The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1810-04-18 00:00:00

HoUSE OF COMMONS.

Mr. Janata(' brought ep • Retort' of the mosey capes&-
tnl
lo the Stapp Other --(harry.' to be ye the table

Mr ISt no moved fur Lists of the Evidence upon die
Landon oes

1..' pea the =slm fur the Jel reading of the Highgate Arch-
w•y Bill,
Mr. e••RLfil Mantas proposed an amendment, " That
the OM la read • Ad tune this day •ix mini ha
After woe eliservAtiuras fro Mr. Para st Noolta„ Me
v Ell HALL, and Mr t. •tsa E%, the war et:MUIR SY um
gni ived, meet the •d a la Inn., mad pa••e.:
Sir 'A I LLt A 4 IL t.n• reeved the diliustiliag *Mend*.
ft mt.' T,el lIII‘

Mr !lower!. S a neared an arneadraent, M Thal thi
eratt.ittrrstit•it of the Hill be rt.lerre•l to the ola) morttlitt"
Atur ..nrke 116.101 n mien. frt•en 31r. Mr If tl.4Prt,
Mr Mes.a• . tlr W Stroh, Sir I'. Torte., M. sfrtiter4
Mr. Davit, Ckftf• , Sa Charles Price. dna
116.13 PC d.. vp hen then.

F. I it

suendett Df

... ..... •• 17
22

IFITTMINMI ER PETI MIN

---43

Lod C.,!taigAti 'intecuted v iNa•iiu from the

Freeholders of Westminster. of which the fallowing
is a copy :
To TH HONOURABLE THE COMMONS OP THE
tl N ITr.D ILINOOoM OF GREAT BRITAIN ♦BD :Reid
LAND. IN PARES ISI ENT ASSEMBLED.
The Petition and Remonstrance of t►e Inhabitant
Householders, Electors of the City and Liberties
of Westminster, asseinbkii in New Palace-Yard,
the 17th dm of April, 1010, by the appointoient
of Arthur Morris, Esq. the High liaihtf, in put-
BILIAllre of a Reeptiaitiou for that purpose.

IVe, the Inhabit:tut Householders, Electors of the City
and Liberties of Westminster, feel most scioubly the indig-
nity offered to t►is City, in she prawn or our beloved Repre-
sent uive, whoie Letter tuns bar 'aeon under the censure or
your Honourable House, but which, su far from deserving
that ‘....lsure, ought, in our opinion, to have led your Ho-
nourable [louse to reconsider the subject, which be hail so
ably, legally, Rad eoustitutionally discussed.
tVe are coutrintert scat pin one ought to be Prosecutor and
.Maur, Judge and Execut i•mer, iu his own cause, much less
•ir.ume, accumulate, sod exercise all those offices, iu his

0 pet sou
We are also convinced that the refusal of your Honour.
Ea: !linnet to inquire into the con.luct of Lord Castlereagh
and Mr. Perceval, (thee two of tits Majesty's Ministers)
when distinctly charged with the sale of a meat in your ho-
nourable House, evidence of which was offered at the Bar,
by a Member of your llonuuiable House; and the avowal
la your Honourable Home " that each practices were as
1111.441141111 u the sun at 'boon day i" practises, at the bare
mention of which the Speaker of your Honourable House de -
chord " that oar ancestors would have started with MAIL; •
satiou," and the committal of Sir Framer, Purilett to pet.
sea, enforced by military power; are circuuistaiii•es which
reader evideut the impetiuus necessity of au dials
actors in the Rerreseutation of the People.
Ite, therefore, most earnestly call upon your llottour-
able Horse to mature to as our Representative,
sad, according to the notice be Las given, to take
the state of the Representation of the People into
year VW lOUS considerntion ; a Reform is. which, is,
is roar uptown, the only mesas of preserriug the
euunti y bout militai y despotism.
He then moved, •• That the Petition should lie
ou the table."
Mr. WNW opposed the Motion. Ile conceived,
that if the House should accede to such a proposi-
tion, it would submit to the grossest violation of
its dignity. He hoped that the House would evince
its repugoance to any attack upon its 'nitrite.;
and unammously reject the motion.
Mr. C.axtvgY spoke in favour of the motion.
Mr. Cuawita said, that if the objection to the
Noble Lord's Motion was founded upon the ob-
servation in the petition, respecting the buy* and
sidling of Seats in Parliament, that objection
was rattily done away, when it was considered,
that the object of that represeutation was Parlia-
mentary Reform; a measure which surely the
House divined of indispensable utility, and in the
necessity of perfecting which. the House, as well
as the petitioners, must coot ur. If any objection
of a more palpably unwarrattudile nature could he
made, he would recoutmewl the withdrawitig of
the petition, for the patties,. of framing it mine, in
lanotage leas objectionable.
hlr. LUSHINGTON said. that the House was cer-
tainly hound to receive petitions ; but the present
was an union of remonstrance and petition ; and,
though it was the duty of the House of Cointnons
to receive petitions ;it etrtaioly was not imperative
upon it to sot •t to insult.
Mr. WHITT/MUD wished that the Right Honour.
able Gentlemen out the opposite side of the House
would deliver their sentiments upon the present
question. He was particularly desirous that the
Right Houourahle Gentleinau (iha Chaucellor of
the Exchequer) would state his *objections or se.
quiescence to the motion. He (Mr. Whitbread)
would not *ay. whether the petition had berudrawsa
in the latiguit4a- usual upon such ocenions, or in
the terms in which it should have been touched;
but if the House refused Its consideratiou, the re-
find would be the most violets% bleach of its duties
to the people. The meeting had been conducted
without riot, or eves. that turbulence which was so
inseparably interwoven with meetings of all sorts.
got whatever purpars.. assembled. It was a merinos
ateordilig to law, and the petition was a legal and
Constitutional one, the result of that uteetiog. As
to the term remonstrance, the application of it
should not, surely. have prevented the House from
taking into consideration the merit,. of the Petition.
What then was to induence the House against a
proposition so fair and equitable ?--The Eleetors
had cotnplained of an indignity offered to them. by
taking away their Representative from them; but
they had not cast the charge upon that llotn.e—
they•had not censured that House as repreheissible
for any conduct towards their Representative. The
Electors haul remonstrated sophist the treatment
which Sir Francis Burdett hail received ; taut they
had not *Wed, that that Howie was the cause
of the *enmities under which the Honourable Biro-
let at that moment laboured. They had asserted.
that the Honourable Baronet had legally and
constitutimially argued upon the question respect-
ing Mr, Gale .ones, and such an acknowledgment
was by no means censurable. However different
might have been the opinion of Gentleinea in that
House, he (Mr. Whitbread) remained still con-
voiced, notwithstanding the major sense of the
House, that the Use. B troaet was guilty of no act
ot violation of any prieileres or rghts, either its or
out of that House. He couteArd, that the Electors
of Westminster were not °My not ceissurable, but
most justdksb!e, in making such observations upon
the conduct of the Hon. Baronet. Them was
an-
oilier circumstance to which he would advert, name-
ly, the refusal of Mr. Percersl and laird Castle-
reagh, with respect to the mot• relating in the
sale caseate in that House ; every body hail the
liberty to Eire his opinion upon the proceed-
ings on such an occasion. With regard to the es-
yressions attributed to the Chsir, although they
Gould not be taken from any official document in
that House. yet, they had been so correctly given
• so the public prints, as to justify such a riferenee
to them, et had been made at the Meeting of that
vlay. Thor Electors questioned the right of dna
Wane to imprison, by force, without the inter-
vention of soy legal authority. If any had a right
to state their doubts upon such a subject, the
Et'et"ril wee" surely the men. W4II it sairprising
Si ouptecedeated, that after kit Cleat bag; passed iu

that Reuse, the first wish of the Elected% should be
that. of Pirliatnentary Reform? and was it sur-
prising, when the mats upon whom they had looked
as the ablest champion of reform. was imprisoned,
that, they should pray for his enlargement?—
It could not be said that they ascribed any fault
to that House. The Serjeant-at-Arius might, in
their opinion, be the offending person ; they
might have looked upon him as the occasion of
all the severities with which die Noble Baronet
had been treated. Was it wirprising that they
should express their resentm- sit at the appear-
duce of • military force, ii, t...:jutirlion with the
civil, upon the late unfortiniate oceasion ? Such
an onion was deaerving of the highest repro-
batioa. The civil power was here inseparable
from the military. As to the complaint against
the buying and selling of places, it was but last
year it had been asserted, that seats sere tonight
and sold ; and. 'iron application, an inquiry
war refused to be entered into. The fret was,
that such a traffic was carried on; but. " we love
the trtason, though we hate the traitors." He
would ask the House to examine every tittle of
that Petition ; and then he would heg to know
whether they would do such an act of violence to
the subject, as to refuse their acquiescence in the
propositi )))) If such should be the case, he would
believe that the slams of that House
.were closed
against the petitions of the people.—He would
make no observation respecting the warm expres-
sions n.ed in the Petition, but heartily wished,
that that p.m of it which related to reform, would
be moot strictly attended, as it was a measure
greatly needed by the House and the country.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCdEQUER said, that
the House had, upon all occusio,is, taken rare to
avoid the appearance of interfering with the right
of petitioning. and had to this end uaiformly over-
looked the language of any petition, warm and in-
temperate*. it might be; forbearance upon all such
occasions was the usual mode of coudurt observed
by that House. In the case of Horne, though all had
reprobated the language of lieu petition, yet the
House did not reject it. on account of this lotto-
perance of phrase, they looked to the matter of the
petition. and received i►; the most. objectionable
part of the present pattion, was, that in which it
was said. that instead of deserving censure, he me-
rited praise for his conduct. As to a Reform in
Parliament, no individlial had a right to p. titian
the House on that subject. He however conceived,
notwithstanding these objection., that the Fetitiou
should he mit he table. When lie considered that the
precedent was derived from the principles of those
who had gone before us, he was the more inclined
to the amino,* of forbearance. If the Hotter were
of opinion that the form of petition was made the
vehicle of abuse. then indeed they ought to reject
it; but if there was nothing more than an impro-
priety of language, it would be the snore becoming
in them, to ;ass that over, and look only to the ob-
j,ct it had in view.

Mr. PowsoMßY hail read the Petition over three
times, and, from all the consideration be had been
able to give it, be did not think it contained any
matter that ought to cause its rejection; if there
were any thing in the wording of it. let them hear
the complaint on that subject. hnt do not let them.
from any impropriety of this kind. interfere with
the right of petitioning of tbe subject, so essential to
them, and so oecessary to enable the House to pro-
tect them. The Right Hon. Gent. then proceeded
to read the petition. paragraph by paragraph, avid,
by his comments to shew, that the opinion he had
given on the subject.matter, was correct. As for
the language, in some parts. he did not thiuk it
was bat it ought to be. but still that was tint a
I sufficient ground for rejecting the petition. In-
deed it appeared to him intpowiible, that a petition
against any proceeding of that House. could be so
framed. as not to afford a handle to some one to
oppose its reception, could that be thought a suffi-
cient ground.
Mr. CAN rtwo.—Upoo the right of the subject
to petition, and the opinion held by almost every
one of the speakers who preceded him, that they
ought to took more totlie object than be scrupulous
in examining the latignage of this petition, hr pretty
nearly concurred in their sentiments. As for the
present Petition, it was evidently (rained so near
I the law, as to give au opportunity to those who
preferred it, were it rejected. to come again before
Ithe House, with another and smother. car) ing per-
haps in minutia, hut still so contrived as in the end
to hinder thesis in an intricate and unprofitable con-
test. The part of it which appeared to have most
offence its it, was that iu which they seemed to ac-
` rose the hlouae of offering an indignity to a great
bode of the prop's. . .

IY[4I.IASI SMITH cownreed in these senti-
ments. and congratulated the HOuse on the return
of moderation. lir was happy to we tbat they had
now got shove the fear of being thought fearful.
With regard to the last sentence of the Hight Hon.
t:entletnan who preceded him, he did not think
that the construction of the petition witrninted the
st.inisription that the indignity was citf,reil by the
linuse ; it might a. well apply to the Seq....lit and
officers of the llouse, in executing the duty int-
pored upon them.
. .

Mr. iVurciassn observed, that, even if the
former was the conetructioes, that would not warrant
the 'louse in the rejection of the petition.
The peteion was then ordered to lie on the table.
The Art:Akan stated to the House, that he had
received a further notice from Sir Francis Burden,
of Ilia illtrution to teL proceedings apicst him.
Tile enure was occavioned in consequence of an
error %shah apecated in the former one, with re-
spect to the parish in which Sir Era nein Burdett's
bump w,4%.

The CIIANCELLOIL of the EXCHEQUER proposed
to th.• 11,nm., whether the bet of issuing a win rent.
by the Speaker of that House, and by its authority,
.ra•• not legitsrisate ? and whether an action, brought
in midi a ease, was not an infringement of the Bill
or it‘util,?

Wiiirenvsn said. the subject was a very

• oar, KIRI might to be atteoilcd to with great
fb-litwrieliun. With respect to the opinion that
▪ h d euudoct as had Iwen represented, was au
i,,fr.6,4,!nent upon the Bill of Rights, he belirsed
it I. tie itusst crturi.suis. He comelier, that the
of the Sptskor ryas du 'act of the House, but
nr.ttliuut its sails.

t'u&acca.i UR of the EXCINVQUER that
clic .ict I, o'proctedius of Parhasseut. and whether

performed within or without the noose, was valid
stud eltictual.

—...-.__..
The notice was ordered to be entered on the
Journals. - - -

Mr. I4►ttsonett moved for • return of the Sur-
veyors. Clerks. and Engineers; employed in die
Bogs in Ireland ; together with au account of their
salaries; and also. fur an account of the stuns Paid
by the Commission. independent of the►r salaries.—
Ordered. _ _

After :iome ob.ervations from Mr. Rosa, Mr.
Ctt.Eti, and Mr. U.' Gloov, the motions were
agreed to.
Mr. Dumas§ moved for the annual East India
accounts for t 405, ti, 7, and 8, which were ordered.