means, whether in the shape of seduction or threat.  If there be an indignity on one side, there must have been a wrong done on the other; and, to make out this point, it ought to have been shewn, that some other Person, qualified by his property, his education, his rank, and character, had stood forth and offered himself to represent you, Freeholders of Westmoreland, in Parliament; and that, in this attempt, he had been crushed by the power of a single Family, careless of the mode in which that power was exercised.  I appeal to those who have had an opportunity of being acquainted with the Noble Lord who is at the head of that Family, whether they are of opinion, that any consideration of his own interest or importance in the State, would have induced him to oppose such a Candidate, provided there was reason for believing that the unabused sense of the County was with him.  If indeed a Candidate supposed to be so favoured by the County, had declared himself an enemy to the general measures of Administration for some years past, those measures have depended on principles of conduct of such vast importance, that the Noble Lord must needs have endeavoured, as far as prudence authorised, to frustrate an attempt, which, in conscience, he could not approve.

I affirm, then, that, as there was no wrong, there is no indignity—­the present Members owe their high situation to circumstances, local and national.  They are there because no one else has presented himself, or, for some years back, has been likely to present himself, with pretensions, the reasonableness of which could enter into competition with their’s.  This is, in some points of view, a misfortune, but it is the fact; and no class of men regret it more than the independent and judicious adherents of the House of Lowther:  Men who are happy and proud to rally round the Nobleman who is the head of that House, in defence of rational liberty:  Men who know that he has proved himself a faithful guardian to the several orders of the State—­that he is a tried enemy to dangerous innovations—­a condemner of fantastic theories—­one who understands mankind, and knows the heights and levels of human nature, by which the course of the streams of social action is determined—­a Lover of the People, but one who despises, as far as relates to his own practice; and deplores, in respect to that of others, the shows, and pretences, and all the false arts by which the plaudits of the multitude are won, and the people flattered to the common ruin of themselves and their deceivers.

But after all, let us soberly enquire to what extent it is really an evil that two persons, so nearly connected in blood, should represent this County.  And first looking at the matter locally, what is that portion of England known by the name of the County of Westmoreland?  A County which indeed the natives of it love, and are justly proud of; a region famous for the production of shrewd, intelligent, brave, active,