The Statesman. — London, England, 1823-01-20 00:00:00

to every Inhabitant householder. Such was their right—it was decided to have been the common law of England. A Right Honourable Gentleman, he meant Mr. Canning, had said, that the farmers ought to be patient under their dis tressts—they had shee) much more patience under then dip tresses than he had under his [a laugh].—Ho was no sooner turned out of office than he sheaved the greatest affliction, and the utmost impatience to get in again [a laugh]. He sacceed ed—bia Royal Mater had lately presented him with his plc. tura, and, no doubt, the Right Honourable Gentleman VlCldid appropriate a part of his first quarter's salary to purchase the picture of her whom he once described, as the life, grace, and ornament of society, in order to place it by the aide of the Royal gift [a laugh].—lf matters went on progressively—if the Agriculturists remained patient, the present race of coun try gentlemen would be soon extinct ; they would make room (brJexs and jobbers. Should that state of things arrive, which God in his mercy avert, the sun of England's glory would set to rise no more [applause]. [From want of space, we regret we are compelled to post pone the iiiptanliott of tb Pelltios, together with tile con cluding part of the Report of the Meeting, till To morrow.] HEREFORD COUNTY MEETING; Reading, Saturday Mowing, 18th Jan. 1822. Tins Meeting, agreeably to appointment, was held yesterday; and the result was such as to give me the greatest satisfaction. Here the merits of the Norfolk Petition were fairly tried, as far, at any rate, as a hearing of me in support of that Petition could go. The Meeting was appointed for half after eleven o'clock. The time was pretty punctually at tended to; and the Lord Lieutenant took the Chair in a few minutes after that time. There was (with {he interruption of perhaps half an hour) speaking, by some one or other, going on from the opening of the Meeting until half past 4 o'clock. Ido not re tollect eves having seen a county meeting of such long duration; and .though disorder, as will by and by be seen, prevailed towards the close, the Meeting was, upon the whole, very orderly, and the con duct of the Chairman, Earl Swam, worthy of un qualifital praise, till just at the last; and even then, ids really did more in the way of fairness than I con *Wl could have expected, all the circumstances . ifinsidered. ''The reader will please to consider how much space and time is required to write anything like a correct account of four hours and a half of speaking. He will also have the goodness to recollect, that I quitted the Meeting at Hereford at half after four yesterday in the afternoon, and that I am now writing 'at Reading ut 9 o'clock in the morning. To give a report of speeches is impossible in the paper of 'to-day. 1 must confine myself to a mere narrative, and even as a narrative it must be very short.l Amongst the gentlemen who had signed the requi sition for the County Meeting, were a Mr. Patters- hail and Sir Hungerford Hoskins. These Gentle wen, who are of the Pitt faction, and who lately, I believe, made rather a conspicuous figure at a Pitt Club Dinner, had a set of Resolutions prepared. It.ese were read to the Meeting by the former of bese gentlemen, who then moved the first of them, and was seconded by the Baronet before mentioned. Lon the moving of this Resolution, I proposed to set the Resolution aside, and that the Meeting should adopt the Petition which will be found below, if/ the same words with the Norfolk Petition, with . sioe introductory paragraph which was not in that Tetition. This was seconded by Mr. Palmer, of toltitree Castle; he did so, because in his opinion it contained the only true description of the state of the country, and pointed out the only effectual mea sures fig relieving it from that state. lie particularly observed, that at the present moment there was the most imperious call upon the worthy landlords of his county to lower their rents; and that, too, down to no.l ing short of the standard of 17 . 90. He •concluileil by declaring in the most solemn MU ner, his resolution, before he would suffer the last acre to be taken from him, if there were the jaw- Lone of an ass to be found, to fight for it. • The same course was not pursued that was pur- 1 sued at Norwich. I was heard,nnd with great attention, by all parties, for the space of about an hour; long before the end of which, I clearly saw that an im mense majority of the Meeting was with me. When the Lord Lieutenant was about to put the question as proposed by me, and which, if it had been put to the Meetins, would at once have carried the Pe talon, a Mr. d4ntithies, who they tell me is a sort of , parson-farme :, and one of that ridiculous faction who still call themselves Whigs, got up and proposed, without Ordtir, without method, without, as the saying is, sit her rhyme or reason, a parcel of reso lutions that Ise had drawn up, and the bare reading of which was quite sufficient, for their fate was de cided in the laugh which they excited ; and they were never thought of afterwards. What sort of a man this St - tallies was, and what degree of atten tion he was 'worthy of, the reader will know at once, when I tell him that he had no argument to.offer In opposition to the Petition; but that, almost the .whole of 14s speech consisted in personal invective against me ; just in the same blackguard language that is used on the same subject and with the same vies., by the trailing company of men and women ss ho own the Old Times. Smithies was followed l ty a sort of Earrister, they say he is, from Leon instt t-, whose-time they told me was Davis. This mai I went on much in the same strain with Smithies; but with this improvement in point of mean ness Om 11 lawyer so far) that he brought ont an old Register, in winch I had censured and ridiculed the farmers. The conduct of these men seemed to exile great and;generat contempt and disgust, and appear ed to be 1 tarticularly offensive to the Lord Lieutenant, who, as f ar as one could judge from looks and ,gestures, felt hints !if exceedingly insulted by their ribaldry. Mr. Knight, Mr. Charlton, Mr. Clive, and even Mr. Lilly, who had, occasion to speak afterwards, all of them took occasion to express, in terms more or less strong, their disapprobation of the conduct of these two men, who were n icessantly hissed and reprobated by a large part e the Meeting. Tin! next step as to the proceedings of the day, was a Petition presented to the Meeting by Mr. Charlton, a copy of which (as correctly-as I can give it) will be found below. The Lord Lieutenant now found himself with three amendments, one succeeding the other, before him. The course he bad to pursue was to put the last amendment first; and upon his putting that amendment, I offered myself to speak. It was growing late, and therefore my intention was merely to give a little lashing to Smithies and Davis for the brutal part of their conduct, forming, as it did, so striking a contrast with that of every gentleman who had spoken; but, they and others bad taken care that I , t i si ttgiskl have no opportunity of replying. A noise jet bp the Moment .1 begonia .peak, and, which , 'Ms singularly &riling: aaaaid.44 P lo *-clalaw - , r-..:~ . • . •• •-+••- •.•• 3 T. putting of the Petition was avoided. But 1 wish reader to bear in mind what I have here stated speeling the sentiments of the speakers with 'ego that Petition. One dissented from the proposi rous for my not being heard, were these two very dirty men. The Lord Lieutenant addressed the Meeting several times, explained to them how clear it was that I had a right to be heard ; and at last he said, " Mr. Cobbett will jud4e for himself whether " it be discreet under the present circumstances of " the Meeting to insist upon his right ; but it is my " duty to declare to the Meeting; and I do declare " that he has that right." The noise, however, and interruption continued; but, while it was going on, a very curious proceeding was taking place between the two factions; and the result was no less than a coalition between the two ; a coalition between the Pittites and the Whigs ; the object of which coalition was, the preventing of my petition being adopted by the Meeting. The coal ition having been formed, and the parts all arranged, Mr. Pattershall, who had moved the first resolution, rose, and moved for leave to withdraw that resolution in order that his 'Nati zans might join with the Whigs with the viewof carrying the Petition tendered by Mr. Charl ton. This motion of Mr. Pattershail for wiltlrawing having been seconded, it was carried—There, then, in that very carrying, was nog Petition made the Petition of the Meeting. The re: ,le: will observe that my motion was that this siidp/g the place of that resolution. The of my motion were, " That the Petition now read be the I'e i:ion of tb:s Meeting." This was an Am ,iiti.nent upon Mr. Pat tershall's Resolution; au. the Meeting having voted that that Resolution should be withdrawn , that coy vote made the Pei &on the Petition of the Meeting. Here, then, was most cur;ously disorderly work, for here was a Petition carried; absolutely made the Petition of the Meeting ; and, yet the Lord Lieateaant proceeded to put Mr. Charlton's Petition as an arneatl ment upon my. Petition ! By this time, however, the ' confusion and uproar became so great, that no man, who was not close to the Lord Lieutenant, could tell what was going on. In this state of confusion, hi s Lordship pat Mr. Charlton's Petition in the affirma tive, and, as near as I coald guess, about a fifth part of the hands were held up ;or it. He then in great haste put it in the negative, before the hands were taken'down, and without any explanation what ever as to what was doing. Much the same number of hands were still held up, and had been kept up all the time, but his Lord ship declared the motion to be carried in the affirmative ; and, in the same breath declared the Meeting dissolved, and at the very instant hastily' got out of the Chair and left the Hall ! So great was his precipitation, and such was the state of irregularity and confusion, that a motion which was afterwards made for signing the Petition, and another motion for the county members presenting the Petition, were, in tact, no motions at all. The Chair was empti ; the Atte:Log was dis robed, before these motions were made. There was no person who had authority to put them. They were nugatory. They were nothing at all, any more than the noise of the ballad-singer in the street. And, in all probability, the Lord Lieutenant, when he rellehts op these Bungs, will not put his name to such a Petition ; and the Couaty Members, who were both present, cart, I am certain, never tell the House of Commons that Mr. Charlton's Petition was the Petition of the County of He:etord. The cause of all this precipitation and confusion was, as the reader will clearly see. to avoid a clear pntting of my petition to the Ilie-eing. The Meeting, not duly apprized of what was going on, we:e waiting to hear my Petition pat to them, and they were utterly astonished when they saw the Lord Lieutenant go away. The coalesced Whigs and Pi...i.ev could see clearly that they did no: one dare suffer the Meeting to understand what was goia . .t on. The: object was, thererore, to set my Petition as . de by a species of hubbub-like proceeding; b.e, the: aciveit to the etFect which the wittetrawiag tir Mr. Patterthall's resolution had upon my Pe ;ion ; aid thin 3 spear to have overlooked (in their :paste to get -hi Load Lieu tenant out of the Chair,) the awkward circumstance, that now there is no Petitfon, orderea to be signed or to be presented to the Pa:Waxen:. Any resolutions hat they might pass, in their jun . ° a: boat end of the gallery; any reso talons thrt taey may pre:end to have passed, they can never As:ea maim the Meeting; for; the Meeting was dissolved. 'The very instant my Lord Somers said " I deci3 re the motion carried," in the very same breath lie "mad I declare this Meeting dissolved." His words were all one sen tence, the two parts connected by the copulative coajunction and. There is no Petition voted, ex cept mine ; and there is no Petition at all ordered to be signed or orde-ed to be presented to the Par liament. The Meeting was dissolved, and the Chair man gone, before any such motions were made ; and most certainly, if the Petition of Mr. Charlton be presented to the House of Commons, I shall, along with others, present a Petition to the House stating these circumstances. However, something of much more importance than this little tricking took place at the Meeting. In the first place, every document presented to the Meet inz,, from whatever party, proposed, in some silage of other, to reduce Vie interest of the National Debt; every speaker (I do no: include Smithies and Davis) spoke in favour of reduction of the interest of the Debt; the Norfolk Petition was canvassed in all its Mr. ; and every one of the speakers said (even I Mr. Lilly) that he saw in it a great deal to approve of; the greater part said, that they saw but very little to disapprove of ; and the main argument against its adoption was, its having been tendered by a person not connected with the county. I shall show, another tine, how different was the opinion of the Meeting at law. I have shown by what coalition and tricks the fairq with regard to the Church Property; but anoti4 assented to that; another said nothing about the Crown-lands; but anothcr was for selling, not only the Crown-lands, but the Corporation-lands alto. Sp that there was not one single proposition in the NoaS folk Petition, which wos not, first or last, sanctioned by some one or other of these coalesced parties. Ml*l on'y wanted Mr. Ricardo, the Edinburgh Revieweii, and the rest of the Scotch Economists,at Hereford. They would have seen us striving very hard against one another about trifles; about who sbould get his Peti tion carried or his resolution adopted ; btr they would have found us all unanimity and harmony as to the re duction of the interest of the Debt. I have no time for any thing more at present I bad appointed to dine with the farmers here at Reading to.day. belore,l herd aby thing about the Hereford shire Iffeetiag; esd I sod dome, to be es good u my _ .~ ~eT~Ti, word. Suit I cannot conclude, however, without say ing, that the conduct of the Lord Lieutenant was such as did him ' g t ea t honour: He should, perhaps, have staid and hav e seen t h e quest i on f u lly a nd f a irly put to the Meeting; but when I consieer the state of con fusion in which thi ngs were , an d w hen I consider other circumstances connected with the situation of his Lordship, I must say, that I see every ;reason to ap plaud, and no reason to censure his conduct, Wit. CORBETT. London, Monday morning, 20th Jan. 1823 Below I insert the report from the Morning Chronicle, just as 1 Sod it in that paper. The Reporter bas made a mistake in the names in two instances. It was not Mr. Patmore, but Mr. Patershall. It was not Mr. Thomas Andreoight; but Mr. Thomas Andrew Knight, who i, very well known as the ingenious gentleman who is president of the Horticultural Society. Mr. Jamet Phillips is said to have seconded Mr. Charlton ; but is was Sir James Phillips. The report in the Morning Chronicle is, as far it goes, fair: though, as we shall by and by see, there is a very material error as to 'Writs. There arc some errors in the Morning Chro nicle .IBut, they are such error., as it is next toimpossible to avoid in such cases. In the report of my own special. for instance, I am made to say several things which I dial not say, while a very large part of what I did say is omitted. It is also said in this paper, that the gentle. n.an who seconded me, Mr. William Palmer, was beard with strong marks of disapprobation. The contrary Of this is the truth. Mr. Palmer is known to the whole county, and in the whole county there can not be one single man who is more respected than be is. It is impos sible to say more in his preise,and every man in the county will say that this is strictly true.ln the nextßegister 1 shat give a full report of my own speech,from notes taken upon the spot. At present, all that I shall do is, to prove the truth of the above narrative written at Reading. This is of peat importance to the whole country ; because, upon the putting of Mr. Charlton's petition, the confu• sion was so gnat that it was impossible for the Meeting to know what was really doing. If that account b,, true, there is no petition ordered by the County to presented to the Parliament. if that account be true, there is no petition ordered by the county to be signed by the Lord Lieutenant. If that accounche true, there is, in fact, no petition that can c(ime from that Meeting regularly authenticated to the Parliament. —Now, then, what are the proofs that I have to pro duce of the truth of that account ? The seader will observe that I am going to bring forward three wit nesses; the Morning Chronicle, who is a very cold friend ; and the trading companies of the Old Times and the Morning Herald, who are very sincere enemies. Each of these papers had a reporter at Hereford ; and each of them has published a report of the proceedings there ; each of them has published the account brought them by their reporter. If we take the account of any one it .woulddieein that my account as to the confusion at the close, was not correct ; but we must take the evi denCe of the three witnesses; all of whom speak from sioles wade upon the spot, you will observe. We must take die 'videos+ of the three; and if we find that no two of them agree, as to plain and short matters of fact, uur conclusion MUST be, that there is false. hood somewhere amongst them. They are all willing witnesses ; they would all establish that which would be against my statement. However they may disagree with one another in wishes as to other matters, they all agree in wishes hostile to me. If, therefore, we find, that no two of them tell the same story ; and if we find them contradicting each other, we must set their account doe n as false. Now, then, to the evidence—To begin with the Morning Chronicle, it says, that " the Chair " man said, the petition having been adopted by a ma " jority, I have now only to dissolve this Meeting. His Lordship then left the Chair, and thanks having been "voted to him, the Meeting was dissolved." The Old Times says that " the Chairman having left the Chair,' "and having that dissolved the meeting, it was then " (that is to say afterwards) moved by Mr. Chart. " ton that the Petition should be signed by the " Chairman in behalf of the meeting and also by such other freeholders as thought proper to.sign it; and that it was further moved and voted that the two members for the county should present it to the House of Commons, and that Earl Somers should present it to the House of Lords." About all this mo tion making and voting the Morning Chronicle says not a single word ; and yet its reporter sat there with pencil and book in hand; and these things were very material, because, without these motions, the whole of She proceedings became nugatory.—The Morning Herald has quite another version of the matter. It says that " the Chairman declared Mr. Charlton's petition to " have been adopted by the Meeting, and further de. ss clued that the business of the Meeting was ended; "and that he immediately left the Chair." Nov, mind, siher tbis the petition was ORDERED TO RE CI lt• LATED THROUGHOUT THE COUNTY FOR " SIGNATURES!" It is evident from all three Of the accounts, that nothing could be ordered by the Meeting ; for that the Meeting was DISSOLVED, and the Chair man gone away; but here is the .IJorniag Herold declaring that the motion was and that the vote was for circulating the petition through the county for signatures; while the Old Times asserts that the motion and vote were for the signing of the petition by the Noble Chairman in behalf of the meeting; and while the Morning Chronicle as good as says that no motions' of the kind was made and no vote taken ; for it says. that "his Lordship then left the Chair; and thanks " having been voted to him, the meeting was dissolved.' Here, then, are three stories, earls of Clem giving the li to the other two! I n what a pretty state men's proper• ties and lives would be, if evidence like this were to be received - as truth ! The fact. then, as stated by me, re ' mains uncontradicteel ; the fact that there is no petition which the meeting has ordered to be presented to the Parliament; and also that there is no petition which the meeting has requested any body to sign ; for ob. serve, every one of these papers agree in the fart stated by me; that the meeting was dissolved, and the Chair vacated in the very same breath that the 'Chairman declared Mr. Charlton's Petition to be carried.—What is the conclusion? There were three reporters with hook and pencil in hand talking netts. How came they to give three different 'I V• 10ot *tattoritan. LONDON: MONDAY RYENING. JANUARY 20, 1823. "copra!? They were sittiog, alto tether Opon.poe bench, close behind the ginitman. isoW cßme they to write down 'three different Recounts? Twikof them must lam written down falsehoods. Did they write them down intentionally ; or have the trading china - nies written then fee them in London! No•matter. Two out of three must have told lies... Have they told the lies intentionally, or, have they told theto in. cooee quence of the confusion that prevailed, and which pre vented them from finding out what Was., really going on? No matter; again I say so matter.• Two, out of the three; at least, have told falsehoods. Neither pats a name to what he writes or publishes. I put my name and I appeal to all the persons present. • Their account cannot •be believed ; • and that my account is true will be believed by every man in the kingdom that reads . it. In the narrative front Reading 1 stated that the two factions having co l aleeced ; having formed a coalition in the hope of heir g able to over power my petition, my petition becac.c carried by the withdrawing of the Resolution of Aft: Pattershall. All the three accounts agree that all resolution, to which my petition was an amendment,we': withdrawn btfore Mr. Charlton's petition was put. I called out at the time, " then my petition is carried ! And, certainly it was carried, the moment the Meeting voted the withdrawing of the resolution to which it was an amendment. In giving the Report of the proceeding' , these honest witnesses forgot that they were establishing. this Let ; and if they had not forgot it they would has found it very difficult indeed to disfigure it. The Reader will perceive bow true it was, as stated i t, my account from Reading, that all the sets of propositions presented to the Meeting, con tained a prayer for reduction of the interest of the Debt. The reader will also see that every one of the speakers expressed a wish to see the interest of the Debt reduced. Ile will also see, that even the bitterest of my opponents expressly declared, that in the main they agreed with the Norfolk petition. The readers wiil see further that it is I who have caused this grand stir arid discussion in the distant county of Hereford; and, when he looks well through the whole of the proceed ings; when lie considers the jealousy, envy and malice of the trailing companies, and the strong desire they have to give a bias and a colouring to every thin., against me; when he considers well the circumstanci, of the confusion that prevailed at the putting of Mc. Charlton's petition ; of the hasty retreat of the Chair• man from the Chair; of the unfinished manner in whirl; the busiLeAS was left; of the want of authority to sig n, or to present the petition; when he considers all these circumst.lnces,and sees the'proof of the falsehood ' contained in the reports of the Trading companies, who join dealings in news to dealings in stocks ; when he considers all these circumstances, he will be perfectly satisfied that my petition, which really was carried by the withdrawing of the resolution of Pattersball, would, if it had been fairly pnt to the meeting, have been carried by a majority of four to one, For such 1 declare to be the fact, if that fact be to be inferred from the number of hand held up for Mr. Charton's petition, There now remains to make a decent little exuosure of certain things that did not come before the Meeting, relative to my conduct at Hereford, For this.exposure 1 bare not room to-day. If Mr. Charlton should find any thing net unpleasuit in it to himself, the fault will be his and not mine. lie most not suppose that I BM to suffer the Trading companies to make use of his name, and, in some sort, with his authority, too, for the purpose of aspersing me. I must make the consequences fall upon himself; and, as to Mears. doodle and Doodle, they will, of course, not expect to escape from the whiptli at they have made for themselves. It is very easy to pet a score or two of fellows to snake a noise in a Hall; but Mr. Charlton and Mr. Pattershall, coalesced as they are, will find that there are conse quences, and consequences, too, of long duration, attend ing every attempt at foul play. Before 1 have done with Mr. Charlton, t shall, I think, convince him that lie wonld bare been wise to reni.dn at Brighton of to have acted a much hirer part at llereford.—To show wh it credit is due to any thing stated by the trading mom• panics, let us teke two passages from the Old Tiotts of this day. That trailing company asserts, in one part of its report that I made every effort on Thursday night to obtain some communication eel,' the gentlemen of the county who meant to take a pars in the meeting; but that my efforts were received with scorn, and that none of them would hold any connate,. cation with me. The very same trading company, ;•1 its report of Mr. Knight's speech, has this passage:— "Hr (Mr. Knight) wished very much that Mr. " Cobbett had shewn him his petition last " night." Ile should like to see two or three "parts of it expunged, particularly that respecting th • •• rents; for how could those be diminished, and the lan-- " lord still open to every other claim." Now, then, what I liar this trading company is; what shocking liars must ha.. is been at work here. The whole appears to have been writ; by the reporter; and what a roan must this reporter be ; what shocking wreteltes this company must have is employ, when this same man, after having heard and written down this declaration of Mr. KNIGHT, — he could afterwards deliberately put upon paper the statement respecting the efforts 1 made and the scorn ith which they were met by the country gentlemen ! The truth is, however, that this latter part was not the writing of the Reporter, except by command from the trading company. The Reporter knew it to be false, hot Lis vile employers made him write, if he did write it to answer their purpose.--The public may be satisfied, that the trading companies are in a very desperate way. The struggle is between them and me; and I venture to predict that their trade with be destroyed • aye, actually destroyed, before this day two years. — made no efforts to have communication witis any body. Efforts were made to have communication with me. The history of these efforts is as yet un known to the yeomanry of Hereford in general. To morrow they swill he made fully known to the whole country. WM. COBBETT. STOCK EXCHANGE, HALF PAST TS o'CLoce.—At th opening of the mnrket there was ouch bustle, in eonsequer of several expresses having arrived from Paris, bringing t French Funds Saf 30c, and Spanish 49, 44, and. at Ciento— . 4/10. Consols opened at 7iiij, and nre at present 7Sig. A great deal of business is doing in the Foreign Market. FOREIGN Ft , NDS.—In consequence of the fall in Span:::. Bonds at Paris, they opened here to-day at 47, got up to fu.., and then lowered to 4741, at which price they remain. Chili, 73—New SPalliab. 47& to }—Old, nothing doing— New Prussian, hd—Old, SB—Russia, Sli—Danish, it*4 —Neapolitan 7.3—Colombian. 61—Spanish Scrip IS din. SMITHFIELD MARKET. JAN. 20.—then have seieewhak fallen in prier, but for sheep a bighcr price was asked than last market day. CORN EXCHANGE, JAM. ?O.—Business way be stated as et a stand, Irma the seventy of the weather, aad e' el pric Oresari parcels as last week. :~ismm~ , '. ~K ~" I 1 I -t • 'l- I ; I.' S