The National Register. — London, England, 1809-08-13 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. 51/ Itt .1 10 L ;lEl.['l4l G. WednesdaY a numerous and respectable body of the Free holders of the County of Viddiesex met at the Mermaid, Hackney, according to appointment, for the purpose of taking into consideration the propriety of petitioning Parliament for a Reform in the Representation of the people. Sheriffs Smith and Hunter took the. chair precisely at one o'clock ; and the requisition for calling the Meeting being read by Mr. Sheriff Smith, Major Cartwright rose, for the purpose of submitting several Resolutions to the Meeting. He apologised for the long postponement of the Meeting after the requisition had been signed, observing, that this being a subject of paramount im portance, required mature deliberation; and besides, it was thought necessary, to consult that body of men in Parliament who had taken their stand on the rock of the Constitution, with the design of freeing the people from the usurpation an .1 tyranny of the Borough faction, who have trampled under foot the rights of the Crown, as well as the liberties of the people—(opplause) —And here he wished to introduce to them a Noble Earl, who had lately become a defender of the faction (he meant Lord Selkirk) who had told us in a late pamphlet, that no reform was necessary, and that it wns not the road to any publiz benefit A whatever. He tells us that Parliamentary Reform is a delusion, a mere bubble, calculated for the amusement and the deception of the public : and he charges those with bad designs who Woggle to obtain it. Ile does not scruple to call reform "a portentous experiment for throwing down the land-marks of our Constitution." Now he (-Mr. Cartwright) had looked with care for these land-marks that were thus to be thrown down, and he found them rotten Boroughs—(A laugh). They were the land marks of the Constitution, in the same manner as the ruins of Athens and of Rome, once cities so proud, so free, awl so glorious, were proofs that they had long since sunk under the iron yoke of slavery and oppression. We have no want of suen land marks ; they were in too great abundance among to, both in eur civil and military system. We had once a militia, con sisting of every man capable of bearing arms, and trained to arms under their landlords and superiors, so that no staildin army was necessary. Every man was a citizen and a soldier a the same time; but now we have an arms quite distinct from the people, we have barracks beyond numbers, and numbers ot foreign German mercenaries—( Hear ! hear !)—NaN, so far has this infatuation gone, that even one of our districts on the coast is commanded by a German. God grant him patience ! K bile he spoke of such things. If we looked at the civil part of the Constitution, we shall find no fewer Char. 307 Members of the House of Commons, for England and Wales alone, returned by these rottea boroughs; and, including Scotland mind Ireland, about 352 of these land marks of our freedom were removed by the same means, and their place occupied by the land marks of despotism.—Besides, there were about fifty-eight open borou_hs. where the voters visibly sold themselves to the highest bid der, which brought the whole to about four hundred and ten Members, a pretty good majority .of the number of six hundred and fifty-eight! add to which that about one hundred and twelve of these members were, after they came into the Ilouse, place toen and pensioners ; and about 78 would be found besides, whose names were in the Red Book as Naval and Military Officers, and who were thus dependant on the Minsiters of the day for their fame, their emoluments; and their honour. Major 'Cart wight concluded with proposing a string of resolutions, of which the following is the substance :- Ist. That in a Petition presented to the House of Commons in 1790 it was offered to be proved at the bar, That about 154 individuals, Peer 3 as well as others, are able to place in the House of Commons, a majority of members. 2d. That a large proportion of the House of Commons are adventurers, dependant on the Crown. 34. That it was offered to he proved, in the same Petition ir -1790, that seats in that House were as saleable as cattle in Smithfield, which was then asserted by a INiember to he a scan dalous and false imputation; but which was proved in the last Session by the case of Lord Castlereagh, whose conduct had been most unblushingly justified, or at least passed over. 4th. _Resolved, that when seats in the house of Commons are bought and sold, then the laws and liberties of the people are bought and sold. 5t represent 6th. aid AUG. 13, 7th. (That Kin. ; and Peoote as equally interested ,in this Re form, because the faction has interests separate from each, ant! inimical to both. ...... The Bth thanked Sir F. Burdett for bringing forward a mo tion on Reform in the last Session, inviting him to renew the same, mid calling ups'! other counties and large towns to follow the example of this Meeting. Mr. Hare Townsend rose to second the Resolution, send in a long speech enforced the necessity of Parliamentary Reform, from a view of the burdens of taxation, arising from the pre sent system. In illustration of this, he observed. that he had d farm-at Godalmin, which he could let for 1601. a year, and the hnrthens upon it in the shape of tythcs, income tax, horse tax, poor's rate, &e. &c. amounted absolutely to more than the rent. ( Hear ! hear ! ) Here he read a long extract of a letter which he had addressed to the people of Godalmin, on a recent rise of the great tvthes in that parish. He computed the Land Tax at 161. Income Tax 31/. Poor Kate 571. Road Money 101. Church Dues 11. Great Tythes 31/. Small Tythes 111.—Total £l5l. — The proprietor of the great tythes had lately proposed to raise them to fifty pounds a year, but he (Mr. Townsend) would n 6 longer submit to such oppression ; he would give up the cultiva tion of corn altogether, and no longer be the mere agent of the Church or the State, to give them with the one hand what he got with the other, w line he bore all the odium with the people, of selling corn at an immoderate price, which only the affluent could reach. Tythes were anciently divided into four pails; one went to the bishop, another for support of the church, third to the poor, and the fourth to the parson; but now the parson put the whole into his own pockets. He concluded with observing, that those only who had the courage to resist do mestic abuses would ever make any effectual opposition to a foreign enemy. He did not Irk,' to deprive the church of its tights ; but he thought that some relief was due to the agricul tural interest, and that could not be obtained without a Reform ; in Parliament. Mr. Madden had no objection to the matter of the Resolutions, hut, before they passeil, wished to offer some observations with respect to the form. He was astonished that so much moderation should he expressed on the subject before them, by a man who had suffered so much from the prevailing corruption of the times, and instead of calling it, with him, the Commons House of Par tilment, would call it the Lower House of Parliament, as they ippeared no longer the Representatives of the Commons of Engiand. He would oppose, however, all petition to Parliament, because he was convinced that it would serve nu purpose, and, on the contrary, advised that an address should he immedicolei: , . , presented to the Crown. Buonaparte had suc ceeded only against corrupt and profligate Governments. Were the necessary reforms to take place' in this country, there was nothing to be feared from that Despot of the Contineut. With respect to Parliament,' all farther measures were unneeesshry, ' unless the people were unanimously to join in demanding redress. They only wished to have restored these rights they had enjoyed before France even pretended to understand the principles of I iherty. Mr. Bentley supported the propriety of addressing Parlia ment, as if productive of no other good, it would at least create discussion, which was a great means of disseminating knowledge, and nn the dissemination of general knowledge they were ulti mately to depend on EUCCCIS. The Worthy Gentleman then went into a long enumeration of abuses which loudly called for re form, and the only certain remedy for which was, a Reform in the Commons House of Parliament, and the present corrupt an& unequal system of representation. Mr. Waithman ;aid, with the Gentleman who had sug gested the propriety of addressing the Crown he in some mea sure agreed as to the little hope of success to be entertained from petitioning Parliament, but at the same time reminded him that this was the only constitutional mode, and that whatever th• result might he, it became them to discastrgt4 their duty and t• express their sentiments. He reminded that Gentleman at the same time, that any application to the Crown, with respect to the Burgh Reform, would be useless, as the King, by the Act of Settlement, at the Revolution, could not disfranchise any burgh, or erect any new one. This could only be an act of the legis tature. The King, however, might be athiressed with great propriety, with a view to inform his .17aje• ty of the actual state of the representation, and, as Major Cartwright had stated, of the danger arisin ,, to the Crown from that car -er, as well as to the liberties of the people. It was not probable that his Ma jesty could hear such information, unless from such a quarter. , It was his wish that every country should reform itself; bad _ th. That the people are th%deprived of their share in the -esentatinn .. h :. „, . isrped by a corrupt Oligarchy. th. Thu , " 1 ") ~ . .ish riots at elections, &c. . i ''' ll ,; . 1 1" . . ) ', /1 . 42: ''..\... . üblic expenditure. • .44 - ft 41 ... ' . \ : •..7 ;bz. t y ' `.- •% i d .• , .....‘ . IP '• } 0 dip ' bl i t , lir . • " siii < r .• JO / ' 1 1: 1 %, ' 411r. gi fir ' f .' . ' -)S / • - -ail ' ''. • I