415] As illustrated in the Prosecution and Punishment of WILLIAM COBBETT. [416 In order that my countrymen and that the two sureties in the sum of 1,000 pounds each; world may not be deceived, duped, and cheated that the whole of this sentence has been executed upon this subject, I, WILLIAM COBBETT, upon me, that I have been imprisoned the two of Botley, in Hampshire, put upon record years, have paid the thousand pounds TO THE the following facts; to wit: That, on the 24th KING, and have given the bail, Timothy Brown June, 1809, the following article was pub- and Peter Walker, Esqrs. being my sureties; lished in a London news-paper, called the that the Attorney General was Sir Vicary Gibbs, COURIER:- "The Mutiny amongst the LO- the Judge who sat at the trial Lord Ellenborough, "CAL MILITIA, which broke out at Ely, was the four Judges who sat at passing sentence Ellen"fortunately suppressed on Wednesday by the borough, Grose, Le Blanc, and Bailey; and that "arrival of four squadrons of the GERMAN the jurors were, Thomas Rhodes of Hampstead "LEGION CAVALRY from Bury, under the Road, John Davis of Southampton Place, James "command of General Auckland. Five of the Ellis of Tottenham Court Road, John Richards "ringleaders were tried by a Court-Martial, and of Bayswater, Thomas Marsham of Baker Street, "sentenced to receive 500 lashes each, part of which Robert Heathcote of High Street Marylebone, "punishment they received on Wednesday, and John Maud of York Place Marylebone, George a part was remitted. A stoppage for their knup- Bagster of Church Terrace Pancras, Thomas "sacks was the ground of the complaint that ex- Taylor of Red Lion Square, David Deane of St. "cited this mutinous spirit, which occasioned John Street, William Palmer of Upper Street "the men to surround their officers, and demand Islington, Henry Favre of Pall Mall; that the "what they deemed their arrears. The first Prime Ministers during the time were Spencer "division of the German Legion halted yesterday Perceval, until he was shot by John Bellingham, "at Newmarket on their return to Bury."- and after that Robert B. Jenkinson, Earl of LiThat, on the 1st July, 1809, I published, in the verpool; that the prosecution and sentence took Political Register, an article censuring, in the place in the reign of King George the Third, and strongest terms, these proceedings; that, for so that, he having become insane during my impridoing, the Attorney General prosecuted, as sedi- sonment, the 1,000 pounds was paid to his son, tious libellers, and by Ex-Officio Information, the Prince Regent, in his behalf; that, during my me, and also my printer, my publisher, and one imprisonment, I wrote and published 364 Essays of the principal retailers of the Political Register; and Letters upon political subjects; that, during that I was brought to trial on the 15th June, the same time, I was visited by persons from 197 1810, and was, by a Special Jury, that is to say, cities and towns, many of them as a sort of depuby 12 men ont of 48 appointed by the Master of ties from Societies or Clubs; that, at the expira the Crown Office, found guilty; that, on the tion of my imprisonment, on the 9th of July, 1812, 20th of the same month, I was compelled to give a great dinner was given in London for the purbail for my appearance to receive judgment; pose of receiving me, at which dinner upwards of and that, as I came up from Botley (to which 600 persons were present, and at which Sir place I had returned to my family and my farm Francis Burdett presided; that dinners and other on the evening of the 15th), a Tipstaff went parties were held on the same occasion in many down from London in order to seize me, per- other places in England; that, on my way home, sonally; that, on the 9th of July, 1810, I, toge- I was received at Alton, the first town in Hampther with my printer, publisher, and the news-shire, with the ringing of the Church bells; that man, were brought into the Court of King's Bench to receive judgment; that the three former were sentenced to be imprisoned for some months in the King's Bench prison; that I was sentenced to be imprisoned for two years in Newgate, the great receptacle for malefactors, and the front of which is the scene of numerous hangings in the course of every year; that the part of the prison in which I was sentenced to be confined is sometimes inhabited by felons, that felons were actually in it at the time I entered it; that one man was taken out of it to be transported in about 48 hours after I was put into the same yard with him; and that it is the place of confinement for men guilty of unnatural crimes, of whom there are four in it at this time; that, besides this imprisonment, I was sentenced to pay a thousand pounds TO THE KING, and to give security for my good behaviour for seven years, myself in the sum of 3,000 pounds, and a respectable company met me and gave me a Botley, July 23, 1812. WM. COBBETT. Published by R. BAGSHAW, Brydges-Street, Covent Garden. VOL. XXII. No. 14.] LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1812. [Price 1s. 417] DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. That famous, that prime thing, called a general election, is at hand. Now, then, what talk we shall hear about the glorious Constitution! Now the glorious privilege of Englishmen is about to be exercised! A friend advises me to make an appeal to the virtue, to the public spirit of the people = upon this occasion. I will do no such thing. I will practise no such delusion. I will do nothing that shall tend to make any human being believe, that the people's voice is expressed by the tools of the Borough-mongers. But I will do that which will be much more suitable to the occasion, as well as more consistent with truth and sincerity, and more likely to produce good to the country: I will here call to the recollection of the public, and will place before them, not my own opinions upon the state of the representation as it now is; but the opinions of others, together with some facts, which, though already pretty generally known, can never be too often repeated; facts, which ought always to be kept alive in the mind of every man in every country, where there is one spark of the love of real liberty existing. I shall begin with giving, in their own words, the opinions of men, for some one or other of whom almost every reader will be found to entertain respect. BLACKSTONE and LOCKE. [418: lic security.-Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book I. Chap. 2. EARL MULGRAVE. But, my lords, there is another kind of incapacity worse than this; I mean that of parliament-men's having such places in the exchequer, as the very profit of them depends on the money given to the King in parliament. Would any of your lordships, intrust a man to make a bargain for you, whose very interest is to make you give as much as he possibly can? It puts me in mind of a farce where an actor holds a dialogue with himself, first speaking in one tone, and then answering himself in another.- Earl Mulgrave's Speech, in the House of Lords, Dec. 22, 1692. THE GREAT LORD CHATHAM. Mr. Pitt, when contending for a Reform in Parliament, in 1782, told the House, that he personally knew, that it was the opinion of his father, that, "without recur-. ring to first principles in this respect, and establishing a more solid and equal representation of the people, by which the proper constitutional connexion should be revived, this nation, with the best capacities for grandeur and happiness of any on the face of the earth, must be confounded with the mass of those whose liberties were lost in the corruption of the people." Mr. PITT. As it is essential to the very being of Par- The defect of representation is the na liament that Elections should be free, there- tional disease; and unless you apply a refore, all undue influences upon the electors medy directly to that disease, you must inare illegal, and strongly prohibited; for evitably take the consequences with which Mr. Locke ranks it amongst those breaches it is pregnant. Without a Parliamentary of trust in the executive magistrate, which, Reform the nation will be plunged into new according to his notions, amounts to a dis-wars; without a Parliamentary Reform you solution of government, if he employ the force, treasure, and offices of the society to corrupt the representatives, or openly to pre-engage the electors, and prescribe what manner of persons shall be chosen; for, thus to regulate candidates and electors, and new-model the ways of election, what is it but to cut up the government by the The whole of this system, as it is now roots, and poison the very fountain of pub-carried on, is as outrageous to morality as it cannot be safe against bad ministers, nor can even good ministers be of use to you. No honest man can, according to the present system, continue minister.-Mr. Pitt's Speech, 1782. Mr. Fox. Mr. BURKE. is pernicious to just government; it gives a scandal to our character, which not merely In a speech upon that infamous job, the degrades the House of Commons in the Nabob of Arcot's debts, on the 28th of Feb. eyes of the people, but it does more; it 1785, after having described PAUL BENundermines the very principles of integrity FIELD as a criminal, who ought long in their hearts, and gives a fashion to dis- "since to have fattened the region kites honesty and imposture. They hear of a "with his offal," says, that his agent, RIperson giving or receiving four or five thou- CHARD ATKINSON, had kept "a sort of sand pounds as the purchase-money of a public office, or counting-house, where seat for a close borough; and they hear the "the whole business of the last general very man who received and put into his "election was managed." It was,' said pocket the money, make a loud and vele- he, " openly managed by the direct agent ment speech in this House against Bribery;" and attorney of Benfield." And then he and they see him, perhaps, move for the says, that, as an indemnification for this, commitment to prison of a poor unfortunate "the claims of Benfield and his crew were wretch at your bar, who has been convicted" put above all inquiry." of taking a single guinea for his vote in the very borough, perhaps, where he had pub-time; but, when Mr. Burke afterwards oblicly and unblushingly sold his influence, though that miserable guinea was necessary to save a family from starving under the horrors of a war which he had contributed to bring upon the country. . . . These are the things that paralyze you to the heart: these are the things that vitiate the whole system, that spread degeneracy, hypocrisy, and sordid fraud over the country, and take from us the energies of virtue, and sap the foundations of patriotism and spirit. -Mr. Fox's Speech, 1797. These facts were very notorious at the tained from the same minister (Pitt) a pension of three thousand pounds a year for life, with remainder of one half to his wife; then he treated the reformers with more severity than he had treated Paul Benfield. These opinions, and these assertions of Burke, are, however, of less weight than the statement made by the "Friends of the People," in 1793, in the form of a Petition to the House of Commons itself. Amongst those Gentlemen, who called their Society "the Friends of the People," were Mr. GREY (NOW EARL GREY). the present Duke of Bedford, Mr. Sheridan, Has the House of Commons shown either Mr. Whitbread, Mr. Grey (now Earl Grey), vigilance of inquiry, or independence of Mr. Tierney, Lord Lauderdale, Sir Arthur spirit? Have they investigated the origin Pigot, Mr. Dudley North, General Tarleof their misfortunes, or checked ministers ton, Sir Ralph Milbank, and many others, in their ruinous career? Nay, the very re- amongst whom were 27 members of parverse. In a war remarkable only for mis-liament. The Petition was presented by fortune, and distinguished on our part sole- Mr. Grey (now Earl Grey) who pledged ly by disgrace, they have suffered ministers himself to prove the truth of the facts alto go on from failure to failure, adding leged in it. It was received by the House; misfortune to misfortune, and madness to no man attempted to deny the truth of its folly, without either investigation or in- contents; but, it was never taken into conquiry. As a remedy for these evils, Mr. sideration; and there it lies, unacted upon Grey recommended a Reform of Parlia- and unanswered, to this day. This is the ment; and to obviate the charge of mak-document, which I am now about to insert, ing complaints without prescribing some and to every part of which I beg leave to specific mode of relief, he proposed, that solicit the reader's attention. ' instead of 92 county members there should be 113, and that the right of voting should be extended to copyholders and leaseholders, who are bound to pay rent for a certain number of years. To prevent compromises, he proposed that every ' county should be divided into grand divisions, each of which should return a re'presentative. He also proposed, that the remaining 400 members should be returned by householders.'-Mr. Grey's Speech 6 in 1797. "Authentic Copy of a Petition praying Great Britain in Parliament assembled. "That by the form and spirit of the British constitution, the King is vested with the sole executive power.-——That to call your attention to the following facts: -Your Petitioners complain, that the number of representatives assigned to the different counties is grossly disproportioned to their comparative extent, population, and trade.- -Your Petitioners complain, that the elective franchise is so partially and unequally distributed, and is in so many instances committed to bodies of men of such very limited numbers, that the majority of your honourable House is elect which, even if the male adults in the king- the House of Lords consists of lords spiritual and temporal, deriving their titles and consequence either from the crown, or from hereditary privileges.That these two powers, if they acted without control, would form either a despotic monarchy, or a dangerous oligarchy.That the wisdom of our ancestors hath contrived, that these authorities may be rendered not only harmless, but beneficial, and be exercised for the security and happiness of the people.That this security and hap-ed by less than fifteen thousand electors, piness are to be looked for in the introduction of a third estate, distinct from, and a check upon the other two branches of the legislature; created by, representing, and responsible to, the people themselves. That so much depending upon the preservation of this third estate, in such its constitutional purity and strength, your Petitioners are reasonably jealous of whatever may appear to vitiate the one, or to impair the other. That at the present day the House of Commons does not fully and fairly represent the people of England, which, consistently with what your Petitioners conceive to be the principles of the constitution, they consider as a grievance, and therefore, with all becoming respect, lay their complaints before your honourable House." That though the terms in which your petitioners state their grievance may be looked upon as strong, yet your honourable House is entreated to believe that no expression is made use of for the purpose of offence. Your Petitioners in affirming that your honourable House is not an adequate representation of the people of England, do but state a fact, which, if the word "Representation" be accepted in its fair and obvious sense, they are ready to prove, and which they think detrimental to their interests, and contrary to the spirit of the constitution. How far this inadequate representation is prejudicial to their interests, your Petitioners apprehend they may be allowed to decide for themselves; but how far it is contrary to the spirit of the constitution, they refer to the consideration of your honourable House.- -If your honourable House shall be pleased to determine that the people of England ought not to be fully represented, your Petition ers pray that such your determination may be made known, to the end that the people may be apprized of their real situation; but if your honourable House shall conceive that the people are already fully represented, then your Petitioners beg leave distinctly state the subject matter of their complaints, that your honourable House may be convinced that they are acting from no spirit of general discontent, and that you may with the more ease be enabled to inquire into the facts, and to apply the remedy. For the evidence in support of the first complaint, your Petitioners refer to the return book of your honourable House.Is it fitting, that Rutland and Yorkshire should bear an equal rank in the scale of county representation; or can it be right, that Cornwall alone should, by its extravagant proportion of borough members, outnumber not only the representatives of Yorkshire and Rutland together, but of Middlesex added to them? Or, if a distinction be taken between the landed and the trading interests, must it not appear monstrous that Cornwall and Wiltshire should send more borough members to parliament, than Yorkshire, Lancashire, Warwickshire, Middlesex, Worcestershire, and Somersetshire united? and that the total representation of all Scotland should but exceed by one member, the number returned for a single county in England?-The second complaint of your Petitioners is founded on the unequal proportions in which the elective franchise is distributed, and in support of it.They affirm, that seventy of your honourable members are returned by thirtyfive places, where the right of voting is vested in burgage and other tenures of a similar description, and in which it would be to trifle with the patience of your honourable House, to mention any number and expensive scenes of litigation which have been brought before you, in attempting to settle the legal import of those numerous distinctions which perplex and confound the present rights of voting. How many months of your valuable time have been wasted in listening to the wrangling of lawyers upon the various spe cies of burgagehold, leasehold, and free of voters whatever, the elections at the pointed under the 10th and 11th of the places alluded to being notoriously a mere King. Your honourable House is but too matter of form. And this your Petition-well acquainted with the tedious, intricate, ers are ready to prove. They affirm that in addition to the seventy honourable members so chosen, ninety more of your honourable members are elected by fortysix places, in none of which the number of voters exceeds fifty. And this your Petitioners are ready to prove.- -They affirm, that in addition to the hundred and sixty so elected, thirty-seven more of your honourable members are elected by nine-hold! How many committees have been teen places, in none of which the number occupied in investigating the nature of scot of voters exceeds one hundred. And this and lot, pot wallers, commonalty, popuyour Petitioners are ready to prove.- lacy, resiant inhabitants, and inhabitants They affirm, that in addition to the hun- at large! What labour and research have dred and ninety-seven honourable members been employed in endeavouring to ascerso chosen, fifty-two more are returned to tain the legal claims of borough-men, alserve in parliament, by twenty-six places, dermen, port men, select men, burgesses, in none of which the number of voters ex- and council-men! And what confusion ceeds two hundred. And this your Peti- has arisen from the complicated operation tioners are ready to prove. They af- of clashing charters, from freemen resident firm, that in addition to the two hundred and non-resident, and from the different and forty-nine so elected, twenty more are modes of obtaining the freedom of correturned to serve in parliament for coun- porations by birth, by servitude, by marties in Scotland by less than one hundred riage, by redemption, by election, and electors each, and ten for counties in Scot- by purchase! On all these points it is land by less than two hundred and fifty however needless for your Petitioners to each. And this your Petitioners are ready enlarge, when your honourable House to prove, even admitting the validity of recollects the following facts; namely, fictitious votes.They affirm, that in that since the twenty-second of December addition to the two hundred and seventy- 1790, no less than twenty-one committees nine so elected, thirteen districts of burghs have been employed in deciding upon liin Scotland, not containing one hundred tigated rights of voting. Of these, eight voters each, and two districts of burghs, were occupied with the disputes of three not containing one hundred and twenty-five boroughs, and there are petitions from each, return fifteen more honourable mem- four places yet remaining before your hobers. And this your Petitioners are ready nourable House, waiting for a final decision to prove. -And in this manner, accord- to inform the electors what their rights ing to the present state of the representa- really are.--But the complaint of your tion, two hundred and ninety-four of your Petitioners on the subject of the want of honourable members are chosen, and, be- an uniform and equitable principle in reing a majority of the entire House of Com-gulating the right of voting, extends as mons, are enabled to decide all questions well to the arbitrary manner in which in the name of the whole people of Eng- some are excluded, as to the intricate qualand and Scotland. The third com-lifications by which others are admitted to plaint of your Petitioners is founded on the present complicated rights of voting. From the caprice with which they have been varied, and the obscurity in which they have become involved by time and contradictory decisions, they are become a source of infinite confusion, litigation, and expense. -Your Petitioners need not tender any evidence of the inconveniences which arise from this defect in the representation, because the proof is to be found in your journals, and the minutes of the different committees who have been ap the exercise of that privilege.Religious opinions create an incapacity to vote. All Papists are excluded generally, and, by the operation of the test laws, Protestant Dissenters are deprived of a voice in the election of representatives in about thirty boroughs, where the right of voting is confined to corporate officers alone; a deprivation the more unjustifiable, because, though considered as unworthy to vote, they are deemed capable of being elected, and may be the representatives of the very places for which they are disqualified from |