distinguished for his Latin verses, and his talent for mathematical investigations. After leaving the university, he resided some time at his father's house, at Eastham, in a state of irresolution as to the career he should pursue; but at length, in compliance with the wishes of that parent, he turned his attention to theology, with the design of obtaining a license to preach, and delivered a sermon before an association of the neighboring clergy in Chatham, which commanded their applause by its ingenuity, though its orthodoxy was not altogether perfect. Having subsequently undertaken the study of medicine, he duly qualified himself for practice, and settled as a physician in Middletown, Connecticut. About that period, he married. He died May 31, 1753, at the age of forty. A short time previous to his death, he wrote to his sister that he had "lingered along almost two years a life not worth having," in consequence of an illness, which was the effect of a fever, and which terminated his existence. Of the effusions of his muse, his Whaling Song is best known. An elegiac epistle, written to one sister on the death of another, is also deserving of mention. In disposition, he was mild and cheerful.

OWLER. (See Alder.)

P.

PACOS; a variety of llama. (See Llama.) PALMISTRY. (See Chiromancy.) PAMPELMOES. (See Shaddock.) PANTOGRAPH. (See Silhouette.) PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. It is not our purpose to go at all into the history of the much-agitated question of parliamentary reform, nor to touch upon the course of argument pursued by its opponents and its advocates. But having already given a view of the English constitution as it was, we shall now give merely the statistics of the acts for amending the representation of England, Scotland and Ireland. We shall only premise, that when the whigs came into power, in 1830, they found themselves not very securely seated; and, as a measure likely to strengthen their influence, the long-talkedof subject of parliamentary reform was revived. On the 1st of March, 1831, the ministerial plan of reform in the representation was accordingly brought forward by lord John Russell; and, after a debate of seven days, leave was given to

bring in three bills for reforming the representation of England, Scotland and Ireland. After a debate of two days, the second reading of the bill for England was carried by a majority of 302 to 301, on the 22d. April 18, on the motion of lord John Russell, that the house resolve itself into a committee on the reform bill, general Gascoyne moved, that, in the opinion of the house, the number of representatives for England and Wales (which, by the bill, would be seventy less than before) ought not to be diminished. This motion being carried against ministers, after a debate of two nights, by a majority of 299 to 291, parliament was dissolved on the 22d. The new parliament assembled on the 14th of June; and, on the 24th, lord John Russell obtained leave to bring in a bill for reforming the representation. This bill, which, in many respects, differed from the former, and in which, in particular, the diminution of the number of members was abandoned, finally passed the house, after long and warm debates, on the 21st September, by 349 to 236, but was rejected by the lords by a vote of 199 to 158. On the 20th of October, the parliament was prorogued; and, being again opened on the 6th of December, lord John Russell, for the third time, introduced a reform bill, which passed the commons on the 23d of March: in the lords, however, ministers being left in the minority, on a motion to amend by lord Lyndhurst (May 7), earl Grey advised the creation of such a number of new peers as was necessary to carry through the bill, tendering his resignation as the alternative. The latter was accepted; and lord Wellington made an ineffectual attempt to form a ministry. The whigs were, therefore, reinstated (May 18th), with the assurance of having the necessary means of carrying the measure. The bill then passed the lords by a vote of 166 to 22, a portion of the opposition having withdrawn their resistance, rather than force ministers to make a large creation of new peers; and, on the 7th of June, it received the royal assent. Separate acts were passed for amending the representation of Scotland and that of Ireland. By the act for England, the county members, or knights of the shire, were increased from 94 to 159, as appears from the following table, in which we shall take occasion to give the results of the census of 1831, taken since the greater part of this work was prepared.

Besides the great change thus effected in equalizing the distribution of members in the counties (as each county before returned two knights, except Yorkshire, which returned four), the qualifications of the voters were also modified, so as to extend the elective franchise to every male person in actual occupation of a freehold for life, or of lands, or tenements of copy-hold (see the article Tenure, in the body of the work), of the clear yearly value of not less than ten pounds above all rents and charges. The following tables will show the changes which have been made in the representation of cities and boroughs. From an examination of these tables, it will appear that fifty-six rotten boroughs have been wholly disfranchised; thirty boroughs have been deprived of one member; and one borough (Melcombe Regis and Weymouth) of two members; twenty-two boroughs have been created in England,

which return two members each; nineteen boroughs returning one member each. Besides taking away the right of election from a stone wall in one place, from a green mound in another, and a ruined house in a third, and vesting it in large, or, at least, in tolerably numerous constituencies in new boroughs, the act has introduced something like uniformity in the qualifications of the voters of the old boroughs and cities, and extended the elective franchise from close corporations, or privileged bodies, to the citizens at large. It gives the right of voting in the elections to every male person of full age, not subject to any legal incapacity, who occupies, in the city or borough, as owner or tenant, any house, ware-house, counting-house, shop, or other building, of the clear yearly value of not less than ten pounds, provided such person shall have paid the poor rates and assessed taxes.