much and too visibly. The honourable Member for Thetford told us
that the honourable and learned Member for Rye, with all his
talents, would have no chance of a seat in the Reformed
Parliament, for want of the qualifications which succeed on the
hustings. Did Sir Samuel Romilly ever appear on the hustings of
Westminster? He never solicited one vote; he never showed
himself to the electors, till he had been returned at the head of
the poll. Even then, as I have heard from one of his nearest
relatives, it was with reluctance that he submitted to be
chaired. He shrank from being made a show. He loved the people,
and he served them; but Coriolanus himself was not less fit to
canvass them. I will mention one other name, that of a man of
whom I have only a childish recollection, but who must have been
intimately known to many of those who hear me, Mr Henry Thornton.
He was a man eminently upright, honourable, and religious, a man
of strong understanding, a man of great political knowledge; but,
in all respects, the very reverse of a mob orator. He was a man
who would not have yielded to what he considered as unreasonable
clamour, I will not say to save his seat, but to save his life.
Yet he continued to represent Southwark, Parliament after
Parliament, for many years. Such has been the conduct of the
scot and lot voters of the metropolis; and there is clearly less
reason to expect democratic violence from ten pound householders
than from scot and lot householders; and from ten pound
householders in the country towns than from ten pound
householders in London. Experience, I say, therefore, is on our
side; and on the side of our opponents nothing but mere
conjecture and mere assertion.

Sir, when this bill was first brought forward, I supported it,