The National Register.
London, England, 1823-01-26 00:00:00

YORK COUNTY MEETING.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 42.—A meeting of the Freehold-
era of the county of Lak was this day held in the
Castle-yard, York, pursuant to a requisition (signed by
V,425 treetiolders) presented to the High Sheriff of the
county, R. Bethell, of Rise, Esq. calling upon him to
convene a meeting " fur the purpose of taking into con-
sideration the present state of the House of Commons,
and the necessity of a Reform thereof,"
At eleven o'clock the hu gs were crowded with
sonic of the first gentlemen of the county. Mr. Wooler
was also on the hustings, as was the Quaker, Milan, of
Dewsbury. of rallies! notoriety.
At a quarter after eleven the High Sheriff, attended
by several friends, took the chair.
The Requisition having been read by the Under
Sheriff,
The Blum SHERIF/ addressed the meeting nearly as
follows:—" Geatlrtneu Freeholders of the county of
York,-1 n consequence of a requisition, numerously and
most respectably vigited, requesting me to call a meeting
on the subject of 15arliamentary Reform, I have thought
it my duty to give you the earliest opportunity of exer-
cising your undouuted and moat valuable privilege, that
of discussing what, in your opinions, is connected with
your interests, or the general interests of the country.—
(Applause.)—l shall only add a hope, that as you res-
pect the right cf free discussion, you will give every man
a fair, a candid, and impartial hearing, whatever may
be his opinions. (Hear, hear.) By such peaceable, or-
derly, and manly conduct, you will stamp upon the pro-
ceedings of this meeting a character worthy of the great
county of which you are the enlightened freeholders."—
(Loud applause.)
Mr. WALTER FAWIIES..—" Gentlemen, frequently as
It has beets my lot to address you within these walls,
never did I do so at • moment of inure vital importance
than the present. It now requires tin effort to rouse
your feelings, or induce you to resent any insolent threat
of foreign aggression; you are not now called upon to
strengthen the arms of the Executive for the preservation
of your lives, your properties, your altars, and your
hoares. You are called upon seriously to consider what
the state of that country now is, and, unless you hear
arguments sufficiently g to contradict the facts
which I shall lay before you, to denounce that system of
policy upon which the men at the head of our Govern-
ment have so long and so fatally acted—(hear, hear) ;---a
system which has loaded us with a mass of debt, under
which we
effectual relief be afforded. (Hear, hear, hear.)—The
measures of the present Administratiun have been acted
upon by one set of meta fur the last fifty years, and have
produced all accumulation of debt which would be to
tally incredible if nut provable—a system which has
spread abroad a most rapid and alarming venality; a
system which has supported large standing armies which
our ancestors wisely thought not only unnecessary, but
dangerous in time of peace; a system which must cause
a blush to tinge the cheek of every Englishman, when
he reflects that the country of Elizabeth arid of William
has been in connexion with those continental despots
who have conspired to crush the rising liberties of man-
kind, and who have dared to stigmatise as factious and
rebellious the descendants of the immortal heroes who
bled on the plains of Marathon, and who fell at the Pass
of Tnersuopylir, solely because they endeavoured to
emancipate themselves trout the bloody and outrageous
tyranny of the filussulinans--(cheers); a system which
has engendered a host of Piacemeta, Pensioners, and
Sinecurists—men, who congratulate themselves and the
public on the increase of the Public Revenues, from
which they derive their enormous profits,while thousands
of their countrymen are steeped in poverty, even to the
very lips, It will perhapi excite Mlle little surprise its
some of your minds whets you are told, that its the reign
of the late King, a period of 59 years, there was three
times more money expended than in the reign of the 31
Stwcrcidus who pricedc4l hitu, (luring a period of 7uu