Star. — London, England, 1810-04-27 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX MEETING. Yesterday, in consequence of a requisition addressed to the Sheriff of the County of Middlesex, calling on him to summon a Meeting of the Freeholders to cons;d.-r the propriety of adopting any and what mea sures by Address, Petition, Resolution, or otherwise, on the subject of the late Votes of the House of Com mons in the case of Sir Francis Burdett, and of the new and extraordinary proceedings had thereupon," a Meeting of the Nobility, Clergy, Gentry,: and Free holders, of the County of Middlesex, was held at the Mermaid, in Hackney, in open County Meeting, to consider the points referred to in the said Requisition. —The Meeting was very numerous, so much so, that it was found necessary to remove from the large room to the green, and the assemblage there amounted at one time to upwards of 5000. Mr. Sheriff Woon opened the proceedings, by stat ing the purpose of the meeting, and requesting every person who offered himself for their consideration, should be heard with patience and attention. They must be aware that otherwise it would be impossible ,r them to collect the sentiments of those who might wish to speak, which he was certain they would all be desirous to know. Mr. Sheriff Ark!Ns enforc ed the propriety of a si milar line of conduct. He begged that every Gen• tleman might have a patient ard silent hearing. Tile Requisition being read, Mr. I-1A It F. TOWNSEND stepped forward. As he was to have the honour to propose certain resolutions to the meeting, he thought it necessary to state shortly the feelings by which be w.ts actuated on this occa sion. He felt it necessary for him in the first place to notice a cry, which had been raised against the Ho nourable Baronet, who was the object of their present consideration. That cry, there could not be a doubt, had been raised for the purpose of injuring the Wor tl4 Baronet in the public mind. It had not, however, succeeded—the trick was too stale—it had too often been practised. It was indeed always the same— to run down the motives of the person complaining of a grievous oppression, and to impute to him on account of his interference, improper motives—while at the same time, the only improper motives which existed were to be found in their own perverted minds. It was impossible for the factions in the House of Com mons to love Sir Francis Burdett (Apt/auffer.) They could only love him as the wolf might be supposed to love the shepherd and his dog, or the kite to love the gun and the keeper. They bad had fifteen years experience of Sir Francis Burdett, during which pet rod he had shewn himself to be uniformly right, and the factions had proved themselves to be uniformly wrong. If they had known the sentiments and conduct: of the Honourable Baronet only yesterday, then there might have been room to suspect them. But this was not now the case. The Freeholders of that County were no strangers to the motives by which their zealous friend—the zealous friend of the country in general— was actuated. They were therefore called on not to let the signal fly in vain, but to follow it up to that point to which, if steadily acted tip to, it must lead, to victory ! One of the factions in the House of Coin. moss had gone almost the full way with the Hon. and worthy Baronet, and had only deserted him when he came to the protection of his mansion—that castle in which every Englishman had been accustomed to , think himself secure. Hem they pulled off the mask, which the Worthy Baronet had never worn, hut which they, the Talents, never, on former occasions, had found it convenient to divest themselveg ot; till they were about to change from the Orposition side of th House to the Treasury. li. nch. The Honour.; able Baronet h:td redeemed all his pledges--the Ta.' knts had re&enied none of theirs. When they last ' came into office, his (Mr. Hare Townsend's) heart beat high from the glorious prospect which he flat tered himself was then opening on the country. lie most sincerely did expect to see an immediate Parlia mentary Reform; and he also expected to see a repeal , of those inquisitorial restrictions under which the peo ple of this country groaned. How miserably, how ever, had he, and all who like h m indulged such hopes, been disappointed. '1 he Talents, when they got into power, laughed at Reform ; and, to prove - their sincerity in their wish to lighten the burdens most grievous to the people, they raised that most in quisitorial of all taxes, the Income Tax, from 6i to 10 per cent. which they were pleased to say, was its natural level. They even went the length of attempt ing to introduce the Excise into every family where the master, either lrom conveniency, or from absolute necessity, found it necessary to brew Isis own beer. Had this idea of their's been carried into effectAhe ex cise laws would have proved a sufficient apology for breaking into the Worthy Baronet's house, in which case, they would not have had to discuss to-day the legality of the Speaker's Warrant. These Talents bad given Sir Francis a Judas's kiss, meaning only to betray him ; and the moment he came to his strong hold, his castle, from which he was illegally carried off, then they handed him over to Pilate and hi; Myrmidons. How too did these same Gentlemen act ? They did not even in their pretended support of Sir Francis, justify the motives under which he acted, but rather recommended the mere lenient course of proceeding, under the fear, as they were obliged to avow; that, in sending the Worthy Baronet to the Tower, the House would only add to his popularity. In this, at least, they were correct.— Yes, the day of his liberation from confinement, would be a day of rejoicing from John o' Groat's House to the Land's end—it would, indeed, be a day of Jubilee. The two factions, no doubt, ex pected that the Worthy Baronet would have corn- . nutted felo de ee upon his own reputation ? If-he • bad surrendered to the warrant without resistance, what would they not have had it in their power to say, not only against the Worthy Baronet's consist ency, but also against the rights of the subject. It would have served them as a precedent in future cases, and would have warranted them in stating, at some after period, that even Sir Francis Burdett him self had yielded. He who would have stood out till he had been starved into compliance, had at once yielded obedience to the omnipotence of the writ issued against him, and had thus established the legality of the Speaker's warrant, by adding his sanction to its validity. This, however, was not the way in which the Worthy Baronet had acted. lie had left the question to be decided by \lagna Char ta and by a British Jury. The case of Sir Francis Burdett lay in a nutshell. When t a commit!) eat of Mr. John Gale Jones . was moved in the Hottse of Corn-' mons, the Worthy Baronet was confined by indispo sition. When somewhat recovered, so as to be able to agitate the question, he brought it forward, and in an open, manly, and most able manner, denied the power of the House to commit Mr. Jones, or aay other of his Majesty's subjects, for offences similar to that imputed to Mr. Jones. Here, however, the Worthy Baronet only kicked against the pricks—his motion was lost ; and, according to the good old custom, he felt it his duty to address himself to his Constituents, explanatory of his conduct. But this Address had been construed into one of the most atrocious of likels. What, he would ask, could the freedom of the press, or any other of our boasted privileges avail, if the business of the House of Commons were to be conducted with shut doors, or if their Representatives in Parliament were to be deprived of the right of submitting to their Constituents what had been the line of their indivi dual conduct in that House ? If it were once to he sanctioned that the doors of that House were to be shut against the Public, and that they were even to be deprived of the gratification of knowing from their own Representatives what was going on, must it not be obvious, that, in this view of the matter, the House of Commons might be erected into a species of Secret Tribunal; and that the Serjeant at Arms, as the Runner to the Inquisition, might hive the power of hurrying off any subject of this country to a prison or other place where he should never more be heard of ? The Honourable Baronet, however, had resisted in his strong held. He had grappled I with Briarius and his hundred heads. He had yap ! pled whir him by the leg, and, he had no doubt, the result would be a shout for the people, and the at tainment of their grand object—Parliamentary Re form. What then would be found to be the case with the Whigs ? He had no doubt there were among them a few straggling grains of sound wheat growing. To the Worthy Baronet, he hoped it was reserved to separate these grains from the chaff ; and that, emerging as they once did, under the Marquis of Rockingham, from the mass with which they were encumbeted, they would once more become fresh and vigorous :n the support of the liberties of their country. He concluded by reading the following Re. solutions, and the Petition referred to in the first of them, all of which were received with the loudest ac clamations : That the Petition now read be adopted, and !hat it he presen ted to the House of Commons by our Representatives, George Byng and William Mellish, Emits. who are hereby instructed to support the same. that we highly approve of the proceedings of the Electors of Westminster at their late Me, ting, and most heartily concur in the sentiments contained in their letter to Sir Francis aurilett, and in his answer. That the Thanks of this Meeting are due, and are hereby given ro Sir Francis Burdett, Bart. for his truly patriotic conduct in Parliament—for his unanswered and unanswerable argument in the case of John Gale Jones, vindicating the rights of the subjittt, and denying the power of the House of Commons to imprison without trial and 'luring pleasure, the people of England—.for his letter to the Speaker protestitig against the power of the Moose of Commons to imprison, in like manner, one of their Memb,rs. for laying before his constituents a ..iithful account of his conduct in Parliament—and for his Constitutional resistance to the Spea ker's warrant, whereby he has g!veo a practical illustration of its inefficiency, and has 'hewn that it could not he put in force with out military aid, a violation of our ancient laws, and a breach of the pro i'eges of Englishmen. That these Resolutions be fl;rly transcribed, and presented to Sir Francis Burdett by the Sheriff, accompanied by George Byng and William 'Nlillish, Esqrs. our Representatives. The first Resolution being put and seconded, Mr. BENTLEY presented himself, not to counteract the Resolution which had been proposed, but in fur therance of ete grand object it had in view, in his ob servations on part of which, to his mind, the Honour able Gentleman who proposed the Resolutions had f.ilen short of what he might have expressed. He alluded to the cry which had been att6eeed to be raised on the present occasion, by whic!...e contend ed, the people of England had been ;:rejy and Brie. vously It had been dr:laved, that it was nceeseary to call out the but not the military merely, but tl!e army had been called out. And against whom ? Against the people ; not riotously assembled, but to keep them in subjection while a warrant was in the course of being executed, which never could have been supposed to be legal. If any Gentleman had been present at the War Office dur ing these prep-alations, he could have formed no other idea than that the enemy was landed on the coast.— What could be a more gross libel and insult on the people of England than such a proceeding ? Who were the persons, however, who had thus insulted them ? He had traced them through the whole of the present long reign. He had kept his eyes atten tively fixed on them, and he could trace in them the same persons who had rebelled in the years 1715 and 17.15. He could trace them to be the authors of our war with America and of our wars with France.— He could tr.tce them to he the same persons who had involved us in our present wasteful expenditure ; the same persons sho had involved us in a-debt so excessive that it would serve to rebuild all the towns, cities, harbours, hamlets, houses, and cots in the realm ; he could trace in them the screeners of every species of delinquency. • They were the Walchernites, the au thors and supporters of the Cintra Convention, and of every other meas..% tvl.ich, during. the present reign, had disgr.:c..2.l the country. They had not only been the advocates for those measures, but they had been uniformly the determined and systematic oppo nents of every thing which could tend to re-animatt the Comtitution. Thee were the decided opponents of Parliamentary P...!form, from which alone the peo ple of this country could calculate on receiving any substantial good. These, however, were the men who had dared to libel the people of England. His present Majesty had ascended the Throne with the hearts of all his subjects at his command ; but it seemed to have been the object of the dishonest men by whom he had been surrounded to endeavour to deprive his Majesty of this supremest blessing. He had said this much in vindication of the libelled ho , nour of the people. Majort CARTWRIGHT then took that opportunity of informing them, that it was his intention before the mecing broke up to propose an address to Sir Frati cis Burdett, which he should take a subsequent oppor tunity of reading to them. Mr. l‘let.usu then came forward to address the free holders, but the expression of disapprobation became so loud and general, that Mr. -Sheriff Wood was obliged again to interpose, and reminded them of the piomise given at the opening of the meeting, that they would bear every one impartially. Mr. MELLISH then, after eereated efforts, was at length allowed to begin. He sid, that he hoped the very few words he should have to say, would be re- - ceived with candour. In obecience to the wishes of a meeting of so many Freeholders, legally convened by the Sheriff, he should feel it to be his duty to pre sent their petition to the House of Commons, but with respect to the latter part of the Resolution, he must be allowed to say, that he must consider any pledge given by'lirn to support that petition as a disgrace to those many Freeholders not now present, and as a disgrace to his own independence as a Member.— [Here Mr. Mellish was interrupted by such a burst of indignation, that after an attempt to gain a hear ing, he retired behind the Sheriffs.] Mr. HARE TOWNSEND expressed a wish that Mr. Mellish should be heard, that Mr. Clifford (onennumg the Gentlemen on the steps behind the Sheriff) might hear and answer him. (A laugh.) Mr. BYNG next presented himself to the Freehol ders, and was greeted with acclamations. He said, he should be very short, and that his principal mo tive in addressing them was to explain clearly his opinion upon the great question now before the pub lic, respecting the right of the House of Commons to commit. He thought that House had privileges and power to maintain them ; but that power and those privileges were always to be exercised for the people, and not against them. (ilmlaures.) With respect to the petition just read, he should present it to the House. The principles of that pptirinn were such as uniformly had, and should ever have, his support.— (Applauses.) He had said, that the House of Com mons had privileges. lie thought that they had the power of removing obstructions that had the effect of stopping their proceedings ; but with the necessity of the case, the g power itself ceased. He th )ught the people had a right to criticize any' com ment upon the public conduct of their Representa tives. With respect to the letter written by Sir Francis Burdett to his Constituents, he regretted that in the debate upon that question, the question of ad journment had been moved. He wished that they had come at once to the direct question, libel or no libel, and had they done so, he would have 11..14 no hesitation in voting that it was not a libel. Sir Francis Burdett made a metion in the House of Commons, which he thought ought to have been carried. It was rejected, and then Sir Francis knowing that it was his duty, as well as wish, to make his Constituents sa tisfied with hii Parliamentary conduct, addressed them in a letter explanatory of that conduct, and of the principles upon which it was grounded. Accor ding to the good old constitutional practice, Sir Francis Burdett had a right to account with his Con stituents. (iim/ausa.) His object in doing so was not to libel the House of Commons, but to account to those who sent him there, in what manlier he had „upon a great question discharged the trust reposed in him In that letter, Sir Francis had taken an excep tion with respect to the right of committing their own Members. This did not shew that he then had any intention of libelling them. With respect to his own public principles, he had only to assure the meeting, that they were at that moment what they had ever been. (AN/aum.) He was then, as he had uni formly been, a steady friend to Parliamentary Re .form, and he avowed that he did not think the pre sent mode of Representation in the Commons House of Parliament, adequate to the just claims of the Country. He thought that the right of franchise ought to be extended in proportion to the growth of intellect, an i the increase of property. Before he concluded, he must say, that he thought the people themselves were much to blame, as had they evinced more zeal and perseverance in the cause of Reform, no Ministers, however corrupt, no House of Com mons, however constituted, could have long with stood their united wishes (applause: ;) but as that souse was now constituted, that the unanimous' wishes of the country must have prevailed. There never was an House of Commons in which these was a greater pibportion of honest, upright men, more at tached to the real interests of the country than the present. [Here there were some murmurs, with cries of No !No !] That was his opinion—it might differ from that of many, or most of those who heard him, I but still it was his opinion, and he thought it would be wiser to unite all the real friends of the Constitu tion, however they might differ in shades of opinion, while they agreed in the great principles ; it was surely wiser to keep them together than to set them at variance upon trifling grounds of petty distinctions, while the common enemy, the advocates of corrup tion, seemed to be so firmly and indissolubly united. He regretted that his friend, Mr. Townsend, had dealt so indiscriminately in the abuse of public men, for there were in that House of Commons many ho nest men, who were prepared and disposed to listen to the instructions of their constituents. Let then the people of England speak out—Let them persevere with steadiness and temper in the cause of Reform, and Reform must ultimately be obtained. Mr. flyng t'• en bowed to the meeting, and retired amidst the ap plauses of the Freeholders. Mr. CLIFFORD said, that from the manner he had been called upon by his friend (Mr. H. Townsend) he felt it necessary to offer one or two observations to the Meeting ; and first, with respect to the charge preferred against the people by the Gentleman who spoke last. Upon a recent occasion two individuals had stood forth in their behalf, and one had been sent to New gate and the other was a prisoner in the Tower. (Apelause.t).—Both of these fellow-subjects had been deprived of their liberty by the mandate s of the House of Commons,a set of men whom we sent into Par liament to do our business ; they were our servantsd and we their masters ; but instead of faithfully an obediently discharging their duty to the people, they have ungratefully turned round against them, and re duced us to that most degrading state of labouring (to use the words of Sir Francis Burdett) under the bitterest of all curses, the curse of Canaan—that of being the servants of servants. What fell from one of their Representatives (Mr. Mellish), he confessed, did not surprise him. (..4 laugh). He would pay that Gentleman one compliment—a compliment that could not be justly paid to any public man ; Mr. Mellish had been throughout consistent (laughter ;) the Freeholders could not but remember that when that Gentleman was a candidate for their county, during the whole course of the poll Slr Francis Bur dett tried every possible means to get from that Wor thy Gentleman some explanation of his political prin ciples, but that Gentleman avoided all explanation, and only referred him to the state of the poll. His only words were—" Look to the poll." The Hon. Gentleman was now equallrconsistent in giving his reasons for his opinions, for, in refusing to support the wishes of his constituents in Parliament, he had done as ht all former instances, and been throughout 1 consistent in assigning•no reason at all. (A laugh). With respect to the power claimed by the House e t Commons, he differed from his friend Mr. Byng, and concurred with the words of the Petition, in protest ing not merely against the exercise of that power, but I the existence of it. (Applause). The House of Core. mons never had the power but in the time of rebel lion, when they usurped it, and reared their owe despu. tism upon the ruins of the other two branches of the le. gislature. The House of Commons was but a branch of the legislature ;.it was a court of inquiry ; its duty was to act for the people in the investigation of pub. 1k abuses. and to be the guardians of the public purse, and the rights of their Constituents. Where it suspected corruption, it might seek it out; but ' even after it had been detected and convicted, the de. faulter they could not punish. They could only • bring him to trial ; though in the present case, they claim the right of punishing before trial, or even in- I quiry. The House of Commons was but one of the • branches of the Legislature. The King was another. When kis Majesty some years ago was on his way to Parliament, he was insulted by some of the mob, his carriage was attacked, and his person struck with dirt, what did the King in that case ? Did he pro ceed forthwith to punish without trial—no ; the con stableseemoved the obstruction, and the King sought tpotoutehratwohfenthtehoKyinhgad. not t h t e h y e his remedy by law in an appeal to the trial by jury t o wer e b e e n :: i (Applauses.)—But the House of Commons would ! t a o v tl a l c p l o a w im er a p s a tre ram tch ou o n t I might o ght power itself. They had, in fact, no power. They wellh a v a e n p d r i v too i l e g e g e ; n b e u r a t l l t these e s u e n t d w e two t t ( h e i , n d g I founded together. They had heard a good deal about the doctrine of analogies laid down in a certain law opinion, that every one bad heard of ; but here it ilooked as if the Speaker's warrant against any ma fending fellow-subject was, ty analo g y, to have the ' force of the King's lawful writ against a felon ; then ' would the Speaker's wig, by analogy, be the same as i the crown, and the mace have all the authority, by 1 lo f MN ogy, the royal sceptre. (Laughter). He then proceeded to ridicule the absurdity of the argument that defended the right claimed by the House, upon the ground that that right might at sonic future pe - rind be expedient ; as if that which was in itself un justifiable ought to be subm:eed to, because an op portunity might come in which its exercise would be lof temporary use. This however was admitting the right, which he denied; and it was not sufficient to ; yield the practical exercise of the power, while the I right wits sturdily insisted on. This was the are I ment that lost America ; America refused the prof fered forbearance, while the right was reserved.— The concession was made by us, because we were weak, and the right was reserved, that we might call it forth iato exercise the moment we, were strong, The Petition had reminded the House of I Commons of the conduct of their ancestors. Let us hope, that they will profit by the examples, both of their errors and their recantation ; and that they will give, with a good grace to the prayers of a petitioning people, what they will be other wise compelled, after an inglorious contest, to yield in the moment that it is about to be wrested from them. The struggle in which their ancestors entered into against the people, though it lasted upwards of 20 years, ended in their total discomfiture. Let us I hope, the present struggle will not last so long . In the petition there was an allusion to the shedding of blood lin the streets. It was a saying of Sir Robert Wal• i pole, ss Give the power of blood, and they will have blood," which Lord Chatham had parodied in the Iwords 4 4 Give the power of corruption and they will Ibe corrupt." It would be idle to talk upon se hack s neyed a theme as the corruption of public men ; but he would say, that they had exercised the power of blood, and might be said to have had the blood, He then adverted to the circumstances of Sir Francis Borden's resistance, and as a freeholder of Middle, sex returned him his heartfelt acknowledgments for his noble display of firmness upon that trying occa sion. Had he not made that resistance, and made it as he had done, he would never have been able to have brought his case before a British Jury so unem barrassed and unshackled as it now stood. That re sistance had proved that the Speaker's warrant was nothing unaided by the military, that it depended for all its effect and execution upon the assistance of a military force. They may vote and commit, but how is that vote of commitment to be carried into effect ? By the King's troops—the King's troops are therefore to be called in to enforce the privileges of the House of Commons, the main object of which privileges was to defend them against the encroachments of the Crown. (elpplauses.) It was an old and a sound maxim, that no party should bring into its aid allies more powerful than itself, lest it should be finally swallowed up by those from whom it sought assist ance. The House of Commons had claimed those privileges in behalf of the people, and in defence of themselves against the Crown, but in such an instance what would avail those privileges ? Was the King to call out his soldiers to aid a power contesting with himself ? and without that aid, recent instances had proved that all their boasted privileges could doto no thing. He concluded by exhorting the people per severe, and let the House of Commons act at present as it might, in such a cause the p eo p le of England ought not to despair. The Rey. Mr. DRAPER observed, that much as the fate of the Electors of Westminster was to be rthegret ve at of ted in being deprived of the ir representati , .. the county of Middlesex was still more deplorable.e-e For although the former had not the support, these it coyld t not a rehend the opposition of its retnesentativelku the se of Middlesex was materially different. The Hen. Member behind him (Mr. Mellish) had just d de dared his resolution to violate the contract, an to e cancel the bond between the representative and th e constituent, and had endeavoured to palliate hisputa pose by pleading his independence. He was rea dy .. who declared his confess his predilection for any man . something wore independence • but he must have . . e than the declaration to induce his confidence — b e must be assured of a man's independence of any un ut he due influence before he could applaud h im . B - could not approve of an independence of honest o bli gation—he could not appr ove of a boast of a repo se ntative, that he would be independent of the opin ion of his constituent—be could pot approve of the per. liki 1 t i t t le Is 'll nt rn - n- p- le :o le re hi re of .et th at ors Ala flt ed of us he od al- Ire he 'ill ut of Ie dm