The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 873: MOTION TO HOLD PARLIAMENT OCCASIONALLY IN DUBLIN AND EDINBURGH.

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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

MOTION TO HOLD PARLIAMENT OCCASIONALLY IN DUBLIN AND EDINBURGH.

On the same day that Mr. Littleton brought forward the resolutions alluded to, Mr. Pelham, made one of most extraordinary motions that ever was proposed within the walls of Saint Stephen’s. After adverting to the great increase of wealth and population in the principal towns of the kingdom, their distance from the seat of legislation, and the expense of sending witnesses and deputies to London whenever their interests were at stake, he gravely moved, “That it is expedient the imperial parliament should be occasionally holden in Dublin and Edinburgh.” The very idea of such a change was justly scouted by the house as unworthy their attention, and no one was found bold enough to second the motion: so St. Stephen’s was not yet to be deserted.