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HISTORY OF ENGLAUU.

chap, sometimes learn that he has obtained one of those places in the—j~-'~ Exchequer of which the emoluments rise and fall with thetaxes which we pay. It would be strange indeed if our interestswere safe in the keeping of a man whose gains consist in a per-centage on our losses. The evil would be greatly diminishedif we had frequent opportunities of considering whether thepowers of our agent ought to be renewed or revoked. But, asthe law stands, it is not impossible that he may hold thosepowers twenty or thirty years. While he lives, and whileeither the King or the Queen lives, it is not likely that we shallever again exercise our elective franchise, unless there shouldbe a dispute between the Court and the Parliament. The moreprofuse and obsequious a Parliament is, the less likely it is togive offence to the Court. The worse our representatives,therefore, the longer we are likely to be cursed with them.

The outcry was loud. Odious nicknames were given to theParliament. Sometimes it was the Officers’Parliament: some-times it was the Standing Parliament, and W'as pronounced tohe a greater nuisance than even a standing army.

Two specifics for the distempers of the State were stronglyrecommended, and divided the public favour. One was a lawexcluding placemen from the House of Commons. The otherwas a law limiting the duration of Parliaments to three years..In general the Tory reformers preferred a Place Bill, and theWhig reformers a Triennial Bill; but not a few zealous men ofboth parties were for trying both remedies.

Ttici'iace Before Christmas a Place Bill was laid on the table ofthe Commons. That bill has been vehemently praised bywriters who never saw it, and who merely guessed at what itcontained. But no person who takes the trouble to study theoriginal parchment, which, embrowned with the dust of ahundred and sixty years, reposes among the archives of theHouse of Lords, will find much matter for eulogy.