The Statesman. — London, England, 1810-06-09 00:00:00

No. Ir 7 rr'ri SIIDDLESEI PRTITIOB*. House of Commons, and if we are not there in a reasonable time, the doors will be shut against as. I hope, therefore, you will allow the business to ' proceed without interruption. Mr. Sheriff Atkins expressed himself to the same effect. HACKNEY MEETING. The Freeholders of Middlesex must have been :Jst to every sense of their own dignity, they would have compromised their character, and the rights of their fcliow-eithiens, if they could trmety, sod without a jest expression of their in. dignation, have submitted to the contemptuous re. jection of their Faith* by the persons compos. ing the preseti,t House of 'Commons, who have un constitutionally endeavoured to convert into an engine of popular tyranny, those privileges which were entrusted to them only as a barrier against regal influence, and aristocratical oppression. It Was hardly to be supposed that the Freeholders of t h e first Province in Great. Britain, would, with. out remonstrance, endure the insult they had ro.' ,rived from those who arrogantly call themselvep the Representatives of the Country--they were Lensible, that if their Petition was couched lux strong and ene.rgetic language, the wrongs of h hich they chtiplained were not of an ordinary description, but might well have justified expres. sions of reprobation infinitely more forcible than those they had adopted. Urged by these feelings, a Meeting of the Freeholders of Middlesex was yesterday convened at the Mermaid, at Hackney, to lake into coital. deration the rejection of their late Petition by the House of Commons. At one o'clock, the She. riff, M. Wood, Esq. and John Atkins, Esq. took the. Chair in the Great 4Loom. Mr. Sheriff Wood was very much cheered, but Mr. Sheriff Atkins was received with undisguised marks of disappro. batien. Mr. Sheriff' WOOD came forward to address the Freeholders. He had scarcely began, whoa there was a general cry of " Green, Green," while , others exclaimed " No, No." At this time the room was by no means crowded. Mr. Sheriff WOOD.--Gentlemen, I really think you will be much better accommodated *here you are. The room evidently is not above., two.thirds full. I cannot see the advantage of adjourning to the Green, where you will be ex posed to the burning heat of the sun, while here you will be itrthe shade. I will take care that you shall have all the air that can be admitted, and li am sure that every Gentleman will hear much better where he is. There was still violent clamours by the persons who wisht.d the Meeting to adjourn to the Green. Mr, Sheriff WOOD.—Gentlemen, the Requi. sition I hold in my hand is signed by a great num. ber of Freeholders. Perhaps you will be satisfied with hearing the Requisition read, without repeat. ing the signatures, which will occupy a -consider able portiosat dine. I will request the Under Sheriff to read , the ILequisitiets. Mr. SMITH attempted to read the Requisition, but he was iaterrupted by those who wished for an adjournment. Mr. Sheriff ATKlNS.—Gentlemen, my col. leave has offered you his reasons why we should not adjourn. We wish to give you every possible accommodation, but it is necessary that von should pay attention to our authority.—The Requisition was then read, but not generally heard. One of the Freeholders addressing the Sheriff, said the room was too small, for that the great body of the Freeholders were on the outside. A considerable tumult ensued; and some person. used the exclamation " turn him ow.' ' Mr. Sheriff WOOD.—That is language which is very improper to be used—l viii nut hear any one desire that another may be turned out. I uish to act with partiality to one party as well as to another; bat I will not suffer such lan. page to be used by either.— (" Brares, 1) rains!" the noise increase.l.)—Gentlemen, I have already cltimated to you that if the room appeared to be too small, I would adjourn to the Green ; but as I (:..) nut at present see aiy necessity, you must al. 'to , us to proceed to business. Mr. Byng attempted to speak, but Mr. Sheriff A tkins would not suffer him. Mr. Clifford also ea.;ic forward, but Mr. Sheriff Atkins iusisted the Freholtlers should not be addressed by'any one tilt the proceedings were regularly opened. Mr. Sheriff Wood and Mr. Sheriff Atkins again arldressA the Meeting, hut the room rapidly fil 7 ling, and the clamour being universal, the question IPLS put to the spew of hands, and the majority -.vas decidedly in favour of an a.!jourinnent to the nreett. It appeared afterwards, that there were nearly a thousand MOW. Freeholders than the room would have contained waiting at the outside. The Requisition was again read by Mr. Smith, the Under Sheriff. Mt. Sheriff WOOD.—Gentlemen, I have to re. geese you will ;say ail thatattention which is item., sary at a Public Meeting of this kind. I trust you %Pi permit every man to have an impartial hear ing, in order that there may be no cause for one party or .he other to say .that they have not been fairly heard. It is only by acting upon that prin., , lade you can know what men's sentiments are, Without hearing them you can form no judgment i of their merits ; unit if you do not this dry give every oue an impartial hearing, I shall feel it E* duty to break up the Meeting. Allow me to "!,,it the other Sheri ff and n i yself have another lit; t to atteud to. We have to carry a Petitioo to the. Mr. CLlFFORD.—Gentlemen Freeholders of the County of Middlesex, I am extremely sorry to inform you, that m_ y f riend Mr. Townshend, whp moved the last Petition, the rejection of which we complain of, is prevented (rote attending you by a severe illness • I have, therefore, been de. sired to state to you the object of the . Meeting, and to propose to you smother Petition to the House of Commons. I am peculiarly unfitted for doing so upon the present occasion, because I have myself bee* long labddelrig under a well illness, from , the effects of.-. Which I, have scarcely recovered, and I fear I sh k all hardly ,y' sufficient strength, without your kind indef... genco towards me, to go through the duty which', the circumstance I have mentioned has imposed, upon me.—(Cheerie es and plaudits.s)—Gentle. men, of all the Middlesex Meetings I ever was at, I never witnessed any which, front its appearance, gav‘ use so much pleasure and satisfactiou as the present one. Ido remember at some former Middlesex Meetings at which, whatever might -be the difference of Opinion on political subjects, the expression of their . - political sentiments was at. tended • the subject matter of them fairly dig. cuss etii— tithe motions which were produced by cantos ng opinions, were carried or rejected ac- 1 cortlineto the sense of the majority of the Free. holders, after hearing all the arguments on both sides. .01 late we have seen something of a very dif ferent intern ; it Is true, we have seen at those Meetings which have been censtitotionallycalled;l the voice and sense of • the Freeholders of this County,—and, I believe, of the Public in general, echoed and re-echoed; but we have also seen unconstitutional, I had almost said Jaeo.' binical, meetings of persons, professing themselves . to be Freeholders of hliddlesex,held in private rooms , and taverns. We have' seen these persons, for the most nefarious ends, hiding and skulking iii - the dark, and never daring to meet their antago nists in the open day. Ido hope that the lie will be given by the conduct of this Meeting, to the slanderous aspersions which have been cast upon' the Freeholders of Middlesex, In and out of the 'House of Commons.. I trust that it will no longer be said, that persons who differ from you' in opt. mien, in vain endeavour to obtain a patient hear ing, There arc .persons present who differ from my sentiments and yours, and I will do them the justice to say, that they think they honourably differ from us—men who have signed the Counter. declaration, of which sit lately heard so much. I think It auspicious to the cause of the People of England that they are here. I beg, if they 'offer themselves, they may be heard attentively ; fur I am persua ded, that the more their principles are discussed, and the more they are contrasted with yours, the more converts we shall have. As a zealous reformer of the abuses of our Coustitutiun,. and as an ardent friend to the rights and privileges of the People, I do hope that those whose upi. nions are different from ours, will be allowed the full opportunity of expressing them, satisfied that by so doing they will be convinced, that they are combating arguments, of the truth and justice of which the majority of the People of England are thoroughly convinced. Having said thus much, I do not think I need long detain you. You well know that's petition was *deed' to at a former meeting, and that it has been rejected by the House of Commons; and here . l'hes . particol o srly to address myself to one of your Shinbers, I mean' M. Mellish—there is a part of his public conduct, as a Member of that House, which calls ter some explanation. I know not whether the nords re.' ported to have been used by him in the House of Commons, were actually used by him or not; I only know, that they have appeared in the News papers as having been uttered by him. He has been supposed to have said that the List .11i;eting, though it was numerous, was not a Meeting or the Freeholders • that it was not a respectable Meeting ; and that it was far from declaring the sentiments of the Freeholders in general. Mr. Mellish, I think, cannot be offended that I have taken notice of this circumstance. If he did say so, I must differ froth hiM, for I must own, that I never NM a (Wore respect- able Meeting assemble(' thin ' ;hat wae.--H If there - were any persons preterit who li ere nig, I Freeholders, it was open tO those Who were Free. holders to object to theta, and . doubtless they would have departed. I think the best test if j their being Freeholders was the personal knowledge which the members themselves must have had of them. I know of no persons who could better have had it in their power to ,detect these whe being present at a County Meeting *ire nut Free. holders, than your own Representatives,' end yet no objection was made to any one at 'the time. I should hope, therefore, that if knowing there are persons present who are not Freeholders, they neglect to point them out, they will not afterwards, by their language in the Muse of Commons, give a sanction to observations in tho newspapers, to the effect that your meetings arc nut composed of Freeholders, and therefore 'arc not respectable. Gentlemen, the Petition which has been rejected by the House of Commons we are told has been rejected on different gresinds :--f-the grounds upon which we sederstsnd our Petition has been re jected are these—that it contains certain situp ' 40w. which were not believed by the House to he ;trust that it wee - not worded to a misuser ie tk. "~ * ( - •'•••.. - ' -` ' : ••:. ~ . . ..,. . . , •,•‘!.. it . . . . . • . •w .. .. ,e, '',.'' t. Tt ~ . . . • ...P . - ' • —.— ..^..--; :.• - .. ' •!•_••,...,: t!--, -- .le.:•‘e•- 1. - . •-•••4 4 1m-•-•• • . - ---• :: - •. . . . • . - • :-...., .• . • . . . • • 'a."... ' '<e - ' '.."'N ' ' ' ' ,l , t ~,,•fr "". C.. ' ' .. . ~ '''' •• '. ... - • . '''''.'' ...N. . • 5 .... ••1 . . . . 1. . . -A • t• -•••••-... -,- . • r e . / li t t4 4 • tee -•- -tr • •• . . . ~ ...0-- - L • :!.. •. ' • . o rtig . t; - 47 # l5 ' . .': ', • • i SA . ....• 4 . . A -.: . 0 . , . ....„-- ...._ . ,,, , 1,4 . • . . • • . . • • . i .' ' " • 2 l 'l , • . . f• .. ' • t '. .. ~ -•-; 9 :' . ' • , .1 .1... . Nk t'`` N .."' 'l' - C • v. . C .. • --....— ' ' , 'ls I. do , . 3367. :CONDON _ .. . . .. . • . S4T11111) - A If, -JUNE . 9, 1810. .. . spectful a, it ought to have t ,l that it was 'ivied by n small number of persons; that it eon. tained a Protest against the Privileges, and spoke in terms of contempt of the dignity of the Heise: of Commons—these are I believe the only ground's upon which \ the House of Commons thought it right not to receive . our Petition. Now I am convinced there tis no person who must not be sensible that the first. principle of Reform is to make that House as respectable as possible, and that consequently our first object must bt' to exalt the House of Commons 'truly representing the people. It therefore never could be *an object with us to use offensive lenggage towardi the House of Commons, with n'view to lesion its im portance, or insult kt_dignite. Though- I leave iitudied chi English language with as much awl s deity as I blue been able, 'I hive never learet'hOsi it was possible to complain of corrupt in-dui:lice ill -the House of Commons without telling that body. they were corrupt. In every ,case where I corn. plain against a person fin an offence, I mast of necessity tell him he has been guilty of that of.. fence. The Douse of Common; bay it is true you have a right to Petition...it is true you have a right to complain of corruption ; but if you pre• sume to tell us that we are corrupt, we will nut 'receive your Petition. Gentlemen, I think ,it would be extremely improper in us not to persist in adopting that language which is truly coustitu_ tional, merely because the House of Commons have rejected our Petition. We should betray the duty we owe to ourselves as freemen if we were to shrink from that language which we know to be right; theiefore in the Petition which I shall have the honour of reading tq ;you we state the. grotuds on which the various allegations in our: former Petition' arc *founded. We state, by re..` ferefice to the• Journals of Parliament, that the words we have used are proper Words to be used, and as they are offended that we state their con duct to be a violation of the Law and the Bill of Rights, we state hi our present Petition that it proceeds upon the same principle, which, con. demned as illegal the punishment of the seven BishOps for declaring to the King that his conduct was unjust and unconstitutional. Gentlemen, the terms' of our Petition are justified by a Poi. - don of the Electors of Westminster, presented to the House in 1779, by General Fitzpatrick ; it is further justified by the terms in which the mis. of Commons complaiiied of the conduct of the House of Lords. Our Petition was drawee with reference to 'these precedents, and we could not possibly have thought it could be offensive whew we had called the very expressions used by the House' of Commons itself at a period when their rights were attacked by the Lords. The orator, after referring to and repeating part t( the eloquent argument used by Sir J. Throginorton, proceeded. ( ientlenieni we have in drawing this Petition stated the grounds on which we think the facts contained in OUT for. trier Petition arc trite, and on which we think the law resultingfrom them is correct. 'We conclude by praying the House not only to take our pre. .sent Petition into consideration, but also to re. ceire our former one. Gentlemen, there have . been some curious debates of late respecting the Bill fur abolishing Pensions and Sitteture Pieces : it has been urged agaiiiit Col. Wardle and others, who have been liieketi up to as the immediate friends of Sir F. Burdett, that upon those occa. sions they icre not present. Friend as lam to Reform, I should not have thought it worth my while to have gone out of the way to support such questions, and I will explain my reason by a simile. If a person is ill, and calls a physician to his aid, that physician would ill perform his duty, and his prescriptions would be of little avail, if he should apply his medicaments to a few blotches in the face, while at the samu time ho left the constitte.• tion of his patient iu a state of impurity and cer. ruption. I wish to set you and the public at large right upon tuffs subject. I know that the object of Colonel Wardle iff to promote a radical Re form ; the ground on which he wishes to do so is, that he is conscious there are abuses existing which threaten to unilermiae the very existence of the country. He wishes todestroy every thing that is hostile to the interests of the people. I, adopting his principle upon that subject, could nut think it necessary to attend to questions of subordinate. inquiry,, with regard to reversions and sinecure. places, while at the same time there was any thing left behind which might made and destroy the Constitution. _Let people only, explain the terms they use we are for Reform,, shut not for revolu tion—though; perhaps, the necessary Reform we seek might,.'by some of those wleo are supporting the present corrupt 'system, be called revolution.. -We wish foss a House of Commutes which shall got be composed of jobbers, contractors, and public peculators. If we have a commote interest top. (her, we shall hue a common understanding with each other. We are told that reversions ace to be abolished, and sinecures to be dune away ; but what will be the conscqueuoc if, we have nut a Re. form in the House of Commons ? None of the money will ever revert to the people, but it will afford the Minister an additional means (of corrup. tion. The only remedy for the evil is a Reform in Parliament, for if you have an honest House of Commons, no Minister will ever dare togive sine. cure places to persons who, by their public con duct, have rendered themselves offeoisive to the people; I wish, therefore, that the people would otiderstund that what is celled ettonoinical Reform is nothing but a delusion calculated to impose upon them. Gestletries4 1, feel exhausted, and I shall now read to you the Ttesulations and Petition we mesa its propose. Gentlemen, you silt observe ;' ll gl , ~_- ;. 1 ..• A • ; • 4 TET, .P ACE sin.' .: . that the reason why the Petition is signed' bionly . twenty Freeholders is this : the House of.Com s mons has found•fault with us for only having hail eight or nine names to our fortnerePetition: It has generally been the custom to have only the names of the Sheriff and a few of the rreeholders 7-in 'fact there is an Act of Parliament. which enacts that there shall be no more .than toenty , nimbi to any petition ; and therefore, as we did . • . not wis h to.make ourselves liable to a penalty at the suit of a common informer, we have never had the Petition signed by more than nine or ten is holders, [This speech teas frequently interrupted by plaadits tia. delpressionrof approbation.] The first . Itesuluden and Petition were then . .• read it Mr; -Currants, bet - heap:We had finished rotding.the Petition, he*as, from the weakly state of his health, oisliged to give it to another Gen , tteutatt.—The Petition is as Tollows : That on the ?6th day of April last, your Petitioners, in ' All Comity assembled, agreed to a Petition, which was pre. rented to your Honourable house on the ad of May last, and ' which. your Petitioners have been informed. seas rejected by • your Ituauurable,House, because certain allegations therein contained were believed not to be true ; because it was not ~ thought its be worded in a sufficient) res Amman I was e. signed by a small amber of F `par ro trotest against your proceedings; and been tiktnlss ei. to he • au attempt to degrade your klunon • of their Your Petitioners complain of this -Peti tion. The free toil encontronled e of the right of peti ti. wing was claimed; demanded, insisteditas aid rmoirtned by the Bill of !tights, as one of the true, andeut, and indubitable rights and liberties of the People of this kingdom. That sta tute declares, '' that it is the right of the Subject to petition the King, and all coionsitmeuts and prosecutions/wank pi* tinning are illegal." It had never thee occurred, even to the tyrant James, to refuse to receive the Petitions of the People. • is it, then, to be permitted to them to tell the King with im puuity (as the Seven Bishops did, in that detested reign);that " his proceedings are illegal s" and not to tell their owp ter- Vallig, professing to represent them, that t' they hive violin eat the Law and the Coo titutioo s" or to protest against their acts when they deprive them of their rights, or subvert their liberties ? But to reason on so plain a point is adomosary. A right to petition, and a right to refuse to receive Petitions cannot exist together. Your Petitioners assure your Honourable House, that the assertions contained in their rejected Petitions are trutlk; which they trust they shall mete evident to sour Honourable • .House. "'That in the cases of Mr. John Gale Jones and Ste E raucis Burdett, your House manned and exercised o potter Unknown to the Law, and unwarranted by the Constitution," is -manifest from the statutes enumerated in the Act of 16 Charles I. for abolishing the infamous Court of Star Chamber, which recites, " That by the Great Ciairter maopvbees con fi rmed Ju Parliament, it u enacted, That no fr ee maa shall be taken or , imprisoned, or be outlawed or exiled, or otherwise destroyed ; mid that the King a ill not parsupon bist r o` cendemq bitrirbut by the lawful judgment of his Peen * or by the la* of the butt". Autby another statute, rota la the htb sear of the '; reign of King Edward 111. it is enacted , That ass ma n shall be attached by any ataisatioa, or forejudged of his, life or limb, nor his bads, teoements, goods nor chattels seized into the King's hands against the fono .of ihe Great Charter, we f theta* of the land. And by another statute, made in the With 1 year of the sante King Edward 111. it is accorded. assented, jend established, " That none shall be taken by petitioatursurs oration made to the King, or to his Council, unless it be by in `&emetic ill, presentment of good and lawful people of the saute neighbourhood where web deeds be done, its due manner, or I by process made by writ original at the Cranium 'Law ; and I that Wile be put uut of his franchiie or freehold, uuless he be 1 duly brought iu to answer, and forejudged of the seine by the 1 course of the Law ; and if any thing be done against the same, !it shall be redressed and holden fur none." AM by another I statute, made in the adth year of the reign of the same K lug Edward 111. it is arnougit gtherthints selected. " Tbat no neu4 . of What estate or condition suinet he be, shall be pet oat Dr his lauds or teneineots, our takhi nor imprisoned, mit disiete , rited, without being brought into answer by ice" protest of Lao." Aud by another statute, made in the 496 year of the reign of the said King Edward ill. it is enacted, "That no ; man he Intl to answer without presentment before Justices, ur twitter isfrecord, or by due process nod writ original, accord ', Mg to the old Law of the Land ; and if any thing be doge to I the contrary . , it shall be void its law, and holden for error." Y our Petitioners, therefore, a ere jostifiod is asserttng,that the committal to prison of Mr. John Gale Jones and Sir Francis Burdett, in punishment for libel without trial bY' Jury, is "a practice unknown to the Law, and totwarraate.o by the Constitution." That " the Speaker's warrant has been executed by tntlia, tary fuzee—an Englidunsiu's house, his sanctuary, has bent' violated, and the blood of unotiendiog Citiaeus has been shed in the streets, " bas been proved at the Bar of your Honour able House, and by two verdicts of Wilful Monier against certain of his Majesty's Life Guards. That " the Letter of Sir Francis Burdett to the Speakers denying the jurisdiction of the House, has been directed out to be entered on the Jeannie of yner Hoaeorable Ileum s " will appear by reference to your pouted Votes, That' in the'early part of this reign, is the case of Mr. Wilkes, the rights of Otis County, ants of the Nation, were grossly violated by the House of Commons ;" that "aelengtlt the low triumphed ;" that " after a struzgle of nearly twenty years, the Horse abandoned the pretensions they had urns- Fated, mid expuged frosts their Journals all their Llectara nem, Orders, and Itesoletions, as being spbvenive of this rights of the whole body of Electors of this Kiagdom," arc farts reoardcd in the Journals of your flonourable House, Your Petitioners have now fully established the truth n 1 the allegutions Contained in their rejected Petition, nd ei bleb ' they know not how to set forth in any but the plain and ho nest la tune they have used—language in which they feel justified by prece&mt, and by the example of your Hooour able House, who, in the ressons given to the Lords against their claim to appellant jurisdiction, informed their Lord ships, that " they were contriving by all methods to bring the determination if liberty . and property into the bottomless and iumtiable gulf of their Lordship s judicature, which stupid swallow up both the Prerogatives of the Crown and the Liberties of the People;" and further, "that their Lord ships had assumed sued exercised judicature, contrary to the known laws and customs of Parliament. and tending to the overthrow of the Eights and Liberties of the People of Eng land." As to the number of sigoistorcs to their former Petition, your* Pei it issuers were guided by the Law of the Land, which directs that no snore than twenty signatures should be affixed ' Wady Petition to the King or either House of Parliament. " Against the existeuce, as well as the exercise of the power assumed by your Han. House s '' your retitiouers did iii theirslute Petition, and do now, " solemnly protest ;" and they nee satisfied, that its so protesting, they are justified • by numerues precedents, particularly by a Petition of the Bettors of Westminster, tuserted in your Journals of the 54 day of February, ritls: wherein they " solemnly pretit against the origiu and principle of certain Resolutious of your Hon. Roosts, as contrary to the spirit and practice of the Coustitutioa, to the plainest provisions both of Common tied ' Statute Law, and to the Itiglin nod Privileges of the Electors of tires* Britain. Your Petitioners assure you, they had no intention to de grade your flon. House. They knew that no language they cueld possibly use, could degrade your Hon. noose. By its o wain:time atom can it be degraded its the minds of the recipient England. Your Petitioners are firmly attached to, and will Uphold t he form of Gorernment, cemented by the blood, and est*- . Wished be the wisdom of their ancestors; they mere the Kingly Ace; they respect the House of Peers—and ate of opinion, that a House really representing the Commune attire :United K ingdom,would secure all the blessings of our fresCon monism ; and that person:: fairly elected to i scat to sock a thaw, would have an tumour conferred span there greaser thsui any o hick Kings or Emperors cats bestow. floor fee your Honourable Huthe is gich a representation of the peo ple-and hew mousy of your lionerable Members are thus • 0 4 - • • • ~ ~. ~~ w Y . • .. . .".. %.4 , __~__i ~~ ~ , I