In general, Browne was either opposed to reform or, at best, equivocal. In 1807 he tried to delay the passing of the Slave Trade Act 1807, although he professed himself opposed to the trade. A few weeks later, he observed, in a debate on a bill to allow Roman Catholics to serve in the armed forces, that "it had been the wisdom of our ancestors to restrain the executive power from conferring the highest offices upon Roman Catholics,and we ought to revere their memories, and also to do justice to posterity, by maintaining the fences which our ancestors had erected." In 1809 he denounced John Curwen's Reform Bill, which would prohibit the selling of seats in the House of Commons, "because it would have the effect of excluding a great portion of the wisdom and talents it possessed from that house."