The National Register.
London, England, 1812-01-12 00:00:00

•
E NATIONAL REGISTER

sesssemeseseseseep. .
that we should be fighting for the Catholic religion upon the Continent,
for those who
,profess none but the Catholic religion, and at the same
time good and persecute our brethren in Ireland, when their firm love
and fidelity can be purchased upon such trilling conditions, upon giving
t:; them that part of their liberty, the absence of which ;lone is calcu-
lated to make them slaves ? Ii this the doctrine of a House which con•
tains the supposed Representatives of the People ?
The SPEAKER here called the Hon. Baronet to order, and. Stated, that
he had used unparliamentary langnage.. - .
Sir FRANCIS BURDETT said, that :heivas very happy at haying been
Called to order by the House upon such aft occasion, for when the,Hoi.i.e
4hewed their displeasure at the expression of a doubt of what they were,
it was a proof that they knew what they ought to be—( Loud
But what was in the insinuation that was not just ? .When the odious
system of bartering seats in Parliament was defended, could those men
who countenanced so abominable a practice have any claims to purity or
propriety of character, however fair and indisputable their conduct un-
der other circumstances might have been To prevent all this was,
the Hon. Baronet said, his object, and he looked forward with joy
and confidence to the happy moment when the Executive should be re-
stored, when his Royel Highness should be In possession of the unre-
strained exercise of his judgment and power. The grand defect which
he had to deplore, but which he trusted would he in a short time effec-
tually removed, was the present state of the representation of the people.
Some writers had written in defence of Aristocracy ; some in defence of
Democracy ; and some in defence of a mixed government; but he-head
never heard of one who had written in favour of an oligarchy-ean oli-
garchy of rotten boroughs too, composed of persons not to be found in
any other part of the globe.—The Continent, said the lion. Carom t, is
the book in which the consequences of all this are to be rca I. What
does it signify that we call ourselves free ; .that within our walls we
boast of the glory and the liberty of the Mull eat ien ? The internal
strength of the country is nothing consolatory. What have w, hut
taxation amounting to almost total deprivation—amongst the lower ce -
tiers, pauperism, which is dreadfully wig grarited by the wasa: if the pa-
lie money ? In cases of taxation the most dreadful oepressieu is expe-
rienced—an individual is denied the assistance of a by Act (,f.
Parliament—and no trial by a Jury of his countrymen is allowed.—Bt.t
this is not all we have to deplore: Military possession is taken of ti e
country, and as if the Government were afraid of the ft eling of the'.
own countrymen, a number of foreigners have been sent in amongst its.
Our soldiers are obliged to undergo transform
ers ation in th
ar as t eir ess
en,
cnn- end
they are compelled to imitate those foreign, even so fdr o
rage the growth of their whiskers to an enormous site, in order to ne
taken for any thing hut Englishmen ( Laughter.) is not this a mass
absurdity and folly ? The plain, unadorned red coat of the Eligliehmeo,
in the lion. Baronet's opituors,serried wish it a greater stmeatenatior
strength and bravery than, all tbst,creth .and frippery of foreign finery.
He then made some obserettiallo upon the torture of the lash, and said
the use cf it was so very
_freqtient, that rngland might well be railed a
floppedunti.m. It would be advisable to substitute any thing for that
which operated a disgrace not only to the individual but to the flatten.
But it the men were to be flogged, why not flog the Officers too ?TI e
Hon. Baronet treat adverted to the state of the liberty of the/tress, which
he said weull be a fair baromt•ter of the Conduct of Governent.
lib Wheerty
n
that conjuring word, by which,the subject was deerived omf his
and of the b. te•fit of the law of the realm (he meant ex dficia inforiee-
tions) was uttered, how in a moment did its magic operate? Thejuke
might do what he pleased, definition was law ; but this povs-t r, which
was falsely called law, was indefinite. Was not the proof of this flit y
exhibited in the conduct of the Judge, who. according to his partiahtie
or enmities, adjudged one rota to two or three years imprisonment, and
perhaps never called up another, who had been equally guilty in the eye
of the law, to receive judgment ; if he did, limited his confinement
to a few months ? He could not help expressing his amazement at the
nduct of a Judge, who bore a strong testimony to the justice of this ob-
servatien as could' be adduced by the circumstance o
ft anticipating the
guilt of Nilr. White during his trial fur a libel. The erney-Genie
too had his power, which was a power that went hand in hr;nd a ith
every Administration. hat office should te permanent, or dining toe
reign of the King, instead of changing seith every Administration, a
change which of course involved a total change of the tenor of libel.
The severity of a Government always occasioned brutality amongst the
people. Education, said the Hon. Baronet, is much taqted of; some soy,
that reading and writing is the definition of education, and that a den-
ciency in those respects is the want of it. It is no such thing. The :mat
valuable, the most useful education is that proper moral education which
is inculcated by an impartial administration of justices l'he opposite
instills into the minds of the people principles of the nioin abandoned p o-
flizacy. He then moved an Address to the l'; .nce Ree
nee. ssity of a nt, the subs
radical tance
of which is contained in his speech, t xpress;ng the
change in the representatimnof the people, the melancholy state Of our
internal and external resources, the propriety of acceding to the claims
of the people of Ireland, the prospect of a w.s with AniericA, ;kc.
lord COCURANE seconded the motion.
Lord JocuLYN then rose, and made a short speech, in which be hail's!
the bright prospect which the aff:.:;rs in the l'cninct;la present.•(;; al..
planted the valour of our soldiers, and those of .our ailie Ile regrete d
that Spain was not successful as Portugal en; hits -here was *
celnolatien in reCeeting that the French had kitidled a spirit of l=ost
the bi-eacts of 'Tanisit whits!) 1' ':'td never hr (nti•!ir.-Votoq,