(796 which every gentleman would anticipate from a Nobleman of exalted rank and character-blending at once dignified demeanour with the highest polish and refinement of the high-bred Gentleman. than myself, however widely differing from my own; and I trust the time is not far distant when independent men, disregarding the watch-words of faction, will unite to put an end to peculation; to a borough-monger system, grinding the faces of the poor, and undermining the than during the progress of the Proces The inultitude was greater on the return security of the rich; will unite to re-esta- sion, which now moved up Tower-hill, blish legal government, and to curb arbi- towards Crutched-friars. But long ere the trary power, whether exercised directly Sheriff's carriage reached the square in by the executive Magistrate, or indirect- front of the Trinity House, the horses were ly by means of a corrupt House of Com- taken off, and the Sheriff was drawn by mons. Such, and such only, are in my the united exertions of a number of his mind honest men, and can, with truth, be fellow-citizens. It was easy to foresee said to love their King and Country. We that Colonel Wardle would not be suffered want nothing but what the law ordains; to pass without a similar testimony of res no new schemes, no half measures; want no plan of Reform from any man, carriage, which moved through the multiwe pect-the horses were taken also from his but the Constitution of England, as by tude, that rent the air with shouts of law established. Why should the People of England receive lord Grey's plan? or "Burdett" and "Wardle."-In Crutched lord Grenville's plan? or Mr. Brand's carriage, in which, as we understood, were Friars, the horses were taken from a third plan? or sir Francis Burdett's plan? or any other man's plan? The proposition cession did not return by FenchurchMr. Favell and Mr. Waithman. The promade by me last year was not to adopt street, but, passing up Billiter-lane, turned any plan of mine, but the law of England; down Leadenhall-street, and thence prothis is all the public require, less than this ceeding through Cornhill, reached Guildthey cannot take, more they do not de- hall about three o'clock. The crowd of mand; such, at least, is my conception of citizens was so great at the entrance, that the matter, and such my opinion-hold to the Sheriff and the Livery had great diffithe law, for the new corn inust come out colty in getting through the Hall into the of the old fields. Aldermen's Council Room. Gentlemen, I am truly sensible of the honour you have done me, and beg you to tude with which the streets were lined, Notwithstanding the immense muliaccept my best acknowledgments; and and particularly the narrow ones, in the you, Mr. Sheriff Wood, for your hand-neighbourhood of the Tower, we did not some conduct." Immediately on the conclusion of this address, which excited a general feeling impossible to be described, the Livery crowding round Sir Francis Burdett, offered their individual congratulations, which he received with that dignified affability, by which his manners are at all times so conspicuously marked. In about ten minutes, the Sheriff taking his leave, the Procession moved back in the same order to the Wicket-Earl Moira saluting, as before, every individual Gentleman. As the carriages drew up at the barrier, his Lordship remained at the Gate, in conversation with different Gentlemen of the Livery, until the last carriage of the procession moved off. The dignified and respectful attention with which his Lordship conducted himself on this occasion, was precisely that T with pleasure we record the conduct and hear of the slightest accident-and it is demeanour of the People, which was marked by that peaceable disposition so strikingly manifested at the late Meeting of the Electors of Westminster, in Palace yard. Mr. Sheriff Wood, Colonel Wardle, and The enthusiasm with which, not only other individuals in the procession, but the whole of the Livery were received by ceive, a most irrefragable proof of the their Fellow Citizens, afford, as we con general sentiments of the people of the Metropolis, who appear to be fully im pressed with this great and important truth, that Sir Francis Burdett is now con the Borough-Fiction-in favour of the tending, and legally contending, against Rigins-the Liberties, and the Constitu tion of England. MAJOR CARTWRIGHT'S PETITION TO THE To the Commons of the United King- TION of the undersigned Freeholder of England: Sheweth, 1. That certain doctrines, which have of late been maintained, and certain decisions, which have of late been come to, in your Honourable House, have at length placed the long-agitated question of a Reform in the Representation of the People in Parliament, in a point of view, in which it cannot be rightly contemplated, without affording a demonstration, that the sole alternative left our country is, Parliamentary Reform, or National Ruin. 2. How can your Petitioner speak the emotions of his heart-what language can express his sentiments-when he thinks of the astonishing decision, by which your Honourable House, in the night between the 11th and 12th days of May, 1809, absolutely refused, by a majority of 310 against 85, to enquire into the criminal accusation, brought by a member n his place, against Viscount Castlereagh nd another member, one, of having sold or a sum of money, a seat in your Honourable House; and the other, of a conivance at such sale! 7. In order to this, your Honourable House is requested to contemplate the three several species of Sovereignty with which we are familiar; namely, first, the original, inherent, and proper Sove-.. reignty, which necessarily resides in the entire mass of the Nation; secondly, the Legislative Sovereignty, which, by delegation, resides in a Parliament of King, Lords, and Commons, (being the most conspicuous and important feature of that constitution, by which our Nation has consented to be governed ;) and, thirdly, that Executive Sovereignty, which, by a further delegation, resides in the sole person of the king. 8. If your Petitioner has correctly distinguished the literal from the figurative, significations of the word Sovereignty, it will be discovered, that a Commons House, after deducting only the Royal Family, the temporal Nobles, and a few Ecclesiastics, is intended exclusively to represent and to personify the National Majesty. 9. It will also be discovered that such a House of Parliament is peculiarly the 3. Your Petitioner was the more shock-depositary of the Nation's liberty, the ed at the said decision, as the said Vis- guardian of its property, the organ of its. count Castlereagh had, not long before, will; and that in fact it is the vital part when under the examination of a Com- of the State; wherefore it ought, on.. mittee, confessed an attempt to obtain for every principle of reason and political nother placeman a seat in your Honour- wisdom, in an especial manner to be seable House, by what, to your Petitioner curely fenced around, fortified, and at all appéais a double corruption, in bartering points defended, by the solemn sanctions, or it an East India Writership; which an and the awful terrors, of appropriate laws Act of Parliament had forbidden to be so against High Treason: for Treason is isposed of. a betraying of the State: and the first and 4. When seats in your Honourable the highest treason is that which is comHouse are, bought and sold, the people,mitted against the Constitution." heir laws and liberties, are bought and old. 10. But, instead of the Majesty of the Nation being thus enthroned; instead of this palladium of its liberties being thus guarded, the Nation sees your Honourable House, which ought to be an object of 5. Although there be not in human peech words by which the thoughts of our Petitioner on this your decision can e conveyed, he cannot dismiss the sub-universal confidence, respect, and veneect without saying-but disclaiming any dea of being indecorous-that such treatent of the people is beyond endurance! 6. After such a decision, and after enuiry into the criminal charge in question as been resisted on the ground of the ration, exposed to every abuse that can. undermine, to every violation that can degrade, to every vice that can pollute and destroy it! 11. The People see it abandoned as a common prey to the factious borough pa 799] POLITICAL REGISTER.-Major Cartwright's Petition: would the throne be for a moment vacant. But a murdered Constitution has no suctional ruin; and the betrayed people cessor; when that perishes, there is nadrag on in chains, in misery, in vice and slavery, degraded existence! tron and the trading adventurer; to the unprincipled sharper and the unfaithful Minister; to the Asiatic nabob, and even to the hostile European despot; who all know its seats to be vendible wares in which, through the agency of certain panders of corruption, they can place their agents!-That the agent of a French charge of selling a seat in your Honoura 15. Having, then, lived to see a distinct king's mistress had once a seat in your ble House met by a vote, and inquiry Honourable House, is within the remem-into that treason borne down by a majo brance, as at the time it was within the knowledge of your Petitioner. And it is well known that at one time the Nabob of Arcot purchased for his agents seven or eight of those seats. rity, we have seen enough, had we seen tion there is in the English Constitution, lemnly protests, and appeals against all 17. Wherefore, your Petitioner sotreasons in the sale, or barter, or disposal 12. The learned Blackstone hath said, that," with regard to the elections of "Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, we "may observe, that herein consists the "exercise of the democratic part of our Con-titution: for in a democracy there "can be no exercise of sovereignty but "by suffrage, which is the declaration of "the People's will. In all democracies, "therefore, it is of the utmost importance "to regulate by whom, and in what man-of, parliamentary seats, and against vio"ner, the suffrages are to be given. And "the Athenians were so justly jealous of "this prerogative, that a stranger, who "interfered in the assemblies of the Peo"ple, was punished by their laws with death; because such a man was esteemed guilty of High Treason, by usurping "those rights of Sovereignty to which he "had no title. In England, where the "People do not debate in a collective "body, but by representation, the exer"cise of this Sovereignty consists in the "choice of Representatives." " 13. So your Petitioner contends, that when a Minister of the Crown, or a Peer, or other disloyal person, either by purchase or barter, by nomination or undue influence, seats a member in your Honourble House, he, by usurping a right of Sovereignty to which he has no title, is guilty of High Treason; and that every species of buying and selling of seats, and the interference of any person whatever for corrupting, or for violating the freedom of election, is consequently High Treason; and ought, as such, to be guarded against by express law. 14. Such treasons are far more deadly than that which even strikes at the life of the Executive Sovereign; as in law the King cannot die, so, were one King to be slain, another must instantly succeed: nor lating in any way the freedom of election: as well as against the present un constitutional inequality of representation, and long parliaments, as the chief causes of all the calamities our country has at any time experienced since the incom plete reformation of our government, effected by the Revolution, in the year 1688, and the causes, more especially, of unnecessary war- a state of things most prolific of patronage, abuse, and taxation-to which such a derangement ters a perpetual, and, as it should seem, a of our system holds out to corrupt minisresistless, temptation. your Honourable House that a Reform 18. When it is said by any Member of in Parliamentary Representation cannot lighten the burthens of the Nation, the People must have indeed a new feelingthey must feel their understandings in sulted. may be lightened: they know that the They know that their burthens increase of them may be prevented: they know that such a Reform only twenty years ago might, and probably would, the Nation with an additional debt of have averted a war, that has burthened nearly 600 millions, and added 40 millions a year to its taxes. (To be continued.) Published by R. BAGSHAW, Brydges-Street, Covent Garden :-Sold also by J. BUDD, Pall-Mall, LONDON:-Printed by T. C. Hansard, Feterborough-Court, Fleet-Street, VOL. XVII. No. 21.] LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1810. [Price 18. "The defect of Representation is the national Disease; and, unless you apply a remedy directly to "that Disease, you must inevitably take the Consequences with which it is pregnant. Without a "PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, the nation will be plunged into new wars; without a Parliamentary "Reform you cannot be safe from bad ministers, nor can good ministers be of any use to you. No honest man can, according to the present system, continue minister."- -MR. PITT's Speech, in the House of Commons, 1782. 601] PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. -[802 enough to assert, that the people wished for all these; but, I believe, that it would be difficult to find such a person. Nevertheless, these measures were adopted ; and not a word did any of those, who were for them, ever say about the wishes of the people. The minister, when he was about to impose upon us the almost intolerable burden of the Income-tax, did not think it necessary to wait till we expressed our wishes to have the said burden imposed upon us. Why, then, are we now to be told, that one objection to a reform is, that the people do not wish it? It is curious enough, that, in this case only the Honourable House is to wait for an expression of the people's wishes. It can pass laws for making bank-notes, in effect,' a legal tender; it can pass laws for imposing such a tax which takes away about the tenth part of every legacy; it can pass laws for making every man yield up one tenth part of his income, whether proceeding from freehold estates or from the sweat of his brow; it can pass laws for a compulsory calling of the people out into military service, and subjecting them to military punishments. All this it can. do without waiting for the people to ask them to do it, or any part of it; but, when reform is proposed, it is objected, that the people do not wish for reform!fact is notoriously otherwise. fectly notorious, that the general, and al→ most universal, wish is for reform. Indeed, that every one, who does not thrive by the present system, anxiously wishes for reform.Mr. TIERNEY, in speaking to this point, said "it was his wish to give "satisfaction to the sober, thinking part "of the public, whose praise, although "not so noisy, he must be naturally am"bitious to deserve Among such peo On Monday, the 21st instant, MR. BRAND made his motion, in the Honourable House, for a Committee to consider of measures proper to be adopted, relative to a Reform in the Representation of the People in Parliament.- -I will not attempt here to give any account of the particular measures recommended by Mr. Brand; because the speech will, hereafter, be given more fully than it can now have been given, and because I wish, of all things, to avoid any misstatement upon the subject. It may, however, be useful just to state, that he recommended a great extension of the right of voting; that he also recommended the purchasing of the boroughs; and the mode of voting in districts.It appears, that there were 349 members present at the discussion, and 234 of them voted against the motion and 115 for it; so that, there was a majority of more than half; there were more than two to one, against even going into a committee upon the subject.It would be useless to make any remarks on the measures proposed by Mr. Brand, the Honourable House having rejected his proposition for going into a committee, not because his particular measures are not to their liking, but because they object to any and to all measures whatever for altering the state of the representation.What we have to do, therefore, is to examine what was said, in this debate, in support of this objection. FIRST, it was alledged, that the people do not wish for a reform. Before we inquire into the fact here, let us see a little bow this sort of objection would be relished, if urged in other cases. I do not suppose, that any one will be so shameless as to say, that the people wished for the Walcheren Expedition; that they wished ple he found the call for Reform univerfor the Income-tux; that they wished for "sal. Indeed, it was impossible to mix the pension, for three generations, to Baron "in any society without hearing that call Douro and Viscount Talavera. I do not repeated; without hearing the evils ay, that no one will be found impudent" arising out of the system of our repro -But, the It is per 803] " POLITICAL REGISTER.-Parliamentary Reform. " " [804 "sentation dilated upon; without, in fact, "hearing the House of Commons spoken" have years ago petitioned, and the reason 'ple have not petitioned for it. But they "of with marked contempt. (Some murmurs.) Gentlemen might murmur; but "he stated his decided opinion of what " he knew. He would, indeed, call upon "any member of the House, whatever "walk of society he entered, to state "what he heard upon this subject. He "did not say that that House deserved contempt, although many arguments "might be drawn from its conduct, parti"cularly with regard to the Convention "of Cintra and the Walcheren Expedi"tion, which appeared to account for the "sentiment of the public. But the very "circumstance of the right honourable gentle"man opposite being the minister of the counI try, and supported by that House, was " enough to deprive it of the public confidence. "That support such a minister could not "have if the House were properly constructed. "In fact, if it were not for the Scotch "members, who could not be called Repre"sentatives of the people, the right honour"able gentleman must have fallen in "consequence of the Walcheren Expe"dition.". -This is an answer, as far as assertion can go, to what was said, by the opponents of the motion, respecting the wishes of the people.But, then, say the other side, we have something like proof in the absence of petitions. There are no petitions upon the table praying for a reform. This reason, to be sure, does come a little awkwardly from those, who have just refused to suffer to lie upon the table the petitions of the County of Middlesex and the City of London, both praying for a reform. One very effectual ing able to say, that there are no petitions way of beupon the table, undoubtedly is, not to suffer any petitions to be put upon the table. When the petition of Middlesex, praying for a reform of parliament, was under discussion, it was urged by those who have now opposed Mr. Brand's motion, that, if that petition was received, the table would soon be covered with such petitions. This was one of the reasons openly avowed for the rejection of that petition; and, yet, do these same persons now urge the absence of petitions as a reason for concluding that the people do not wish for reform.But, this argument drawn from the absence of petitions is altogether fallacious. MR. WHITBREAD said, in answer to it: opposers of Reform endeavour to deny "The that it is the wish of the country. They ground the assertion on this, that the peo they did not repeat them was, that they "feel" disappointed and disgusted with the apostacy of those who once were firm supporters of it. They have found all their "petitions for the redress of grievances disre"garded; and in this very sessions they "have seen the House of Commons refuse "to receive the prayers of the people. But it " not wish for Reform in their hearts. Its "was most idle to believe that they did "necessity became every day more abso "lute." Besides this, where is the reacountry, scattered widely as they are, and son to suppose, that the people, in the having such difficulties to contend with, will ever meet generally to petition for the members to which so many of the a reform of that House, in the returning of powerful men, in the several counties, have so much to do? counties. You see the Lord Lieutenant, Look at one of our the Sheriff, the Justices of the Peace, the Clergy, the Militia- Officers, the Military Commanders and Staff Officers of Districes, the Barrack-People, the Custom-House and others possessing powers of taxing; in short, Excise people, all the Commissioners and every creature in authority; ture possessing the means of annoying and tormenting on the one hand, and of faevery vouring and fostering on the other hand, ministry, or by those amongst the rich, is-appointed and kept in power by the who have the greatest interest in supporting the present way of composing the parliament. " crea how are the people to meet for the purThis being the case, counties the thing may be done; but, in pose of petitioning? In a few of the others, it is not to be expected. The people, those who really pay the taxes and receive none of them back again, have no means of getting together. asunder by the thousands of obstacles, some few of which I have mentioned They are kept above; and it is only in and about the Metropolis and very large towns, where where the communication of opinion and men are too thick to be kept asunder, and to the producing of petitions is to be feeling is so rapid, that a spirit adequate expected.To make the argument thing, the Sheriff of each county should at of the absence of petitions worth any question. If at such meetings, the ques once, call a meeting, and there put the tion was decided against reform, then, indeed, the fact might be fairly put for |