But, as there has been much saying and unsaying on this subject, let us review the case.
In the House of Commons, on the 17th of February, 1817, Lord Cochrane affirmed, that, on a certain day which he named, Mr.Brougham, at a dinner given at the London Tavern, to the Friends of Parliamentary Reform, used the following words, or words to the same effect:--'As often as we have required that Parliaments should be chosen yearly, and that the elective Franchise should be extended to all who pay taxes, we have been desired to wait, for the enemy was at the gate, and ready to avail himself of the discords attending our political contests, in order to undermine our national independence.

This argument is gone, and our Adversaries must now look for another.

He had mentioned the two radical doctrines of _yearly election_, and the _Franchise enjoyed by all paying taxes_; but it would be superfluous to reason in favour of them here, where all are agreed on the subject.' When this, and other passages of like import, were produced by Lord C.
in a paper declared to be in Mr.Brougham's handwriting, and to be a report made by himself of the speech then and there delivered, did Mr.
Brougham deny that the handwriting was his, and that those words had fallen from his pen, as the best image that his own memory could furnish of what he had uttered?
No--he gave vent only to a vague complaint of groundless aspersions; and accused certain persons of rashness and imprudence, and of not waiting only for a few days longer, when they would have had a full and fair opportunity of hearing his sentiments on this momentous subject.

He then acknowledged that some observations had fallen from him _similar_ to what had been read by the Noble Lord; and added, that he then said, or at least meant to be understood as saying, (he takes no notice of what he wrote or meant to be understood as writing,) _what he still maintained_--'that the power of election should he limited _to those who paid direct taxes_;' in other and more faithful words, should be _extended_ to all persons in that condition.

Mr.B.
proceeded manfully to scout the notion, that the mere production of a speech delivered by him at a Tavern would make him swerve from the line of his duty, from the childish desire of keeping up an appearance of consistency! What then is the amount?
On the 23d of June, 1814, (it cannot be unfair to state as a fact, that a vacancy in the Representation of Westminster was at that time looked for,) Mr.B.either was, or wished to be, accounted an Advocate of Annual Parliaments and Suffrage to be enjoyed by all paying taxes; and on the 17th of February, 1817, when Mr.B.in another place is reminded of these, his avowed opinions, he is utterly mute upon the subject of Annual Parliaments, on the expediency of which he had before harangued at length, and confines himself to announce, as the sum of his then opinion, that suffrage should _be co-extensive with direct taxation_! The question had two faces, and Mr.B.chooses only to look at one.