The National Register.
London, England, 1817-02-24 00:00:00

iltiOn ILI t titittV+

Our Eting, Comititution attb

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1817.

of consummate ignorance, has led him to believe iden-
tified. The child in all probability was too much a pet,
too much its mother's darling and papa's deli,,At, to
have its pleasures disturbed by reading books, thus we
may be able to account for his round assertion, a spe-
cies of rhetoric, in which by the bye he and his friend
are both wholesale dealers, that the Great Charter, we
translate in compliment to his avowed dislike to any
thing foreign, guaranteed to the People Annual Par-
liaments, meaning thereby a yearly re-election of the
House er Representatives. We feel persuaded that
even Mr. Hunt himself with all his ready wit, must
have just sense enough, and it may be sufficient honesty
to acknowledge that an institution which had no exist-
ence at the time, that was not then contemplated could
not very well become even the subject of disetu.sion,
much less of a direct confiranation. The plain fact is,
the famous Charter ?f Runnemede, which, although it
provided that the Parliament should hold three Sessions
annually, no otherwise noticed the great bulk of the
people, then in a state of slavery, than to provide
" that no villain or rustic should by any fine be be-
reaved of his carts, ploughs, and instruments of hus-
bandry." This was obtained in 1215, when there was
nothing that bore the least semblance to the present state
of Parliament, which is a terns derived front the Nor-
man French, we wonder Mr. Hunt can endure, except
the great Council of the Nation, consisting of the same
materials as the present House of Lords, namely, the
dignified Clergy, the Judges, and the Nobility assem-
bled at the King's pleasure in one Chamber, who were
rather the registry of his will than* deliberative body :
which, indeed, was one of the privileges fur which they
contended. We have no notice of a second Chamber,
or Commons House of Parliament, for nearly half a
century after: not until 1::!58, during the usurpation
and ambitious schemes of Henry the Third's brother-
in-law, the Earl of Leicester, a man of daring habits,
and considerable abilities, who had long aspired to the
Throne, who, taking advantage of the King's weakness,
gave him the lie, and placing himself at the head of
the twenty-four Barons, entrusted, by what was after-
wards called the Meed Parliament, with the supreme
authority, aimed, through their means, at compass-
ing the sovereign power,atl to farther discredit the de-
clining interests of the feeble Monarch with his sub-
jects, adopted the novel plan of summoning, on the
I th June, four Knights to be chosen by each county
who should meet in a separate House and examine into
the grievances of their constituents. 'The Usurper,
however, did not find these so compliant with his
wishes as he desired ; hut having now nearly attained
the summit of his ambition, and completely eugrossed
in his own person the royal functions ; having also as
his prisoners Henry the Third taken at the fatal battle
of Lewes, Henry's brother, Richard King of the Romans,
and young Edward, Henry's son, afterwards Edward
the First, he determined, in order to counteract the
Nobles, who viewed his elevation with extreme jea-
lousy, to make one bold push for the diadem, and ac-
cordingly ordered returns to be made of two Knights
from every shire, besides l)eputiea from the boroughs :
thus arose the British House of Commons : it has since
undergone many changes, experienced many modifica-
tions, and is in all probability destined still to suffer
other mutations : but most assuredly it had nothing
whatever to do either directly or indirectly with the
Chatter granted by John, for had the towering Earl
succeeded in his projects, there cannot remain a doubt,
from his well known character, he would have sunk the
whole in a rank despotism. The good genius of our
ancestors however joined to their determined fidelity to
the cause of the people, fortunately for their descend-
ants ordered it otherwise.

When the Spa-fields Ranter, bundled up the sticks,
to be presented with the Bristol Petition, evidence in-
controvertible of his haying accidently formed some
kind of acqunintarcc with the venerable /Esop, albeit
he wrote in Greek, it is to I.)a hoped he did not forget,
to put in a rough one, to represent himself, and crook-
ed one to typify his tergiversating fricad Corporal Cob-
butt : As tIICSt: sticks, were to be an tmswer to the fa-
mous dagger scene, of the great Edmund Burke, we
have to congratulate the noisy orator, that it fell to the
lot of so gallant a man es Loris Cochrane, anti that be
himself was not personally obliged to be the presenter
to the Cinntnon, as it must pow be quite efidt-nt, from
the late atlitir with Morley, that the unlettered Man of
words, would, upon his visual organs coming into con-
tact with the death-dealing instrument, have once
utore displayed the gay plumage of hi 6 Nkiiefruthert.

PRICE 9id.

IMPERIAL PARLIAME A" 7'.