Star. — London, England, 1810-08-01 00:00:00

DWYER AT THE CROWN AND 44NCHO.R. Yesterday there was a most numerous attendance at the dinner given in celebration of the release of Sir FRANCIS Bower? from the Tower. All the rooms in the house were filled with company; and 800 per :ons, at tke least, dined there. Ai five o'clock SiT FRANCIS BunDETT entered the r oom, accompanied by Mr. WISHART, i 4the Chairman) Mr. WARDLE, Mr. CLIFFORDA Mr. ALLIT, Major CARTWRIGIIT, and several other gentlemen. On their entrance, they were greeted with loud applause. Before the dinner was . over, Sir FRANCIS BURDETT r( se and drank the health of all the company, and declared that he. felt happy in meeting them that d a y.—(Appause After the cloth was removed§ • 'lle Chairman, (Me t WisstAnr) rose and stated, that during the last session of Parliament there was subject which had excited more of the attention of the douse of Commons, or of the country, than the power which the House of Commons exercised of send ing persons to Newgate for what they called E ' lvis against two of their Members. The meeting of this day sprung from the ardent wish of a number of the Electors of Westminster, to express their senti ments upon that occasion, and their gratitude to their worthy representative (applause). They did not con sider the present day as a day of triumph ; but they hoped that day would come, when the constitutional I.lw would triumph over assumed privilege. They might well hope that the name of Sir Francis Burdett nuld be handed down to posterity among the names of the first patriots that Great Britain had ever pro duced. He concluded by giving his first toast, _ " The King, the Law, and the people." _ This toast was drank with great applause, and the rnnsic immediately struck up God save the King." The second toast was, " The liberty of the Press: it is like the air we breathe; with.: , we die. " The third was— " Liberty, Privilege, and Prerogative, according to Law ." . . These toasts were drank w ith applause. Mr. WISHART then rose and said, that the experi ence of ages, and all history, sacred or profane, proved, that whatever man endeavoured strenuously to remove, or even to ameliorate existing evils, Was uniformly assailed and calumniated by those who had an interest in the continuance of those evils. As this appeared to be in the common order of nature, no one could be surprised if it were the case upon the present occasion. Whenever a virtuous man laboured ho nestly and fervently in the execution of his duty, he, was uniformly traduced and maligned. It was like the old cry of fo Great is Diana of the Ephesians," from those who conceive "their craft was in danger" from reformers. When ive found, however, that such names as Sidney and Russell could not escape ca. I::mny, we must not be surprised at finding our vir tuous and persevering representative (loud applause) now exposed to it. He had most powerfully attacked and exposed the corruption and imbecility of many of the great men in the country ; and it must, there fore, be supposed that this was an offence which would not easily be forgiven. It appeared to him most evident, that in the present times, the most ef fectual way to labour for the salvation of the country was, that all good men should combine together and support high characters, such as that of their worthy representative Void deolause). It was not his inten tion to go at any length into the merits of his politi. cal life; that was a subject which he felt to be beyond his powers, and which he doubted if any powers of man could do justice to. He would say. however, generally, that among men perfectly agreed, upon all essential points, no fault should be found upon mi nute differences (alysiadte). He trusted that the nu merous meeting, then assembled, would so conduct themselves as to refute the charge which was alledged against them, of wishing to promote confusion.-- They stood up for nothing else but the good of their country, and its ancient laws and constitution. He concluded by giving the health of Sir FRANCIS Butt ner?. This toast was drank with the loudest and most enthusiastic applause. Sir FRANCIS Buftnrrr came forward, and addressed the Meeting. He considered this as one of the proudest and happiest moments of his life. Some persons might be pleased to impute his conduct to vanity or to some other motive, but this he must de clare, that his first object, after zealously attempting to do his duty, had uniformly been to meet, and he hoped lie always should meet, their approbation. He knew of no other way in which he should merit their confidence most, than by endeavouring always to possess the approbation of his own mind. Having no other way than that, he was resolved not to be turned aside from doing his duty either - by taunt on the one hand, or by intimidation on the other. (Applause:.) It gave him sincere pleasure to feel, that while he was thus addressing them they expressed their satis faction at his conduct. He was conscious of having acted to the best of his skill and ability, and it could not but be gratifying to him to find that they were satisfied with the course he had pursued. He ' had also the peculiar satisfaction of knowing that the cause in which he had been employed, had, within these few months, been considerably advanced in the country at large. It would be necessary for him, in the few remarks which it would on the present occa sion be expected be should make, that he should al. Jude to the general state of the country. It would be necessary for him in doing so to animadvert on some of the circumstances which had occurred in Parliament, after his ceasing to be in a condition to attend his duty in the House of Commons, and after he had been sent to he Tower. Many were the misrepresentations made on subjects involving Ale best interests of the people ; and it was extraordi- Nry to find some of those misrepresentations pro ceed from those who were esteemed popular charac ters, who were represented as persons who had es poused the popular interest ; belonging to a body emanating from the people, and bound to protect the people's rights ; a body which ought to be the palla dium o f the people's liberties, not one vi hose sole at tention was dedicated to their destruction, and to the employment of cutting it up by the roots. They (Sir Francis Burdett and his friends) were held up ley th e persons of all parties in the House of Com mons as belonging to no party, but being an unprin vpled faction, hostile to every party. They did in. deed belon g to no party but to that of the people...— It was the public interest, to the support of which Alone their exec tions were directed. It was asserted that the efforts of him and those who thought with him were directed to no other object tut to the ca. lumniating of all the great characters of every party. Let those who said so descend to particulars, and point out the characters to whom they alluded, and then he should be ready to rheet and answer the charge. He believed there were honourable men in the country, who adhered to party from being ham pered in its trammels, or from being slaves to a false notion of honour. Such men he had never declared to be unworthy of confidence, however much he might regret that they were thus deprived of the means of affording effectual benefit to the country. If however the persons alluded to were of that class, who quarrelled with their opponents only because there were others who prevented them from enjoy ing the enioluments of place or office, he must de clare himself not indeed to be of that party.— Such men, he conceived, to be the most likely to bring the country into peril, and to lead it on in the high road to destruction. There was a report of a speech, to which he must allude, said to have been delivered by a person of considerable authority, one whom he should have called the Leader of one of the existing parties or factions, had he not recollected that it only once was a party, but had now fallen into and been swallowed up by another, with which it had con nected itself. This Noble person he could not corn. pare to Cerberus, as he was not aware that he had ever shewn that he had three heads ; but he surely must be allowed to be a sort of Bifrons, having proved himself, at least, to have been of two sentiments on the im portant subject on which they were so solicitous, and to have viewed it, at least, with two different aspects at different periods. He alluded to a speech pub lished as having been delivered by Lord Grey, in die House of Lords, on an occasion when he called the attention of the Public to the State of the Nation.— He did not esteem himself entitled to declare that he considered this Report to be in every respect the speech of Lord Grey. He should conceive that he was not entitled to assume that as to any man, who did not sanction the publication by the authority of his own name. But, certainly, it must be taken as contain ing the general propositions laid down by his Lord. ship, or the sentiments expressed in it ought to be disavowed by him. There was in this speech a vast deal of specious generality, containing most pernicious doctrine. Of this kind was his reasoning on the sub ject of Reform, a doctrine for which the Noble Earl had formerly been an advocate. A vast deal was said as to a number of mischievous and misguided men, alluding, as was plainly to be collected from the whole tenor of the Noble Earl's speech, to him (Sir Francis Burdett) and those who thought with him, who, it was said, were desirous of subverting the Constitu tion. Who would venture seriously to assert that there could be a man of that description in this coun try ? Surely such could not be found amongst those with whom he (Sir Francis Burdett) associated ; be cause, if they were mischievous, or even misled men, they were so by following the law, and by recommen ding it as the rule of proceeding in all cases, portico lady in all cases of public interest ; and he who would pretend to be wiser than the law would shew himself to be neither wise nor prudent. It was not his inten tion to go through this long and elaborate, but futile speech, and point out the numberless fallacies which it contained. Some circumstances, however, it would be necessary for him to touch on, in order to counter act some mischief which it might create in the minds of the people, who did not take leisure sufficiently to examine it. First, he begged to allude to the fallacy of the doctrine laid down by Gentlemen of both par ties, and again contended for in this speech, as to the supreme power of Parliament. That there was such a power no person denied. But was the privi lege now contended for to be sheltered under the pretext of the power of Parliament ? No !—What they contended for was against the right of the House of Commons to assume to themselves the exercise of .that power. The report of the speech in question, assumes, that the supreme power must be somewhere. He (Sir Francis Burdett) on the contrary contended that k should be no where; and for this reason, that ours was a Government of checks, by which the one branch was made to balance and keep within bounds the other. When it ceased to be so, then would it run to anarchy ; and, for the attempt to bring it to this crisis at present, ought that charge which the favourers of this system now imputed to him (Sir F. Burdett) and his friends, to be imputed to them. The supreme power is in the people, from whom all power flows, and for whose benefit it ought only to be used. We had not far to go to learn that this was the fact; we would find it in Magna Chart*, and the Act of Settlement. The supreme executive power was entrusted to the King, not to the House of Commons, Nor is even the King in the exercise of his executive power, entitled to do any of those acts latterly usurped by the House of Commons.— There was another species of power usurped by the Borough-monger faction, which, like buildings of castles of cards, were usurpations on the power of the King and of the People. The House of Commons and this usurping faction of Borough. mongers would hold up the King as if his power were to be dreaded, while they themselves would arrogate a power which the King would not think of claiming. Whatever the House might choose to assert, or short-sighted Ministers might join with them in representing as the privileges of that House, the existence of such a power in a House of Com mons, so constituted, would be more to be dreaded than that it should exist, which it did not, and was not even claimed to do, in the person of the King. It was the duty of the people, therefore, to assist the King in opposing such a power. The more that the King was protected against such an assumption of power, the better it would be for the Constitution and the People. The Honourable Baronet then proceeded to comment on the inconsistencies that had marked the conduct of those who had been formerly so loud in the cause of reform, and who were now so violent against the men who had the homesty to persevere in their pursuit of that great object. The Noble Earl (Grey) bad taken a leading part in the cause of reform, and when his party came into power, what was their pretence for evading their engagements, that the people did not ask for reform, as if so poor a plea could acquit honest men of the discharge of that duty in which they stood pledged to the public ? In the private relations of life men were not acquitted of their just and lawful debts, merely because they were not claimed within a limited period, and at a precise time. Lord Grey and his party had made that pledge, and they were bound to redeem it ; but it seemed that when the People dick hit Lome forward to riefnand, it, it of. coarse felt to the ground; or if they did hi justice to themselves require it, then was it popular clattiour, so that if the people waited in silent expecta t ion for the fulfilment of that engagement to which they had given credit, then was it to be overlooked, because it was not openly demanded ; and if openly demand ed, then was it to be scouted as the mere effect of wild popular clamour.—(,/f,—Another fal lacy was, that supreme power must be lodged some. where this he denied ; the British Constitution was made up of what counteracted the existence of a su preme power in any of its constituent parts. It was till of salutary restraints and controuls ; a great power was lodged in the King, as the executive branch of the ' State, but that power was limite'l by the law, and it emanated from the people. They are the real ene mies of the Crown who would rest it upon any foun dation less broad, less steady than the people ; from them of right all power must flow, and to their good the right use of power must ultimately tend. It was matter of some consolation, and fertile with the best grounded hopes, that notwithstanding all the en croachments on popular rights which have this some time back been but too successfully attempted, that still the people had within themselves one source of power, which might be found invincible in their defence—he meant the Trial by Jury—but if that great source of Constitutional Justice was not pre served pure ; if that too should become so poison ; ed as that the form only could be preserved after its virtue became extinct, then he had no hesitation to say, that even the boasted Trial by Jury might become a great national evil ; and in no short time, I the grand masked grievance of the country. And i here he would ask, in his observations upon this to pic, could he possibly pass over these worse than Star Chamber sentences which have been visited upon the Ihonest, though inadvertent and hasty effusions of the pen, whereby the writer with the purest intentions has ben hurried into a warmt h o f express i on t h at even i n 1 its error proved its honesty. (AN:lamer.) A practice had of late crept into certain Courts respecting the ap pointment of Special Juries, wholly unknown to, and unwarranted by, the good old laws . of the land—the officers of the Court had the culling of Juries —they assumed to themselves the right of nominating the list of men from whom the Jury was to be chosen, and, to crown all, then comes the Attorney General to inter pose his fiat between the right of the people and the great constitutional barrier provided for those rights in the inquisitorial powers of a Grand Jury. As to what was called the law of libel, it was unknown in former times ; there was not a single statute to be cited in support of it, unless he should say Mr. Fox's bill, which whatever good it was designed to do, had certainly done the evil of countenancing by a sort of side-wind, a law which had not had any solid consti. tutional existence ; but with that solitary exception, he denied all the Attorney-Generals that ever existed, to point out a single Act of Parliament that war ranted the law of libel as it was now received and construed. He more particularly adverted to the in ordinately rigorous case of an eminent public writer, as eminent in purity as in talent. (Loud and long continued Al:plasm%) He would not arraign the deci sion of a Court of Justice, that decision might have been warranted in the honest zeal of that talented wri ter. There might have been expressions which it would have been more prudent to omit ; his manly and pa triotic indignation might have hurried him within those legal technicalities by which Attorney-Generals were happy to ensnare him. He, however, would not presume to say that a Court of Justice was not a Court of Justice ' • but this he would say, that if no English man could express his indignation of foreigners being called in to flog the backs of his countrymen, then would he affirm that Englishmen were no longer free. (Applause: continued fir some minwtes.) Nay more, that they deserved to be the only country in Europe in which the people were systematically a flogged people—the only country where the military charac ter was so debased, as that man was permitted, nay, compelled to inflict upon his fellow man tortures which no human being could inflict upon the vilest beast.—(4/0/aines) Excessive bail was unknown to the constitutional law of the land. But to return to the question of Parliamentary privilege ; how was that ; to be enforced ? It was pretended to be for the people, and the King's troops (foreigners or others) were ne cessary to enforce it. Mr. Ponsonby had said, in his notorious speech, that all Kings must hate the House of Commons, because it was a controul upon their cower. No doubt it was meant to be such. But where, when, in what instance had it been so exerted ? Many, doubtless, were the instances in which it had been exerted against the people ' • but when had it I acted in the salutary cont r o u l o f the influence of the ; Crown ? And were foreigners to be called in to aid the operation of this abuse against the people. These fo : reign mercenaries had been called the guards of the King—the King had no right tohave such guards, and tho' he had that right, they nor no other military had s t a right to commit murder in the streets. (illtplauset.) 1 For his part, while such things were, and were tamely acquiesced in, he could not see how it was possible for any honest man's efforts to be attended with success. There was, in fact, no security for the man who was resolved at all events to discharge his duty to his country. It might be possible that the minds of Englishmen could be. so wrought upon, by gradual and incessant encroachment, as to reduce them to the least enviable condition in which intellectual beings could be placed ; and if ever they should sink so low, it would then become them to remember, that slaves had but one duty, and that that solitary duty ' was obedience ; but for himself he could say, that he doubted the joint influence of time or of necessity ever to work such a change in his mind. He feared that be should at all times have too much of the English man in him ever to submit to be a slave. (Here the applauses were so prompt and enthusiastic, that Sir Francis added) The feelings they had just expressed, and the manner of that expression, were such as to give him better hopes. If they persevered in that temper with unfired zeal and unshaken constancy, that power did not, could not exist which could overawe their liberties. Altialasue.r.) But whateve r b e t h e event o f struggle between those who are undermining the Constitution and those who would maintain it, let every honest man take cre not to forfeit the best con sslation under misfortune, the consciousness of having acted rightly. He (Sir Francis) would, throughout his life, endeavour to make sure of that ; and what ever his future fate might be, if he was to fall, he would rather fall with his falling country, than be ele tinted of 6r ruins. (Lid &dittos:ant *bidet )---6 The Honourable Baronet then adverted to the affair, of Ireland. He described that country as having the strongest claims upon the justice of England, and the sympathy of Englistimcn--they were intrinsically a_ brave end gem rous p...ople t and they loved liberty w ith that zeal, which none but such a people could feel— they had borne no incrosiderable share in upholding the British name 2nd chat acter, and they had not de rived those advantages from their share in the contest to which they were so justly entitled ; but the tact was, that the system of attack upon our Constitution has been so uniform and so actively tallowed up as primarily to engage our attention, and too much to divert it from the still greater sufferings and priva. tions of our much injured and long abused fellow countrymen in Ireland (loud all/dam:et) ; think nobly of that flank penp'c, and you will only think justly of them—their cause is our's, we have a grand com mon object, let us have a great and cotnovai sym pathy. This will be for the benefit of the two ;slat:Lis —for depend upon it, neither will long survive the loss of the other. (Loud altnlauses.) He would nr,•v thank them for the honour they had conferred upon him, and di ink all their good healths, making but one further observation, which was to conjure them all, however unfavourable or threatening was the as pect of the times, to leave no means untried to keep alive it' each man's breast that spark of liberty, with out which hope was extinct, and with which no effort, however humble, could be altogether fruitless. Sir Francis then bowed and descended from the table, amidst applauses that continued for several minutes. The health of Lord Cochrzne was khalif( with the utmost enthusiasm, and followed by the tune of Rods Britannia, which was loudly cheered. Upon the toast of " Gw•illim Lloyd Wardle, Esq. the vigila it detic or of public abuses," being drank with appropriae demonstrations cf respect and regard, Mr. WARDLE rose to return them his sincere thanks. He never felt greater pleasure at meeting them, than on the present occasion, because it furnished him with an opportunity of chewing his attachment to the Elec tors of Westminster, and their incomparable repre sentative.—After such a speech ; and such a speech he had never heard, it would be the height of pre sumption in him to trespass one mlinent on their at tention. He rose chiefly to congratulate them on the restoration of their representative. The gratiiication coul•l not be confined to them ; it would be a day of serious joy to the whole nation. His temporary absence had shewn them with what cheerfulness he could bear confinement in their cause; they could not indeed ever have doubted his zeal. He recol lected reading once, that when a great plague raged at Rome, the people sent a deputation to consult the oracle as to the means of averting it. Theoracledesited them to send an embassy into Asia-Minor for the statue of the Goddess Cybele, and when they had brought it to the shores of Italy, to give it to the most virtuous man in the state to bear it to Rome. Now, said Mr. W. if such a plague was to attack our Con. stitution, and that we were to send into a foreign land in search of liberty and law, (for there can be no liberty without law) and that we were desired by an oracle to give a statue to the most enlightened and virtuous man in the country, to carry to the metropo. lis,.would not the name of Bottom. resound fronts one.end of our Island to the other ? (loud cheers.) He had only once more to congratulate them, and to thank them for the uniform and unmerited kindness they had shewn to him on every occasion. The CHAIRMAN then gave— " Sir Samuel Romilly, anti the Reform of the Penal Code," witk three times three. " Lord Erskine, and the Trial by Jary."—This was also drank with great applause. A patriotic song, by Mr. Liman-ran, was succeed. ed by the following toast : " Ireland in onr hearts, and her Persecutors In our remem brance," with three times three. . On Major Cartwright's health being given, the Ma jor addressed the Meeting. As it was so late in the evening, he would not trouble them with one of his old sermons—( 4 laugh). He had written a pamphlet on the Rights of the People, and the Duties of Mem bers of Parliament. He had been afterwards laugh. ed at by some of his friends, as if he had been writing upon nonentities—but he had written only on the principle of advertising the names of stolen goods (4/0/asue. ) Many good. a wise men wi s h e d f or reform. Some of them, it w true, stickled fur mo derate means • but for his part (Istijor Cartwright) never was, and never would'e, a moderate reformer. He concluded by giving— , itty " Representation without rott Boroughs , Defence without Foreigners, and Law without M Ezeeulon."—(L- id if p p law e. r .) Mr. MALLET rose. He should not feel himself ' doing justice to the toast which had been entrusted to him, if he did not take the opportunity of expressing some of the sentiments which the occasion pressed upon him ; but nothing could prevent him from giv ing praise to the nice discernment, the true sagacity, which had induced the Electors of Westmin s t er to h i s on their present admirable and illustrious Representa tive. They had chosen the only man who was pecu. Early fitted to represent them. In Sir Francis Bur. dett's Address to them, he thought too much of their interests to have any memory of his own situation.— He had not done justice to himself. Mr. Mallet then went into a review of the principles of the Opposi tion ; and after some censures on thei conduct, and eloquent praises of Mr. Horne Tooke, jill y e the " Health of Mr. Wm. Cobbett, and may Englishmen never forget their English principles." • The CHAIRMAN then gave— . General Matthew ‘ Mr. Hutchinvn, and the Irish Members who have done their duty to their Constituents." Mr. Isaacs sung " The Noted Room." The following Toasts succeeded : _ __ ..... " May all Hous;breakers by Analogy, and their Abettors, be brought to condign punishment." " The Lord Mayor, Common Council, and Livery of London." " Lord Archibald Hamilton, the Hun. Mr. Malik, Giscral Fergusson, and the Friends of Reform in Scotland" " The Duke of Norfolk, and may the Aristocracy mike with him in defending the rights of the People." Mr. FREND, after some ineffectual attempts to be heard, gave— " Mr. Wyvill, and the Friends of Religious Liberty." The CHAIRNIAN gave— ,' rhe House of Commons represented, and not mii.represented." Mr. CLIFFORD gave— " The health of Mr. ‘Vishart, the Chairman." Immediately after which Sir Francis Burdett, and the greater part of his friends, withdrew. The room continued ed full for some time after, and , d with every appearance of bar- lour. the evening concl away and good I