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It seems to be impossible, that regular and uniform impartiality in this respect can take place, where the constitution of Government is defective.

In Governments purely despotic, it is very possible that justice may have its due course, with few exceptions, between party and party: but when the Crown is a party, it can never be expected. The history of the world will teach us, that purely democratic Governments are utterly incompatible with a rule of uniformly impartial justice :---security in this respect is wholly out of the question. But, if we take a Government, whose composition is such, that there is a due balance between the powers of the Crown, the aristocracy, and the people, the argument in theory drawn from the above premises is, that it would be free from the imperfections that follow either the despotic or democratic form. Now, if in point of fact we find, that in any country justice is uniformly, impartially, and honestly administered, why may we not adopt the converse of the proposition, and infer that the component parts of such a Government are, and must be, well adjusted and well proportioned ?---The application of this reasoning to the case of this country is too obvious. to make it necessary to point it out. We all know, we every day feel, that justice is well administered in this country, and that our King has rendered his Judges independent and more, that it has been well administered for such a series of years, that fixed and just opinions respecting it are widely circulated, and, if I may so speak, interwoven into the very texture of the public mind. These just opinions extend not only to all inferior magistrates, but to every individual liable to serve on our juries. Why cannot we, therefore, decide from this circumstance, so forcible and so true, that there are no imperfections, no disorders, no failings, in our constitution, so violent, so desperate, as to need. a recurrence to the uncertain quackery of political innovation?

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That the time will come, when we shall give more weight to such sober, temperate, and just conclusions as these, I am confident--and I conclude, my dear Sir, by assuring you, that no means or exertion, with a view to accelerate its arrival, will be neglected by,

Dear Sir,

your faithful servant,

A FREEHOLDER OF CORNWALL.

March, 1810.

4.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE RESOLUTIONS PASSED

BY CERTAIN FRIENDS OF PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, AT BODMIN, ON THE 8TH OF JULY, 1811.

IN A LETTER, &c.

INTRODUCTION.

To the Freeholders of the County of Cornwall.

I AM fully aware, that it is incumbent on me to

explain my reasons for again addressing you on the subject of the Resolutions passed at Bodmin in July 1811; and I can assure you that I should not have said one word more about them, if I had not occasionally seen some part of a series of letters addressed, "To the Taxed Inhabitants of the County of Cornwall." reviving a question, which I think should have remained at rest.

I have, therefore, fully reviewed all that I have already written, and have scrupulously examined every document in my possession, from which I could expect to obtain authentic information, and, in the following statement, have collected all the arguments, that are dispersed in various papers in the Cornwall Gazette, with such additions as have occurred to me in my late examination. The result of my enquiries is a thorough

conviction that the doctrines proclaimed at Bodmin, have no foundation in the Law or Constitution of Great Britain; nay, that there is not even a trace of them to be discovered in any document of authority; and I will further add, that the plan of a new Representation, which is indirectly proposed, as a deduction from the Resolutions, is not more in contradiction to the practice of the Constitution, since the first writs of election were issued, (being a period of nearly five Centuries and a half) than it would be, as far as experience directs us, inconsistent with our domestic peace, our comforts, and internal security.

I shall not enlarge on these points in an introduction: my proofs and elucidations will appear in the papers that follow.

There are, however, other topics, which fairly make part of an introduction to any paper submitted to the public, and these are the private feelings of the writer, as far as they are connected with his writings. It is singular, but it is true, that my only difficulties, as far as private feeling is concerned, have arisen more or less from certain opinions of those, with whom I cordially agree on public questions.---Nay, some of these difficulties have had their origin from my being, in their judgment, too evidently in the right; and they have, therefore, concluded, that such Resolutions as I have in part recited, deserve no remark. For instance, more than one of my earliest friends, who have had no inconsiderable practice in the learned profession of the Law, have told me, " that, independently of other "circumstances, I have shewn great perseverance and "industry in refuting a doctrine which, as a legal one, "required no refutation."

Again, I know that there are gentlemen, cordially agreeing with me on general political grounds, who have thought, that what occurred in this county in 1809, (or, rather, what has followed the meeting of that

4.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE RESOLUTIONS PASSED

BY CERTAIN FRIENDS OF PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, AT BODMIN, ON THE 8TH OF JULY, 1811.

IN A LETTER, &c.

INTRODUCTION.

To the Freeholders of the County of Cornwall.

I AM fully aware, that it is incumbent on me to

explain my reasons for again addressing you on the subject of the Resolutions passed at Bodmin in July 1811; and I can assure you that I should not have said one word more about them, if I had not occasionally seen some part of a series of letters addressed, "To the Taxed Inhabitants of the County of Cornwall." reviving a question, which I think should have remained at rest.

I have, therefore, fully reviewed all that I have already written, and have scrupulously examined every document in my possession, from which I could expect to obtain authentic information, and, in the following statement, have collected all the arguments, that are dispersed in various papers in the Cornwall Gazette, with such additions as have occurred to me in my late examination. The result of my enquiries is a thorough

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