The National Register.
London, England, 1816-08-26 00:00:00

-~

AUGUST .6.

ith a vengeance- from without." ( Hire the Speaker was int,r•-
rupird by his,, amt eller merky of disapprohulion.. In 4'1,1W.-
u cove of NV hirls, he abruptly terminated his Opeech, at.
temp t. to read ehr Resolutienis, but email not he heard.!
Mr. Thompson ilea read the first Res.)hition,which described
the Agricultural and Comm( reiol dislrc sa of the Country to he
unparalleled in its extent. '1 his Residut len lie begged to second.
He lamented the absence of Mr..Waiihnorn 7wbom lie hoped
they would set again see in that Hall, dragging corruption from
its lurking-hole, and hurling the lintiolerbolt of initialise at its
supporters. He rejoiced ticst the present meeting had been
railed, the proceedings of it Melt wentd resell the Prince Regent
voile they would make it known throughout the emir:ray to the
poor, that it was not their ura.sters who oppressed them ; but
that the:, were as 1111101 oppressed as their ibteriors, it not mine ;
and that it was to the Govei mr.mt only that they cooldlbok up
fin relief. f is considel eil tit:: late rueetitet at the London Tavern,
and the efforts made by land Cochratie and those who sup-
ported hint, as of the greatest importance ; as they went to guard
the Hatton against debision. If his home• were on fire, arid a
neighbour should go to him with a bucket of water, and pee-
n-inlet' be vague as it friend to estinr,guish the flames with it, he
should look upon him with suspicion, and believe he had terbet
to purloin some of his property. lu the same way, he conted-
lied, the subset iption ought fo be lees eel, w holly matlentinte as
it was and must he to the object which its pruntotens atferted to
base iu view. If the Dukes and Archbishops who attended the
meeting had been sincere in their professions their subscrip-
tions would have 110111 t. sonic 1111411011i1311 to their incomes.-
f
Here lie made sane observations en the principal Subscribers
to the Fund fir the Relief Of the Distressed, and abused altnoat
the whole of the distinguished benefactors, etanipating (incor-
rectly- in many instances) their incomes with their donations
He recommended union, and ceaseless exertion, till a Refuriu
in Parliament was obtained; and •• raark,"said he, in conehrsion,.
"I venture to foretel it, if this In nut gained, we shall have—
either a bloody revolution, which we must all deplore—or a mi..
litany despotism.
Mr. Hunt spoke to 'he same effect. He read. over a list al
sinectirists, censored the existing system, and lamented the de-
gradation into which the nation had Wen ; since it had been so
humbled as to accept of relief from a lloorbou-i-a Pienehmare
—and such a Frenchman as the Duke of Berri, after expend-
ing 200,000,0001. of our ovate) in the war for the restoration or
his tamily. lie thought the downfall of the system might be
dated from the passing of the Resoltitimis now aboat to be sub-
mitted to the Hall ; and lie hoped that the hirelings of corrops
Lion would take wat niug, as. i restore to the people their just
rights before it was too late.
A string of Resolutions was then read and agreed to as fol-
lows :

Resolved Unanimously-I'lle the Distress, whisk weighs*
down the Agriculture, the Conimerce foreign and domestic, And
the Manufactures of Great Britain, is unparalleled iii the his-
tory of our country, and deeply alarming to all who have at
heart its true greatness, real freedom, and lasting prospe.
rite.
Resolved Unanimously--That this distress is the natural re-
sult of a corrupt system Auministration, and of a long and
profligate waste of the public treasure, daring a period of up-
wards of twenty years warfare, which hua occasioned an ex-
penditure or 1000 Millions, and increased our Debt, Taxes, and
Poor Rates, to an insupportable and frightful extent, brought
oor liberties into int tttt i t Pent perH, and proved destructi veto nor
nation's! prosperity; whilst, also, it har terminated disas-
trously to the best interests of a conridc rabic portion of civilized
Europe.
Resolved Unanimously—That the oppressiveweight of Taxa-
tion, under which the people groan, is 'producing rapid depopu-
lation, increasing and widely-extended pauperism--threatening
consequences the most ruinous to all classes and rooks of the
community. .

Reselved Unanimously—That all attempts to redress, or at.
rest the progress of, these overwhelming ek its by tinbscriptioest,
however landaLle the motives of the Subscribers, must prove
inefficient, and afferd but a trifling and temporary Relief even
to the need depressed class of the people; and that we there-
fore deplore, not ouly the magnitude of the National Distress,.
but the very inadequate means of Relief hitherto proposed ;
and arc deeply impressed with the painful apprehension that
the sta.:rings of mans- thousands of onr countrymen will, in the
eveut, be aggravated, rather then alleviated, by holding out
expectations which can never he realized.
Resolved Unanimously—That it is as insulting to the under-
standings, as it is injurious to the independence of the people.
to receive a miserable pittaure in the shape of alums from those
Placeinen and Pensioners who deris c their unmerited and el.-
orbitant incomes from the very taxes which constitute thy.
grand emote of the people's sufferings.
Resolved Unanimonsly--That we have seen, with shame and
indignation, that the poverty of Great Britain has been pro-
claimed to the whole world; and that this once prosperous and
independent people are reduced to the necessity of accepting
charity from a Prince of the House of Bourbon; and that
while lamenting this degradation of our national character, w e
catinot refrain from urging his Majesty's Minister to dema
payment from fureign powers of the many millions borrowed nt
this country, under the solemn faith of treaties, in addition ('T
the still larger subsidies lavished on those powers, to enabt"
them to raise their UV•R armies. tight their own battles. unit'
promote their own ambitious projects, to the manifest prejud
dice of the dearest interests of this emintry.
Resolved Unanimously—That the standing army, lit all times
an object of jealousy to the British People, is of magnitude
in the time of peace unparalleled; and the more alarming to
Its, as a considerable portion of it has been employ-ed, in union
with the armies of Continental Despots, in violation of pro-
mises, solemn and repeated, to impose on the people of France
a Goverimu lit in opposition to the declared rimiee of her Re-
pi esentatives, and to present 23 million, of people from exer-
cising the right, without which a nation cannot be bee—a light
repeatedly exercised by the people of this comary—a right, the
assertion of which placed the House of Brous% it k on the
Throne' of these Realms, VIZ.-- 'DIA of tbrming and reforming
a Government for themselves; the into s expense of this
unconstitotienal force beiug one of the causes of our national
poverty ; its immediate anil effectual reduction is indispeusa•
61y accessary to the freedom and prosperity of Britons, and of
the people of Europe in general, with whose true welfare our
own is vitally connected.
Resolved Unanimously--That our national distress imperi-
ously demands the must prompt abolition of all useless places,
and sinecure pensions, which constitute AU grievous an
to our insupportable burthens, and the immediate adoption of
the most rigid economy in every branch of the public ex-
pentlilnrc.
Resolved Unanimously—That long experience has but too
fully proved, that the only efficient hope of the people is in
'thenr•els es united, to exercise their constitetioual powers, in
order to secure a free, full, and frequent RepresentAtion of the
people in the Commons House of Parliament; flue wailt of
which Represe:itation having been the primary Source of oar