RENEWALS OF THE CLAIM-THE BILL OF RIGHTS- Cromwell's Parliamentary Reforms-The Triennial Act lost at the Restoration-Charles II.'s compensatory measure-The Pensioners' Parliament-Sir R.Temple's Triennial Bill-Frequent Parliaments provided for in the Declaration and Bill of Rights-The Triennial Effect of corrupt practices on public liberty-Proposal to repeal the Triennial Act-Pretexts-Protestations- THE STRUGGLE TO RECOVER SHORT PARLIAMENTS. Popular protests against the Septennial Act-Its repeal proposed in 1734-Views of Wyndham, Walpole, and Bolingbroke-Instructions to members-Lord Mayor Godschall's bill-Pulteney's opinion-Annual Parlia- ments proposed-Alderman Sawbridge-Chatham a convert to triennial Parliaments - Horne Tooke- Junius-A Radical duke-The Caucus a hundred years ago-Union of political associations to obtain Reformers of the present century and short Parliaments- Brougham, Romilly, O'Connell, and Hume among the advocates for repeal of the Septennial Act-Dis- appointment in 1831 Mr. Disraeli's opinion-Quin- quennial Parliaments proposed in 1880-Mr. Bright's NOTE. The writer of this volume has not deemed it neces- SHORT PARLIAMENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. WHY should our Parliaments be septennial? The purpose of this book is not to answer this question, but to emphasize it, and to engage the reader's interest in it. This purpose will, it is hoped, be attained by the presentation of interesting historical details not hitherto found in any one work. Our ancestors demanded frequent Parliaments as a right. The House of Lords declared for them. Whigs gave us them; and when Whigs い B took them away again, Tories struggled for their continuance. Names known to us now as those of great ministers were associated with the demand for short Parliaments, until the bearers of those names became ministers. Then the zeal of the reformer slackened, and was lost in the reluctance of the statesman. By living examples was established the truth of the popular contention, that ministers and members of Parliament could only be surely kept in the right path by being called upon frequently to "recur to the sense of the people." In the reform agitations prior to 1832 the demand for short Parliaments was as loud as that for suffrage extension; but Lord John Russell left the repeal of the Septennial Act an open question when he introduced his Reform Bill. Neither the Reform Act itself, nor the further power of controlling Parliament by the development of such organs of public opinion as public meetings and the press, sufficed to quell the agitation for short |