The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
Philosophy
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
But these things may be granted to him, without bringing him much nearer
to his point. What does he think of re-election? is the American member
the only one who is not to take a place, or the only one to be exempted
from the ceremony of re-election? How will this great politician
preserve the rights of electors, the fairness of returns, and the
privilege of the House of Commons, as the sole judge of such contests?
It would undoubtedly be a glorious sight to have eight or ten petitions,
or double returns, from Boston and Barbadoes, from Philadelphia and
Jamaica, the members returned, and the petitioners, with all their train
of attorneys, solicitors, mayors, selectmen, provost-marshals, and above
five hundred or a thousand witnesses, come to the bar of the House of
Commons. Possibly we might be interrupted in the enjoyment of this
pleasing spectacle, if a war should break out, and our constitutional
fleet, loaded with members of Parliament, returning-officers, petitions,
and witnesses, the electors and elected, should become a prize to the
French or Spaniards, and be conveyed to Carthagena, or to La Vera Cruz,
and from thence perhaps to Mexico or Lima, there to remain until a
cartel for members of Parliament can be settled, or until the war is
ended.
In truth the author has little studied this business; or he might have
known, that some of the most considerable provinces of America, such,
for instance, as Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay, have not in each of
them two men who can afford, at a distance from their estates, to spend
a thousand pounds a year. How can these provinces be represented at
Westminster? If their province pays them, they are American agents, with
salaries, and not independent members of Parliament. It is true, that
formerly in England members had salaries from their constituents; but
they all had salaries, and were all, in this way, upon a par. If these
American representatives have no salaries, then they must add to the
list of our pensioners and dependents at court, or they must starve.
There is no alternative.
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