The National Register. — London, England, 1811-06-16 00:00:00

THE NAT ems—. more than a wholesome degree of authority, essential to good Government, but yet perfectly congenial with Freedom ; whereas an OLIGARCHY, that usurps Legislation and the Public Purse, bath unbounded means of Oppression. 'Fheonly remedy was, that the public voice should be loudly heard, and that Petitions for Reform should be sent tip from all quarters. If the Parliament were chosen - by the People, the Minister, instead of the usual method of corruption, must, in order to he supported, study the interests of the Country ; but while Parliament was under the command of the berotieh fac tion, the Minister had only to study the interest of that faction. That great good would result from cleansing this Aegean stable he had no doubt. The example of France certainly afforded a great ksson to the Crown, the Nobles and the People. To the Crown it was a lesson not to drive the nation to a state of despair, by maintaining a corrupt, and uncontrouled system of Govern • ment—to the higher orders it was a lesson, that it was their own interests to consult the interests of the people—and to the people it proved, that violent and intemperate proceedings were destruc tive of real liberty. Mr. M. BURGOYNE—Gentlemen, I should be guilty of the grossest hypocrisy, if I erdeavoured to disguise the satisfaction I feel in appearing here an advocate for Parliamentary Reform, which I consider it not 'only the cause of good policy, but of vir tue and morality, not merely the cause of Englishmen, but of mankind. We look forward to temperate Reform, as the only means of saving our Country ; we disdain revolution or any in novation ; but we are convinced that Revolution can only he prevented by Reform. Twill, by every legal and constitutional means, to the latest hour of my life, oppose that usurpation of a few individuals, which is equally hostile to the independence of the Crown, and the rights of the people—that usurpation which, consisting of 154 persons, returns a decided majority of the House of Commons—that usurpation which is the fruitful source of all the abuses and grievances under which we labour, ar.d the con stant state of war which h.s marked the present reign—that usurpation which degrades our Representatives into the proxies of an overweening aristocracy; ti'at usurpation which places in the House of Legislation men the most unlikely to sustaiti the character or fulfil the duties of Legislators ; men who have no other pretence to legislate, than that they happen to be connect ed with some borough proprietor, or are enabled to obtain his patronage by the length isf their purse. If Lord Chatham, I.ord Camden, Sir Wm. Jones, Sir Geo. Savile, Lord Erski ne, Lord Grey, Mr. Burke, Mr. Gisborne, Mr. fox, and Mr. Pitt mis took the principles of our Constitution, kt us hear their errors. If modern politicians have any thing better to propose than the declarations of Magna Charta or the Bill of Rights, let them come forward and sate their opinions. It is not my design to make us.. of any invective against those who have or have had the misfortune to lie the Ministers of this country. I say mis fortune ; because, if he who hes been called the great Statesman and the heaven-born Minister, is correct in his opinion, thee no honest man can, with the present system, continue ainister, if, as we know to be the case, his titoe and his abilities are more emplovt d in the work of corruption than in the business of the state, l had rather sec my son, my friend, or my brother,. culti vate his native soil, in possession of his integrity, than adorned with all the insignia of ()slice, at the ex pence of honour, sincerity, and truth. Gentlemen, a Reform of the Commons House of Parliament is equally issential to the independence of the Crown and the rights of the people ? If we still doubt, let us ask our selves, what has occurred in the present Session. View the forma tion of the Regency ; see a fourth estate erected ; sec a Minister presume to recommend to his Master a military appointment in favour of the fetiler-in.law of a Noble Duke, because the support of that Noble Duke in Parliament was most essential to his Ma jesty's Administration. The dignified refusal of his Royal Hh ness can never he forgotten ; and if he continues to act on such principles he will reign in the hearts of a free and loysl psople. Mr. Jon rs, of Hampshire, said it may not be rig ht to term their object a Reform , perhaps it may be more justly ca l ledll a re storation of the English Constitution. In this country, sove reign power was divided between the three estates of Parliament ; each must be separate and each independent of the other Peer . We have an hereditary Crown, and an hereditary House of s ; bet the House of Commons is elective, and its essence consists in its being freely elected. Have we, he would ask, that Con sail-talon ? ( Cries of No, uo ! ) If, instead of a free house of Com-. mons, 157 individuals have the disposal of it, and if those indivi duals should be more disposed to sacrifice than to preserve their ' country,. what seeprity have we that they will not carry their purpose into execution ? (Hear / and cries of none ! Mr.W.e ern MA N paid some cornpliments to the former speak er, whose language he said appeared to come spontaneously from the heart. The second Resolution was now put and unanimously carrkd. Mr. CANNING, of Warwickshire, rose to propose the 3(.1 Re- solution. He said many flagranteibuses had hitherto disgraced the country—be meant the conduct of the contending parties in AL REf;ISTER. Parliament. (Applause.) He concluded by moving the follow ing.. Resolution : Resolved, That the Parliamentary Olig archy became power -12, ful, only because the Nation was supine—rash and intemperate, only because the Nation, misled by imposters, forgot its rights, and neglected its duties. Among a people; whose Constitution is an unrivalled fabric of political wisdom—a people acquainted with their rights and their duties, and conversant with the foundations of both—the ways of Parliamentary Refarm are the ways of Freedom and Peace —in asmuch as this Reform can only be obtained by appeals to Truth and Reason, to Law, Justice, and Morality . . Such are the foun dations of the English Constitution. The objects of Parliamentary Reform, a Constitutional Re presentatton of the. People in Parliament, would as far surpass Magna Charta'and the Bill of Rights, excellent as they are, as Political Liberty in possession ca n sur p ass p a p er declarations f a right to it. Mr. Josses Be RD cTT seconded the Resolution. Mr. HUNT said, let an Appeal be made to the Prince Regent, he is ten well informed to separate his interest from that of the people—he haa the example before him, of a Jnhn, a Charles, and a James. With regard to petitioning the House of Com mons to reform themselvv, the idea was contemptible and ri diculous. Did they not know that 157 individuals returned their Members, and was it not therefore contemptible to think that they would even think of reforming the abuses from which they derived their power ? " Resolved, in the opinion of the Meeting, those Howards, who are the illu-erious des;:e oda;:ts of the Barons of Rannymedt - , those of our Nobility and Gt9,tri, in v.•:,r,J.: veins continues to flow the blood of the I.la . updeu-;, or the Pyms, of the Sydneys, the . Russels, or the CaYL:ndishes, with all who respect the Founders and Asicrtors of our Constitution, and who wish it to remain a glorious In:el:men t of English cr.urage, wisdom and virtue, may he expected actively to promote the County and other Local Meetings, that pubic opinio•l.may be declared, and a patriot opinion of men of rank, property, talent, anti public spirit, may be consondated. with a hope that numerous petitions may be presented to a Parliament for 4 li,eform in the Aepre sentation of ti n ' people." • • .. Mr. Neter a atuae—We are here met togethetto destde upon a subject which is of the utmost importante to us, wheftier we are considered in the light of men, or in that of Britons—of men, because of all the bleshigs which Heaven in . its earliest and best bounty bath showeved down upon mankind, there is not one bles , ing comparable with the blessing of liberty—and of Britons, because it the liberty be valuable tts the rest of man kind as a natural right, it must be doubly vakiable to us Britons, to whom it is not •ta:ty our natural but our hereditary right.-- Our ancestors fought fur it, and bled Inc it, and on the memo ruble plain of Runnymede they forced a crouching Despo t to sign its Charter. One of the best claims in t B e ill of Rightsre- , is that electinne should be free and Parliaments he frquent. In spect to the frequency of Parliaments it is not necessary to en- Lage—you have one ample illustration of the regard paid by • your attornies to that Liii.iM in the Septennial Act, when those attornie-:, appointed by their . principals rot three years; very cooly voted themselves to • .it ieven, and though they told the thinking people that it was only a truipwrory expedient—they and their successors have taken care that this expedient shall be pro longed to near a cent.!ry. I now come to the hall b Elec.. tion ; and here I am saved much ttouble bhe H 15 0 Ho n. use itself, when it has been 17.-ered to b e . proved th y t at " 7 indivi duals have the power of returning a majority ;" w h e re the traf fick in Seats has been declared i 4 as notorious as the sun at noon day ;" where a noted M. P. (Ms. Windham) de/stared, " that corroution did exist was nodeniahle—eorroption existed from top to bottom." And yet at one time such misdeeds, "at the sound of which nor ancestors would have startled with indig nation," aren , .t to in' pnvisliesi because of ti er R and theretoriety, and at another" because the attltlllpt 1.41•4 in emyo, is nary/AC lit that Honse it was declarelby a Noble Lord, that it was " fortunate that such phicei. did CIISt ;" and another M erata r said, 46 the. dling had become fatnillay by custom. '.-- -It secnic we areall mirth:do: l . I have otten thought that the terms which arA: ireque.niFj ti-ed to the Chief Magistrate are as un worthy ‘ , l hit* to hear a; ircemen to tiee. -There has not been a singic Plinee friun the time of Henry VIII. to ' George 111. whom their addresses have not saluted as tle- best of Kings.. Where the climax will end s I iiroom siot ; hut there is an in stance of Aettlat.ion in air Feltaid Co1„e, then Attu! ney-General, that I think.ceeds any 02* I ever ilaatt - 1 in England. Speak. i w n ft onfwhlntb eeeehditrtuciaaritidd tiebltilnear!°thnaent“„lijoesegssrZeZ t t r h e an c sh o ese after hint. I trust that •he piNseot Koyal Prince t. who has s nobly declared, that " powsr , ► and lu..u;•lur, o f the Oseo s es n a,. . trust vested there ftm . the 1-anent ~ 1 his I.eopie ;" aid•tnat i t I i " his fixed cirtonni‘.llttife.; never to heat. ae a 1 plata. gr a llPro. ir inept, meant to be an a , ,y!uin , ir reward fil e toe tons iinll ; ll t s 1 Yi:. , . - ~,