I most heartily wish that the deliberate sense of the kingdom on this great subject should be known.  When it is known, it must be prevalent.  It would be dreadful indeed, if there was any power in the nation capable of resisting its unanimous desire, or even the desire of any very great and decided majority of the people.  The people may be deceived in their choice of an object; but I can scarcely conceive any choice they can make to be so very mischievous as the existence of any human force capable of resisting it.  It will certainly be the duty of every man, in the situation to which God has called him, to give his best opinion and advice upon the matter:  it will not be his duty, let him think what he will, to use any violent or any fraudulent means of counteracting the general wish, or even of employing the legal and constructive organ of expressing the people’s sense against the sense which they do actually entertain.

In order that the real sense of the people should be known upon so great an affair as this, it is of absolute necessity that timely notice should be given,—­that the matter should be prepared in open committees, from a choice into which no class or description of men is to be excluded,—­and the subsequent county meetings should be as full and as well attended as possible.  Without these precautions, the true sense of the people will ever be uncertain.  Sure I am, that no precipitate resolution on a great change in the fundamental constitution of any country can ever be called the real sense of the people.

I trust it will not be taken amiss, if, as an inhabitant and freeholder of this county, (one, indeed, among the most inconsiderable,) I assert my right of dissenting (as I do dissent fully and directly) from any resolution whatsoever on the subject of an alteration in the representation and election of the kingdom at this time.  By preserving this light, and exercising it with temper and moderation, I trust I cannot offend the noble proposer, for whom no man professes or feels more respect and regard than I do.  A want of concurrence in everything which can be proposed will in no sort weaken the energy or distract the efforts of men of upright intentions upon those points in which they are agreed.  Assemblies that are met, and with a resolution to be all of a mind, are assemblies that can have no opinion at all of their own.  The first proposer of any measure must be their master.  I do not know that an amicable variety of sentiment, conducted with mutual good-will, has any sort of resemblance to discord, or that it can give any advantage whatsoever to the enemies of our common cause.  On the contrary, a forced and fictitious agreement (which every universal agreement must be) is not becoming the cause of freedom.  If, however, any evil should arise from it, (which I confess I do not foresee,) I am happy that those who have brought forward new and arduous matter, when very great doubts and some diversity of opinion must be foreknown, are of authority and weight enough to stand against the consequences.