The National Register.
London, England, 1811-06-16 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.

On Monday last, the Friends of Parliamentary Reform met,
for the discussion of the subject at the Freemasons Tavern. The
Meeting was not so numerous as it had been expected.
Sir JOHN TIIROCKMORTON having taken the Chair, called
their attention to the subject for which they were assembled.
It was unnecessary, he said, to trespass on their time by opening
the subject at any length. Their object was known to all. They
were assembled for promoting, by an limited effort in their seve-
ral counties, the cause of a Reform in the Hcuse of Commons ;
and he trusted that Meetings would he held in all quarters, and
petitions forwarded to bring about that desirable end.
Mr. TR EVA N (ON (of COrilWa;l) then rose and began by begging
leave to read several extracts from the Petition presented to the
Hou-e of Commons in 1793, in favour of Parliamentary Reform,
(by Mr. Grey.) The Address of that Petition he must, how-
ever, in the first place observe, was incorrect. It was addressed
" to the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain in Parlia-
ment 'assembled"—that they were not what they professed to he
—the representatives of the people. He moved the first reso-
lution : • -
R, solved, That the much-quoted Petition presented by Mr.
Grey (now Earl Grey,) on the 6th of May, 1793, to the Commons
House of Parliament, and then entered on its Journals, affords
a eemonstration that the said House cloth not represent the
People.
That it has beer; the perpetual theme of the despised Prayers
and Remonstrances of innumerable Petitioners, that the said
House loth not speak the sense of the Nation.
That it bath been a subject not only of national complai,nt, but
of Parliamentary Protest, that Parliament have had an unconsk
stitutional duration.
That these fittfl corruptions in that Assembly, which ought to
be the Guardian of our Liberties, are the radical and true causes
of national wrong and celarnitv, in ail their forms and varieties;
whether of intemperate quarrels with other States—or of ruinous
Debt, and the pauperizing of millions—or of the opprescivo, re-
lentless, and inquisitorial character of Taxation--or repeated
restrictions on the Freedom of the Press—or of the complicated
evils and dangers of the pres:!nt conflict—or of encroachments
on the Independence of the Crown ;—or to tutu op all, of a sys-
tematic tencencv to subvert tl,e Constitution; V.Thc: cfore it is
the conviction of this Nieeting, that a Rttorin hi the Commons
House of Parliament is equally essential to the Indepeutlence of
the: Crow'', and to the Liberties of ;he People.
Nit. Pr rER seconded it. That a Reform or the lionse of Com-
mons was necessary, was a proposition so simple and self-evident,
that the people could not avoid perceiving it in the recent con-
d'.tct of that House on many 'ct asions. The cot trot') of the
Con stitue-•ts over their Repress ntative had 1.1: denied, because
it was said.he ought to consult the go,d of the whoie eropi-e.
That the good of the whole was to be prefetrtd to th,t of a part,
was a proposition too clear to ;:emit d.spute : but if not ac-
countable to their Constituent-, to whom were they accoun,-
abk. ? Did the people intend to appoint Lords over them instead
of Represenla:ives? Was the se, vast greater than the master ?
Unless the Representative was accountable to his Coro.t,tucnts,
there was no security for his goad conduct. They had heard of
e•:000mical Reform. That was errgood as GI- as it went, and
he should he most happy to see it accomplished; but how is could
he brought about without a Reform in the Representation. he
could not conceive. 'Parliamentary corruption was fast under-
mining onr blessings. To preserve them was their übject, and
in the end he trusted they would be successful.
The Resolution was then rut and curried unanimously.
Mr. 13t.uN T (of Staff :rdslore) moved the second Reso:ution:
Resolved, Thu it being highly expedient that the Nation in
all its divishos should, on the s. lajret of the decay of Reuresen-
tation, proclaim irs opinions, both as to the wrong an 4 to the
remedy, this Meeti::g for is 1. declares—

That the aggregate of U-urpations, which have taken from
tilt People a majority of the Seats in the Commons House of
Parliament, has eatahlish,:ci that most pernicious of all species of
Governments—an OLIGARCHT.
•_. _ •

That the King, .with prerogatives balanced 1:ly thu indepoti-
otlee of a Parliament holding the national vurse, would have 134)