Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/63

 before this period, the ancient system of the government had been completely inverted; the popular council, though in theory scarcely en- titled to that name or character, had for ages fulfilled all the practical purposes of the most perfect representation; because, having the same interests with the universal mass of po- pulation, and nothing then existing to seduce them from the discharge of their duties, it mattered not by whom they were elected ; but the time was arrived when the right of election became a vital principle.— The crown was now possessed of a great revenue, which was ra- pidly increasing, and as the Commons had ad- vanced in power and importance, it was thought convenient by its ministers to act no longer upon their own responsibility, even in the most ordinary details of business, but to take their constitutional opponents into pay and make them ministers in their stead ; well knowing that they could not possibly oppose, nor even censure the measures which were their own. — Neither can it be matter of wonder that the ¬e 3 people ¬