Shall a majority in the house of commons be created?  Much may be said on both sides.  A very ingenious friend of mine, for whose counsels I have an uncommon deference, assured me, that nothing would be so easy as this.  Observing with a shrewdness that astonished me, that ministry, upon a late most important question, mustered no more than 250 votes, and that there were 558 members, he inferred, that you had nothing more to do than to send for those that were absent out of the country, and you might have upwards of 300 to pit against the 250.  It is with infinite regret that I ever suffer myself to dissent from the opinion of this gentleman.  But suppose, my lord, which is at least possible, that one half of the absentees should be friends to the cause of the people; what would become of us then?  There remains indeed the obvious method of purchasing votes, and it might be supposed that your lordship’s talent of insinuation might do you knight’s service in this business.  But no, my lord, many of these country gentlemen are at bottom no better than boors.  A mechlin cravat and a smirking countenance, upon which your lordship builds so much, would be absolutely unnoticed by them.  I am afraid of risquing my credit with your lordship, but I can assure you, that I have heard that one of these fellows has been known to fly from a nobleman covered with lace, and powdered, and perfumed to the very tip of the mode, to follow the standard of a commoner whose coat has been stained with claret, and who has not had a ruffle to his shirt.  My lord, if common fame may be trusted, these puppies are literally tasteless enough to admire wit, though the man who utters it be ever so corpulent, and to discover eloquence in the mouth of one, who can suffer himself to spit in an honourable assembly.  I am a plain man, my lord; but I really think that among marquisses and dukes, right honourables and right reverends, these things are intolerable.

I would therefore have your lordship give up at once, and with a grace, the very idea of bringing over to your side the partisans of these huge slovenly fellows.  The scheme of governing the country without taking the house of commons along with you, is much more feasible than this.  This might be done by passing an act of parliament by the authority of two estates of the realm, to declare the house of commons useless.  For my part, I am far from thinking this so bold a step as by some it may be imagined.  Was not Rome a free state, though it had no house of commons?  Has not the British house of commons been incessantly exclaimed upon, as corrupt and nugatory?  Has not a reform respecting them been called for from all quarters of the kingdom?  I am much of opinion in the present case, that that is the most effectual reform, which goes to the root.  Rome had her hereditary nobility, which composed her senate.  She had her consuls, an ill-imagined substitute for monarchical power.  In these, my lord, was comprehended, in a manner, the whole of her government.  I shall be told indeed that they had occasionally their comitia, or assemblies of the citizens of the metropolis.  But this is so far from an objection to my reasoning, that it furnishes me with a very valuable hint for the improvement of the English constitution.