The Sun.
London, England, 1831-02-02 00:00:00

BRISTOL ANTI-REFORM MEETING.

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.

Many conscientious inhabitants of the city of Bristol
have seen with pain that a number of opulent persons con•
versed, not openly by public advertisement, but by private
invitations addressed to persons holding particular offices,
or supposed to cherish peculiar political opinions, and for
the most part interested in supporting the undue influence
over their dependent freemen, which wealth and office
confer, at a meeting held at the White Lion, iu Broad-
street, on the 2Sth of January, agreed to, aid have pub-
lished an intended petition to Parliament; in which they
Dave inconsiderately, and without any examination of evi-
dence, been hurried into the adopeon and promulgation
of an improved and, we verily believe, an unfounded accu-
sation, charging their fellow subjects with revolutionary
principles, a reckless spirit of innovation, with the prac-
tice of every artifice to inflame the passions of the people.
and to diffuse discontent and dissatisfaction through the
land, manifested in popular clamour industriously excited
for revolutionary innovations, under the pretext of Re-
form. Is the author of this rash imputation so
little informed of facts, as to ascribe to the desire
of political change the rising of labourers for
increased wages, and the breaking of machines,
(the result, as the eminent Judges of the land have sedu-
lously inculcated, of an ignorance of which too many of
the rich inhabitants of I3ristol have been advocates, not for
dispelling, but for perpetuating, the secret burnings, the
motives for which are yet undiscovered) but which are
most probably instituted by the agents of arbitrary power
in some part of the world. Upon all the vast body of
evidence which has recently transpired before his
Majesty's Special Commissioners, neither the one nor the
other of these crimes has been shown to be in any wise
connected with revolutionary principles. What other
grounds are there to justify the revival of the antiquated
yell, the fertility of which has been proved by the
experience of forty years? It is a duty to testify
on behalf of this calumniated portion of the community,
that we know not that any of our fellow-citizens are im-
bued with such opinions, or actuated by a desire to over-
throw or impair our happy and glorious Constitution,
consisting of King, Lords, and Commons. And believing
as we do that such principles are not prevalent in any part
of Great Britain, we are firmly convinced that no city or
portion of this realm is more pure from harbouring any
revolutionary designs or wishes than the inhabitants of the
city of Bristol. Such a charge, indeed, could scarcely gain
currency, unless among those who, affecting an exclusive
spirit, have made themselves little acquainted with the
sentiments of their fellow-citizens. This calumniated
pot tion of our fellow-subjects may therefore appeal to the
judgment of both Houses of Parliament, to determine
what degree of consideration is due to a petition
founded on unsupported accusation and pitiable mis-
conception—a petition, the tendency of which is to
embarrass the just and patriotic measures of his Majesty's
Government, and to precipitate a dissolution of Parliament
at a moment when the struggles of the labourers for an
increase of wages, would render a general election ob-
noxious to a peculiar and dangerous degree of excitement ;
and we call on all classes of our fellow-citizens du'y to
appreciate the intellect and the charity displayed in the
self-called loyal and constitutional petition, sanc-
tioned by the meeting of the 29th, and before they,
sign it to reflect whether their consciousness of having at-
tested the truth of an unproved accusation, and of having
sanctioned a measure tending to weaken the Government,
awl to immerse the country in confusion, will hereafter be
diet ished with satisfaction by any sincere Christian, just,
or wise man, or loyal subject,.