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Gentlemen,

OF BRISTOL.

LETTER I.

Your City, the third in England in point of population, and, for the bravery and public-spirit of its inhabitants the first in the world, is now become, with all those who take an interest in the public welfare, an object of anxious attention. You, as the Electors of Westminster were, have long been the sport of the two artful factions, who have divided between them the profits arising from the obtaining of your votes. One of each faction has always been elected; and, as one of them always belonged to the faction out of place, you, whose intentions and views were honest, consoled yourselves with the reflection, that, if one of your members was in place, or belonged to the IN party, your other member, who belonged to the OUT party, was always in the House to watch him. But, now, I think, experience must have convinced you, that the OUT as well as the IN member was always seeking his own gain at your expense and that of the nation; and that the two factions, though openly hostile to each other, have always been perfectly well agreed as to the main point; namely, the perpetuating of those sinecure places and all those other means by which the public money is put into the pockets of individuals.

With this conviction in your minds, it is not to be wondered at that you are now be ginning to make a stand for the remnant of your liberties; and, as I am firmly persuaded, that your success would be of infinite benefit to the cause of freedom in general, and, of course, to our country, now groaning under a compilation of calamities, I cannot longer withhold a public expression of the sentiments which I entertain respecting the struggle in which you are engaged; and especially respecting the election now going on, the proceedings of a recent meeting in London, and the preten

As to the first, you will bear in mind, Gentlemen, how often we, who, wish for a reform of the parliament, have contended, that no neraber of the House of Commons ought to be a placeman or pensioner, We have said, and we have shown, that in that Act of Parliament by virtue of which the present family was exalted to the throne of this kingdom; we have shown, that, by that Act, it was provided that no man having a pension or place of emolument under the Crown should be capa ble of being a member of the House of Com mons. It is, indeed, true, that this provision has since been repealed; but, it having been enacted, and that, too, on so important an occasion, shows clearly how jealous our ancestors were upon the subject.

-When we ask for a revival of this law, we are told that it cannot be wanted; because, if a man be a placeman or a pensioner before he be chosen at all, those who choose him know it, and if they like a placeman or a pensioner, who else has any thing to do with the matter? And, if a man be made a placeman or pensioner after he be chosen, he must vacate his seat, and return to his constituents to be re-elected before he can sit again; if they reject him he cannot sit, and, if they re-choose him, who else has any thing to do with the matter?

To be sure it is pretty impudent for these people to talk to us about choice and about re-choosing and about rejecting and the like, when they know that we are well informed of the nature of choosings and rechoosings at Old Sarum, at Gatton, at Queenborough, at Bodmin, at Penrynn, at Honiton, at Oakhampton, and at more than a hundred other places; it is pretty impudent to talk to us about members going back to their constituents at such places as those here mentioned; but, what will even the impudence of these people find to say in the case of those members, who, upon having grasped places or pensions, do go back to their constituents, and upon being rejected by them, go to some bo

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rough where the people have no voice; or who, not relishing the prospect, do not go to face their former constituents, but go, at once, to some borough, and there take a seat, which, by cogent arguments, doubt, some one has been prevailed on to go out of to make way for them? What will even the impudence of the most prostituted knaves of hired writers find to say in cases like these?

Of the former MR. GEORGE TIERNEY presents a memorable instance. He was formerly a member for Southwark, chosen on account of his professions in favour of freedom, by a numerous body of independent electors. But, having taken a fancy to a place which put some thousands a year of the public money into his own individual pocket, haying bad, the assurance to go back to his constituents, and having been by them rejected with scorn, he was immediately chosen by some borough where a seat had been emptied in order to receive him, and now he is a representative of the people of a place called Bandon Bridge in Ireland, a place which, in all probability, he never saw, and the inhabitants of which are, I dare say, wholly unconscious of having the honour to be represented by so famous a person. Your late representative, Mr. BRAGGE BATHURST, has acted a more modest, or, at least, a more prudent part. He has got a fat place, a place the profits of which would find some hundreds of Englishmen's families in provisions all the year round; he has been made what is called Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, which will give him immense patronage, and, of course, afford him ample means of enriching his family, friends, and dependents, besides his having held places of great salary for many years before. Thus loaded with riches arising from the public meaus, he does not, I perceive, intend to face you; he cannot, it seems, screw himself up to that pitch. We shall, in all likelihood, see, in a few days, what borough opens its chaste arms to receive him; but, as a matter of much greater consequence, I now beg to offer you some remarks upon the measures that have been taken to supply his place.

It was announced to his supporters at Bristol, about three months ago, that he did not mean to offer himself for that city again, and MR. RICHARD HART DAVIS, of whom you will hear enough, came forward as his successor; openly avowing all his principles, and expressly saying, that he would tread in his steps. What those

steps are, you have seen; and what those principles are the miserable people of England feel in the effects of war and taxation. But, I beg your attention to some circumstances connected with the election, which ought to be known and long borne in mind. The WRIT for electing a member for Bristol in the room of Bragge Bathurst was moved for, in the House of Commons, on Tuesday evening, the 23d of June, and, at the same moment, a writ for electing a member for Colchester, in the room of Richard Hart Davis, was moved for. So, you see, they both vacate at the same instant; your man not liking to go down to Bristol, the other vacates a seat for another place, in order to go down to face you in his stead. Observe, too, with what quickness the thing is managed. Nobody knows, or, at least, none of you know, that Bragge is going to vacate his seat. Davis apparently knew it, because we see him vacating at the same moment. The WRIT is sent off the same night; it gets to Bristol on Wednesday morning the 24th; the law requires four days notice on the part of the Sheriffs; they give it, and the election comes on the next Monday. So, you see, if MR. HUNT had been living in Ireland or Scotland, or even in the Northern counties of England, or in some parts of Cornwall, the election might have been over, before there would have been a POSSIBILITY of his getting to Bristol. And though his place of residence was within thirty miles of London, he who was at home on his farm, had but just time to reach you soon enough to give you an opportunity of exercising your rights upon this occasion. Mr. Hunt could not know that the writ was moved for till Wednesday evening, living, as he does, at a distance from a post town; and, as it happened, he did not know of it, I believe, till Thursday night; so that, it was next to impossible for him to come to London (which, I suppose, was necessary) and to reach Bristol before Saturday. While, on the other hand, Mr. Davis had chosen his time, and, of course, had made all his preparations.

Such, Gentlemen, have been the means used preparatory to the election. Let us now see what a scene your city exhibits at this moment; first, however, taking a look at the under-plot going on in London in favour of Sir Samuel Romilly.

It is stated in the London news-papers, and particularly in the Times of Saturday last, that there was a meeting, on Friday, at the Crown and Anchor in the Strand,