their very Names; and that even common Humanity is banifhed this Kingdom.

I do not wholly attribute this Depravity of human Nature to the powerful Influence of the Parliament of Britain; but as Examples are in all Cafes forcible, and incite Imitation, I cannot excufe our late Reprefentatives; many of whom have been justly profecuted for unprecedented Crimes, fome been imprifoned, fome accused of Bribery, and many of Corruption; and if they have not met with the Punishment that has been their Due, it has not been owing to the Innocence of themselves, or of their Judges and Companions.

A general Corruption fpread its baleful Qualities. throughout the whole Body; they fported at the Calamities of the Perfons they reprefented; they relieved their Fellow-Subjects, by taking farther from them; and with fome other Perfons, they endeavoured to difpofe of the Remainder of their Properties; as if, to take away a Half or two Thirds of our Fortunes, were not enough, without ftripping us of All.

So much Mifchief has been done in one fatal Year, that a History of that alone would furnish a Volume; fo black a Catalogue of Crimes, I am confident, never appeared against any Set of Men, as fome lately in Power; and though the South Sea Directors were the apparent Actors in this national Tragedy, yet others were concerned with them. We have had L-ds and C-ns accused of taking Bribes, who accepted of Stock, to país a Law for the Ruin of their Country; for what Could it mean but univerfal Ruin, where a Company of Sharpers had an unlimited Power to act as they pleas ed, by Authority of Law.

I never knew till lately, nor I dare fay any other, that an Act of Parliament of any Importance relating to the Public (as this was the greateft) was wholly without one fingle Provifo, or conditional Claufe; as was the Cafe of this Law. There was granted every where Power to cheat and defraud, and no where any Guard provided against it; as though in the Affairs of Money, and of the Cash of a Kingdom, where there is the greatest Temptation to be Rogues, all were to be fup

pofed

pofed to be honest Men, and not fo much as one to be fufpected.

If this Statute was drawn up by the South Sea Directors, or any Council employed by them, and the Members of Parliament were actually bribed into it (by the Acceptance of Stock, or otherwife) as one would think it might, there is no Infamy or Calumny fo great as they do not deferve: And if, fpeaking more favourably, they were drawn into it, either by Surprise, or want of confidering it, or through their own Ignorance, they are even then juftly to be blamed; for the Confequence is the fame, whether a Man, or a Society of Men, be robbed of Poffeffions, either by the Defign or Negli gence of the Agents concerned.

We read of an Infanum Parliamentum, in the Reign of King Henry III. But what Title will be due to the Septennial Parliament, beyond its common Acceptation, I leave the Members themselves, as well as fome future Hiftorian, to judge. I do not fay they were an Assembly of R-bb-rs (fuch an Expreffion is too harsh for me to be guilty of) but if any other Perfons had taken the fame Pains to eafe us of our Money, as they have done, we should have justly conferred the Title upon them. There is not a Man in the Kingdom (not let into the Secret) but has been a Sufferer by them; and the juft Complaints and Petitions of the Injured, who have only petitioned for their own, have been rejected with Scorn and Indignation.

It was never questioned, till in the late Times, that an injured and oppreffed Subject had a Right in a peaceable manner to petition for Relief, at least to those who were only Servants to the Public: But alas! this has been difputed; and our Servants, whom we invested with Power to take Care of our Rights, Liberties, and Properties, have been the greatest Invaders of them; and instead of advancing, have prevented our Redress; which I think is apparent in the Cafe of the fubfcribing Annuitants.

Indeed, in the Upper House of Parliament, we have had Patriots, who have exerted themfelves for the public Welfare, to their immortal Honour: A noble Peer, who lately adoined the highest Station in our Courts of

Judicature, has fhewn his Eloquence like a Cicer, though he had not Cicero's Succefs; but we have not now a Roman Age, or a Roman People, to expect it. He early protested (joined by many others, the true Protectors of our Liberties) against what was pernicious to the Public, and which occasioned the altering fome of our Laws; but the great Law (the Law of Ruin) which he gloriously oppofed, it was, not in his Power, after all his Endeavours, and arduous Struggles, to prevent or

annul.

11

It is more to the Honour of this noble Lord, and his glorious Affociates, that they have made this Stand against the enacting of fome Laws, than to be Makers of all the Laws fome Parliaments have paffed, and particularly the late one, though it has been of longer Duration than any Parliament fince that of the Rump, to which, its Proceedings, in many Instances, may be very justly compared.

But when I give myself a Liberty of speaking of the Septennial Parliament, I would not be thought to mean every Member of it. There were feveral very honest well-meaning Gentlemen in it (and fome I could parti· cularly mention) who would not, on any Terms, be the Authors of Miseries to their Fellow-Subjects; but these were but few in Number, and (what has been the greatest Excuse to them) there always appeared a great Majority against them.

Yet fo much have our Parliaments in general in this Age degenerated from their ancient Conftitution, that as formerly they were compofed of all Men of Honour, Honesty, and Integrity, and Patriots of their Country's Service, we have lately feen a Member of the House of Commons, convicted at a Bar of Juftice, of the highest and blackest Frauds; one fuppofed to be a Confederate with Highwaymen and Pick-pockets; from whence one might imagine, that fome of the excellent Qualities inftilled into the Pupils of the famous Jonathan Wild, were a neceffary Qualification for a M- r of Pt.

For what is as ftrange, as the other is monftrous, our Houses of Parliament have fuffered one thus convicted of Frauds and Deceits, to have the Honour to fit with them, without voting his Expulfion, which is a fufficient Scandal to that Auguft Affembly; though I do not pre

tend

tend to infinuate from this, that they are all equally guilty with the Criminal condemned, whatever Construction may by fome Perfons be put upon their Silence.

If punishing the Guilty, be an Argument of Innocence in the Perfons condemning, this fhould have been done: And I for my Part, if I had been a Reprefentative of the Septennial Parliament, and were to have fat in the Houfe but three Hours longer, I fhould not have been eafy till I had voted an Expulfion of an unworthy Member who was a Reproach to the Whole; I should have endeavoured to fit at least two of the Hours free from the Imputation of looking over Crimes.

A Negligence of this Kind is undoubtedly criminal; Crimes are inferred from it; and it certainly behov'd every Member of the House of Commons, whether guilty or not of Offences of the like Nature, to have excluded him their Body; because without it, they not only bring a Difgrace upon themfelves, but also upon future Parliaments which shall be their Succeffors.

We have experienced Negligences of Omiffion as well as Commiffion: We have had flender Houfes on the greatest Debates, in Matters of the greatest Importance; fome Members have withdrawn for one Reafon, fome for another; fome out of a Consciousness of their own Guilt; fome to serve fome great Perfon ; others in Expectation of Places and Preferments, and others perhaps for MIt is not long fince that above Sixty withdrew in the Space of a Day, when a Cafe of Bribery, laid to the Charge of a Minifter Juftice, was tried at their Bar.

Oh England! what wilt thou come to, if the Executioners of thy Laws, and thofe who ought to be the Punishers of Crimes, are found to be guilty, and the Promoters of them! But what can we fay, when Bribery is fo common, as to have little or no Notice; like a beauteous prostituted Whore, who by Cuftom becomes fashionable, and the Object of Esteem, in a vicious Age. Whether this be a proper Allufion, I fubmit to the Dalers in Elections, who buy their Seats in the Parliament Houfe, in order to fell their Country, and ftock-job Boroughs in Exchange Alley, with no other Views than to

fecure

fecure to the Purchasers a National Plunder, or Places of Profit at the public Cost.

As to what has happened for fome Years paft, great have been the Artifices ufed to make Corruption univerfal; one Member of Parliament has endeavoured to corrupt another, to juftify his own Conduct; as if by Numbers of Guilty, Innocence were preferved: One has laughed at another who has been lefs in the Mire than himself, and at all Times given his helping Hand to plunge him into Circumstances equal with himself: And Honesty and Plain-dealing have been fo long ridiculed, that, besides the Jeft of it, Ruin and Destruction are the general Attendants that wait upon them.

This is a melancholy Reflection, and very difcouraging to all honeft Spirits; it makes Life almost a Burthen to a religious and even a moral Mind; but fuch is our Cafe, and it must be fubmitted to; though not upon the whole, to be imputed to our Senators; but this I must own, they have had a very great Share in these direful Misfortunes, which have rushed in upon us like a Torrent, and overset every thing.

Thus much as an Introduction to what I have to say : I shall now examine into the feveral Proceedings of the Septennial Parliament, which will fet what I have afferted in a clearer Light, by illuftrating that which has been the Foundation of it, and make appear particularly what our great Reprefentatives have done for the public Benefit, and what they have done with more private Views; what they have defigned in favour of Liberty, and what they have done against it; what they have tranfacted to favour Religion, and in what they have checked it; and laftly, what has been enacted with the Wisdom of Senators, and what has been done thro❞ Ignorance or Error.

Soon after the Acceffion of King George to the Crown, a new Parliament was called, and in the first Year of his Reign a great many Statutes were enacted: The first. Act was for the better Support of his Majefty's Houfhold : It granted the Duties of Excife upon Beer, Ale, and other Liquors, that were granted to King Charles II. King William and Queen Mary, and the late Queen, to his present Majesty: And to extinguifh the Hopes of the Pretender