Star. — London, England, 1822-04-22 00:00:00

FIRLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS. HOUSE OF COM LIONS, 'APRIL CO. 1 . ..7 v r - AlVdt look the Chair soon after twelve o'clock.-- , sixty Members present. •• .neU, fly .trogheda, took the oaths and his seat. • •. 'ILI I'll NOT give notice, that nn Monday, in the • *.ttplily, he should move certain Estimates for u y arid .:tliscellaneous Services. .1. Ancient Ctivemereial Statutes Repeal Rill, the Naviga tion .411, the Imtoartatiiin of Goods Repeal Dill, the Slave Trine Acts Conantidation Rill, and the West India and AmeriF can Trade Bill, were severally ordered to be read a second dew on the £9th. The remaining Orders of the Day having been disposed of, the House adjourned to Monday. COUNTY OF BEDFORD MEETING. In pursuance of a Requisition signed by the Duke of BEDFORD, C. F. PA Lmna, Esq. M.P. W. H. Wurr- P.IIEAD, Esq. M.P. S. C. WHITBREAD, Esq. M.P. and numy other individuals s t the highest respectability, a Nice ihg of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the County of ISFDFORD was convened, on Saturday last, by the High Sheriff. J. P. LATOUR, Esq. in the Town Hall, Bedford, for the purpose of taking into consi eeration the propriety of Petitioning for a Reform in the Commons House of Parliament. The Hall was crowded in every part, and female attractions were not wanting to add to the animation of the scene.— On the right of the hustings seats were provided for the accommodation of the Ladies. Amongst those , by whom they were occupied were the Marchioness of l'AvisTocii., Lady MADELINA PALMER, the Misses Livtus, &c. &c. At a quarter after twelve o'clock the Duke of BED ronn, the Marquis of TAvisrocK, C. F. PALMER, M.P. W. H. WHITBREAD, M.P. Mr. Plat, the son of one of the Members for the County, Mr. FOSTER, Mr. LIVII3S, Mr. PAYNE, and several other Gentle men, a-c.nde•i the hustings : they %%ere received with loud acclamations. The Ilrcrr SnERIFF immediately proceeded to open the business of the day, by stating that he had felt it to be hi.; duty. in compliance with a Requisition that had been presented to him, to convene the present 111ectin ; anxious as he was, during his Shrievalty, to attend to every application that might be made to him constitutionally ai:d respectfully —( Applause). great desire, on the present occasion,was to act with the utmo , t impartiality ; and he hoped that every individual who wished to address the Meeting would be favoqred with a patient hearing, more especially as this was an assemblage nit merely of freeholders, but of the inhabitaias of the County at large. The UNDER Sir ERIFF then read the Requisition and the answei of the ti.gh Sheriff. . _ The Duke of BEDF:iItD immediately stood forward, and was tredve. with the most ardent demonstra tions of affectionate respect. His Gt ace commenced by observing, that as his name appeared first amongst the signatures that were affixed to the Requisition, which had just been read by the Sheriff, he felt it in- cumbent on him to address the Meeting for the -pur pose of stating the reasons which indbced him to concur in the propriety of agreeing to that Requisi tion, and ot proposing, for the adoption of the Gen tlemen present, a Petition to the Commons House ot Parliament, in favour of a Reform in the representa tion ot the people. In arguing the expediency, the wisdom, the policy, and the necessity of such a Re form, he must naturally advert to the circumstances under sshich the country wa, at present placed;—cir cumstances of infinite difficulty and distress—circum stances which he conceived sere owing in a great measure to the want of that just and due representa tion of the people in Parliament whivh it was the ob ject of that Meeting to procure. There was, unfor tunately, no identity between the people and the liouie of Commons. The only identity. that existed was between the House of Commons and the Minis ters of the Crown—(Applause). This was an anomaly which it was the duty of the people to correct ; and those whom he now had the honour of addressing Nvere assembled to implore the House of Commons, hi firm but respectful language, to apply that remedy to the evil which was best calculated to meet it, namely, a Reform in that House—(Cheers). The House of Commons, as now constituted, represented, in fact, znything but the people, whom it ought to repre sent. It represented the Executive Government, it represented individual Peers, and Commoners, whqre tamed Members; but it did not represent the people. The representation which he had described was the only representation it presented, and certainly that was a species of representation totally inconsistent with the sound principles of the British Constitution. Were the Crown of this realm to be assailed—were the privileges of the Peerage to be attacked—ne man would more speedily or more zealously stand for ward in defence of those two branches of the Consti- tution than he would—(Applause).—They, however, stood on firm grounds—their prerogatives and privi leges were nnimpaited ; but would any man assert that the rights and privileges of the People were not in imminent danger ?—(Cheers.)—To advocate those rights and privileges he stood before the Meeting; stud he did so, because he thought it was the duty of the Peo: , le to see those rights and privileges, which were theirs by the terms of the great Charter of Eng land—which were theirs by the provisions of the Bill of Rights—which were theirs by the acknowledged principles of the Constitution ; duly enforced and supported—(Lord ekes., ittg).—The difficulties and • distresses under which the People were now labour jug, must, in a discussion of this kind, demand the most serious attention ; and in advocating the cause of Reform, it was necessary that he should look to the source from whence all those evils had flowed upon the country. Having considered the subject maturely, he must say, that those misfortunes arose from an imperfect Reptesentation of the People; and until that master-evil was remedied, there was no hope, he feared, for the salvation of the country (Applause). On these grounds he advocated the cause of Reform, and thu3 publicly, in compliance with the undisguised feelings of his mind, he entreated the Meeting to pe tition Parliament to grant such a Reform as would Lave the empire from impending ruin. As to the causes of the distress under which the country now laboured, he differed from the opinions held by many persons whom he respected. With ieference also to the subject of Parliamentary Reform, he had the mist ort , ne to hold opinions which varied from the smtiniciits of individuals whom he admired and e:trcii,e(i. But was the misfortune, inked, his? ; hre thougl.t the miAortune was not his, but theirs; for ~ ~; +~ .he felt that.the opinions lie bad, formed were correct -ones, and be sincerely believed that those to whom he had alluded would, sooner or later, see their error, and amend it—(App lause). They were all well ac quaiisted with the promises which were held out to the People previously to the commencement of the . Session of Parliament. The reform of abuses, the . removal of grievances, the adherence to a system of comprehensive retrenchment, the adoption of the most strict and rigid economy —these were the pro fes.ions which were heard at all County and other Public Meetings. A strict and rigid economy in every department of the State, from the highest down to the lowest, was promised ; but when Parliament met, u hen the Estimates were laid before the House of Con:mons, he was sorry to say that the People found themselves miserably deceived. The only reduction of taxation conceded to them was Is. a bushel upon Malt, and ten per cent. taken from the salaries en joyed by those who held offices under Goveniment. This, it was stated, was the only retrenchment which Ministers could bestow ; this, it appeared, was all the relief they could or would afford. Now, he asked of the Gentlemen whom he addressed, to put it to their feelings, to put it to their conscience, whether Minis ters did not deceiveahe People, when they thus blasted land destroyed their just expectations ? What was this reduction of Is. per bushel in the Malt tax, what was She reduction of ten per cent. in the salaries of Mi nisters and other officers holding situations which were supported by the public purse, when compared with the burdens that literally bowed down the People? But even this latter measure could not be viewed as a fair and equal measure of justice. It was proposed that the reduction should affect riot only the highest, but the lowest offices in the Government. And what was the consequence ? ‘Vhy it was this— that the Secretary of State, whose present salary was £5OOO per annum, would receive £4500, while the lowest clerk ou the establishment, who had now a mi serable pittance of £5O, would have that pittance reduced to ‘4s—(Sliame). —This, lie contended, was not dealing out an equal measure of justice. The moment a proposition was made for the reduc tion of sinecure places, that moment they heard the House of Commons (for they and the Ministers of the Crown were completely identified) loudly protest against such a measure. "Oh !" cried they, " you must not abolish this undeserved pension, or that useless place, because the safety of the .State depends on their continuance !"—(Loud laughter)—What! the safety of the State depend on keeping up useless offices ? if it were so, it was an intolerable State—a State not to be borne ; for, if the Constitution of England depended for its existence on such a system of corruption, then he would say that the Constitu tion of England was not worth preserving—(Applause). But the Constitution did not stand on so weak and shall. ,w a foundation: it stood on higher ground—it was placed on a nobler elevation—it rested on the great basis of public opinion —that basis on which every good Government must stand, and by the ope ration of which every bad Government must fall— ( Cheers).—The British Constitution was founded on the immutable principles of truth and justice; and he hoped that, by a Reform in the House of Com moos, they would be enabled to transmit that Con stitution, pure andssnimpaired, not only to their chil dren, but to their children's children—(Applause). He was afraid, he was ashamed as an Englishman, to say that they might look to other countries for brighter manifestations of the spirit of patriotism, for more noble instances of self-devotion, than were to be found in his native land. To illustrate this posi tion, he would allude to the conduct of a Spanish Officer, Colonel Alava, who had served with the Duke of Wellington through all his campaigns in the Peninsula, and who had also been present at the bat tle of Waterloo. For his services a pension of 13,000 dollars a year, a boon equal, he believed, to £2,000 per annum, had been conferred on this gallant Of ficer, with whom be had the honour of being ac quainted, by his grateful country. But the moment that honourable man saw his country labouring under the difficulties which at present oppressed her, he gave up his pension for the benefit of the State, con tenting himself with the thanks of the Cortes, the Parliament of Spain, which followed this munificent act—(Applause).—He could not avoid contrasting the conduct which he had just described with that of an individual at home. He felt that it was painful and invidious to mention names, but when public men forced themselves into particular notice, the in evitable consequence was, that their conduct would occasion pointed animadversion. He now alluded to Lord Sidmouth. That Noble Lord had been in of fice for about thirty-three years. From 1789, with the exception of one or two years, he had held very high offices, and received very large salaries. He had successively filled the situations of Speaker of the House of Commons, First Lord of the Trea sury, Keeper of the Privy Seal, Lord President of the Council, and lastly, Secretary of State for the Home Department. But this was not all. Daring his administration, he conferred a sinecure office of £3,000 a-year on his son, who was then a boy at school. He was now living, and in the enjoyment of that sinecure—(Shame). But yet Lord Sidmouth WAS not satisfied with this —no, he retired sm a pen sion of £3,000 per annum, wrung from the hard earnings of an impoverished people—(Shame, shams). This he had, in addition to the sinecure of £3,000, which was held by his relative. Having for 33 years received the salaries attached to high official situi tions—being now in the full possession of his facul ties and understanding—being indeed in the prime of life and health—his mental powers as perspicuous as they were at any former period—under these circumstances the Noble Lord retired, carrying with him £7,000 per annum of the public money. Was this what the People had a right to ex pect ? Ground down as they were, had they not a right to complain of such conduct ?—( Ises, yes).— He had lately read in the newspapers a long Cid ht bowed article, written by the venerable Major Carts weight, against moderate reform. Now he was in favour of that sort of reform. Ile wished reform to be effected without tumult; he wished it to be founded on temper and moderation ; he wished it to emanate from the reason of man, not to be the child of his ~asston (Applause).— Still, . — however, he was a friend to radical Idi : " 'l'h.it dreadful sound to ears polite!" Aud why was he a friend to it? Because he used .he word, and wished it to be used and understood, according to the plain meanhis which it bore in the English language. go to the root of nuzions disease ut WAS now and had he had before observi proposition he woul which he had heat, celebrity, whose fame, - -ast, . them all. He alluded to Sir William Curtis. The worthy Baronet was some time ago unfortunately la bouring under a fit of illness. He sent for a physician, who interrogated him .with respect to the symptoms of his disorder, felt his pulse, and prescribed.— " You will," said the Doctor, " receive the greatest benefit from my prescription; it is a radical cure for your disorder."—" A radical cure r exclaimed the astonished Baronet, " I will have nothing to do with it; I will not take your medicine; I thank Gon I ate no radical, and I hate everything connected with the word radical !"—(Much laughter).—The Doctor was going away in despair, but as be was leaving the room, he thought of an expedient which was likely to induce the worthy Baronet to adopt his prescription.- "I am very anxious, Sir William," said be, "that you should take the medicine ; it is a sovereign remedy." " A sovereign remedy r ejaculated Sir William, " send it to me by all means. I will take a sovereign remedy without besitation"--.(Much laughter). The sovereign remedy was sent—it was swallowed by the worthy Baronet—and, as they would all be,glad to hear, he recovered. That which he hated under the title of " a radical cure," did him essential service when ad ministered as " a sovereign remedy." Now, whethei the full and fair Representation of the People was effected by " a radical cure," or by " a sovereign re medy," he cared not—(Cheering).—Let the thing be done, and he was satisfied. He heeded not terms or epithets—they were of no consequence. His Grace concluded by reading the Petition which he meant to propose for the adoption of the Meeting. It was couched in very energetic language, and embraced all the topics to which he had adverted in the course of his speech. Ile then moved, " That the Meeting do adopt the said Petition." W. lI.WFUTBREAD, Esq. M.P. stood forward to se.. cond the motion, and was received with loud plaudit,. The momentous subject of Parliamentary Reform had; he observed, been brought under their notice on this occasion, in so able and so beautiful a manner, by the noble person who had just addressed them, that it would well become - him simply to second this, motion, without further comment. But as this was, the first public opportunity that had been afforded him to express his sentiments on the subject of Re form, he trusted that the Meeting would ind►►lge him with their attention fora few minutes. He considered that Parliamentary Reform was absolutely necessary, for the purpose of alleviating the present great and almost intolerable distress of the country. They had looked daily to Parliament for measures of relief, and Ministers had declared that something would be done to alleviate the distresses of the people. The Noble Duke who moved the Petition had described, in ap propriate terms, what had been effected in consequence of the pledge of Ministers; and he had also, in his usual ingenuous way, pointed out the manner in which the name of " Radical" was held up to public scorn and insult. But if to be an advocate of that r.tugh Parliamentary Reform was to be a Radical, he, for his own part; would feel proud to be called " a thorough Radical." They must all be perfectly aware that it was useless to expect anything beneficial from a Parliament that did not represent the People of England. Such a House of Commons as they now possessed did not represent the People ; and therefore he conceived that they ought to make every practi- 1 cable effort for the introduction of Reform. He trusted none of them would be disheartened by the way in which their former Petitions had been re ceived, and in which, perhaps, the present Petition would be received ; but that they would boldly pert severe, until the word " Reform" was echoed from one end of the country to the other—(Applause).— Let them hope that the present profuse expenditure of the country would work its own remedy. This it assuredly would do. Ministers would no longer be able to keep up the system, when the sources of that extravagant expenditure were exhausted. They must all surely feel with him, that it would make any ho nest man's heart ache to see the hard earnings of the industrious poor converted to the use of a profligate Administration—(Applause).—He believed that none of them could doubt, although Ministers might think fit to assert the contrary, that excessive taxation was the great cause of the present distress. Though Mi nisters had the impudence to deny this fact, they would ultimately find, to theircost, that nothing was more true. He had only to add, that he supported the Petition with heartfelt pleasure—in its allegations he cordially concurred, and in its prayer he most heartily joined—(Applause). The Resolution was then agreed to, only one per son, the Rev. Mr. Williamson, holding up his hand against it. The Duke of BEDFORD then moved—" That the Petition be signed by the High Sheriff, in the name and on behalf of the Meeting.' Mr. Payne said, they had all heard the Petition proposed by the Noble Duke, and in fact they had all concurred in it. He had lived rather a long life, and had made some observations on the conduct of Parliament ; and he could most truly affirm, that those observations were in perfect conformity with what was alleged in that Petition. He had never, it was true, had the honour of a seat in Parliament. Whether it was or was not an honour, he would, at present, leave the Meeting to decide; but, for him self, he must say, that, until the system was altered, be co►►ld not consider it an honour at all—(Lattghter). The Gentlemen whom he now addressed were repre sented by independent men ; he wished the whole body of the People of England s ere so represented; but if they hoped for independent Representatives, it was necessary that they should be independent them selves—(Apidause).—As an instance correborative of what the Noble Duke had said relative to the sub serviency of Parliament, he begged leave to direct their attention to the abolition of the slave ttade.— Year after year that measure was proposed, but the House of Commons had no ear for it. At lepgth the Minister spoke, conviction entered the minds of the ,Members, and humanity triumphed—(Applause). Were they to suppose that those Gentlemen had no humanity before that period? Quite the contrary : they had humanity, hut, like all their other virtues, it was in the custody of the Minister—(.aretthier)-- was afraid that dw holitaaitt of the 9reier t Commons un cmni les o s n d sv e ou Peo ld p e le ° , nti b t y "le hl i eet n thinegssrike ICI:.: contrived to extricate it from such a state of r_(4l rue). —. F. - PALsege, M:l 2 . came forward amidst cheers.—He said, he had complained, atiothen many years ago, that the Representatio a of the People was inadequate, and that the mearis of seduction in the hands of Ministers were too power. fill. It was long since stated, he believed by Air, Burke, that every third man you met in the street, either held a place himself under Government, ore?, pected one, or had a friend who looked forward too situation; and the inference was, that the person thus circumstanced could not act, in electing a Repro w , tative, as a free and unbiassed agent. If that asser tion was true before the war, then he had a right to say, looking at the enormous increase of influence: which the war produced, that two out of every three you encountered were influenced by Government._ The Noble Duke had alluded in his speech to a fart. ;y which had been very conspicuous for maqy namely, to the family of the Grenville:. Their coi. ; duct with respect to the Salt Tax was worthy remark. The original price of a bushel of salt wa s 2s. • 6d but the tax raked it to 18.. The Greirvi:',:! ,party were at one time most anxious to get rid of this tax. They said it bore too heavily on the people, and ought to be repealed; hut some .neeocirtion, knew not what, took place ; an I suddenly, instea I of sitting on that side of the House where he (tlr. PO mei ) sat, the Grenviiles went over to the otltero- here he did not sit. A motion afterwards came on fot gradual abolition of the Salt Tax, and the votes of the Gi enville party were required ; but, in the con of six months, they had changel their opinion ; they then did not thiiik that the Salt Tax bore /laid ou the people, nor did they see the slightest nece,sity tor is repeal —( Applause).—That men might change the r places hecould understand—but how they could, at . same time, change their feelings, he could not conceive. One of these Gentlemen received L:5000 a year, as head of the Board of Controul. a .1 aaorher Lord £lOOO a-year. What situati n the lat e- held he dOl nut know, but the Red Book would teli in a All that party procured honours or em.luments, I they all changed their places. It was alleed, the Reformers sr ere- not agreed as to the tootle :col manner in which Reform ought to beeffected, the extent to which it ought to be carried. `re lieved almost every man had his particular no,tru,):-- (he knew of.n-ne, however, who had a completep:- nacea for all the evils •of which they complaiired); and, in his opinion, those who had paid attention to the subject ought to come forward with their respec tive plans, leaving it to the Legislature to adopt that which appeared to be the best.—The motion was Elko agreed to. On the motion for leaving the Petition to receive the signatures of freeholders, The. Rev. Mr. Wtooramsote said, it was net sl much on the subject of Reform that he disagrt , t, but he thought that the Petition was couched in some what too severe terms. He certainly thought that Reform was wanted to a certain deg, ee—(Appifrool and laughter—" What, you're corning round, are pa?) He did not wholly agree with the measures of his Ma. jesty's Ministers, because !rethought they had in many instances disgraced themsel es—(Applartse).—But, the other hand, their con •uct bad on various occa sions reflected the highest honour on their characters. He did not wish to be a violent Ministerial man, nor an Anti-ministerial man; he was desirous to take the middle course, and to act Impartially. He th nlght when Ministers gave £lO,OOO a-year to the Duke of Yolk for visiting a'sick hither at Winds's!, they en tailed eternal disgrace on themselves—(Brirco!).— With regard to the Queen, they did man, thins which were not right. In the first instance; they tteated her in a manner which ought not to have been adopted towards the meanest woman in the country—(../..:- plause). But • hen a majority of the House of Lo: os gave their opinion on the Queen's case, the circum stances were entirely changed, and Ministers, he thought, were right in not allowing her to be crowned —(Much disapprobation). Rotten Boroughs were very dangerous things ; but it could not he denied that some Members who represented rotten Boroughs were put in by the Whigs as well as by the Mios tet ial party. He saw on the list of Bedfordshir e Re formats some whose names he confessed he did not expect to see there. One of those Gentlemen he migl t denominate " a pensioned Reformer." Now if he would give up his pension, he would give him crelt for sincerity ; but if not, he could place but little cor fidence in his words and professions—(Vane', sa-ne). Mr. Charles Fyslie Palmer, he believed, received a pension of £2OO a-year. He had, at least, been in formed so by many people. Mr. C.' F. PALMER conceived it to be his tight to vindicate himself against the charges brought for ward by the Rev. Gentleman. He was told by the Rev. Gentleman, that he put his name to the Requi sition as a pensioner. How was that charge proved' The question had come before a Committee of the House of Commons, and lS out of 17 of the indivi duals composing that ComMittee declared that he (Mr. Palmer) had nothing to do with that pension, and that he was therefore eligible to sit in the House as a Member fur the Borough of Reading. If it had been proved that he received such a pension, the laws of England would have prevented him hoes taking his seat in Parliament. He therefore app.o:eJ to the Meeting whether this charge was not settle.!? The Rev. Mr. Wtootastsos; came forward, arlii considerable disapprobation.—" Gentlemen," said he. Mr. Palmer has contradicted my assertions ; and 1 do not think that he would have contradicted them had they not been false. I said before, that it I sea misinformed, I had nothing to do but to apologiac to Mr. Palmer. I now say, in the presence of the County at large, that as I appear to have been miss.:- formed, I ant sorry for what I have stated." The Marquis of Tavisvoca could assure the Meet ing. that he should he proud and happy to present their petition to Parliament, but lie must at tile saw: time confess, that so long as the 1-louse of Commons remained constituted as it was, he feare.i that he could hold out to them very little prospect of their wishes being attended to. He might say the snare, he thought, with respect to every other petitiot having for its object the security of public properto or the establishment of popular rights (Applauu).— So long as the Minister of the day, soother he were big or Toil, had tho power of commandinS e. He desired a reform thit would qiad the evil, and would eradicate the Rouse of ( inaer which the English Constitution of custody, long been labouring. But terms. as present, cc served a were of no importance. This jeopnrdy— oild elucidate by refbrring ma story Mr. C. ud °f it wQrthy Baronet of teat civic loud cheeri fame, at least, was well known to haddone, • 7173, f . t r, t, S ii e e le ts r :c e. is ti I .1 I ; - - W'"r 4 1""-Or