not its very principle violated by them?—in consequence of these abuses, it may reasonably be conjectured, that the representative body will become corrupt;—that their own immediate interests will outweigh all consideration for the public; and that they will utterly disregard the rights and privileges of the people, to protect which, however, they were originally instituted:—are the people culpable if aroused by such grievances? they petition for a Reform in the Commons House, well aware that the long duration of Parliaments, not only gives birth to, but accelerates the progress of corruption; if they aim at an annual, rather than a septennial parliament, concluding that, by how much the shorter the period of their parliamentary existence may be, the Administration will become by so much the less able and less