The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-12-17 00:00:00

.ILONDON. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17. 1819.

been also allowed to loos the House of Commons,
and, as he prophesied would he the case with
Gromponnd, was thrown out .by the Hume of
Lords. As to Sir M. Lvov, he Ipd been trafficking
in seats all his life. flow cool ! he know, or 'UK.

pert. that he wits doing wron when he was can.
Doom that the greater part of e Hume was COOP.
posed of noes' like himself, of men returned
by persona like himself ? He ad been grubbing
all his life long to the mineoof corruption ; but
whatever he found he always took to the Treeing.
For this hr had been created a Baronet. He must

of cotirsv feel it extremely hard now to see Lord
Castlereagh retarded with a blue ribband while he
was lodged in a prison. Such acts as he had been
ennrideriui. would. however, do great )cood io Colt-
wincing the people of what they might expect from
mock representation. Such a proceeding as that
against Mr. Mobluiuse cotakrtat be tolerated even
by a- Mink freely, am! fairly Clussrti. In one its
which corruption was by its own Members acknow-
ledged to he " na notorious as the sun at nonn.day,"
such a proceeding was almost intolerable. It would,
he hoped, revive that spirit 'mosso; the people, which,
however it bad been oppressed by an accumulation of
arbitrary measures, was yet not wholly extinct. He
trusted that the people would unite iu opposing
such an assumption of unjust and unconstitutional
power, and of threatened with penalties ever so heavy,

even military execution, they would gill resist, and
rather die than submit to so despotic a principle.—
It was quite clear that the point at present at leant
was, whether or not the people were so be prevented
from uniting to demand a reform of the represen-
tation. such as, according to justice, reason, and
common sense, was indispensable. He would
speak one word as to the object of the present pro-
secution. Who was to be the next victim of this

power it was impossible to say ; it was impossible
to say when the dignity of Parliament was affected
by what was said or done, and when not. But if
the House of Commons should assume the right of
hatigitig him up iu the lobby of the House, they
would hare us much right to do it as to commit
Mr. Hobi,ouse or any other men to Newgate for
.such an °deuce as that charged. lie did not say
that they had no right of comrnittiog at all ; they
niii.t have such a right to protect them in the per-
formatice of their duties. But they could nat pos-
sibly determine on points of law; they could not
possibly pronounce what was or what was not libel.
a thing that v is always difficult to a Bench and a
Jury. Mr. llohliouse had taken his measures in
the best way he could desire for resisting this
power ; he hail no idea, when he was writing. of
the construction which would be put on his lan-
guage. Ile (Sir Francis) knew that it wus strong,
and perhaps coarse (" Its true though"); but it
Watt 'lidera, as the Gentleman said, sod us he idol-
' self buil said iu the House, true. Mr. Hoblanuse had
authorised him to say, that he had commitsioned uo
one to say any thing mole to the House then that
he was anxious to preserve the publisher front suffer-
ing. and wished to take the whole consequences of
the hook mi himself. As far as he could he resisted
• the assumed power of the House to comtnithini for it.
lie hail done so ill deleuce of the electors of West-
minster, having been led into a literary controversy
with Lord Erskine, in support' of their conduct at
the list election. Ile hail done so, as Sir Francis
thong lit, ably ; at any rate, zealously, and was
therefore entitled to their gratitude. There was no
greater support fur any 1111111 who stood forward in
defence of public right than the concuring setitianents
of a free people—of a people whose hearts ut least
were strongly impressed with a love of freedom ;
which impression, he trusted, it would be out of the
power of any iliiiisters to efface. He hoped the
people throughout the country, even if the new
lases should be passed, of which he of course had
no doubt, would meet and petition the Legisleturr,
by next Session at least, fur their repeal, accompa-
nying their petition w,th a request for reform, so
mucii needed in the representation.
31r. THELWALL rose to 'impose the Resolutions.
After the eloquent speech they.had beard from their
upright and undaunted Representative, he would
be very brief. It was unnecessary to go at large
into the character of Mr. llobliouge's pamphlet, or
into the merits of the cni,e us it then stood. The cha-
racter of the process by which his punishment had
beet) inflicted WAS the whole question. The severity
of the punishment made no part of it. It was the
idea of punishment without trial which was so
startling: the accused not heard; the accuser as-
suming the functions of judge and executioner, in
an offruce said to be committed against themselves.
If ever one likely to affront the House of Commons,
or any of its Members, deserted to go to New•gatr,
lie trusted there was not a men who heard him that
did not incur the penalty. Sir F. Burdett had said
that the right assumed was one which was denied to.
Kings. lie could not help remarking in what a
state that House bad left the Icing's prerogative,
compared with their own privileges. If any one
had the wickedness to say, "seize the Kil; by the
ears, pull hint from his throne,' such an one must
be tried before he could be itianithed. A great
deal had been said about blasphemy of late : he
who held the thunder in his hand did not sinks the
• blasphemers—he left it to the laws of the country
of the offenders. Parlisinetat then assumed a power
not used by the Deity, not claimed by the King.
'Who then were the usurpers. tied who the Jacobins I
After renuirkilig on the .difficulty of knowing when
NH offence was committed against the privileges of
Parliament, he roc, cried to read and propose four
resolutions,. %pressing tile :thin:it fence of the Meeting
at the punishment of Mr. Hoblambe,coodeling with
him on the occasion, protesting against the a:Pointed
potter by which he is imprisoned, and determining
Oil au address to him.
Mr. C LA UK!: seconded the Reaolutione.
Mr. HUNT, on puttinv, the question, rose to say a
few words. It WIIS out the business of sir. llobhouse
alone; any man iti the kingdom was ',Ale to the
seine opprekon. tie (tarred t the lion. Baronet
in his et•stinatitm of the Bill for chsfranchitarig Cram-
pound ; if the charter shoted be given to inch a place

aa Manchester, one or two men might get into the
House, olio would do as should have been done in
the progre.s of the new Bills ; the House ilioald
have been divided nn every clause, and kept up a
fortnight before the lirat reading was 'Huard, Ex-
cept the war could be carried on in the citadel of
corruption. it woo of no use to be fighting outside.
Much had been done. however, by the people. The
Grampitund motion proved that there was more
disposition to hear than before. Formerly the
mountebank C-- :away. got up to ridicule Reform
whenever it was mentioned ; he had eisid that if
Reform would trainitollize the country, he would
not grant it : his notions had improved very sud-
denly of late.
The Resolutions were then carried.
Mr. I'NELwALL moved the reading of the Ad.
cheer..

Mr. CALLAGHAN read the Add)ese, God moved
ititintopeieto.
Mr. HUNT seconded it, but wished that 'it had
contuiiied no ulliipion to the eff.iirs of the election.

Mr. CALLAGHAN said, that Mr. Hobhouses
present suffering arose out of those oftitrs.
Mr. CLARIL6ON noised for the omission of some
reproachful imputations of the Wings contained in
the Address.
Mr. HUNT seconded the motion.

Sir F. BURDETT explained the amendment. and'
in doing so, made a minute's reply to some allusions
which had been made to him. Nome but a Mem-
ber of that House would conceive the difficulty of
so conducting their behaviour a• to insure a bare
hearing. Temper and forbearance, vigilance to
watch opportunity, and prudence in adapting it,
were more necessary there thou in any other place.
That House seemed to be so strange a place. that
which was true every where else, seemed to be false
there; it was like a magic circle; all known and
established data were there denied ; no principle
was admitted—he did nut menu moral principle
only—there were no principles of science but were
scouted, well knowing as they did that to admit
priaciple of any kind would be to rust the risk of
haying their system blown to atoms. It was the
cave of deluvionis described by the Poet, where

M Youth seems age, and age mrtns youth,
All is delusion, nought is truth."

The Amendment and Address being carried. and
followed by a vote of Thanks to the Chair, which
wus duly acknowledgtd, the Meeting dispersed.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, THURSDAY, Decinntra 16.

The Earl of BIICKINORAIMIIIS took the oath' and his