The National Register.
London, England, 1823-01-27 00:00:00

YORK COUNTY MEETING.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 22.—A meeting of the Freehold-
ers of the cowry of York was this day held in the
Castle-yard, York, pursuant to a requisition (signed by
2,425 neeholders) presenied to the tligh Sheriff of the
county, R. Bethell, ol Rise, Esq. calling unto hull to
convene a tnectitsg " for the Ito rpose of takiaa into con-
sideration the present state of the House of C
and the necessity of a Reform thereof:*
At eleven o'clock the hustings were crowded with
some of the first &teatime', of the county. Mr. Wooler
was also on the hustings, as was the Quaker, Waldo, ol
I.l!Yetibury. of radical notoriety.
At a quarter alter eleven the High Sheriff, attended
by several fi tends, took the chair.
-The Requisition having been read by the Under
Sheriff,

The lIIGH SHERIF/ addressed the meeting nearly as
follows:—" Gentlemen !Freeholders of the county of
Y*1,14,-41' consequence of J 0-(130011011, nnmrroudy amt
most respectatily swied, rehoesting one to call a meeting
00 the subject of Parliameinary Reform, 1 h thougtit
it my duty to give you the earliest opportimity of exer-
cising your undimmed and most valuable privilege, mat
of discussing what, itt your ominous, is connccted with
your interests, or the general interests of the ctt ntry.—
(Applause.)---.1 shall oily add a hove, that as you res-
pect the right of tree discussion, you will give every matt
a fan, a candid, and impartial hearing, wnatever may
be Ins opiiiirms. (Hear, hear.) By such peaceable, or.
derly, and manly conduct, you will stamp upon the 11r0.
ceedings of this meeting a character worthy of the great
county of which you are the enlightened ireettolders."--
(Limn applause.)
Mr. WALTER Fawites —" Gentlemen, frequently as
it has been my lot to address you within these walls,
never ditl I do so at a moment of more vital iniportatice
than the present. It now requires no effort so rouse
your feelings, or induce you to resent any insolent threat
of foreign aagressiou ; you are not stow called upon in
strengthen the arms ante Executive for the preservation
of your lives, your properties, your aliass, and your
homes. You are called upon seriously to consider what
the state of that country now is, and, unless you hear
arguments sufficiently strong to contradict the facts
which 1 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 i'ebt, tinder
which we must inevitably sink, unless wine speedy and
effectual relief be afforded. (hear, hear, hear.)—The
measures of she present Administration have been acted
upon by one set of men fur the last fitly years, and have
produced an accumulation of debt which would be to•
tally incredible if not provable—a sys.ent 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 amid of William
has been in connexion with those continental despots
who have conspired to crush the rising, litterties of man-
kind, arid who have dared to stigmatise as factious and
rebellious the descendants of the ttttttt onal heroes who
bled on the plains of Marathoti, and who tell at the Pass
of Tnermupyla•, solely because they endeavoured to
emancipate themselves ;non the bloody and outrageous
tyranny of the NlUsSUlthalls—(cheers); a system wino,
his engendered a host of Pacemen, Pensioners, aiitl
Sinecurists—men, who congratulate themselves and Inc
public on the increase of tile Public Revenues, from
which they derive their enormous profits,while thousands
of their countrymen are steeped in poverty, eve!, to the
very lips. It will perhaps excite some little surprise in
some of your minds when you arc told, that in the reign
of the late King, a period of 59 years, there was three
tittles more monry expended than in the reign of the 31
Sovereizus who preceded him, during a period of 700