The
commercial treaties of '87 were struck in the same mint, and
are notable as the first effort made by the English government
to emancipate the country from the restrictive policy which
had been introduced by the "glorious revolution;" memorable
epoch, that presented England at the same time with a corn law
and a public debt.. But on no subject was the magnetic
influence of the descendant of Sir William Petty more decided,
than in the resolution of his pupil to curb the power of the
patrician party by an infusion from the middle classes into
the government of the country. Hence the origin of Mr Pitt's
famous and long-misconceived plans of parliamentary reform.
Was he sincere, is often asked by those who neither seek to
discover the causes nor are capable of calculating the effects
of public transactions. Sincere! Why, he was struggling for
his existence! And when baffled, first by the Venetian party,
and afterwards by the panic of Jacobinism, he was forced to
forego his direct purpose, he still endeavoured partially to
effect it by a circuitous process. He created a plebeian
aristocracy and blended it with the patrician oligarchy. He
made peers of second-rate squires and fat graziers.
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