Star. — London, England, 1819-07-16 00:00:00

DETMOLD, JULY 3. This Principality has now only obtained a Repre sentative Constitution. Her Highness the Princess Paulina published an Ordnance to that effect, on the 27th of June, which excited general joy an the inhabitants,' who ett• pressed their gratitude by illuminating their houses, &c. According to the new Constitution, the Assem• blies of Deputies of the Knights and Cities is abo lished, and in their stead a general Representation of all the Classes of Inhabitants introduced. AMSTERDAM, JULY U. The Elections for Members of the States-Gercral, in the room of those who go out by rotation, are proceeding with great regularity and unanimity in all parts of the kingdom, the Provincial Assemblies being now every where met for that purpose. Hamburgh Exchange on London, July 9, 34. 10i • Last night his Royal Highness the PRINCE RE .9ner gave a grand Fancy Ball to a numerous party of Nobility and Gentry at Carlton House. The Palace was most brilliantly illuminated on the occasion, and ell the apartments shone with particularly beautiful effect. Parties of the Life Guards were stationed in front, and the utmost regularity prevailed. The company was numerous . and splendid. Among the elegant Dresses displayed on the occasion were— Duchess of YORK. A costume of the Queen of Navarre : a crimson dress, with -- , It train, ornamcnred with two rich flounces of gold; body and ' *coves richly trimmed with precious stones and diamonds; head dress, a wreath of diamonds, with a "cry rich gold veil. llschiss of KENT. Costume of Joan d'Arc: a dress of woven gold, with three • very rich flounces of gold, long sleeves of net trimmed with gold; • a ♦cry rich white satin body, ornamented with precious stones ; bead.dtess, a toque of gold a:2 crimson velvet, ornamented with feathers and diamonds, which was very much admired. Princess SOPHIA of GLOUCYSTER. An elegant robe of white satic, st:perb silver lama bordering, Dimmed with blond lace, worn over a white satin petticoat, with rich silver lama ruche to finish the dress; head-dress, silver turban, with a profusion of feathers and diamonds. The Ladies, in general, displayed a profusion of diamonds and pearls, and feathers were universally worn. The Lady of Sir Jotor BEIIESFORD, Bart. wore a superb dress in the Asiatic style, composed of silver lama, richly embroidered, with a vandyke bor der, surmounted by a wreath of blue and silver; the stomacher of blue satin, ornamented with diamonds; blue satin petticoat, with vandykes, and wreath of blue and silver to correspond; headdress, silver lap pets, feathers, and bandeau of diamonds.— Most of the Gentlemen wore regimental uniforms, and some few fancy dresses. Their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of YORE, KENT, and Sussex, were dressed as Field Mar- 1 shahs, as was also Prince LEOPOLD. Yesterday the Duke of YORK transacted military business with the PILINCE REGENT at Carlton House. Yesterday Prince LEOPOLD dined with the Duke and Duchess of Yoes, at York House. 6 . TH a ITA LI ANL—This Tragedy was read, we undeT stand, to a select party of literary Gentlemen and La dies, a short time since; by Miss MACAULET, who en tered into the several characters with so much life and intelligence, that she has been requested to give a public Dramatic Reading of it at the Freemason's Tavern. .It will, assuredly, be a curious spectacle to see the personification of so many characters by ape person, and that person a Lady. THE EVENING STAR. LONDON. NEXT THURSDAY, Two of £20,000 will be drawd,•- .81Y.•1w. will gain £20,000 NEXT THURSDAY.—TItREE CHANCES for every Ticket NEXT THURSDAY. FRIDAY, JULY 16, 1819. THE FUND& PRICE 07 STOOKS THIS DAY AT ONE O'CLOCK : .BaEk• Stock 220} 220 221 3 per Cent. Reduced 6811 3 per Cent. Consols 67/1 68 67/ 68 3i per Cent. 77141-4 per Cent. 8710 5 per Cent. Navy 102 k 1031 103.1 ex. div. Bank Long Annuities 18 3-16 1 India Stock 2081—India Bonds 4 6 pre. s Exchequer Bills (2d.) 1 pre. 2 dis. 2 pre. Commercial 33 discount Omnium f 1 03 dis. Consols for ilia.. 671 f 68 67i. This being settling day, an immense number of Brokers assembled early in the House, and at the commencement of business, a strong disposition to depress the Market was evinced. Consols began at 681, but it was soon discovered to be a Bear Account, and the Market soon rose to 69i. Omnium also opened at 1 Discount, but recovered, and is now at 01 Dis. which pr ice they remain at. One o'Clock, Consols Mopey, ex. div. 67+}. Only one defaulter has been declared, and he is a mere duckling. The Paris Papers of Tuesday arrived this forenoon. Their contents are unimportant. The Chamber of Peers had a meeting on Monday, when the several Bills last sent up from the Deputies were put through their first stages, and the Chamber adjourned till next day:—.Five per Cents. Monday, 70fr. 85c. We Save received to-day, by Mails from Ilam •burgh and Holland, Papers from the former to the 9th, and from the latter to the 11th instant. The following are extracts: PETERSBbIiGit, JUYE 19. The numerous bankruptcies which have lately hap pened in Riga, London, &c. have had but very little influence on our Exchange, The imports decline in price: because their quantity is so large, the course of Exchange is low. Of the Colonists from Wurtemburg who emigrated to the Southern Provinces of the Empire in 1817, about 500 families have been settled, at their own desire, in Georgia. 1 . • • ; i. -; • SMITHFIELD MEETING. The business of swearing in Constables fo'r the maintenance and preservation of the public peace on Wednesday next, goes on with great alacrity through mit the different City Wards ; and, certainly, not without reason has this precaution been adopted ; for the character of the Placards stuck up throughout the Metropolis is not such as to quiet the apprehen sions of the friends of order. We lay before our Readers the following, posted. this morning, in great numbers, as a specimen : " SMITHFIELD MEETING. " The Non-Represented People of tke British Metropolis, and all other Friends of Freedom, are invited to assemble in Smith field, on Wednesday, July 21st, 1219, at Twelve o'Clock, for the purpose of discussing their Rights, and deciding upon the best means of regaining them ; three litter, Esq. in the Chair. Fellow Countrymen—A long career of boundless extrava gance in the administration of the public property, and a conti nued system of partial laws and exclusive privileges, framed by men exercising an illegal and unjust authority over you, and falsely soling themselves the Representatives of the People, have deprived you of your birthright, and reduced this once great and prosperous Nation to a state of poverty and wretchedness unex ampled either in ancient or modern times. " While a band of corrupt and needy adventurers, many of them notorious bankrupts in character and fortune. and mast of them the subservient tools of adverse factions, are permitted to usurp scats in your House of Commons, and barter away your libertiei by wholesale, can you be said to be fret " While deprived of your just right to elect your own agents and servants, for the purpose of protecting your lives, liberties, and properties, from lawless exaction and unmitigated oppres sion, are you not in fazt reduced to the alject condition of S.'aves? ' " Rouse then to a proper sense of your multiplied wrongs, and come forward upon this important occasion, in union with your suffering and enslaved fellow-countrymen throughout the King dom, to proclaim your Rights, and consult upon the best means of obtaining the only effectual remedy, a complete, substantial, and real REFORM'! Be firm and resolute in your determina tions, but quiet and unoffending in your conduct! For your own sakes, refrain from unjustifiable acts of personal outrage, and respect the rights and possessions of your equally injured and suffering neighbours. The frimis of liberty are the friends of Justice and of Order! As we meet to discharge an honest and a lawful duty, we expect, nay, we have a right to demand, the efficient protection of the Laws but if the satellites of cor ruption should meditate mischief, and dare to interrupt our peaceful deliberations by the interposition of force, upon their own heads be the guilt and the consequences ! The right If self- defence is the fret and mast sacred lat.: of Nature, and Resin:mice to 'On ression Coneitt.'ioral Prioilege every Briton !I ! (Signed) Titz CommtTrivt." May we not ask of those who thus recommend to the people whom they wish to assemble " quiet and unffending conduct," whether the language they em ploy respecting his Majesty's Ministers and the Mem bers of Parliament, with a view to " rouse" the people to what they call " a prore?- sense .'f their ntyltiplied wrongs," be at all calculated to make them " refrain from unjustifiable acts of personal outrage," and to in duce them to respect Me riets and pessessions tfthei,. neighbours? And may-we not also ask how they came to anticipate the possibility of their deliberations being interrupted, if the Meeting shall conduct itself with propriety ? and, above all, what is to be inferred as intended at the close of their Address, when they say " The right V self-defence, - &c. Will they pretend that the swearing in of Constables to preserve the peace, threatens them with assault of any kind ? or do they imagine that the inhabitants of this great Me tropolis have already forgotten the riot and blood shed which accompanied the last SpaHelds Meeting, and the ruin and desolation that then threatened this first of Commercial Cities ! BIRMINGHAM MEETING. The proceedings at the Meeting of Reformers held at Birmingham are important, as they develope the scheme that is to be pursued generally through the whole Union. We have had a printed Report trans mitted to us. The speeches contained so many and such violent personalities, that we forbear to detail them ; but the Resolutions, and the proposed Com plaint, Remonstrance, or Memorial entrusted to their Legislatorial Attorney, to be by him presented to Parliament, ought to he universally known. We therefore lay them before our Readers. nEsoLuTtoNs. ' 4 Whereas the Inhabitants of Birmingham have not, in the Commons' House of Parliament, any Representatives, to assent, on their behalf, to the laws they are required to observe, aid the taxes they are required to pay. " And whereas the said Inhabitants of Birmingham have an unquestionable right to have in Parliament, Representatives, not merely of tlivir own choice and appointment, but likewise in number, corresponding with the population of their town, compared with that of the kingdom. " And whereas the said Inhabitants of Birmingham conceive that the Commons' House, howsoever de Judo it be composed, and whether it ought to be applied unto as a I..egtslatertal Re presentative of the Commons of the Realm, or as a C-ourr of Judicature for redress of wrongs, in matters of election, touch ing Members to serve therein, is bound to do justice unto or procure for them, the said Inhabitants of Birmingham, a full and complete redress of the unspeakable grievance .and injury they sustain, by reason of their not being represented in Par liament. • " And whereas no principle of our Law and Constitution is more certain than this—that even what Pathament may do contrary to human rights, liberties, and free customs, founded in the eternal law of Nature !which is the immutable law of Gen) and at variance with the Constitution of the realm, as in itself an error and injustice incapable of validity, shall be holden for nought. " And whereas this sound principle of freedom and justice stands In effect recognized and declared by Patiament, in an Act of the 34th of Edward I. s. 4. c. 4. in these words--" All Clerks and Laymen of our land shall have their Laws, Liber ties, and Free Customs, as largely and wholly as they have used to have the same at any time when they had them best; and if any Statutes have been made by us, or our ancestors, or any Customs brought is contrary to them, or any manner of Article contained in this present Charter, we will and grant, that such manner of Statutes and Customs shall become void and frustrate for evermore." " And whereas Petitions, although signed by a large propor tion of the community, have not hitherto availed, it is therefore ' 4 Resolved-Ist. That in the shameful facts which the quar relling of rogues at Barnstaple, Penryn, and Grampound have brought to light, we have a lively picture of the bribery and abominations, which almost, U not altogether, universally pre vail in those sinks of corruption, called open Boroughs. " Resolved-252. That in an inramouktr:ansartion at Ilehester, is the depth of last winter, we at once see the detracting spirit, and the true muss by which unprincipled Peers, as Well as others who are candidates for the Peerage, have metamorphosed I open Boroughs into close Boroughs, for the purpose of guilty ambition. " Resolved.-id. That so long as such unprincipled Peers, and would-be-Peers, shall have at their absolute command, a great majority of the seats in the Coltunons' House, which is nothing short of subversion of the Constitution, it is manifest they will wi continue to defeat a Reform of that House, until the in j ured people, determined onitectreering their liberty, shall become so numerous, and shall raise a voice too awful to be treated with contempt. " Resolved-4th. That a number of Gentlemen in whom this Meeting confide, having stated, that there has now for a year and a half past, been before thexublie (published in London) " A Bill of Rights and Liberties, for effecting a Radical lie form in Bus House of Commons, on the simple principles of voting for Representatives (which is a common right) being ex ercised by all men of mature age and sound mind, who have not forfeited the right by soy crime; the votes lating given by ballot, and the Representative body being received once a year ; it is the opinion of this Meeting, that the said Bill ought to be adopt ed and parsed into a law." The foregoing Resolutions passed unanimously.— After which the following Complaint, Remonstrance, and Petition, was read : TO TKL 110NOVitABLZ TIM COMMONS OF Tits UNITED 001420011 07 CALIT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, IN TAILLIAMENT ASSEMBLED, •' THE COMPLAINT, REMONSTRANCE, AND PETITION, OF THE INHABITANTS OF BIRMINGHAM. 4 4 With the deepest affliction, and with a discon tent it would be a crime to their country to disguise, your applicants observe, that the complaints which from time to time, throughout a long course of ye irs, have been made, by a cruelly-aggrieved peoide, to former Houses of Commons, touching the decays and corruptions in the Representative Branch of the Legislature, notwithstanding the truth of the facts, and'the infinity of the natio,.!*l evils thence resulting, have not as yet attained a radical reform of those fatal decays and corruptions. " Those grievances having been the subject of a controversial discussion for upwards of forty years, have been rendered both undeniable and notorious. The evils which have thence arisen have been seen in the shape of wars, not merely unnecessary, but big u ith national calamity, and with ultimate ruin to the pub lic interests---of a succession of unconstitutional laws, which have insidiously abridged public liberty—as well as of an unceasing accumulation of oppressive taxes, unjustly invading private property. 44 From an acute feeling of these complicated evils, Petitions for a Radical Reform in the Representation of the Commons of the Realm, signed as we heiieve by more than a million of the aggrieved people, and speaking, as we believe, the sentiments of other mil lions, were presented to the last Commons House— but presented in vain. 44 Here your Complainants beg leave to call your attention to a circumstance which must chew and place in a strong light the horrid injustice, the mon strous treatment, which the Petitioners on that occa sion experienced ; and which treatment received all possible aggravation, when it is recollected that they prayed not for a redress due to themselves alone, but to the whole aggrieved nation. The circumstance alluded to is this, that in matters touching the elec tion of Members to serve for the Commons in Parlia ment, your Honourable House claims to be, and exercises, the powers of a Court of Judicature, hav ing exclusive jurisdiction. 44 Those occasional tribunals for trying contested Elections for convenience of your Honourable House (which has the permanent power of creating and de puting them to transact that part of the business) are so far 'from disproving the House's claim, that they confirm and elucidate it. " Those tribunals are no other than selections of Members of its own body, to whom it commits the exercise of its juridical functions, and thus it obtains the convenience of carrying on various trials at once, without interrupting its other proceedings. Its Elec tive Committees are therefore mere Juridical Repre sentatives, or Deputies, by whom it acts; and that the acts are its own, is seen in this, that no decision of an Election Committee hath any effect until re ported to and confirmed by the House. 4 , By the Statute under which those tribunals are authorized, it was contrived to confer on the House, which it never had before, a legal sanction of its claim to be a Court of Judicature ; while in this very sanction the Statute bath of necessity imposed on it not only the attributes, but the duties of such a Court, for if it have the power, it must also have the responsibility of a Court of Judicature. 44 The law being in England the supreme arbiter of every man's life, liberty, and property, Courts of Judicature must at all times be open to the subject, and the law must be duly administered therein. The emphatic words of Magna Charta, spoken in the person of the King are these—" We will not deny or defer to any man either justice or right."—Black. 1. 141. Hence your Remonstrants are authorized in contending that an English Court of Judicature, when duly appealed to for justice, bath no option either to try or not to try an issue—no choice, by which it can either deny or defer to injured right its 'legal remedy—nor to withheld from such as are suf fering under any dreadful grievance, their proper rightful redress. 44 Discretionary redress, characteristic of despo tism, bath ever been peculiarly hateful to the free mind and high spirit of England. An English Court of Judicature cannot, like an'Asiatic Prztor, trifle with a suitor, by saying, 44 Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will send for thee." Neither is an English Court of Judicature privileged to substitute its own will for law, its own caprice, ifor the Constitution; much less to prefer the corrupt interests of its own members, or of their patrons, to the undoubted rights and liberties, the permanent in terests of the whole nation. If any maxim of expediency could authorize the shutting against the people, all other Courts of Judi cature, in order that for a. more sure protection, an exclusive and absolute jurisdiction, should be con- 1 ferred on any single Court, in which were united the juridical with the legislative functions, such an extra ordinal y confider,ce must add to the obligation of promptness and fidelity, in the redress of grievances, an increase of moral force, ten times ten fold. But should the betrayedpeople find that a House of Corn- Mons had clandestinely obtained the powers of an ex clusive- judicature - over their elections ; not to pro tect, but to enslave them —not to rend,asunder, but to rivet the hateful chains of an aristocratic oligarchy ; not to defeat, but to give effect to the most virulent treason by which their country was ever violated ; it is for your ifonourable House to ruminate on what might be the consequence of such a conviction in the public mind. How, therefore, the late House of Commons, either as claiming the office and attrihutes of a Court of Judicature, or the character of a faith ful representative of the Commons, could be c nr , .1 in contempt of the Constitution, in breach of in violation of justice, in defiance of right, 5 • treachery to public freedom, not merply of tHri): : • deaf ear to an aggrieved people. applying c' .or 1, of a wrong producing unspeakable m«cric ; likewise of joining in aggravating that mow, adding to those miseries, by a system cf te:ro r outrageous persecution for perpetrating the t:., and all its horrid evils,—can only'he un,+erst(;: those who know that that House did • rot r the Commons of the Realm ; but to a pie idg extent, consisted of usurping oppressorF corrupt accomplices, who bZiniju'ciges t? cause, acted as such men (with a lust of their hearts, and unbridled power in their 1 never fail to act. " Your complaints have not been un01,F, e ,,„ that quarrelling of rogues, in Barnstaple, Camelford, and Grampound, which have it s f , caused the disgusting wickedness and the gn, v depravity practised in returning Memb ers !„ , • - • Honourable House to attract attention ; cor c omit to remonstrate against the course thereon been taken, as utterly inadequate :( .. . even palliate,. the moral disease, and its ..„ sequence to the State. • Ihe infamy that has thus been acci .111 V r. posed, is by no means confined to a few iniquity • it is the characteristic of all th 0.... corruption called open Boroughs. A n d alt;„,, those called close, the depravity assumes a shape, and wears another gall), yet there it i, more malignant towards our democratic freedoi inasmuch as 411 close Borough despotism, i• untnixi aristocratic Usurpation, unmitigated hostility to u lic liberty. " The nefarious and horrid means whereby c ; Boroughs are made close have been recently plified — at Ilchester, where, to the reproach of tl.e in which we live, has been exhibited a spectacle, m c , inhuman and most biota' ; but truly characleri... ; the deadly Borough contarr b ion, which as a de:01 4 ;,. ; pestilence, threatens to sweep from the land all :a, ral health, all freedom, and every vestige of the m.. 1: virtues of a free people. The principal poi:rim; that town (who in 1804 was. voted incapable of r. presenting Ilchester, because of his grciss b7ibery corruption) was not, it seems, satisfied with hasi on that occasion reduced tile number of elector:, having pulled . down about a hundred _homes, drh4n the wretched householders thus disfrancl by being paupers, intp a great workhouse, which had prepared for the purpose ; for the said propr;e: did again lately, at an inclement season, namely, i. January last, cause to be ejected from the said cur;. house, and turned into the street, all the said pauper, regardless of age, infirmity, or helpless infancy, bei% one hundred and sixty-three human beings ; and thu, he henceforth hoped to reign a ruthless tyrant me the desolation he had made, that he might, by ti•A sovereign will, as lord and rna.;:er ct . a depopulate.; Boroug - h appoint ty r o of the Members cf nourable ' Couse, there to sit, and vote as tHe derzti:. of his despotism. The heart which sickens not at this talc of bar barity, which throbs not with indignation at this br:• tality, and which revolts not at this Satanic mode co: forging the worst link in the galling chain of ear thraldom, must be as unfeeling as the monster Eno- self. We hope there is not such a heart in your Ha nourable House. 4 , It is not a question between landlord and tenant but between unprincipled usurpers, and the wrong Commons of the Realm, that we call to the recol lec • tion of your Honourable House this Ilchester case: for therein, as in a faithful mirror, may be seen re• Betted the true image of a wide-spread conspiracy, operating by a deadly crime against the life of the State ; a crime no other than that of a premeditated artful, and even active treason ; to the proof of scliltks accusation your complainants solicit the seriuus atter, tion of your Honourable House. Treason is the violation of Sovereignty. Jo Ile English Constitution there are three distinct species of Sovereignty, namely—that of the Nation; that cf the Parliament ; and that of the King. The detioi• tion of Sovereignty is in its having, in relation to its object or objects, no superior. The objects cf the nation are self-preservation, freedom, and liapp:,. , :ss; its Sovereignty is original, underived, inherent. and necessarily absolute. The nation accordingly t;iied, adopted, and ordained a Constitution, with its ors,a nization of necessary authorities, for the management of its affairs ; or, in other words, for its governmeat, to the ends of its own preservation, freedom, and hap piness. The sovereignty of the Parliament is net original, but dependant ; not underived, but a der tation ; not inherent, but conferred ; not absolute, but a trust ;—a trust limited for the service of the natior, to the following ends and objects, namely, to the per forming, as occasion may require, Constitutional Le gislation, for controlling Executive Power in all its departments and ramifications ; and for officiating is general as conservator of the Constitution, as Prv tector of the People against illegal Power, by re dressing those grievances which none else can redress. "In these offices-of Government, the Parliament having no superior, is Sovereign. The sovereignti of the King is still more limited, being confinedto exercising the executive authority of the State,l which having no superior, lie is of course Sovereir. But the sovereignty of Parliament being divides be: tween the King, a few Lords, and the Commrs House, which last ought to represent the entire ra• tion, with the exception only of the King and 'J few Lords, it is evident that the Commons' House. i: respect of the life of the State, is the most vital crgal and the very heart of its legislative sovereignt'. 1 : is, therefore, manifest, that whoever stabs this hrut: this vital organ of the nation's freedom, by persor.:. , F usurping a single seat in your Honourable Hous,.7: by placing therein by force, fraud, or corrur!:::: any other usurper, is undeniably guilty of tre:uoll . . : therein violating the sovereignty of the peopl‘'• necessarily follows, that every overt act for Lle-1 . 7 - deafly, corruptly, or by intimidation, violatiog freedom of election for influencing even a single in returning a Member to your Honourable 1101:..,- , is an incipient act of treason. " For the fitness of your Honourable House, h ing an exclusive juridical authority in all matt:.. , election, it is argued, that if the Courts of Law permitted to take cognizance of diem, then the •-• as havirE, by appcda final jurisdiction, might sso: • • • • • • • • 1 27 1 . 3 h t t • • , • • I I I 4J