JB/119/009/004

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8

A View of the Hard-Labour Bill.

judgement on a measure of this sort depended altogether
of those accidents, upon which a seat in Parliament
is known sometimes to depend: as if the whole stock of understanding
(to say nothing of probity) as well as the whole mass of power
in the nation were doomed forever to be confined within that
narrow circle.

Such a notion, I must confess, were it even serious —
- by entertained is but too well warranted (as well as usage
can warrant notions so ill-suited to the spirit of the constitution)
by the privacy in which all parliamentary proceedings
have always been endeavored at least to be
envelopped. For my own part however, I must confess,
that, without any disparagement to its representatives, I can
not bring myself to think quite so unfavorably of the
great body of the nation. Those judges, one would
imagine, did not think so, who in their circuits have recommended
the Bill, while thus in embryo, to the general attention
of the country gentlemen. It is some consolation to me to have
the authority and example of those respectable magistrates
on my side. If the few indeed are to decide (as in the truth
it seems best they should) on the interests of the many, it
can scarcely, one should think, be improper that the many
should at least be permitted to debate

An example may perhaps on this occasion
be of use. Mr. Howard. whom every county and
every

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Identifier: | JB/119/009/004 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 119.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	119	Main Headings	panopticon
Folio number	009	Info in main headings field	preface a view of the hard-labour bill
Image	004	Titles
Category	copy/fair copy sheet	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f5 / f6 / f7 / f8
Penner		Watermarks	[[watermarks::[gr with crown motif] propatria [britannia motif]]]
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	39520
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