The Statesman. — London, England, 1815-02-17 00:00:00

MR. DEAKIN. Conotatt's INQUEST.—Wednesday etening an In .:nest was held at the Old Swan, Old Swan Stairs, I.:nulon Bridge, before A. SHELTON, Esq. on the I ttitt of Richard Deakin, who was found drowned Tuesday morning, in the river Thames. John and %Vm. Cross, fishermen, deposed, that t h e y were dragging on Tuesday morning for five •acks of oats, which were lost from a barge in the ; i r e'', and that at London-bridge they picked up the I.oy of the deceased. -*lig appeared to have been on sand at the bottom s es the shoes and knees of breeches were much worn from the friction ; he l is. in silver, and Bd. in copper in his pocket; he Fitt no hat, no watch, pocket.book, or hand. keiehief; they carried him to Old Swan Stairs. J. Probit, clerk and warehouseman to the de. ;T:oekl, stated, that the latter kept a large Nlan ,.l,poer warehouse, No. 97, IVatling-street ; and liso had lodgings in Nicol's-court, Doctors' Com mons. At these lodgings the witness had Some twietly and water with him, about nine o'clock last uccday fortnight, in the evening, when he said he ;.10-Iti go thnt evening over into the Borough, he be I:141 occSsion to go to Guildhall the next w ortiieg, where he thought he should be •detaitied t a a time. Ti,is witness being, nsked by one of the Jurymen, 0:111 WWI the sante Mr. Deakin who was ill•used t it fire week, rigg ? which he answered in the „r im -Jive ; he was asked if he knew any thing of bat matter? Witness replied, • that the Morning af , vr cot unfortunate transaction, a men pupil to ‘t , :y early with one of Mr. D.'s cards, in Con teirpmee be went and found him in a ditch, in one of the Shepherd and Shepherdess fields, with a rope round his neck, his clothes almost torn off his body, surrounded by a mob of people, who did not attempt to give him the least assistance, until he had him re moved to the Britannia public-house, where he was tat;en care of. De then was asked, if Mr. D. re. tviiod any particular injury on that occasion ? lie he received a great contusion on the back of his I:e•ni, to which Dr. Voung had, for some time after. .arils applied 12 leeches ; he alio had a mark on his wek, from the rope : he continually complained of h..inK benumbed; and since that circumstance. he appeared, at times, quite low and desponding. Ver dict—Found Drowned. of fire Calories l o or s te e story . has d been . publish ed f the circumstances attenlin s g e xp l an a t i on t r h e e n Co s io i nel'snfortunate Aitruvery and mishap at Lord Craustoun's. The (:”lonel is valiant, and indiffereat about his own w mle, though extreinely.attentire.to those of the l•ilies, and therefore most be innocent Notwithstanding what has been already said in vetal Newspapers respecting the affair at Staines Letween Lord Cranstoun and Col. Disney, having been enabled to obtain a more explicit account, which seems to contradict in a great many instances for n,..r reports, we are requested to lay it before the *oldie. In the first place, it is not true that the C 6141110 and Lady Cranstoun, were found on his Lordship's return from church on Sunday after ser lice, in the nursery or bed-room. Before the pistol was ii rPtl,liis Lordship entered the drawing-room, the door teii••! unlocked, and saw the parties; Lady Crati-; it's** :laving been lame, and attended by a surgeon, 1 'as pointing out to Colonel D. the condition of het , !merins. This i esciting a suspicion in his Lordship, ' no out in a great passion, rushed up stairs for It ., :•!,tol, and both followed him, to persuade him ; is suspicious were groundless, but to no effect ; lin rocked the pistol, and. levelled it at them.— Colonel Disney took her Ladyship in his arms, and crrried her out - of the room, fastened her out, and then returned to expostuh;te with Lord Cranstoen, bat all in rain,—he fired itt the Colonel, who, having an weapon of defence, lifted op his arm to protect his bead, and the ball struck against the' bone of his arm, left a desperate wound, and glanced away. It is not true either, that he ran out of the • house directly after he was fired at ; he remained tome time, and took his departure only from per session. He did at length return to town, thus **ended, and went to his Lordship's friends ; and so careless was lie of his own condition, that the %Quaid had not been inspected until he went to Lis surgepn, near l 2 o'clock on Sunday night. Her Larl)ship was sent away to her friends the same I.:ght. A favourite dog was shot dead by the ball, rrter it passed away from Colonel D.'s arm. The %.•;ick that the ball has produced urn the hone, irieg sissy a part of it, leaves the event of the case at present undetermined, but every symptom appears to Le favourable." A MosT ETTIIAMIDINARY Cir.% at:E.—A man of pause of 1171lioni Grinnall, was brought op in the custody of John ArmstrOng, and examined at Worship-street before Mr. MOZER and Sir WILLIAM I'-"t sii the Sitting Magistrates, on the following cis 11nrdon being sworn, said, that she 1 . 0, s the Golden Hart, in Lamb-street, Spitalfields; that the Prisoner,William Grinuall, who id a neigh. b. ur of hers, came to her house about three weeks uith a bundle iu his hand, and requested per h i••n of %illness to leave it in her care until his re '• *Girl: hs•iirlie proved to contain the head of a `..:lc, quite flesh, nith a torn cap on it; and bay. tr, Smell, she could not say whether is appeared •mt or torn off, but it was clean from blood.— ;'• :1• - c.rs stated, that since last Saturday, when ti l'::•otter was first examined, they made a •' eticiulry into the account the Prisoner gave id; basing the head ill his possession, which • is that he took it out of Christ's Church-yard, sihi.3l:;clds, for the use of a surgeon ; and that in wad of disposing of it, lie took and buried it again in the same Church-yard. The Pollee and Parish Off.cers attended him to the Church-yard, its order 'hat he might point out the spot. lie seemed at a : but at length pointed out a spot, saying, " that Ware." They dug, and found a scull which, ';'s '1: 1 , was ; hot was contradicted by the grave ' 't••••••ri who said, that scull must have been buried • ; tait's of 40 years. Mrs. Bunion and her ser '3*.t a!• a insisted that it could not be it, as the one had seen had flesh and hair on, and looked frz•sh without any smell. However the Church "l-"ivos declining to prosecute, and 'no proof being " .1 the man that Ira committed warder ) he was THE STATESMAN: • MIDDLESEX COUNTY MEETING. - consulted through real Representatives, is an uncoil• not havintobtained a radical Reform theft Repro. stitutional tax. Unconstitutional taxation is there- sentation 25 years ago ; such Reform would have an. THURSDAY, Fee. 16. foresort of usurp ati on,ee taxation by an arbitrary power, which, by some n ihil a t e d th e gran d pes t o f our country, t h e B orough This day a numerous an d res p ec t a bl e meet i ng of hath shut the people out of their Faction ; mad e a C our t an d its Ministers the Consti. the Freeholders of the C ou nty o f Middles ex , in own House of P ar li amen t an d as s ume d t o it se lf a tut i ona l servants, i nstea d o f t h e illegal masters of power of taxing them without their consen t. W ou ld th e S tate; an d suc h R e f orm wou ld h ave secure d t h e County Court assembled, was h e ld a t the Mertaid Tavern, Hackney, bef o re the High Sheriff of the y ou know b y wha t m eans such a usurpation crept in nation from the madness of a war against liberty and County, Joseph Lei g h, E s q. an d J o h n lt eay, Esq. and has taken e ff ec t among ourse l ves , I must re f er property ; f or nn free P eople in their senses would to take into con sid era ti on th e ev il o f unconstitutional y ou to a circumsta n ti a l recor d o f th e m i sc hi e f an d tax t h emse l ves f or r i rett i ng on their own necks the Taxation—the striking exe m plifi ca ti on o f th a t evil its manner of operati ng , w hi c h th e H ouse o f C om- yo k e o f serv i tu d e an d dishonour. The grand object in the Property Tax,--and th e reme dy w hi c h oug ht 1, 111 1 0its entered in its own Journals on the Gth d a y o f o f d espots b e i ng to o b ta i n, f or the gratification of to be applied. , ay, 1793, the very year in which commenced the their licentious passions and lawless will, nu absolute j war, the unnecessary war, that caused the expendi- uncontrolled power of Taxation, without the con. The Requisition having been read, to re which gave birth to the odious measure of the sent of those who are to pay ; were you to study till Major Canewnreue then proceeded as follows : ! Property Tax, if the famous Petition I allude to— doomsday, you could not hit 611 truer .definitions of We hare this day three distinct subjects for our con- a copy of which I hold in my hand--proved that the Liberty, and of Slavery, than these :—Tatatlon with sideration ; namely, Ist, the evil of unconstitotional House did not represent the nation, as it unques. Representation, is Liberty : Taxation "witheut Taxation; 2illy, the exemplication of that evil in lionably did prove, was not that proving that such presentation, is Slavery. These propesitions being the Property Tax ; and, idly, our remedy. Touch- a House had no right to tax the nation ?—How did perfectly clear, it has caused me no les9 gtief than ing unconstitutional Taxation, I will not begin with the Honourable House proceed ? It heard this ac- ; astonishment at the very same conduct of (holm cou a dry legal definition, bat `with an expressive picture. cusatiun of itself in silence : it did not dis- ! ties and other communities Which have petitionc-1 Tho two Members of our County, now present, are puce a tittle of its contents: it entered the titian. against the continuance of the Property Tay. 'l'n both men of great wealth. Suppose them to have swered document in its own Journals ; equivalent,'. this conduct the sole exception, so fir as I have seen, converted all their wealth into precious merchandise ; in my bumble judgment, to pleading guilty ; and it was that of the City of Westminster, which city set to have freighted the whole in a single ship, as rich went on taxing more and more furiously than ever.— an enlightened example ; as I trust the County of as a Spanish galleon ; and to hare embarked in per- The money wrung from the people of England was Middlesex will this day in like manner •do. The son on a trading voyage.' In the next place. suppose lavished ou Continental despots, for once more re- County of Essex, indeed, spoke good abstract truth ; these 0 eolemen, with their treasure, to fall into clueing France to theextreme tyranny she had thrown but, in my view of it, there was a want of a right the hands of pi r ates, and to be carried into Algiers. off : and what, after pauperizing a fourth part of application of that truth, for making it practically Here then, under the supposition of these Gentlemen our population, and all the inroads that have been beneficial. I hope, Gentlemen, lem not amongst hating been reduced to slavery, and by that circum- made on our property, is the upshot ?—France sits men capable of acting the part of _over-loaded stance exposed to pillage, at the discretion of rob. down with limited Royalty, representation without camels—mere beasts of burden,—who, to escape bers, you have a true picture of the evil of uncon- rotten boroughs, and taxes as light as a feather.— broken backs, instinctively kick off a present inset,. stitutional Taxation. The whole difference between England, on the contrary, finds Crown influence ir. portableload, but without any rationalcare or thought taxes which are constitutional and the contrary, is resistible, is still subject to the curse of taxation how to prevent another, and another, and anotlt'r, this : constitutional taxes are gifts and grants of a without Representation, and under the intolerable as galling, being laid on them by their Arab. masters. free people, after the once-E n glish fashron ; uncon- hurthen it has brought upon her, is writhing and I hope I see around me a body of high-minded 'Motional taxes, are the plunder of persons preei. groaning in the deepest agony. But, Gentlemen, Freeholders, who, when the nation, as one man, ously enslaved, after the Algerine fashion. Happily while bleeding at every pore of our property, while hathcompared the Property Tax, for its unprecelent for us, Gentlemen, there is one attribute of that it melts away lik e a w axen image before the fire of tyranny, to that Hell upon Earth, the Inquisition, Mouse in which taxes originate, th a t bath esca p e d. , tyrannical tatation,..ancl while deploring the mean- are determined on a line of conduct, which, if its. the modern corruptions, namely, its title. To this choly situation of our country, which not peace it- tionally followed up, would speedily wrest from the day it is called " 'The Commons of the Realm in self can restore to ease, let us not lose sight of the hand of the Borough Faction the iron rod of op. Parliament assembled; " and this title may guide us / true Cause, nor the crimes of those who have been ,Ipression and tort ure . A ga i ns t Ta xat i on w i t h out to important truths. Who are the Commons?—Et- , the more immediate authors of our national calami-y Representation, it is fit we declare that we d o now , elusive only of the King and the Lords, are not all ' ties. The war of 1793 was a war against human and ever shall, protest. Will not that public voice, the rest of the community theCommons?—The King hortY; Seeing those French exertions which scat- j which at this moment universally execrates the op and the Lords legislate in one House of Parliament, tered to the winds the yokes, and bonds, and badges pression, call, in unison with ours, for its abolition ? the Commons or People in the other; wherefore it at ancient slavery, English patriotism, awakening Did petitions of humanity beat down the African is, (fiat the title of their House is, " The Commons from a slumber, was re-animated in the cause of Par- Slave Trade from Congo to St. Christopher's, and of the Realm in Parliament assembled." This as. !, liamentary Reform. Tyranny took the alarm, and shall not petitions of right beat down the more de_ sembling of the People not being visible to the vut. I coalesced for arresting the progress of freedom. The tested Slave Trade from Cornwall Co. St. Stephen's ? • gar eye, may require explanation ; and being a poiut iEnglish Court and Borough Faction, sounding aloud From shore to shore, from north to south, f r om of the utmost consequence, I have to request an iu.l the lying trumpets of pretended danger, foreign and east to west, the public mind is in the happiesestate dulgent bearing. It is, Gentlemen, an eternal prin.. domestic, made war against France by fleets and ar. for taking a right direction. It is every where in • ciple of truth, that there can be no liberty where a mies ; and against Parliamentary Reform by perm- agony, end looking around for relief. It has every People do not consent to the laws under which they ending and a reign of terror, as abhorrent to the ' where reprobated the Property Tax as " uncoil live. It is equally true, that, for the purpose , Constitution as disgraceful to the character of our stitutional," or, is other words,-it.calls on the Con of giving this consent, the People of this widely country. Men of talents, education, and public stitution for relief. In understanding where to find extended realm cannot assemble in one Hall.— • virtue, were thrown into hulks and dungeons among ' that Constitution, the Petitioners seem,—and no Therefore, by the necessity of the case, this t felons, and afterwards transported to Botany Bay.— ' wonder,—to have been somewhat at a loss. Nay, business of consenting to laws must be trans- i The lives of others were struck at by charges ! have we not reason to apprehend, that to most of acted through Representatives, appointed to that sof High Treason, which the accusers, who had' them it was indeed an unknown Constitution. Yet end. Representatives, as the word imports, do not ; copies of all their proceedings, knew to be false.— the earnestness of the call bespeaks a strong in make laws, and impose taxes, by any original hide. By two abominable Statutes, commonly called the i stinctive belief in its existence i . and that, if found, pendent power of their own; but, in the name and j Gagging Bills, public meetings for promoting Reform it would prove their salvation: Herein the English on the behalf of the People, by whose fiat, and for were prevented, and the blistering seal of terror of this day bear a striking resemblance to the whose profit they have been created, whose autho- i clapped on the lips of its advocates. Even so late Athenians of old, who ereated an altar, and offered rity they exercise, and whose gifts and grants- of - as June, 1813, thirty-seven men, who had assem- up their prayers, to 66 The unknown God." To money to the Crown, they vicariously, as mere de. bled at Manchester, for reading over, and, if tie- those Athenians the great Apostle said, " That God puties and attornies, declare and carry into effect.— " memory, amending a Petition for Parliamentary Re- whom ye ignorantly worship declare I unto you."— A different pretension has, I know, through an Al. ; form, while so employed, were seized by a con- And to these English, then, shall not we, in like gerine ignorance, beets set up; for ignorance is a stable, taking with him a strong body of soldiers, manner, say, " net Constitution to which ye sery tyrannical brute; exceeded only in that respect handcuffed, cast into prison, and thence transferred ignorantly appeal declare we unto you." If these by pretended ignorance. In support of my argu. to Lancaster Gaol, charged with treasonable prac- f Petitioners do, indeed, understand the Constitution ment, that the consent of the People is essential to tires, which the committing Magistrate had abun- better than they have given us reason to imagine, the validity of law, the authorities are as endless as dant reason to know was an infamous fabrication.— they will not, I trust, be °trended with this proof ot--, they are uncontrovertible. Yet as such a truth i This atrocious case I mention s in order to show, our zeal : and when we join with them in praying for • stands little in need of authorities, I shall cite very I that the system of terror, although for obvious rea. a discontinuance of the Property Tax, because it is few. A wise Minister of the wise Queen Elizabeth, sons it hides at this moment its tiger's face, is by no j 66 unconstitutional," may we riot hope they will be the learned Sir Thomas Smith, in the book he wrote means abandoned ; nor will ever cease to persecute, equally ready to join with us, in protesting against on the " Commonwealth of England," observes, until the rod of its tyranny be broken on its own I all the other instances in which " unconstitutional" that 66 every Englishman is intended to be present wicked head. Thinking this case of the Manchester taxation strikes to the vitals of all English Libe r ty I in Parliament, either in person or by procuration and men, if laid before the two Houses of Parliament, and Property ? I shall, therefore, Gentlemen, • attorney, of what pre-eminence, state, dignity, or could not fail to excite there a flame of English in- l propose to you a suitable Declaration on this point.: quality soerer lie be; from the Prince to the lowest - dignation, a Parliamentary enquiry into the fact, -A drowning man eagerly grasps a rope thrown him' person of England ; and the consent of the Nadia- I and condign punishment of the guilty, I stated it in by a child. As, therefore, a little. child may thus meat is taken to be every man's consent." Black. petitions to both Houses ; sod they were also peti. I save a sinking man, so by thfowing out a rope com stone, while treating iu his Commentaries on cloned by the suffering persons themselves. But this i posed of Rights, Laws, and Liberties, well twisted the manner iu which the English People exercise , criminal outrage on the law of the land fired no le- I together, a few men may save a sinking state. Such their sovereignty; has these words, " In England, gislative bosom ; this daring wrong done to thirty- j a rope, for saving our sinking country, will, I t r u s t, where the People do not debate in a collective body, seven Englishmen, caused no more sensation Ibe found iu what I shall submit to you; and'we may but by Representation, the exercise of this save- than if they had been so many dogs. The single t the better confide in its sufficiency, as it is the•very vereignty consists io the choice of Representatives." , presenter of the petition in each House is of course , same rope which saved our country from sinking m , —Com. 1. 171. Here, then, the tree constitutional excepted. It is indeed true, that no Green Bag full der the despotism of the perjured John, and again idea is, that when the Commons or People are in of the infernal conspiracy of the Borough Faction . under the tyranny of the oath-breakits,; Stuarts. It Parliament assembled, it is they themselves who con- I for overturning the Constitution, of which conspi- j was this rope of • Rights, Laws, and Liberties, with suit, who debate, who assent to, or dissent from, racy this foul attempt for destroying at one stroke, the People et the end of it, that-brought us the gto laws, although these things be done vicariously thirty-seven persons so employed in an effort for its j rious Meeting in Itunnimead with its Magna Charts. through their attornies. And does not this t preservation, was an overt-act, had, by any Secret ;It was this rope, with the People again at the end of agree with our constant practice in private life,l Committee of their own, been previously laid on the j it, that brought us the glorious Revolution, with its when any one of us individually is either plain., table of either House. I merely state the fact of the 13111 of Rights ; and this rope, with the People once tiff or defendant in a law-suit ? Every such in- / apathy ; the cause, I leave to the penetration of the more at the end of it, would soon bring us a radical, divitlual is the actual party in the cause, and pre. I Meeting. Hating, Gentlemen, shown the cause of , practical, substantial Reform, worth twenty Magna sent in the court, through his attorney, although ; the evil of unconstitutional taxation, as well as the Chartas and twenty Bills of Rights; as one perform. personally distant. Blackstone again tells us, " that ; means employed by a pernicious faction to perpe- ance is worth twenty premises ; one possession worth our Statutes are merely placed among our public re- tuate in their own hands a power of plundering the, twenty declarations. Gentlemen, the outline of my cords, there needing no formal promulgation to give ! nation at Will ; let us see what might naturally have propositions is as follows : For my basis I take a them the force of laws, because every Englishman been expected, had a Constitutional Reform in the fact as universally known as that darkness is not light, is, in judgment of law, party to the making of BO Representatio n o f the Peo p le been obtained in .the .• namely, that the House of Commons does not fairly Act of Parliament, being present thereat by his re- year 1790. From a comparison between our situ- represent the Nation, this fact stands-recorded even presintetives."—Com. I. 185. And, according to ation in 1790 , and our situation in 1/315, combined in its own Journals ; a reference to which makes the the same author, it is a fundamental of our criminal with a knowledge of what it is that constitutes a : substance of my first proposition.—The second, code, that " the lawfulness of punishing criminals - right of taxation, instruction the. most important third, fourth, and fifth in explaining the Con. is founded upon this principle ; that the law by which may be drawn ; it will teach us, if any thing can, stitution, explain also the nature of uncon. they s uffer was made by their own consent."— how to retrieve the almost desperate state of our stitutioual taxation, the proper object of this day's Corn. IV. 8. This principle of consent by represen. finances, how to save our country ; that is, how to consideration. My sixth proposition shows how tatiou is therefore vital to ear Constitution ; with. transmit. its Laws and Liberties, arid the security of completely " unconstitutional" Taxation Is exem. out it there is neither liberty nor property ; and the Property to our posterity. By any other means plified in the Property Tax. We quarrel not e ith 'statute of Edward F., eneeted ny.the King, Lords, than those to which I allude, this were utterly im- the Tax, because it draws from the great laud-owner .‘ and 66 all the commoitally of the land," against any practicable, and the attempt could lead to nothing a fair contribution, much less because it compels the new taxes or services, "except by the common as- but what every wise and good man must contemplate • wealthy miser, who lives like a beggar, to pay like a sent of the realm, and for the common profit there- with horror. In 1790, the National Debt was under genthelann. Nay, these features we admire. Rut as of," was, in the judgment of Sir Edward Coke, 250 millions : it is now nbout 900 millions, if not we would not submit tosa Tyrant, fur •having in his merely declaratory of the Common Law, as in ear - more; on au average during the war, the debt of face a handsome feature; so we wi ll not, for a like tier time it had been unfolded by Bracton and others. 1790, in creased at the rate of 32 millions a y ear.— reason, submit to this tyrannicalT ax. The seventh . . --It would, indeed, be a monstrous doctrine that a Peace, with an annual application of about five mil- is -meant as a warning against unnecessa ry war, which state consisting of a single small town, where the lions and a half a.year as a Sinking Fund, would by unless prevented by radical Reform, w ill as certainly pe o ple should legislate in person, could alone be this time have cleared off the debt of 1790, without return, as the night succeeds the day ; because it is free ; but that a >tate consisting of an extended n o. our being now taxed on that account a single shilling. the harvest, the very food and aliment of a corrupt illosemust necessarily be slaves. From the premises Throlsgh unnecessary war, we are now to be taxed Government, and its voracious harpies. And the. . I have laid down, it clearly follows, that any tax as the interest of public debt alone, forty millions of eighth is intended to show, that we are not lgriorset. w hi c h h a s not been given and granted by the people pounds sterling a•year ; exclusive of all charges for ly or factiously seeking to drive Ministers from th e i r t hemselves in Parliament assembled, being there pre- supporting the Goverment, a Navy or an Army. places; nor disloyally obstructing the Revenue its eent according true legal intendment) nor having . Such, Gentlem en, ar e t h e c onse q u e nces of the Peo p le its p resent im p ro p er channel to the Exche q uer, with. ~ M ~, `-~,