The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-07 00:00:00

a minority was prepared to refuse the supplies. He
wished a majority to go with him in affirming the prin-
ciple that grievances should be redressed before the
supplies were granted. It was not his intention, after a
vote should be taken on this question, to interfere
further in opposition to the Government.—(Hear, hear.)
He felt that no individual Member ought to undertake
or attempt to proceed in a course with regard to the
supplies, which would not be supported by public
opinion out of doors, or that would not be supported by
a sufficient number of Members in the House.—(Hear,
hear.) He was not the man to undertake this. He
wished to bring his proposition fairly before the House
and the public, and it would then be for the advocates
of popular rights and the public to take any course
' tbey might think best. Such a proceeding as that of
raising the question of grievances on the motion of sup-
plies, ought to be supported by public opinion, or else it
could have no weight, nor could it ever be of any use.
He did not contemplate a system of factious adjourn-
ments, but his object was, if possible, to get a
majority with him. Although he might on this
occasion be defeated by the majority, yet he would never
despair of ultimately obtaining a majority with him.
He did not charge the present Government in particular
with inattention, for other Governments had been
equally culpable, and he knew that the late Government
was as much to blame as the present one. He was
aware that he should be opposed in his motion by
perhaps the principal supporters of the late Government,
and he therefore wished it to be distinctly understood
that he made no accusation against the present Govern-
ment. He wished to impress on the House the necessity
of inquiry. .He said that if the Government refused to
grant that inquiry, it then became the duty
of that House, as. a • body, to refuse the
supplies until such inquiry were obtained. This was a
constitutional principle which he was desirous of carry-
ing out.—(Hear, hear.) He wished the House to reflect
upon the situation in which it was placed with the coun-
try. It stood, as it were, as a criminal at the bar, the
charges against it being its own votes.—(Hear, hear.)
He did not wish to trespass further on the attention of
the House, but he trusted that it would be conceded
that he had brought hi 3 motion forward temperately,
for he had endeavoured to avoid everything which
might f3r a moment give offence to any one.—(Hear.) The
Hon. Gentleman concluded by moving—" That whereas
complaints have been made to this House on various oc-
casions, by petition, to the effect that the people are
suffering under unjust and partial legislation, and under
the effects of monopolies of various kinds, political
and ecclesiastical, created and kept in existence for the
benefit of favoured classes ; that by the taxes imposed
on food, for the support of one of these monopolies, the.
supply is restricted and the price raised, whilst at the
same time the demand for labour is diminished and
wages reduced, and the profits of manufacturing and
commercial industry deeply injured ; that the burthen
of general taxation has been increasd to an intolerable
extent, by an extravagant expenditure in every depart-
ment of the State, and that this taxation is so imposed
as to press most oppressively and heavily on the indus-
trial portion of the community ; that laws have
been passed injurious to the rights of the
people, and arbitrary proceedings of Government
have taken place dangerous to public liberty ;
that in order to sustain this system an unconstitutional
amount of standing army is kept up for the home ser-
vice, and the ancient constitutional constable superseded
by the hired police ; all which would be wholly unne-
cessary if the grievances of the people were redressed,
and just and impartial government established. It is
further complained, that these and other grievances are
produced by the bad constitution of the Commons'
House ; that by the limitation of the suffrage, the long
duration of Parliaments, and corruption and undue in-
fluences in the election of representatives, this House,
as at present constituted, does not . truly represent,
and is not responsible to the people, and therefore
does not legislate for their interests ; that, notwith-
standing frequent respectful petitions presented to this
House, the complaints of the people have neither been
inquired into nor redressed ; that from these causes an
alarming state of discontent prevails generally overthe
United Kingdom : It is therefore the immediate duty of
this House to make inquiry into these complaints ; and
as this House can have no right to vole supplies except
as being the representatives of the people, it is impera-
tively necessary that the charges brought against its
present constitution and competency in the petitions
which have been received and recorded among its pro-
ceedings, should be inquired into, and, if found to be
justly made, redressed, before this House shall proceed
to the voting of supplies."
Mr. W. WILLIAMS said his Hon. Friend having
stated so clearly his views on this question, he had no
hesitation in seconding the resolution. He confessed
that if it had involved the principle of a small minority,
factiously opposing the granting of the supplies against
a large majority, he would not have been prepared to
have taken that course. The object of this motion was
simply:to inquire into the grievances of the people. The
first important point to establish was the existence of
those grievances. His Hun. Friend had stated generally
what he considered to be those grievances, as they had
been described in petitions which had been laid on the table
of that House. His Hon. Friend had not in his motion
gone any thing approaching so far as examples which
might be found on the Journals of that House, but espe•
cially in the opinion expressed by the Noble Lord the
Member for London (Lord J. Russell) when he introduced
into that House the Reform Bill. The Noble Lord
on that occasion stated to the House the object he
had in view in proposing that Bill, in the following
words :—" I propose that the people should send to this
House their real representatives, to deliberate upon their
wants, to consult upon their interests, to consider their
grievances, and to attend to their desires." Now, nothing
was expressed in the resolution proposed by his (Mr. W.'s)
Hon. Friend, that was not expressed in language much
stronger, in his opinion by the Noble Lord, when he in-
troduced the Reform Bill. He would ask any Hon.
Member whether the Reform Bill had produced the re-
sult anticipated by the Noble Lord ? He believed that
every honest man would answer in the negative. When
that Bill was introduced, the entire people of this coun-
try exhibited a willingness to risk even their lives and
property in defence of that measure, which they anti-
cipated would secure to them those benefits which the
Noble Lord had described. Their anticipations had
been attended with nothing but disappointment. Some-
times three millions of the people presented a petition,
in which they stated that that House did not represent
them. They had many examples of proceedings in that
House which went farther than the motion of
his Hon. Friend. In the year 1642, when the Monarch
of that day attempted to raise taxes without
the authority of the House of Commons, when he pro-
ceeded to accomplish his object, the House of Commons
resisted the arbitrary attempt, and the first great and
important step they took in opposition to the tyrannical
attempt was to give direction to the Lords of the Trea-
sury to stop the supplies. This step not only put a stop
to the King's object, but ultimately led the Sovereign to
the scaffold. Again, in the reign of William the Third.
That Monarch, in ascending the throne, entered into a
compact with the people, which compact was usually
called " The Bill of Rights." As soon as he had as-
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Houses of Parliament, by which Parliaments were made
triennial. That Bill was rejected by the King. In the
next year the Parliament repassed that Bill, and the
Parliament, according to Burnet, told the King that
unless he gave his assent to that 8.11, that he would re-
ceive no supplies, and no supplies were voted until that
Bill received the Royal assent. The first and most im-
portant proposition in the resolution of his Hon. Friend
was that that House did not represent the people.
How did the question stand with regard to the represen-
tation of the people in that House ? Fire millions out
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of six millions of the people were without any voice at
all in the representation ; yet two-thirds of the taxation
were borne by the non-represented classes. The Right
Hon. Baronet at the head of her Majesty's Government,
in introducing the income-tax, said he could not consent
to increase the burdens on the lower classes, saying he
could bring conclusive proof to show that taxation had
reached its limits.—(Hear, hear.) These were the opi-
nions of the Right Hon. Baronet. Judge Blackstone
laid it down as his opinion that the people should ac-
quiesce in the judgment of the law because they had a
voice in the making of those laws through their repre-
sentatives. But what could be said for the five millions
who were without representation ; and yet what could
be done without them? He would next turn to the con-
stitution of that House itself. What could be more
monstrous, more base, than the bribery so often proved
before the Election Committees ? When Mr. Maddocks
brought a charge against a Member of that House, at
the time of Lord Castlereagh, that Noble Lord said
the sale of seats in that House was as notorious
as the sun at noon-day. The Honourable
Member then quoted several instances of bribery at
elections, and then alluded to the deficiency of voters.
Seventy-one towns returned to that House 121
Members, with a constituency less in number then the
West Riding of Yorkshire; 20 towns, with a consti-
tuency of 2,923, returned the same number of Members
as 20 other towns, having a constituency of 153,940.
Lord Chatham said that taxation without representation
was unconstitutional. Locke and Lord Grey were of a
similar opinion, opposed to these opinions were the facts,
that Harwich returned four Members to Parliament,
whilst the West Riding of Yorkshire and the great town
of Manchester returned only the same number. The
taxation had increased in an alarming proportion. In
1836, the expenditure was 44,20070001, in 1843,
51,700,0001., being 7,500,000/. more than the
taxation of 1836, and the difference was suffi-
cient to maintain every department of the United
States annually, and yet that great country had
paid its debts to the last farthing.—(Hear, and laughter.)
lie spoke of the Government of the United States, and
not of the States themselves, but he believed they too,
-would discharge their debts.—(lronical cries of " .Hear,
hear.) The people were subjected to a greater taxa-
tion now than in any one year during the last war. lite
took for his authority one of the most enlightened
men of his day—who had written with as much ability
as any man living, and proved himself to be well ac-
quainted with the position of this country—he meant
the Right Hon. Baronet the Secretary of State for the
Home Department.—(Hear, hear, and a laugh.) Like
all prudent men, the Right Hon. Baronet made all his
statements under the mark ; and what did he state ?
In the year 1812, he said, 'the amount of the
taxes was 61,200,0001., the price of gold 5/. Is. per
ounce ; in 1813 the amount of the taxes was 73,300,0001.,
the
.price of gold Si. 6s. lid. per ounce. In the first in-
stance there was a depreciation in the currency, as com-
pared with the standard value, of 38} per cent. ; in the
second instance the depreciation was 41 per cent. Re-
duce the amount to the present standard, with gold at
31. 17s. 1 old. per ounce, and it would appear that the
average taxation of those five years was forty-five
millions, ten railliots less than in the twenty-eighth
year of peace. He ivouldaskevery honest man on the