But admit it were true that the great mass of the electors were too
vast an object for court influence to grasp, or extend to, and that
in despair they must abandon it; he must be very ignorant of the
state of every popular interest, who does not know that in all the
corporations, all the open boroughs--indeed, in every district of
the kingdom--there is some leading man, some agitator, some wealthy
merchant, or considerable manufacturer, some active attorney, some
popular preacher, some money-lender, &c., &c., who is followed by
the whole flock. This is the style of all free countries.


- Multum in Fabia valet hic, valet ille Velina;
Cuilibet hic fasces dabit eripietque curule.


These spirits, each of which informs and governs his own little orb,
are neither so many, nor so little powerful, nor so incorruptible,
but that a Minister may, as he does frequently, find means of
gaining them, and through them all their followers. To establish,
therefore, a very general influence among electors will no more be
found an impracticable project, than to gain an undue influence over
members of parliament. Therefore I am apprehensive that this bill,
though it shifts the place of the disorder, does by no means relieve
the Constitution. I went through almost every contested election in
the beginning of this parliament, and acted as a manager in very
many of them: by which, though at a school of pretty severe and
ragged discipline, I came to have some degree of instruction
concerning the means by which parliamentary interests are in general
procured and supported.