Page:The Irish Parliament; what it was, and what it did.djvu/32

 to be free, by the grant and rendered close by the proprietor, the other intended to be close by the grant and rendered vicious by the principles of the law.

"As to the public welfare, I acknowledge many beneficial acts, wholesome regulations, and one great revolution; but may I be suffered to think that the redemption of this country had been more speedily established, the good of this country more uniformly pursued, and with less intervals of inconsistency, if Parliament had been constituted more according to the principle of the Constitution? As it is constituted, to me its ordinary operation appears defective, its raptures successful, and its relapses disgraceful/'

"I have heard," said Mr. Grattan in the same debate, "that seats in this House forty years ago were obtained for £600. I have heard they now cost £3,000."

On the same occasion Hely Hutchinson, the Provost of Trinity College, entered into an analysis of the representation of the people in the House of Commons. He contrasted the exercise of the prerogative in the enfranchisement of boroughs in Ireland with its practical abeyance in England since 1676. He said that in former times he had extracted from all the borough charters their material contents, and stated, as the result of his researches, that " one half of the representation of Ireland had arisen from the