more under their power? We have not only our own historical
experience in England upon this subject, but we have the experience
co-existing with us in Ireland, where, since their Parliament has
been shortened, the expense of elections has been so far from being
lowered that it has been very near doubled. Formerly they sat for
the king's life; the ordinary charge of a seat in Parliament was
then 1,500 pounds. They now sit eight years, four sessions: it is
now 2,500 pounds and upwards. The spirit of emulation has also been
extremely increased, and all who are acquainted with the tone of
that country have no doubt that the spirit is still growing, that
new candidates will take the field, that the contests will be more
violent, and the expenses of elections larger than ever.

It never can be otherwise. A seat in this House, for good purposes,
for bad purposes, for no purpose at all (except the mere
consideration derived from being concerned in the public councils)
will ever be a first-rate object of ambition in England. Ambition
is no exact calculator. Avarice itself does not calculate strictly
when it games. One thing is certain, that in this political game
the great lottery of power is that into which men will purchase with
millions of chances against them. In Turkey, where the place, where
the fortune, where the head itself, are so insecure, that scarcely
any have died in their beds for ages, so that the bowstring is the
natural death of Bashaws, yet in no country is power and distinction
(precarious enough, God knows, in all) sought for with such
boundless avidity, as if the value of place was enhanced by the
danger and insecurity of its tenure. Nothing will ever make a seat
in this House not an object of desire to numbers by any means or at
any charge, but the depriving it of all power and all dignity. This
would do it. This is the true and only nostrum for that purpose.