relating to the additional
number of one hundred hackney coaches and chairs, which law was rendered
perpetual. The next law we shall mention was intended to be one of the
most important that ever fell under the cognizance of the legislature:
it was a law that affected the freedom, dignity, and independency of
parliaments. By an act, passed in the ninth year of the reign of queen
Anne, it was provided that no person should be chosen a member of
parliament who did not possess in England or Wales an estate, freehold
or copyhold, for life, according to the following qualifications: for
every knight of a shire six hundred pounds per annum, over and above
what will satisfy all incumbrances; and three hundred pounds per annum,
for every citizen, burgess, and baron of the cinque ports. It was also
decreed, that the return of any person not thus qualified should be
void; and that every candidate should, at the reasonable request of any
other candidate at the time of election, or of two or more persons
who had a right to vote, take an oath prescribed to establish his
qualifications. This restraint was by no means effectual. So many oaths
of different kinds had been prescribed since the revolution, that they
began to lose the effect they were intended to have on the minds of men;
and, in particular, political perjury grew so common, that it was no
longer considered as a crime. Subterfuges were discovered, by means
of which this law relating to the qualification of candidates was
effectually eluded. Those who were not actually possessed of such
estates, procured temporary conveyances from their friends and patrons,
on condition of their being restored and cancelled after the election.
By this scandalous fraud the intention of the legislature was
frustrated, the dignity of parliament prostituted, the example of
perjury and corruption extended, and the vengeance of heaven set at
defiance. Through this infamous channel the ministry had it in their
power to thrust into parliament a set of venal beggars, who, as they
depended upon their bounty, would always be obsequious to their will,
and vote according to direction, without the least regard to the
dictates of conscience, or to the advantage of their country. The
mischiefs attending such a vile collusion, and in particular the undue
influence which the crown must have acquired from the practice, were
either felt or apprehended by some honest patriots, who after divers
unsuccessful effor