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

uarrr us somansar
-40-

AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS—R,
On Tuesday last the High Sheriff of the Comity of So-
merset convened the fierholdets of the Shire at Wells, to
consider of the state of the agricultural distress, as well
as of the beat mess of alleviating it. A hostings was
etected is front of the Town Hall, arid at I I o'clock
the High Sheriff (A. Stuckey, Esq.) took the Chair, at--
compauied by a large body or the gentry of the Cuunt).
Mr. Hunt appeared meanest them lit excellent health and
spirits, and took his station clone to the county members,
Sir T. Lethbridge and Mr. Dickenson. He was loudly
cheered by the large coucutariie of p,rsous assembled iii
trout of the hustings.
The Hiatt StialliFF opened the business of the day by
reading she requeirtiutiou pursuance et which he cuuveued
the pretreat tweeting.
Mr. &TANNING roar to move a string of resolutions, upon
which he said he intended to found a petition to Parlia-
ment. fur the relief of the almost extinguished agrictiltu-
rims of the country. The taxes which oppressed that chum
of the community were of the most unequal kiwi. arid had
encreased of late years toast al.se 000 iii g extent I their county
rate. had, in the course of forty years, Wien
foots SOUL to upwards of 20,00irl.—in addition to these
the local assessments, sod agraeultand taxes and rates of
every description, bad gone ou until they had almost
absorbed the whole property of the nearly ruined farmer.
.—(hear, heat !)—What wan to be done/ They hail no
alternative het to repair to Parliament witheat
and call fur reirenchermita in the public expenditure in
all the departments, and for a reduction of such taxes
as fell unequally upon hitid, so as to afford thou some
chance of averting iinpeuding ruin. He arraigned in
strum; terms the esiscondect and usisinanagermut of thud
system of Governusent which had led to this general
calamity, and concluded by proposing a petition.
The original emotion was for a petition to Pat 'lament,
embracing a variety of topics ul relief fur agricultural
distress, repeal of agricultural taxes, local rates, &c. bad
general economy and reueschineut.
Mr. STANDFoIit) seconded the petition, and warmly
urged the prophesy and necessity of adopting the
'seashores reconinsen&d by the mover. He strongly is.
Mated open the redaction ut the gaol and rates of the.
county upon the regular farmers; the county et large be-
nefited by them, and ought to participate in souse of the
impieties of their nielutenance. After dwelling upon Use
negligence of the Government, in considering the state of
the @tattoo, he touched upon the question of erform, cow.
tarred it. its necessity, and stated himself to be one of the
requisiturs who had signed and presented ou that day to
the High Sheriff a requisition to court-tie a county meeting
for that specific porpuse.
On the original question being put,
Mr. HUNT cause forward, and was received with loud
cheers. He said he had uuce azure the gratification of
wreetieg Isis fellow freeholders of Sumersetshire, after his
long and cruel inearecratioo by some of their magistrates,
l's llclerster gaol—lie, however, forgave them. He then,
in a temperate speech, propvsed the annexed atuendaseut,
and severely arraigned the conduct of the Soinersetslaire
magistracy, whom he saw around him, for their want of
spirit, patriotism, and ecumnity. He was particularly
severe upon the county smothers, one of whom, he said
(4 T. Lethbridge), had always been the servile adherent
of Ministers, and the other had been chiefly employed iu
iu zettiug sumetisitia fur Inuaclf, stud Ito instanced a light-
house job ha the Bristul Cheesier, and the Government
money to the ye otentseiy, oP which lie (Mr. Dickenson)
was Colonel. He called 4011 lilts to explain these matters
to his constituents.

Mr. HUNT moved an amendment, which went into spe-
cific redactions t the total remission of sinecures and un-
merited pensions ; redurtion of the salaries of all ufficers
of stale, the Roya Family, the Judges, and particularly
the Get man Pt once of Saxe Coburg, whoseliucotne °apt
to be reduced to 6,0001. a year, the income of the Presi-
dent of the United States of America. It also specified
particular agricultural taxes fur repeal.
Mr. DICKENSON defended his public conduct. He thee
said, that so far from the light-house dues, in the Bristol
Channel, being • job to him from the Government, they
lied come auto his family for a rateable consideration,
from a Mi. Crisp, who had leased them to his grandfather.
Sir T. Lirrwilninott claimed credit for his political
consistency, and declared that he had never given • vote
in the House of Commons which was not accefiling to his
conscience. He was glad to attend this meeting of his
constituents, for it enabled him, who was • Sumersetshire
ilium to the back-bone, to hear their sentiments openly
and manfully expressed, like Englishmen, and then to
weigh them betide the meeting of Parliament. He had
voted for the redaction of taxation, which was a fair plu-
mbic of his fit en determination to support economy and re-
trenchment. In or out of Parliament he should always be
inroad to meet his constitneuts.
Before the question was put, a Gentleman thought that
the best way of deciding spun the respective 'writs of the
two petitions, weal he to leave them both for signatures.
Mr. HUNT said that would be making a pretty I bag
of a county meeting—why, if all they wanted was to oh-
Wu signatures toe petition, they might get them at home,
without travelling this weather to • county meeting.—
Never was such • nonsensical proposition made as that.
General ltsTrfunsv urged the necessity of unanimity
to render their act efficacious, end strongly recommended
the original motion in preference to Mr. Hunt's, as it
came from gentlemen of large props.. ty in the comity,
and not from a stranger among them. He had no desire
to be impolite to Mr. Hunt, whose speech had beeti mo-
derate, and who did not cum, forth amongst theta as
moldier did in other counties, breeding mischief, with the
genius of Thunman Yoh's.
• Mr. Ileac reminded the °Pierre% that he was wrung in
considering I as a stranger in Somernetsnite, where he
bail been a treeliolder since about the time that the
General was born—he hail been one for the last twenty-
seven years.
The Hind MIS ERUPT, after some further diacnesion, was
about to put the gneai..n upon Mr. Hunt's amendment,
when it was agrees, after some policy between the parties
who moved the original question, that they would yield to
Mr. Hunt if he omitted the retains clause, as that world
anticipate the expected meeting for that specific question.
Mr. HUNT said, that if the High Slieriti woulu name a
• day for the reform meeting, he Should then withdraw
abe reform clause, arid let the remainder of his *mead-
pent stand.
Tice Stimuli, after some hesitation and consul.

as sieendament, the

. principal clerical esta.
tdursitiev, the Chapters and Deaneries.
as well as Filliewships of celibacy. which weer wily calve.
listed to primate vice. The Rev. Gentlemen encountered
whiny interruptions. and was obliged to desist.
The question was then called for, and Mr. Hunt's
awendinent wu carried by an annual majority.
kle then moved that tt be signed by the High Sheriif,
our the 'but of the meeting.
'lke High Sheriff retivie.l to sign it. The liaise of
Commons hail sledded that a petition so sive.' was that
of the Sheriff alone, sad this was certainly not his petition.
'flits retinal led to great confusion.

The illicit SH an IFF repeated his determination to per-
sist in refitting to sign the peti ion. It bad been decided
by the House of Commons that a petition so signed was
merely the act of the High Sheriff.
Mr. HUNT hoisted that the High Sheriff was, as the
public organ of the meeting, bound to sign the penti 00000
which had been carried by the majority. and his sugnatus e
did nut any tardier identify Min with its cements, than
as beiesg_the Chairman where it was adopted.
The HIGH SHIRIFt repeated his determination not to
aigu it, and asked Mr. Hunt why he could not move that it
be presented by some Member to Parliament.
Mr. HUNT replied, that lie c0..1d not move for the pre-
sentation of an unsigned petition ; one, lit fact, which
wilhosit the Chairman's funnel signature would be a pen-
Wm from nobody. ThiChairman was now the deposi-
tary of that petition, and mast steal with it as ha pleased
perhaps taking it main his garden would be jest as earthl
as sending it up to the House of Commun.. Mr. Hasa
admitted that the High Sheriff had done his duty up to
the present moment of the tweeting, but most certainly he
was betraying it slow, iu refusing to authenticate the pe-
tition as the act of the roomy.
The HIGH SHERIF/ said, be would always petform
his duty fearlessly.
Mr. HUNT then snowed a vote of ermine upon the High
Sheriff, which was instantly carried br acclamation, as
well as a Cute of thanks to Mr. Hunt.

crowd, ' We feel it;—Hear,
reign of George 11. the money
- ,
spent during the 700 years before that period amounted
to 7g 560.3491. and the National Debt then amounted
to m. 8320001. 'hiring the reign of George the Third
alone, there was expended in Great Britain the sum of
2,357,441,26g1. Nnw, Gentlemen, in matters of this
kind it may perhaps be necessary to take more than nue
mode of explanation. If we placed bu.o.loguitteas in a
line on the ground, they would only extend one milt,
whereas the sum spent in England in the reign of Get
I l I. minute, would extend twice round the whole earth, a
distance of forty-eight tht•usand miles! During the late
reign, the price of the land, that is to say, fond cod do_
increased from one million to two millions
which, with the addition of taxation, made an increase
of a million and a half to the consumer, making a
of fire times the rental of the whole kingdom. (Hear,
hear, hear.)—lit the celebrated petition of nay Land
Grey, which was presented to the finuse of Comuwuts
on the 6th of May, 1789, and which lies upnit their
table unanswered to this day, it is stated, that the majii-
rity of Members for England and Scotland were returned
by 15000 pawns out of a itoptilatioll 01 17
muffin s.—
(Hear. hear, hear.)—It appcars, also, front a Return
recently made, that RelUftill are made to the House of
Commons as follows :--

Peers. Members.
Is England and Wales 87 return 21/1
In Scotland
In Ireland

Total returned by 144 SOO
The re urns by one C. Immo .en were as follows :
Is England and Wales 137 Members by Commoners.
Commoners Members
In Scotland . ...14 return 14
In Ireland 19 .... $0
Ketarmd by Government .... 16

Making
Add returned by Peen....•

187
$OO

And you make a total 0f... 487
The whole number of Members in the
House of Commons is B3B
So that only 171 are returned by the body of the people.
—(Cries of "Shave.")—Mr. CAIIIIIII* II next position
was, that whatever might be the corruption existing in
crnain Boroughs, it would be an act of injustice to the
proprietors to disfranchise them. 1 should like to know
what-injustice it would bet Before I can be bristliest
to heLore it an act of injustice, 1 must see some law
which gives to a private individual as swat an influence
in the House of Commons as is possessed by the inn.-
tants of Westminster, and the freeholden of the County
of York put toszether. But I altogether deny that these
exists any such law, and I of course &sty also the alleged
injustice. Disfranchise a corrupt or a rotten borough,
and you still leave the proprietor his vote for the comity,
which is all that he either ought to have, or has a right
to claim.—(Cheers.)-11, however, the safety of the
country is to be sacrificed to private interests and tested
rights, if this is to be done, what are we to thitik of the
mat ..er in which our ancestors treated James the Secomi
He possessed a " veval right" to the most exalted office
office in this kingdom ; lie was an hereditary Monaich
also, and yet we expelled him. (Cheers.) I am now too
old to think of active life, and therefore shall concltele
with expressing my most ardent hope that the prayer of
your petition may be heard and attended to, and that I
may never have an opportunity of addressing you again."
The honourable gentleman concluded front the front of
the hustings amidst loud and general cheering I—He then
read the following resolutions:—
Resolved, 1. That the Con►titution of this Country is a Go-
vernment consisting of Three Ind, ;pendent States, • Limited
Monarchy, a Limited Aristocracy, and a Limited Democracy.
That each has its distinct and peculiar functions, and privi-
leges, and that one of these estates cannot unduly inlluence the
functions of either of the others without disturbing that ba-
lance which is essential to secure sod perpetuate the various
advantages which may be derived to the people from a Go-
vernment so constituted.

2. That the Horse of Commons, as at present composed,
does not express the National will ; on the contrary, it has too
generally proved its readiness to comply with the dictates of
whatsoever Minister may have dispexeed die favours of the
Crown.

1. That the effects of the present state of the House of
Commons have been the wanton and proligate expenditure of
the public money, and the unprincipled creation and contimi
ance of useless places and unmerited pensions, in defiance of
the loud and general expression of the public feeling.
4. That the heavy pressure or load of taxes imposed, fur the
purpose of supporting an extravagant Civil List, and of main-
taining a ruinously large Military and Colonial Eatabliahment,
is totally incompatible with a state of profound peace and ac-
knowledged *enmity.
5. That the only measure which can remedy these evils, and
preserve the country from the dangers that may be anticipated
from a continuance of them. is a speedy and effectual reform
in the Commons House of Parliament.

6. That a Petition, founded upon the above Remlotions, be
prepared and presented to the House of Commons.
The Hon. Mr. NYRE, In seconding the resolutions,
exreased his decided conviction that nothing but reform
could save the country from the evils with which they
were surrounded. He confessed that he had lormerly
advocated different doctrines, and was but a reconvert to
his Present opinions ; but he felt that when despotism
was abroad, sad when an undue influence was exercised
lat home, it became the ditty of every man to exert I s
*elf for the welfare of his c.iuntry.
On the question that the resolutions be put,
Mr. WORTLEY said—" Gentlemen, if I speak at all I
most speak boldly ; I must speak ton with a confidence
of bring heard, or else, with every respect I say it, it
it were better I should hot speak at all. My hon. (nem.,
Mr. Fawkes, has put his argument in the fairest possible
manner.—(blear, hear.)—l am tree to admit also, that if
my hon. friend's premises are just, I fully agree with his
conclamon, (hear, heer.) that it would be right to call
imam the House of Commons to reform itself.--But
deny his premises, and beg to add, that both you and he
have taken a wrong view of the subject. I deny that

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TIIE NATIONAL REGISTER
rfisniia. halos, militated to Is Taesday neat for thelieforen yean, (a person in the era
meetiog--(lmid Motoring) hear) At the end of the mil
i—REFORM. The Rev. Mr. Cnnswit.t. proposed an amendment ,the spent doting the 7UO years lot
offi et of which was to aboiisli the principal clerical eau- to 7g 060.34,41. and the mni
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