papers (at least none that I have been able to find) make any mention of his making a speech.

Evidently, therefore, Prime Ministers had not yet come to think the Platform of any use or consequence to them. Some less exalted members of Parliament however did think the Platform of use for election purposes, or to put it more accurately, some of the popular constituencies expected the candidates to address them, and the candidates had to fall in with the expectations of the electors. Among the few populous constituencies of the pre-reform era was Yorkshire, and here Wilberforce was candidate again, and spoke. His speeches are an interesting example of the best class of election Platform oratory at this period. He was returned without a contest, but he spoke both on being proposed, and on being elected. The election was held at York, and there was a large assembly of freeholders. In the latter of his speeches he said: "The scene in which we are now present is indeed a magnificent spectacle. To see the freeholders of this great county assembled together, and freely choosing their own representatives in Parliament, is a sight in the highest degree gratifying and animating to those who know the real nature and the high value of true liberty. . . . Let those deluded men, whether of this or any other country, who have so far mistaken the real spirit of liberty as to confound it with anarchy, come hither and have their error corrected, and learn to know and admire that true image of constitutional freedom which is here exhibited."

His other speech is more interesting as showing what he conceived to be the relationship between a representative and his constituents. He said: "We cannot expect that even our constituents should approve of every particular of our conduct. They may indeed, and ought to require that their representatives should agree with them in the great principles of political conduct, and likewise in the general line to be pursued in any given conjuncture of affairs. But provided there be this general agreement, they ought not too scrupulously to look for an exact coincidence in every individual vote, and on every particular question. I heartily rejoice to find that you approve of these principles. They send your member to Parliament, the free and liberal representative of a free people, and not

your slave, fettered and shackled-a character which I should feel degrading, though it were to be the slave even of the county of York itself."1

There is, already here, some slight modification of the more independent views put forward by Edmund Burke which I have already quoted. In later years the change will become ever more and more marked.

It would seem from these speeches that in the more popular constituencies a closer relationship was becoming recognised between members and their constituents, and this view is confirmed by a speech of Canning's in the following year. On a motion relative to the conduct of Ministers he inveighed against them for having given expression, almost daily before Christmas 1802, to a belief in the continuance of peace, whilst their internal convictions were directly at variance with the assertions which they made; and he exclaimed: "Should it be borne that members should have been sent down among their constituents (as had happened at the Christmas recess) to spread falsehood and error throughout the country; and that the confiding country should have been misled into incorrect and groundless views and deluded into visionary hopes, only that it might feel more seriously the blow of disappointment." An interesting statement bearing on the Platform at this general election is to be found in an entertaining tract entitled "Thoughts on the late General Election as demonstrative of the Progress of Jacobinism," by a certain John Bowles, a vehement Tory barrister. He said that, "During a contest at Lancaster in the General Election of 1802, the Jacobinical mob was addressed by a lady, who told them that 'the contest was between shoes and wooden clogs, between fine shirts and coarse ones, between the opulent and the poor, and that the people were everything if they chose to assert their rights."" a

The election over, the Platform sank again into a state of quiescence. The suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act ceased, the Act against Seditious Meetings expired, but the spirit of the reformers had been temporarily broken, and the Act against the Societies, which was still in force, effectually held

1 Cobbett's Political Register, 1802, p. 1617.

2 Parliamentary Debates, vol. xxxvi. 1803, p. 1566.

3 "Thoughts on the late General Election," etc., by John Bowles, p. 63.

the more extreme or desperate class of men in check. The beginning of the nineteenth century, however, was not a time when internal constitutional reforms could be considered. The brief interlude of peace had come only too quickly to an end, and Great Britain was once more plunged into a war for her very existence as a nation. In a life-and-death struggle every other consideration has to be subordinated; the great bulk of the people of England felt that it had to be so; and, therefore, during the long years that the war lasted, the history of the Platform lay mainly in the contests of Parliamentary elections, and in the occasional outbursts of opinion upon some event of the day, of such a character as to impel the people to indignant remonstrant speech.

The sessions of 1803 and of 1804 were entirely taken up with the discussion of the measures rendered necessary by the war-Volunteer Bills, Additional Force Bills, Foreign Troops Enlistment Bills. No meeting worth reporting appears to have been held in the country. No Petition worth mentioning appears to have been presented to Parliament. Public attention was absorbed in the dread of invasion, which appeared imminent, and in preparation to meet it.

The only break in the silence of the Platform during these years was a contested election which took place in the county of Middlesex in July 1804. A detailed account of it shows the part which the Platform could take on such rare occasions. The illustration is an extreme one, because the contest was for the representation of a county then one of the most populous and popular constituencies in the kingdom; it extended over the full legal period then allowed for an election, and the electorate was one of the most enlightened, civilised, and advanced in the country. A vacancy had occurred in the representation of the county, and the seat was contested by Sir Francis Burdett and a Mr. Mainwaring, the former being the popular candidate.1

Early on Monday morning, the 23d of July, Sir F. Burdett drove out to Brentford from London, with bands and banners and seven outriders, and a procession of vehicles following him; and soon after Mr. Mainwaring arrived in a chariot and

1 For the detailed account of this election, with reports of speeches, see Cobbett's Political Register for 1804, vol. vi. p. 257.

six, with postilions in scarlet livery. The space in front of the hustings was crowded. At half-past ten the sheriffs proceeded to the business of the day. The reading of the writs and the usual preliminary formalities being gone through, Mr. P. Moore, M.P., made a speech, proposing Sir F. Burdett, and Mr. Knight seconded the nomination. Sir W. Curtis began a speech, but there was "such a degree of hissing" that the sheriff had to intercede for a hearing for him, which being secured, he again came forward, and proposed Mr. Mainwaring, and Colonel Wood seconded the nomination.

Being thus proposed, Sir F. Burdett rose to speak. He was received with acclamation, and made a regular electioneering speech. Mr. Mainwaring followed, but after some sentences the hissing became so loud he had to stop. The two candidates were then formally proposed by the sheriffs, a show of hands taken, and a poll demanded. The poll at once commenced, and was continued till five o'clock, when the sheriff's declared the numbers to be for Sir F. Burdett, 611; for Mr. Mainwaring, 528. Sir F. Burdett then made a speech. Mr. Mainwaring tried to do the same, but the people would not hear him. The poll was then adjourned. At ten o'clock the next day the poll was reopened. When it closed in the evening Sir F. Burdett had 972 votes, Mainwaring 927. Again did Sir F. Burdett deliver a speech; again did Mr. Mainwaring attempt to address the electors; but after a variety of efforts the tumult of the populace was so very great that he pointed several times to the numbers on the poll board and retired from the hustings.

The third day Mr. Mainwaring was one vote ahead. It would be tedious to go through the proceedings day by day. Every evening, at the close of the poll, Sir F. Burdett made a speech; every day Mr. Mainwaring attempted to do so too. The fourth day varied somewhat, inasmuch, as after the close of the poll for the day, Sir F. Burdett dined at a tavern with some 300 of his friends, where his health was drunk with three times three "the warm friend of humanity, the indignant resister of oppression, and the steady assertor of his country's rights." On the seventh day the evening was spent in the same way. Still Mr. Mainwaring kept slightly ahead. On the eighth day he was 64 votes ahead. Each day he tried to

speak, each day he had been refused a hearing. On this day he tried again, "but the voice of a Stentor, or the eloquence of a Demosthenes would have vainly attempted to make any impression." Ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth day, still the same; one wonders at any human endurance holding out. On the fifteenth day the poll closed. Owing to some disputed votes the declaration of the poll was not given that night. Sir F. Burdett made a final speech, and was escorted to London by a cavalcade and bands, not reaching his house till eleven o'clock at night. The next day he was again back at Brentford, and the poll was declared for Mr. Mainwaring, 2828; for Sir F. Burdett, 2823-majority for Mainwaring, 5. When the business of the hustings was declared to be finally at an end, Mr. Mainwaring was conveyed under protection of the police to the house of a friend.

A political revel such as this, where, for nearly three weeks, the county town was kept in a whirl of excitement and agitation, and was the centre of the political passions and hopes of the county, where day after day the electors had the opportunity of hearing political speeches from the Platform, of learning at least something on the subject of politics, and of feeling that the power actually rested with them of deciding which of the competitors was to represent them in Parliament -an episode such as this could not but quicken political life, and awaken political enthusiasm, which, as years went on, would gather force and volume.

How long the Platform might have remained quiescent, except for occasional electoral struggles, it is impossible to say. The suspicion of Jacobinism, and the taint of sedition, which its foes had succeeded in fixing on it, might possibly have kept it in abeyance for a prolonged period. In the temper, and tone, and circumstances of the times many years might have elapsed before it again became an active force. Suddenly, however, an event occurred which woke it into life and action. A series of peculations of public funds was brought to light, and the person incriminated was no petty officer of the public service, but a Cabinet Minister, the First Lord of the Admiralty and Treasurer of the Navy-Lord Melville, he who had been the well-known Henry Dundas. Two or three other officials of the Department were also inculpated with him.