The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 30 1839.

HIGH TREASON

LETTER H.
TO THOMAS ATWOOD, ESQ.
MY DEAR ATTWOOD,
I have many things to say to you upon the
different topics of your last address to the electors
of Birmingham : but, as I said before, " high
treason is now the order of the day," among some
who know no more about high treason than " the
dear little Lady," as O'Connell calls her, in whose
name this hodge-podge of confusion is brought
before the public eye,
To continue the drama of defending you in 1832
against such a charge, one of the privileges of the
accused is to have the benefit of two speeches from
his Counsel, and you have as yet only had one.
My second speech should therefore have been to
the following purport :
Gentlemen of the Jury,—l,told you before that
my client had done nothing, literally nothing, but
make a serious •and honest attempt to obtain a
restoration of our ancient Constitution, and of the
securities settled and established at the Revolution.l

It is very possible that this attempt may have
given great offence to those who are now in power ;
because, to this attempt, the introduction of the
Reform Bill, as a Government measure, was en-
tirely owing ; and because, but for some things
which I shall not go into at present, the seven de-
mands made by the men of Birmingham in this
petition of December, 1830, now charged as an
overt act of high treason, would have been the law
of England at this day, and many of you will live
to see that petition the law of England yet. Why do
I say so ? because I happen to have been the adviser
of those seven demands ! No; but because those
seven demands are all founded upon our old laws, and
and constitutions, and because they are essential to
to the great principles of Freedom of Election, and
of our Representative Government—and yet you
will not find among these seven demands, either
Universal Suffrage, Annual Parliaments, or Voting
by Ballot. Gentlemen, my great master, who
never in his life led the people astray, or set them
on false scents, neither advocated nor approved of
Universal Suffrage, or the principles of the Ballot.
First, because they never formed a part of our
ancient Constitution, and because he thought Uni-
versal Suffrage could only be claimed by universal
taxation, which never formed any part of our
ancient system—and because he thought that all
taxation not levied upon realised property, but
upon articles of consumption and necessaries of life,
was founded in fraud upon the industrious classes,
and put them at the mercy of the wealthy classes,
from which neither Universal Suffrage nor the Ballot
would relieve them; and, therefore, that as property
had the benefit of representation, it alone should
bear the burden of taxation. Gentlemen, it has
happened that Mr. Tooke was the author of many
speeches that have been made in Parliament, when
he was sleeping in his bed, or sitting in his own
study. You seem to stare ! Why, the same thing
has happened to the humble individual that is now
addressing you. Speeches have been made in both
Houses of Parliament, word for word, as I had
written them. lam now going to give you one of
Mr. Horne Tooke's, delivered in the House of
Commons before his trial for high treason.

A Member of Parliament had said to Mr.
Tooke that if he would write down what he had
to say as to the nature of our ancient Constitution,
and of what was established at the Revolution,
which he was so constantly praising and urging,
against the notions of Thomas Paine, the Member
would be at the trouble of getting the speech by
heart, and delivering it in the House of Commons.
Now this is but little known at this day, but it will
be made known, with many such other of his
speeches in Parliament, in the life I am writing of
this great man. "We heard, (he, the Member
said), on every side, of the glorious Revolution in
1688, and the Constitution, as settled at the glo-
rious Revolution. It was a note he had always
listened to with pleasure. But what was the
rational foundation of our satisfaction at the recol-
lection of the glorious Revolution ?
" It assuredly was not that the possession of the
throne, and the regular hereditary succession to it
were at that time disturbed and interrupted. It was
not that we expelled one King and one family, and
appointed another King and another family in
their room. The necessity of such chamges was at
all times to be deplored, and the events themselves
could only be justified by their necessity.
" The only rational foundation of -our appitiba-
tion of that revolution must be, at that attic such
principles were confirmed; and such y wise and
wholesome provisions made for our constitutional
security and happiness, as might prevent all future
necessity for a similar revolution.
" They (the revolutionists) took care to provide
for the due administration of the executive power,
and the responsibility of its confidential advisers.
They therefore enacted that (12 William 111. c. 2),
' All matters and things relating to the well-
governing of this kingdom, which are cognizable in
the Privy Council by the laws and customs of this
realm, shall be transacted there; and all resolu-
tions taken thereupon shall be signed by such of
the Privy Council as shall advise and consent to the
same.' Thereby guarding, as far as laws could
guard, against that accursed engine of despotism,
a Cabinet Council, or that more accursed instru-
ment, an Interior Cabinet.
Their attention was next directed to the double
representation of the people, the only possible
security for all their other provisions—their Repre-
sentatives and Courts of Justice—the House of
Commons and Juries. They passed over un-
touched, and left as they found them, the Nobi-
lity and the Church. ; they were considering the
solid and substantial parts of the constitutional
edifice, and did not much concern themselves
about the gilding and the varnish. They there-
fore proceeded to establish the principle of afair
and free and frequent election of the Representa-
tives of the Commons in Parliament, as might
be seen by reference to Acts passed in the first
and second, and third years of William and Mary ;
and having thus, as they imagined, provided for
the real election of the representative body in
Parliament, they secured the independence and in-
tegrity of that body after its election, by enacting
that, ' No person who has an office, or place of
profit under the King, or receives a pension from
the Crown, shall be capable of serving as a Mem-
ber of the House of Commons..-12th W. 111., ch. 2.
" Having thus secured the purity and indepen-
dence of the people's representatives in Parliament,
they proceeded to the other important branch of
their representation by jury ; and they decreed that
juries should lie fairly taken, without partiality, and
should act freely, without influence.-Ist W. and
Mary, ch. 2.
" They also decreed that excessive bail should not
be required ; that excessive fines should not be im-
posed, and that illegal and cruel punishments
should not be inflicted ; and to secure these objects
they ordained that thenceforward the Judges'
Commissions should be made, quamdiu se bete
gesserint,' and that their salaries should be ascer-
tained and established, in order to make the
Judges independent of the Crown.-12th W. 3,
ch. it.

" Now, all these provisions (the objects and con-
sequences of the glorious Revolution) would have
no value, they would be nugatory and worthless;
they would be a mockery, unless they went effectu-
ally to obtain and secure to the people of this land
these three important points :—First, an honest
and responsible exercise of the executive authority.
secondly, real, independent, and faithful Re-
presentatives of the Commons in Parliament.
Thirdly, a fair and impartial administration of jus-
tice in the Courts of Law. We who had no pre-
dilection for any family whatever (except as con-
nected with these objects), in the words of our an-
cestors at the time of the Revolution, did now
again ' claim, demand, and insist upon all those
our undoubted rights; the true, ancient, and in-
dubitable rights and liberties of this kingdom:—
Ist W. and M. ch. 2.

"If, then, by- various means, it had happened (as
he asserted and undertook to prove in a Committee
of this House) that this provisional responsibility
of the Privy Council no longer remains ; that
the election of the House of Commons is
neither fair, nor free, nor frequent ; that
this provisional independence of its Members is
gone, and that the House at present swarms with
persons having offices and places of profit under
the King, and receiving pensions from the Crown ;'
that Juries are not fairly and impartially taken ;
that they do not act freely and without influence ;
that excessive bail may be, and has been required ;
that excessive fines may be, and have been imposed ;
that illegal and cruel punishments may be, and

I have beet' inflicted ; that the Judges are not inde-
perilkut (f the Crown ; that pensions may be, and
have been granted to some of them ; and 6:at lucra-
tive offices may be, and have been conferred upon
others ; by which means it cannot be said that their
salaries are ascertained and established ;—if these
facts were so, he held it to be the duty of all those
who, without hypocrisy, praised the Revolution, to
endeavour to return us again to our constitutional
situation at that period, and to recover those lost or
neglected provisions ; that so we might effectually
secure to ourselves and to our posterity, what our
ancestors endeavoured at the Revolution to secure
to themselves and us."

Here then, Gentlemen,you have the picture of our
old and real Constitution, drawn by the hand of a
master, and exhibited in the House of Commons.
The Member was not sent to the Tower for treason,
although the borough-mongers perhaps thought
that no higher treason against their " new Majes-
ties" could be uttered ; but now that the principle
of Parliamentary Reform has been established, can
it be pretended that there is anything treasonable
in any of the seven demands made in the Birming-
ham Petition of Right of December, 1830 ?
Every one of these demands is founded upon,
and made part of the Reform Bill, which I advised
and drew for the Marquis of Blandford in the
spring of that very year, and which he had then the
virtue and the honesty to propose in the House of
Commons, in the most masterly and statesman-like
manner, to the utter confusion of the recreant Whigs,
most of whom shrunk like hoddymydods in their
shell. At last out they came with their own
rash, ill-considered, clap-trap Bill, alarming an
honest, well-intentiened King, and which has
given no satisfaction to high nor low. Their Bill "
made a new Constitution, and it has been since
avowed that it was so intended ; whereas the
people of England, and the men of Birmingham
in particular, never asked for a new Constitution.
They asked for a restoration of their old Constitution,
as it was to be found in the books ; but the Whigs
seem to have been as ignorant of the books as Mr.
Tooke used to say Thomas Paine was.
The Reform Bill, of which I am the author, and
for which I am as ready to die upon the scaffold
as ever Algernon Sidney was for his immortal
book, of which I published a precis before I was
called to the bar, kept strictly to the books
for every provision or principle it contains.
It was no where so much discussed as by
the men of Birmingham ; and after laying
before you what they said of it in March, 1830,
leave you to pronounce Mr. Attwood a traitor if'
you dare ; and I leave to the whole country to
judge whether, if the men of Birmingham had
stuck to their colours, had continued to fight under
the standard I presented to them, the provisions of
that Bill would not have been the law of England
at this day, to the peace of mind of our good old
King, and to the happiness and contentment of
high and low. That this may still be the case—
that the wounds of our beloved country may be
healed—that wisdom, justice, and mercy may at
last possess the hearts of her rulers, is my con-
stant, and shall be my dying prayer to Almighty
God.
A DISCIPLE OF JOHN HORNE TOOKE.

DECLARATION OF THE BIRMINGHAM POLI-
LITICAL COUNCIL ON THE MARQUIS OF

BLANDFORD'S BILL.

At a meeting of the Political Council of the Town of
Birmingham, held by adjournment at the Globe Tavern,
lin Temple-street, this 16th day of March, 1830, and
made special for the purpose of discussing, re-consider-
ing, and finally deciding upon the merits of a 13i11 lately
presented to the House of Commons by the Marquis of
Blandford, entitled " A Bill to restore the Constitutional
influence of the Commons in the Parliament of Eng-
land," Thomas Attwood, Esq. in the chair.
A correct copy of the above Bill having been read
to this Council, and all its parts and provisions having
been fully dicussed and considered,.
And this Council considering, that in the question of
Reform, it is not merely the abstract merit of any
particular plan which ought to be attended to, but that
due regard must necessarily be had to its practicability;
and to the means of exciting or conciliating all classes
of the community to its support, without which there
can be, no security for any class ; and, considering also,
that it is of the higher: importance to the cause of the
people thet some general and effectual plan of Reform
should be laid down, which the people may claim as
their Coustitutional and legal right, and, which, whilst
it restores the just rights and interests of the lower and
middle classes of the community, may protect alike the
just privileges and immunities of the upper classes, and
way in feet. serve as a common rallying point for all ;
and considering further, that in the selection of such ge-
ntraland effectual plan of Reform, it is desirable that
no novel :or dubious claims should be advanced, and
that it•would weaken the cause of Reform to mix up
any disputable questions of political improvement, to
which•t he people have no constitutional right, with those
ancient,esacred, and undeniable constitutional rights of
which they have been unjustly and wrongfully deprived ;
and considering also, that, under the present urgent cir-
cumstances of the country, it is expedient that such
plan of Reform should be so undeniably just, rightful,
and conservatory, as to hold out the prospect of being
carried speedily into effect, for the relief of the na-
tional distress, and for the prevention of those tre-
mendous calamities which a continuance in the
present measures of the Government cannot fail to pro-
duce ; and this Council further considering that the Mar-
quis of Blandford's Bill does, in fact, unite and secure all
these great objects in one common bond of union to-
gether ; considering that it seeks the happiness of the
people through the broad, beaten, well-tried road
through which our fathers travelled fo liberty, prospe-
rity, and glory ; that it launches not out into the
ocean of novelties, doubts, differences, and discords,
but casts anchor, as it were, on the rock of the Con-
stitution, which never failed our forefathers, and under
God's grace can never fail us ; considering, also, that,
under the present state of things, it is necessary to the
interests of all, that all should make mutual conces-
sions to each other, and forget their common rival-
ries, and unite together for the common safety ;
and considering, also, that Universal Suffrage,
in its full extent, is not a clear, defined and
acknowledged constitutional right, and that only
some few traces of it remain in the elections of
knights of the shire four hundred years ago, and scarce
a.), traces of it remain in the elections o citizens and
burgesses ; and considering also that Annual Parlia-
ments are not a clear, acknowledged, and indisputable
constitutional right, and that it may be doubted
whether they would work better for the people than
their undeniable constitutional right to Triennial Par-
liaments, of which they have been wrongfully and un.
constitutionally deprived ; and considering also that
Vote by Ballot is not known to the Constitution, .that
it cannot be claimed as a constitutional right of the
people, and that, however excellent it may be in 'itself,
it may be calculated to weaken the cause of Reform, by
naming up a novel and disputable question of political
improvement with ancient, undeniable, and constitutional
rights ; and considering further, that the doctrines of
Universal Suffrage, and Annual Parliaments, and Vote
by Ballot, may be calculated to weaken the cause
of Reform, by creating divisions in the upper and
middle classses of the community, without producing
any greater unanimity or additional zeal among the
lower classes, or any other equivalent advan-
tage whatever and this Council considering
further that the Marquis of Blandford's Bill
does in fact restore to the people all those great Con-
stitutional rights, privileges, and protections, which their
forefathers possessed, but of which they have them-
selves been wrongfully deprived ; and more especially
that it, Ist, Dismisses all placemen from the House of
Commons, agreeably to the great Constitutional Act
of Settlement, which placed the present Family upon
the throne ; 2d, that it repeals the Septennial Act,
and gives back to the people their ancient and unde-
niable right to Triennial or more frequent Parlia-
ments, recognised and secured by the great Constitu-
tional Act, the Gth of William and Mary, cap.
idly, That it abolishes the qualification of property,
as fixed unconstitutionally by the act of 9th of Queen
Anne, cap. 5, and restores the ancient and under:table
right of sitting and voting as a citizen or burgess in the
Commons' House of Parliament, to every individual
among the common people who may be lawfully chosen
a member of that body : 4thly, That agreeably to the
ancient and undeniable laws of the land, it renders it
imperative on the citizens and burgesses of the House of
Commons to be in general real citizens and burgesses
resident within the places which they represent, and
consequently acquainted and identified with their wants,
feelings, and interests : sthly, That it secures the
fidelity of such citizens and burgesses by putting in
force the ancient constitutional law, which provides
that all of them shell receive a certain known, definite,
and reasonable payment from their constituents, for
good purposes, instead of an uncertain, unknown, and
enormous payment for bad purposes from the Govern-
gent 6tnly, That it makes effectual provision for
breaking up the rotten boroughs, and transferring the
elective franchise to the great towns and districts now
unrepresented, or inefficiently represented : 7thly, That
it makes provision for greatly diminishing the enormous
expenses with which election of Members of Parliament
are now generally attended : Bthly, That it makes pro-
vision for securing the elective franchise to every house-
holder in the United Kingdom, who may be willing to
contribute to the Poor's-rates, which every householler
is in fact now liable to by law ; and that by the general
prosperity which it must naturally produce, it must so
diminish the magnitude of Poor-rates on the one hand,
I and so increase the means of the lower classes on tho

t other, as to render the attainment of the elective fran-
-1 chise a matter of comparative facility to all, the diffi-
cultyin the way of such attainment being so far re-
duced as to serve rather as a stimulus to virtue,
than as a denial of justice ; and this Council
considering further, that these great and invalu-
able privileges are not advanced as disputable points
in the Marquis of Blandford's Bill, but that
they are claimed, insisted upon and demanded, as the
ancient and undeniable Constitutional right of the people:
and considering finally, that it is of the highest import-
ance to success in this great cause, that the people
should make their stand on this just, legal, righteous,
and unassailable ground ; considering all these things,
the Political Council of the town of Birmingham,
Unanimously resolve,
Ist. That the Bill of Reform proposed to the House
of Commons, by the Marquis of Blandford, is admirably
calculated to accomplish its great object, that of "re-
storing the Constitutional influence of the Commons in
the Parliament of England."
2d. That it is calculated to effect this great object
[ thoroughly and radically ; at the same time that it is
strictly conservatory of all the just and constitutional
rights and immunities of the privileged casses.
Bd. That by strictly confining itself to the ancient,
well•known, and undeniable rights of the Constitution,
it :narks out and defines a specific plan of Radical Re-
form, in support of which all opinions can unite, and all
interests combine ; A plan of Radical Reform in the at-
tainment of which, the middle classes may co-operate
cordially with the lower classes, without exciting the
alarm of any portion of the upper classes, who are not
associated in the national plunder and oppression.
4th. That it cuts up by the roots all the abuses and
corruptions which the supineness of the people has al-
lowed to grow up and deform the face of the Constitu-
tion, and does in fact reform and reconstruct the fair
fabric of English liberty, as it existed in the best and
happiest periods of English history.
sth. That therefore this Council is of opinion that
the Marquis of Blandford's Bill ought to be adopted as
the common rallying point of the people, subject only to
such alterations and additions as may be requisite for
carrying its great provisions into effect.
..._

_ .
6th. That this Cotincil strongly recommend to all
theirlellow countrymen throughout the United King-
dom, to devote their anxious attention to this most inv.
portant subject, to consult together with their friends
and neighbours, and to spare neither time nor labour,
in every just, legal, and constitutional effort, to procure
the passing of the Marquis of Blandford's -Bill into a
law ; and above all things, this Council recommend to
their fellow countrymen, that in any elections for
Members of Parliament which may take place, they
will on no account vote for any -candidate, whatever
may be his other merits, who will not unequivceally
pledge-himseif to support all the great provisions con-
tained 41 this Bill.
7th. That the cordial and grateful thanks of this
Council be presented to the Marquis of Blandford,
for the di.tinguished patriotism, the powerful intellect,
the unwearied industry, and the manly courage, which
he has exerted on behalf of the people, in bringing
forward his invaluable Bill, and in supporting the cause
of the people upon every occasion.

. . .
Bth. That this Council earnestly invite their fellow-
countrymen of the public press to give circulation to
these resolutions ; and to draw the national attention
generally to the only effectual and permanent remedy
for the national distress, a thorough and effectual 11,:-
form in the Representation of the People in the Com-
mons' House of Parliament.
THOMAS ATTWOOD, Chairman.
By Order of the Political Council,
THOMAS CLUTTON SALT, Secretary.