Star. — London, England, 1809-09-27 00:00:00

GRAND JUBILEE. COMMON COUNCIL, SEPTEMBER 26. ri I A Court of Common Council was held this day, W hich was numerously attended, for the purpose of ukirg into considenition the Repurt of the Corn rf,:ttee to whom it . had been referred, to consider of the best means of celebrating the 25th of Octob e r a r e st , bring the day on which his Majesty comrhences s;i t h near of his reign. Mr. Aldeiman Wool) moved that the Report be t. read:— - - • • - - •- t‘ !t ,:aced i: to he the opinion of the Committee, that the Cor r City ora timt of the of London should attend divine service on the octolier next, in Sr. Paul's Cathedral—that the Cor pLra.ion ,hold afterwards Address his Majesty, congratulating oil the co nmencemtnt of the 50th Anniversary of his happy reim ovtr thee Kingdoms—that the front of Guildhall should be on that day ; but that on considering the question of the r , Ir . r y el the Corporation's dining together on that day, thato ne ither expedient nor proper that they ought so to d o ." Th e Worthy Alderman stated, that having been called to the Chair of the Committee, he felt himself bound to sign the Resolutions, and also to move con reyonding Resolutions, though he did not mean to support :hem. He went to the Committee with the exrrns purpose of the Corporation dining together as a hoc'''. To their going to Church he had no objec; t i o n, nor to an Address to his Majesty, if so couched :is to avoid an approval of the conduct of his Council lors. Against illuminations, however, his mind was de cidedly made up. What would follow the resolution to illuminate the Guildhall of the City of London ? Would it not operate as a signal for an illumination of the City—as a signal, in short, for an illumination throughout the whole kingdom ? It was absurd to suppose that such could be the unanimous feeling throughout the country ; and, though the people might be unanimous in their love and reverence for t h e King, it was impossible that they should be so in many recent measures which had occurred. Where thru,ands had fallen, it was impossible that there 5110 „:d not be widows, orphans, fathers and mothers, each of them regretting their departed relatives, and who, on that account, must be more prepared to re gard the illumination as a cause of regret than as one cf congratulation ! m r . GRIFFITHS called the Hon. Alderman to order, &ere being no question before the Co ur t. Mr. Alderman WOOD expressed his surprise at being so called to order. There was nothing uncommon in Gentlemen who had any motion to make, to consume probably half an hour or more in throwing out his observations upon it. As he had been called to order hoi.veYer, he should conclude at present, and should take another opportunity of stating what he had to offer against the resolutions of the Committee. He Enncioded by moving, " That this Court doth agree with the Resolutions come to by their Committee." Mr. HERNE said, that the Report of the Commit naw submitted to the consideration of the Court,' vas occasioned solely by the inconsistency of the Gait itsdf. The favourers of the measure in ques tier: had submitted it to the consideration of the Court of Common Council, and, on its being approved of, and ordered to be referred to a Committee, they had selected as this Committee a number of individuals, er: only indifferent to, but, in many instances, in direct orposirion to the object of the Resolution.— Lis, he maintained, was absolutely the case, and lie was sorry to observe, that these Gentlemen had bern ah!e not only to throw cold water on what the Ciitirt intended, but also to disgrace the Corporation, by proposing that they should go to St. Paul's, and should also carry up an Address to his kilajesty, when could venture to say, they neither meant to go to St Paul's nor to St. James's. The Corporation of, London was said to be fond of eating and drinking • what then, he asked, would be thought of them, if, or that day, on which they were so impressed with loyalty to their Sovereign, as to be induced to ap• roach him with an Address of Congratulation on the SOth year of his accession to the Throne, they were a: the same time to say—" Oh ! b u t it w ill b e suffi• (alit for us to retire to our private homes, and to evince our joy by eating a mutton-chop !" He t:. iught it would be for the honour of the Corporation that the day should be celebrated by a public dinner, arid, fur his own part, rather than not have a public dinner on that day, he would consent to go without h's dinner to-morrow. Mr. Alderman SCHOLEY said, he had signed the' Report, and he approved of it co far as it went, but he did not think it had gone far enough. There was One omission in the Report which he particularly ob. ''rvecl, and that was, an Address conformable to their ite , olittion. If no other Gentleman had an Address ..... _ epared hehad one in his pocket,which he should sub niit for their consideration, that it might either be added by way of rider, or that the Committee be in structed to withdraw, and so far to rectify their Re- Fort, a 3 to prepare an Address agreeably to their own Resolution. Mr. Gpirririts, alluding to what had fallen from . Mr. Herne, Observed, that during the many years t.e latter Gentleman had been a Member of that , Court, he had never attended at St. Paul ' s. It was, tilerefore impossible for him to a Age of the truth of w, at he had asserted, and, tfiat being the case, it . c.is rather hard, with one blow, to strike at the cha-, :Old conduct of 20 or 30 persons, of whom, to . .!ppearance, in the point alluded to, he could judge Mr. licitxr. said, the charge now made was a Mr. KiNIB LE spoke to or d er . H e h ope d t h e L or d l Aty r would not suffer such language to pass. Gen der/km were making too free with each other, and it the duty of his Lordship to correct it. M. GRIFFITHS thanked the Hon. Member for his ;:i:erference. If he had known the Gentleman, how- !vr, who had used the expression, it would not have 'track him with any surprise. In making the Report submitted to the Court, he thought their Com - • had not let down the Corporation, but had con 'cd the honour of the City of London. A dinner • ryared to him to be regarded as a fine qua non, and thought they would seem better to praise GOD, and t(, address his Majesty, without resorting to it on thP preceil occasion. Mr• S. DIXON wished that the paragraphs of the Rep , .l ~hould be put separately. lit was of opinion, I, esid•c !he first Resolution, in which he concurred, that e Corporation should dine together. He was 01t Cult' of those who thought it offensive to AizttcHTY t,ont,,itt a good di nner an d a cheerful glass of wine Lould a visit to church. He saw no ham in the use of a blessing, if it was not convened into an abuse. The Report was accordingly ordered to be read paragraph by paragraph. The first sentence being read, Mr. WAITHMAN declared, though he had signed the Report as a Member of the Committee, that he thought himself entitled to object to it. One gentle man had said, that the Committee was not properly constructed. Yet he would venture to assert, that there were four out of five Members of that Commit tee, who would have voted for dining in a Common Council. In such circumstances, he asked, was it not strange that the Hon. Gentleman himself, who had shewn such acrimony of disposition in that Court should in the Committee have sat silent, and allowed such a vote to pass unanimously ? the more particu larly when two gentlemen who did not agree with him in political sentiments, but of whose uptight in tentions he had the sincerest belief, were of the Corn. mittee. He was surprised that the Hon. Alderman (Curtis) who was so loyal, had not come forward on the present occasion, particularly as the day was of his own appointment. He (Mr. Waithman) had on the former day entered pretty fully into the leading features of the present reign, and he had also conten ded, from the facts which he then exposed, that the cry now raised was one to raise the flame of loyalty,' and thereby to cover the dishonour, disgrace, and in famy, with which this country was at present, and had in a variety of ways, dUring the course of the present reign, been loaded. What he had stated on that occasion, he gave without regard to popularity or the contrary. If he could win popularity, he had no objection to wear it ; but his determination had al ways been, to do his duty in that Court, without re gard to it. He flattered himself he had on that night brought to their consideration important parti culars which had taken place in the course of the pre sent reign ; the pause which had occurred had given ) leisure to reflect on what he had stated ; had also en abled the Committee to judge how far the public were for a general rejoicing, and had thus induced them to keep within the limits which the projectors of the motion had originally proposed to themselves. As to the idea of going to church, to it he could have no objection. To address his Majesty he also could have no objection, if that was thought necessary to establish the loyalty of the Corporation ; or if he could figure what subjects of congratulation there were on which to frame an Address. He had weighed the subject in his mind since it was last before the Court s ' and he could not conceive how to form an address to his Majesty without introducing falsehoods, or which should not contain the exact contrary of congratula tion. He had shewn them on a former occasion, in what the Contrast between the last and present reign consisted. He had shewn that the present reign was no period of congratulation. Was it to be a subject of congratulation that the liberties of our subjects had been preserved ? That this had been rendered a great nation either at home or abroad ? It appeared to him that the Court could not go and congratulate his Majesty on this head. Were they then to congratu late their Sovereign on the most unprincipled of all wars—the war with America—to which it may be traly said all our calamities were to be attributed.— Passing by all these, he should come to the last 16 years of the present reign, and would ask if it was possible, without insulting his Majesty and his dis tressed people, to go and congratulate him on the pic tures which these years presented ? Could we congra tulate him on the suspension of the Habeas Corpus, and on the various breaches which had been commit ted on our Constitution ? s Mr. DORNFORD contended that the Hon. Member was not in order. Mr. WAITHMAN continued. If he was not now in order, according to the conception of the Honourable Member, he trusted he should convince him to the contrary before he was done. No Gentleman had told them any subject of congratulation, unless indeed it was that his Majesty's life had been protracted to a late period. But was that a subject on which to con gratulate him ? For his own part, if he were now to sit down, and frame such an Address, he should nor know how to go about it. The Court had, in this respect, to regret the absence of a Gentleman, whose talent for poetry and fiction, left him never at a loss on such an occasion. Were they, however, he again asked, to congratulate his Majesty on the suspensions of the Habeas Corpus Act, and OR the infringements on the Constitution, arising from the Sedition and Treason Bills, by which subjects of this country, for the use of language of the same tendency, but not so strong in itself, as that used by one of our Ministers, had been expelled their native clime ?_ Could we congratulate his Majesty on the knowledge that he did not labour under some bodily affliction ? Could we congratulate him on the state of his family ? or on the success of his arms ? On the last subject all we know, as we had the authority of a late Secre tary at War for believing, was, that when our troops or our navies were not at home they were abroad.— This was all we knew or were entitled to know on the subject. We had, indeed, the consolation latterly of knowing that though a battle might have been gained the war itself was lost. Surely, that, though battles had been won by the bravery of our armies, we had uniformly, in all our wars, been unsuccessful, could not be a fit subjest of congratulation ! What had our expeditions been but a scandalous waste of blood and treasure ? If ever there was a time when the public of this country, and particularly when the Common Council of London were called on to go to his Majesty and state our real situation, and to de mand an inquiry into the conduct of his advisers, this was the period ! Yet the Court was now called on, to do what ? To approach his Majesty with con gratulations ! What was this but a contrivance ? They could not address his Majesty with congratula tions in the one hand and inquiry in the other. This, however, was the sort of contrivance he had during the whole of his political life to complain of. Could they congratulate his Majesty on the Convention of Cintra ? (Here Mr. S. Dixon, seemingly laughing in derision, exclaimed, Lord of Mercy ! )—The Hon. Gentleman exclaimed, Lord of Mercy— " But duller must he be Than the fat weed that wastes itself in ease On Lethe's wharf--.." if he could laugh at this. Thus, however, were all that we had expected from the bravery of our armies, l and from our own sacrifices, given away by the dash of a pen. Were they to congratulate his Majesty on the Answer returned- to their Address on this memo arable occasion ? Surely that they could not mean, if they purposed to preserve any thing like consistency ; if they did not wish to do away one of the acts which most prominently displayed their resolution to assert and maintain the character of Englishmen—lf an In quiry had then been granted, did they suppose the late expeditions would have been undertaken ? Did they suppose the march would have been made into the interior of Spain ? But more particularly did they Imagine that the last expedition, the most calamitous that had ever been undertaken by this country, would have been thought of ? Was there a man in the coun try who could mention any thing equal to it for dis grace and dishonour ? If the Court then thought the Convention of Cintra a fit subject on which to address his Majesty, with what feelings ought they to ap proach him after a business such as this ? The pre sent Address, however, was meant as an extinguisher to every such inquiry. Was the Income Tax a sub ject of Inquiry ? That Court had gone up to remon strate against the imposition of the Excise. Was it nothing to seize on the tenth of the income of every man in the country ? It might happen, however, that though our measures were unfortunate, they might be wisely planned. Our Officers of the Staff consis ted of 300, being double in number the Staff em ployed by Bonaparte, yet we had seen, within these two or three years, among the Officers selected to command our armies, a Whitelocke, a Sir Hew Dal rymple—and, last of all, an Earl of Chatham ! Our troops were brave, yet our undertakings were so planned, and our armies so officered, that nothing but disaster had occurred. We had an army in Spain starving, while an enemy in the heart of a country said to be allied to us, was pursuing them, in want of nothing. Was there here, he asked, a single thing for congratulation ? We had Ambassadors, main tained at the expence of £50,000 per annum, with hardly a spot on which they durst set a foot ; but where they were tolerated, there they were found ut terly unfit for their business—as in the cases of Ame rica, Turkey, &c. If there was a revolution, or any thing else of consequence to be known, all heard of it but the English Ambassador. No person could escape from the grievous taxation imposed on the people of this country ; yet what should be thought of a Government which, though so vigilant in this respect, could allow nine millions of accounts in the Victualling Department, seven millions belonging to the West Indies, &c. to be unexamined for years— Which can shew the greatest alertness, in punishing trifling non-payments of taxes, and yet is unequal to the punishment ofenormous delinquencies ? Was there to be no stop to the increase of our expenditure ? Could the Country much longer stand it ? These were questions which must be forced on the Court and on the Country. He should like to see some of those half-and-half men who had occasionally supported him, come forward and try a question of this kind. He had for many years been buffetted with the charges of jacobinism and disloyalty, but he had withstood them all. He had for years divided but with five of six, but he had never been discouraged. He had still stood, and should stand, for what he considered his own and his country's legitimate rights.---`4m/auses below the Bar.] Mr. SAMUEL DIxoN spoke to order, remarking on the indecorum of strangers breaking in upon the deli berations of so grave a body. Mr. WAITHMAN was sorry he had said any thing that should induce Gentlemen to forget themselves. Where the feelings, however, were interested, such acts of forgetfulness were excusable, and were often with difficulty restrained in a far more deliberate as sembly than this could pretend to be. He begged pardon for talking of himself ; he only wished to cau tion those who thought with him in some points, not because they differed in some trifling shades, on that account to fly into the arms of their enemies.—He begged to recommend to them the beautiful advice of Mr. Fox in his historical work— ,, Let us ooncede something to a friend, rather than every thing to an enemy."—He particularly alluded to a Gentleman who had been warm in the cause a few weeks since, and now seemed turning to the other side. He beg ged of that Gentleman not to thirst so meanly of himself as to suppose that his eloquence was forgot ten : the public would recollect and mark the change. He must refer to an Honourable Baronet, though not present (Curtis). That Worthy Baronet complained of his personality ; but he forgot the personalities he had practised towards him (Mr. Waithman) for years. He could not forbear touching on such cha racters, particularly when they came forward with professions of loyalty. He must shew the mean and selfish motives by which they were governed ; and that, be they Dutch Commisioners or whatever else, it was necessary, in order to judge of their motives, to kok what they were grasping at. He had been in duced within these few days to look into what was the opinion of the late Earl of Chatham as to the Worthy Baronet and such like. For his own part, the moni ed interest was always the last to which he would be inclined to look for public principles. When he saw the Directors of the Bank, in consequence of the re strictions on the issue of gold, charging five per cent. for what was not worth a penny, and their stock in creased greatly in value within these few years, he could not help seeing that there was a difference be tween them and the public in general, of which he (Mr. Waithman) constituted a part. That they were the receivers, the public the payers. As Lord Chatham observed, there were a set of men living in the city, with whom he wished to have little connec tion. The monied interest he abhorred. When in office he never could look to the Treasury. It brought men in alliance with the very worst persons in society, whether they were the robbers in Change-alley or the Asiatic plunderers in Leadenhall-street. These we the blood-suckers and muckworms that fattened art d public calamity ; and they embraced the whole race of clothiers, jobbers, bank-directors, contractors, &c. It did not matter to such men who was in office; they were immediately ready to support any Administra tion. He (Mr. Waithman) had seen this exemplified. He had seen the successor of Mr. Pitt, he had again seen Mr. Pitt himself, afterwards he had seen Lord Grey, and Lord Grey's successor, embraced at the Mansion House with equal cordiality. He concluded by moving an Amendment expressive of the feeling of joy of the Court and of the Country on the fiftieth anniversary of his Majesty's Accession to the Throne, that, distingishing betn ten the beneficent views of the Sovereign, and the profligate mismanagement of Mi nisters, they still are of opinion, that it could not be gratifying to his Majesty, npr bpeficial to the coun try, that the day should be set apart as alday of public rejoicirg. After Mr. Waithman sat down, and the Amend. men had been read, some personal altet'tations oc• curred, in which Mr. Griffiths, Mr. Herne, Mr. S. Dixon, and Mr. Kemble bore a part. Mr. Alderman CHRINTOPHER SMITH declared his conviction that the reign of his present Majesty would suffer no deprecittion . from any contrast with th at part of our history to which the Worthy Commoner (Mr. Waithman) had in his references given a pre. ference. When the great Lord Chatham was the Minister of this country, it was the theme of his pane. gyric, that the trade aad commerce of France was diminished. The diminution of that commerce he (Mr. Alderman Smith) believed would at this mo ment be found to be much greater. It was then stated that the ships of Prance were kept cooped up in their ports. Where, he would ask, was the hat. bour on the Continent from which they could now eipect to escape without the almost moral certainty of capture ? __ _ _ _ MAWMAN did not wish to find fault with any report which any Committee of that Courtmight think proper to present. In the present instance, however, he was encouraged by the example of the Committee themselves, many.of whom had signed their names, and yet had afterwards retracted their agreement.— As far as he could judge from such a report, he did not think the day was sufficiently respected ; he had thought it was to be celebrated by a feast, and was surprised at finding this was not the case ; he did not consider an Address on such an occasion sufficient ; and he had a plan to propose, which he hoped would meet the satisfaction of all parties. He wished to pro pose that the Lord Mayor should be requested to lend the Corporation the Egyptian Hall, and that they should dine together at their own individual ex pence. This, he calculated, would be at the rate of about a guinea and a half per man, and could not its the wkole amount to more than one thousand pounds. Surely such a trifle as this could not be regarded by such a Corporation as the City of London. Many Members had objected to the celebration of a Jubi lee on account of the dejected state of the country, but he would ask what cause there was for dejection ? When were our roads, our inclosures, our agricu'. ture, our navy, or our commerce in a more prosperous condition ? In fact, they never were so flourishing. The present King ought to be respected by all ranks of his subjects; he had reigned for fifty years over'a contented people, ruling them by the laws, and under the guidance of our blessed Constitution. Mr. Duos hoped the Court might continue full to the conclusion of the debate. He hoped also, that Members would attend more exactly to the question in debate ; for in his opinion, many had deviated widely from it. He had heard Members deny any cause of congratulation on the present occasion ; but for his part, he thought there was abundant. Alderman GOODBEHERE thought the questions be tween the Government and the people ought to b 8 completely separated. The agriculture and its be. nefits ought to be attributed solely to the people ; the evils arising from a vilely conducted war entirely to the Government. He would ask, was it for a double national debt, a double income tax, a devastating war, a loss of our American dominions, and all the ruinous consequences of a mistaken policy, that we were about to return thanks ? Mr. Deputy KEMULE spoke in favour of the Report. Mr. CLARKS thought the chief object of the Com mittee was to congratulate the Sovereign on his long reign, and not at all to advert to the measures of Ad ministration—as a Member of the Committee, this was his opinion. Mr.Wa - ITHmsx justified his conduct in not oppos ing in the Committee those principles which he now condemned ; he saw how vain such an opposition would prove in a Committee so constituted. Mr. GRIFFITHS defended the Committee. The first and second Resolutions were then put and carried. On the third Resolution, concerning the illumi nation, being proposed, Mr. KEMBLIC said, he hoped only the public head ings should be illuminated, as the lighting up of pri vate houses might cause much disturbance. Mr. MILLER said, the whole question concerning the illumination, reminded him of an old pantomime called Nar lequin Touchstone : Harlequin, by virtue of his touchstone, could maker any person whom he chose tell the truth : coming one night to Paris in a rejoicing, he asked a Parisian what the illumination was for. . The Parisian was just about to equivocate, wht n Harlequin applied his touchstone ; and he was told the illumination was intended to keep the people in the dark.---(4 laugh, and lewd applause.) On the 4th resolution, as to the dinner, being put, ' Mr. MAwstew moved an amendment, proposing a ' dinner. Mr. MAnßiror fully agreed in the amendment, and said, that on the recovery of the King, in 1789, the Common Council went to Church, and, still better, dined together afterwards—it would be dreadful to go with an empty stomach into a cursed cold Church. (A general laugh.) Mr. DIXON said, he looked into a Dictionary for the meaning of the word « Jubilee," and found it meant an hearty and solemn feast. (A laugh.) Sir J•KN EAMER desired to hear if there ever was a precedent of the Corporation's dining at their indi vidual expen . ce ? The Clerk knew of no sich precedent. Mr. MAWMAN s t;d, as that was the case, he was content to dine at the expence of the Corporatiun.— (4 laugh.) After a few words from Mr. VANDERCOME, we un derstand the amended Resolution for a dinner was giarried by a majority of 25. The Court then divided on a motion that the ex pence of the dinner should be defrayed by the Mem bers individually.—The numbers were-- Ayes 42—Noes 47—Majority against each Member paying his own expences 5. Cox tr•Exc RANI:It, St PT. 27.—T0-day there are some few ar. rivals of Wheat, but the supply in general very short. Sales is t.l; trade at little variation—Barley this week full , Is. per quarter dearer—Malt and White Peas are each rathtr higher—Brans of th.e two kin 'a ully at last prices-. !'here are likewise short suppl:eis of Oats, and this article is quoted rather dearer.—"l'he prices of Flour at our last quotation, and fine American also. • ORNIRAL QURRENCT AS UND[R: Wheat, 945. ICS. Beaus, tB. 695. En* clittc, 118 s. tf9 . Tick ditto, .4r. f9s. Rye, 555. eo . Oats, 5,15. 35 , -. Sas. Pine flour, 951. to 109. Seconds, 90s. 95g.