The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1809-05-02 00:00:00

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tion plainer than it must appear to their enD minds,
or force a conviction of that which their attendance
torte, this.day, proves they 'are amply and folly
convuiced of. (Plaudits). Aud, Gentlemen, if
I feel any difficulty upon this great and im-
portant subject of Parliamentary Reform, it is
, that sort of diMculty which one never fails to feel,
when we are pot As it were to make that evident by
reasoning, which must appesr evident to every
man at first sight, as a first principle. It is era-
dentlytrue, that day is day, and night is night,
an i d it s unnecessary to attempt to prove the inn-
pOsition. It is equally evident, for nathing can be
clearer, than that if you have not the appointMent
of those who look and watch over your interests—
those interests will be very little likely to meet
with due atteiition. I have often heard many and I
well-informed persons declare, that they felt ex-
treme difficulty in manor up their minds to
the questiou of Parliamentary Reform, and I
- have been surprised to heat this from Gelitic-
iliVll of estates and station in the country, whose
minds I should have thought mere informed,
aml whose practice, when it came in aid of their
11,,1 interests, uniformly Mewed th it it required nu
• ...agth of understanding to perceive the truth of
t:.e proposition. When these gentlemen appoint
persons to manage their estates, they think it right
that the appointment should depend upon their
own judgment, and not upon the judgment of
others. They would think it extraordinary, if a
parcel of stewards shoold gat together, and make
appointments among themselves, for the manage-
ment of Gentlemen's estates. If these stewards had
it right to nominate themselves as the !imagers of
the estates of gentlemen, it would appear as a sin-
gular, as well an unjust and ' pernicious me-
, tlioil—now this is simply the ease with respect
to the public. The question is, whether the
people should armoint their own stewards or
whether other persons, and a small portion in-
deed they are, should have the right to appoint
those who are to watch overthe interests of the whole.
'This matter has been so amply, simply, and ably
'toted to the politic, in the year 1793, by the so-
ciety called " The Friends of the People. that it
is unnecessary for me to tukie up your time' by go-
Lng into any detail upon the subject. It appears
by the petition' which was presented at that time.
!that about one hundred and fifty or one hundred
tind fifty-four individual* returned a majority to
"the Rouse of Commons. The fact speaks so
ii etrungly for itself, that it is impossible for me or
my man to add, by way of argument, the impro-
,i.ireety of that unconstitutional abuse by which any
Ouch small number of persons have the /112411.1 of
mgrossing such power. The evils Mid mischiefs
.visielt have been felt, and are now felt, for want of
.he adoption of the measure recommended iii.that
petition. are too apparent to he denied by any Innis.
Certain I am, that reperience has brought many to
an opinion with its, who were, a short time Lack,
- iblverae to our opinion. Some from mistake and
thisapPrehensioo, aitil Many from ill-founded
alarm. This alarm has passed away, as the eor-
imption of the country has been brought to light;
and particularly by a gentlemac who honours this
this meeting with his presenre,—l mean Mr.
IWarille.—(Load ace/amorionts.) - Time undaunted
exertio.ts of that gentleman have tendril more,
I think, to open the eves of the public, than
wily thing I can remember ; they have had
the effect they were entitled to have—they
have given hint that weight in the country which
• his conduct has well merited and deserved.—
Nor number or exteple wrouilit with that Gen-
th man t,i make his comitaat mind swerve from the
truth, Sr refute to perform that most arduous duty
he haul undertaken, though single when he under-
took it.—Day after day there were new discoveries
of abuses—new reports of committees appointed to
investigate them. These have'all gone to promote
- as! same beneficial circionstinwe of opening the
es cs of the publie—of Alerting clearly to those who
ware 'Firmed, that their alarms were founded in
mistake, that they had mistaken the real ground of
alariu—that it was the corruptions of the Govern-
ment they ought to have been alarmed at, and that
what they ought to have been ql,ansitql at, was nn-
fortunately that which they have always clung to
support t (repented arelausations). It is 'avian-
is;
oly to. take a review of the situation of this coati-
y, from ally period. however remote, or however
pearly approaching to our own times, because every
period is marked with some encroachments •in the
rigtits of the politic, some depredation rot the CO•11-
fills of the people, mid some attack on their pro-
rt-ity end freed am.—lt affords us no consolation,
I.: ..1 if we go back to the early constitution of the
•muntry—to the period of that obsolete charter
it/agisa Charm, whist, used to be mentioned with
!respect, but now is never heard of at all. or if
we go deck only to " The Petition of Right,,."
a declaratory act developing the principles coo-
-1 tined in WAWA Charta ; which. also 0..1y con-
tained a clevelopement of the principles that had
,existed from times immemorial. Or, if you go to
the period of the Revolution—if we reed the Bill
of Rights, the Acts of Settlement, or any of the
-tunilitions that placed the present family an the
.I'hroiw, or tiny of the stipulations for the security
of the liberty and property of the subject, we can
only condole without a prospect or relief, except
°olio the measure which we have met this dry to
promote. f Arrierttatbus qf bravo! bravo!) Gentle-
men, it was stipulated on behalf of the public,
et the time of the accession of King William ; it
was a stipulation en which he was offered and ac-
tided the Crown of this kingdom. It ism set
truth in the Petition of Rights, among other thitigs,
that there should exist none of the griev:iilleS of
which we now complain. and whir!' have Leconte
so ioterwoven in the system of she administration
of the country, that we can hardly mention them
as abuses, for we can hardly have any hope, if we
contemplate what men's minds are upon the sub-
ject of them, of any coosiderable number of persons
attempting tliair redress. For instance, nue of the
venous for driving Kingiames the Second from the
Throw., was for keeping up a standing army. Un-
doubtedly after this practice of keeping no a stand-
log army has been so fostered iii this laud, though I
shall always coutenil it is a practice most dangerous
to the public, as well as ineffectual to the defence
of the country ; -i. has become so interwoven in the
talintuiatratioti of the Government, that you can
hardly mention it as a grievance, notwithstanding.
It WAS thought by our forefatherwsufficieut to jos-

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tify their driving a king from the throne.....(Ve-
hearent applause.)—The violating also the freedom
of elections of Members to serve in Parliament was
another of I hose great principle* winch was stated
as the releviii for the expulsion of the Stuart
family, and yet we now have day after day pro-
duced to the public proofs of this crime. Proofs
of the detection of this great .constitutional, I .
should say, uneonstitutional crime by a Minister
of the country, and is the worst way, by the
abuse 4 his oificial Patronage ; and we find the
house of Commons attempting to justify, or at
hart to palliate, and excuse, and prot-et the crimi-
nal froin that indignation and thin punishment
which ought to have awaited him. (Bravo! brero I
resoooded from all parts of the rasa ; the plaudits
were long wad ineessout,) Gentlemen, if any argu-
ment was necessary to prove to the country the ab-
solute Necessity of a reform it the House of Com-
mons, I should think that the circumstance alone,
I 'have just alluded to, would be sufficient to im-
press ou the minds of every man its tabsolnte neces-
sity (applause). Gentlemen, all the evils that we
now labour under—all the dangers which threaten
the country—all the oppressions we witness, are
owing to tint rose cause; the detected guilt which
I before mentioned, and the perpetual attempts of
every Minister to force his tools into the House of
Commons, as the substitutes for the real Repreeeu-
. tatives of the People (repeated shouts of approba-
tion). There were some persons at the time, who
unblushingly elaintained, that it would be very
hard indeed to punish an individual iii the way they
could have punieieJ him, whose only offence had
been that of having made a mistake (laughter). •
The Noble Lord was certainly represented upon
the occasion, as an innocent young man, who, un-
practised in the affairs of the world, had by acci-
dent been made the dupe of an impostor (loud
bursts of laughter). Ido sent know whether it was
that t'le Noble Lord was misled, or that the eorn-
plat..ani feeling of the Noble Lord induced him to
full into this error for fear of undergoing the
fate et the notorious Chartres, who after having
lived a life ot infamy, and being condemned to be
executed for a rape, hail this epitaph : " He who
lied every day deserved to be hanged for what he
had done, was at last condemned to he hanged for
thut wheel' he could not do."—(Bravo! bravo .9
The ground of the defence made by the. Noble
Lord, was, that he had not completed the act of
which he was accused. I own L felt some indym.
tiros at hearing it stated that this offer of a tribe its
a Minister was not an act of bribery, particularly
when I mailed to mind the fate of the poor Carols
miner, Hamlin, who, for offering a bribe to Mr.
Addington, was prosecuted, and ruined for ever.
I say, the feet was, that the crime of bribery and
corruptions was complete in the Noble Lord, end
the protection which the Noble Lord has met with
in that place, the privileges of which have been
attacked by him, would, in order for me to express
my sense of It, require words such as it might not
be fit in this assembly to use. At present, how-
ever. the House of Commons stand in this absurd
predicament, that there is on its Journals a Reso-
lution, stating, that any attempt of this nature in
a Peer, is striking at the honour and dignity of the
House ; arid on the saute Journals is another Re-
solirtion exculpating Lord Castlereagh, because be
made the attempt, and failed in the prforinanor.
In recurring to the old constitutional lairs ; and
wier the word constitutional is mentioned I
sinsuppaai at means that the laws to which it is ap•
plied mete-intended for the advantage of the
people,—we shall find it recorded among other
things, though it was thought, when first I
started it, a novel doctrine ; it was once said. by
persons eminent for their knowledge of the his.
tory of this country, and who were better reed in
the Constitution than I am; that it was a novel
doctrine—not novel as compared with any thiug4ta
be found in the Greek and Roman history, but
novel in the history of this contatry.—l mean that
grand provision in the act of settlement, " that no
person holding an office or cinvluyinent under the
Crown, shall sit or vote in the C ))))) mons House of
Parliament."—lt was also enacted et the mime
tine, that this country should never be engaged in
any foreign wars, on behalf or the King's German
dorniuinus. You know how that ',art of the act has
been attended to—you know that the present cala-
mitous war was engaged in on the ground of the
King's German dominions, and for that object
alone.—ln one word, if you will take the trouble to
trace the progress of the Borough-mongering fac-
tion ; for I will not dignify it with the maitre of the
Government of the country ; you will find that they
have wrought all those evils which our forefathers
shed their blood to protect us from the recurrence
of ; you will find they have produced all those evils
they thought they had protected their posterity
against—you will find them all brought back by
the act of that body of persons, who by the Consti-
tution arc supposed to be the guardians and protec-
tors of the people against those abuses. And are
people to he told that those encroachments on the
public liberty, which our forefathers had too much
freedom to suffer even from the King upon the
Throne, have been brought back by those Bormigh.
mongers, who have destroyed the liberties of their
country, who have done so by the commission of shit
traitorous a, t . which is deprecated in the Sacred
Book we all respect,—l Incas) the Bible,—the tact
of " seething the kid in the mother's milk,"—whie
have been &serail% the liberties of the country, by
that which should have preserved than ;—who have
been converting the principle of life into a prise.
ciple attest:au:6,m ? This wits the most dangerous
act they could have committed. It was the wand
of all poiaideas to lie infused, for it was a poison a
the remerlics provided• for our cure. Under this
system we stave expenenced nothing hut ops
preormaa and vexations. Vexations, iieleed, is tip,
light a term to express the sufferings our comae,.
men have endured in support of this iiiinotoral and
silicon ,titutinnal /stein. We cannot forget, or at
least I cannot forget, the long, cruel, and unjust
imprisreinnents which have been endured by 'ninny
innocent and °mirrored individuals. Immo' for-
get those years, lately past, which mark..ll the ea.
reer of toe Government of this coontry with every
fratur4, every trait of thy Government* of those
n.ouns•fies we have 41.11..i:kres1 ,IN bending under the
strongest iron hand of despotic power. •In a word,
what ealesuities hare we been free from ? We have
Ne'.li innocent men :4114ra:tell to new, cruel, mad
arbitrary modes of ian•risonuicot—we have sees

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