s. Their heads will never cool; the
temptations of elections will be for ever glittering before their eyes.
They will all grow politicians; every one, quitting his business, will
choose to enrich himself by his vote. They will take the gauging-rod;
new places will be made for them; they will run to the Custom-house quay,
their looms and ploughs will be deserted.

So was Rome destroyed by the disorders of continual elections, though
those of Rome were sober disorders. They had nothing but faction,
bribery, bread, and stage plays to debauch them. We have the
inflammation of liquor superadded, a fury hotter than any of them. There
the contest was only between citizen and citizen; here you have the
contests of ambitious citizens on one side, supported by the Crown, to
oppose to the efforts (let it be so) of private and unsupported ambition
on the other. Yet Rome was destroyed by the frequency and charge of
elections, and the monstrous expense of an unremitted courtship to the
people. I think, therefore, the independent candidate and elector may
each be destroyed by it, the whole body of the community be an infinite
sufferer, and a vicious Ministry the only gainer. Gentlemen, I know,
feel the weight of this argument; they agree that this would be the
consequence of more frequent elections, if things were to continue as
they are. But they think the greatness and frequency of the evil would
itself be a remedy for it; that, sitting but for a short time, the member
would not find it worth while to make such vast expenses, while the fear
of their constituents will hold them the more effectually to their duty.

To this I answer, that experience is full against them. This is no new
thing; we have had triennial parliaments; at no period of time were seats
more eagerly contested. The expenses of elections ran higher, taking the
state of all charges, than they do now. The expense of entertainments
was such, that an Act, equally severe and ineffectual, was made against
it; every monument of the time bears witness of the expense, and most of
the Acts against corruption in elections were then made; all the writers
talked of it and lamented it. Will any one think that a corporation will
be contented with a bowl of punch, or a piece of beef the less, because
elections are every three, instead of every seven years? Will they
change their wine for ale, because they are to get more ale three years
hence? Do not think it. Will