The Sun.
London, England, 1821-01-17 00:00:00

PUBLIC MEETINGS.

'NitDDLESEX MEETING FOR REFORM.
t'e§torday, pursuant to recitsisitioni "some ffde-
holders of the county and others of Middlesex,
met at the Mermaid, Hackney; for thss purpose
of taking into consideration some prope'sition re-
lative to, Parliamentary -Reform:
Mr: ETEa MaottE being called to the Chair,
said, that he attended without any expectation • of
having that honour conferred upon him. Ile could
not contifthe during the necessary time without
great inconvenience to himself; but still as they
had been pleased , to call upon him, he would
obeys-s-( A p pla use.)—T he object of the ' Meeting
*as said to be the preserVation of the constitution:
He would say it was to restore rather than to I
preserve its--(Great Applatise,)—lle hoped that
due order would be preserved; and that every
person would have a fair, patient and full hear-
ing. The honourable Gentleman then read the
Requisition, and the Answer of the Duke of
Portland, Lord Lieutenant of .the County. He
thought the Noble Duke should have attended in
person, or at least he was in duty botind, as Lord
Lieutenant of the, County, to appoint some /de-
puty to preside in his place. The Requisition
was most numerously- and respectably signed, by
persons whose income was not less than three or
Four hundred thousand a year.
Major CARTWRIGHT came forward to move the
Resolutions. He would not detain them long as
he did not-find his strength sufficient- for entering
at large into the subject. • He trusted, however,
the Resolutions would speak so plainly as.to
rerUOve all necessity for making any observations
on them: It was fifty years since the great ob-
ject of Parliamentary Reform had been taken up.
He proposed it himself forty-seven years back,
and from that time to the present, he pursued it
steadily,. never turning to.the right or to the left.
The game was not yet caught, but they were not
far from it. There was every reason to believe
that the question had made rapid progress, and
that it must at length be adopted, not as a mat-
ter of expediency, but or necessity. Some who
opposed it seemed to have very whimsical ideas
on the subject, and to
_think it quite visionary
and impracticable. For. his part he thought the
justice and necessity of it were evident, that they
were as demonstrable as any proposition in
Euclid. ,Re would not detain'them longer, but
submit- three Resolutions for their consideration,
which he would propose for adoption one after
the other. The -Worthy Gentleman then -read
the first Resolution. It went to condemn, what
it called the Boroughmougering faction, and de-
clared the country to be in a state which must
lead to one of three evils, a Government by
gun and bayonet law, a convulsion, or a Reform
that would render all equally free, the poor, the
rich, the Protestant, the Catholic, and the Dis-
senter.
Dr. DRAPER seconded the Resolution. The
necessity of Reform, he said, was never denied ;
but the objection always was, that the time had
not yet arrived.
.If ever, there was a fit time for
it, it was the present. There were not more loyal
people in the world than the Reformists, They
were as much attached .to Royalty and Aristo-
cracy as their opponents. The people could
never be happy till the present system of repre-
sentation was reformed. They wanted no such
persons, no such orators as Mr. Pitt or Mr. Can-
ning. honest men was all- they. wanted. Ile
knew no wordAhat expressed better what they
required thams,the word Radical. Universal
Suffrage was not so repugnant to the principles
of the Constitution as some appeared to think.
The Crown itself rested oti Universal Suffrage.
He defied any man to bring a solid argument
against it. As to the blasphemous and seditious
publications complained of, there might be such
things in circulation, but they were reprobated,
not received by the public. Ministers could not
perhaps remove all that now afflicted the people,
but it was at least in their power to show that
lhey desired to do so. Nothing but a Radical Re.
form could effect it. Cutting off one or two rot.
ten boroughs would not be sufficient.
A Mr. FITZGERALD supported the• Resolution
He•began a speech which threatened to be a very
long. one ; but the little he said was so overload-
ed with tawdry, ridiculous ornament, that the
gentleman was soon coughed down. The motion
was then agreed to.
The second Resolution declared that, notwith-
standing the opinions of Montesquieu and Hume,
the science of Government was now so well un-
derstood, that the affairs of the nation might be
beneficially and successfully carried Oil without
corruption or a standing army. It concluded by
stating that any Reform proposed should be
conformable to the Constitution. This, as well
as the third Resolution, for a Petition to the
House of Commons, grounded on the first and
second Resolutions, were agreed to, The ve-
nerable Major then came forward and proposed
a Petition for Reform, in the spirit of the Re-
solutions.
The Petition, which was of great length, was
read by Mr. HAyns, a Roman Catholic Clergy-
man) as we understood.
One MILLS, the man who was taken to Bow-
street some time back, charged with exciting riot
,n St. James's-square, seconded the petition,
This person obtained more applause than any of
the preceding orators. He
,loudly condemned
the. conduct of Lord Grey for gross tergiversa-
tion and inconsistency on the question of Re-
form. Among other nostrums for the removal of
existing evils, he proposed that the interest of the
National Debt should be reduced from 5/. to
2-1/. percent. and that such men as the Duke. of
Northumberland, whose income in 1791. was
50,0001. a year, and is now 100,0001. might,
without the least inconvenience, be reduced to
the situation he held, with respect to pecuniary
matters, in 1791. .
Mr. BYNG suggested a verbal alteration to-
wards the close of the petition, where it pro-
tested against the imposition of taxes by persons
not legal representatives of the people. This word
he thought would prevent the petition from being

Gre
w en

received.
After some further conversation; the word

, . .
Corfstitntional was `siibstitUted fOr The
Petition was then hgreed to.
Mr. WOOi..Eti then carne forward and iir4Osed.
sortie ResoluttonS, the, 'Orihcipat Object of, whish.
was to 4ppOiht a Cotincil cr Corrirriittee, lOr the
phi'pose of Watching 611 mOvementb in the canse,
of Reforilt, of apprigh4.the nation whether or not'
they iv.ere cionstent with the end tb lre obtainigi
their ItePolis en. all such subjects as Concerned.
the democracy of England to be published:M.
such Papers as would iMert theM gratuitously,.
A Man, named FLANAC-AN'iteConded the
lutions; This personage is from the sister coun
trn and his brogue is still tit native purity: lie
never for a Moment attempted to deViate into
English prontinciatiom.
The Resolutions Were agreed to: The follow-
ing were among the persbns appointed to act as
a Council :—Mr. Jeremy, Major Cartwright, Sir
F. Burdett, W. Roberts, Esq., Sir C. Wolseley,
Mr. Alderman Wood, and the Rev. W. Draper.
Mr. CLARKE proposed another Resolution on
the same subject of Reform, which was agreed to.
MILLS then proceeded to an attack on Mr.
Sheriff Waitimian, for refusing to call a meeting.
of the county of Middlesex, in consequence of
a trifling informality in the signatures of the
requisition.
, Major CARTWRIGHT contended that there was
no informality.
A Person, whose name .we could not learn,
defended Mr.- Sheriff Waithman.
Mr. BYNG said, a Gentleman had. found fault
with' public men for not sitging:
,What sort. of
lan they would support. The plan he (Mr.
ug) had supported, with Mr. Lambton, Earl
v, his own father, and other•erriinent men,
to do away with rotten boroughs, and to
give tne elective franchiSe to housekeepers ,pay-
ing direct taxes.;—(Applause.)—He briefly went
over the history of representation, and showed
that several large bodies of men were now in this
Country, who had no existence at the commence.,
ment of our system ; and he contended, that that
innovation ought not to be dreaded 'which went
to give the right of voting to such persons. He
was of Opinion, that if all the Reformers were to
go forward, and state distinctly that they would
go so far and no further, their voice would
be attended to. lie reminded them of the fate
of the motions in favour of Annual Parliaments.
and Universal Suffrage, when only the two tellers
appeared in its behalf, and-he could state, that
so far as his information went, the feeling was
universally against that description of Reform.
He' explained the course which he thought ought
to be pursued, and having reminded the free-
holders that he had been 30 years in their service,
he declared that he would never suffer himself to
be separated from their interests. •
Mr. WHITBREAD had always much pleasure in
meeting the freeholders of Middlesex, and parti-
cularly so on the present occasion, as• it afforded
him an opportunity of shewing that he was now
the same reformer that he had been when he ap-
peared before them as a candidate. He then
spo'ke at considerable length in favour of Reform,
but cautioned the people against being too vio-
lent. Too much violence he could only compare
with the physician in the old story, who learning
from a thitther practitioner that-four' drops of a
certain medicine did a great deal of good, gave
his patient twelve, expecting twelve would effect
three times as much good, but doing this, he
nearly or quite killed the patient.
Mr. PAnKfxs, the Ex-Sheriff, Sir G. Nov.,
and several other Gentlemen then addressed the
meeting. The Resolution was carried ; and
thanks having been voted to the Mike of Port-
land and the Chairman of the day; an adjoUrn-
nent took place.

C.AAMBRIDGE' tWONTY MEETING.
(From the Morning Chronicle.)
Yesterday, at 12 o'clock precisely, S. WELLS,
Esq., the Under-Sheriff, entered the Shire Ball
amid the "general plaudits of the most numerous
and respectable Court of Freeholders that we
ever recolhct to have witnessed. lie briefly
stated.the.object of -the Meeting,
,and observed,
that 'as there were a' great number of Gentlemen
anxious to deliver their opinions ou the preSent
occasion, and a still greater number anxious to
hear those Sentiments, than the Court would con-
tain, and the Sheriff being desirous that every
individual should be accommodated, therefore
adjourned the Meeting to the 'Market-place,' in
front of the Rose. Noblemeti, and Gentlemen
of consideration present .
Earl Fitzwilliam, Lord Dacre, Sir G. Leeds, Bart., Francis
Pym, Esq., LI): Merest, Esq., Greaves Townley, sen..ESq:,
Greaves Townley, jun. Esq., T. 'Pryer, Esq., T. J.. Keels,
Esq., T. Spooner, Esq., L. Page, Esq., S. Bull, Esq., E. K..
Fordliam, Esq., Bridge Little, Esq., L, P. Bealei; Esq., E.
Foster, Esq„ F. Hovell, Esq., Ili:v. Nlr-Maherly,, Rev. Thos.
Musgrave, Rev. John Hailstone, Rev. Tows ley Cliukson,
Rev. Henry Wills.
S. WELLS, Esq. the --Under,Sheritf,7Opened -the
proceedings of -the day by reading the-Requisi-.
tion,to which was affixed the following respect-
able list of signatures :
Bedford, Taviitock, Wentworth Fitzwilliam, Fras. Godol-
phin Osborne, W. Searle, Mere, George Leeds, Ebenezer
lint lick, Richard Greaves Townley, sets. Thomas Spooner,
Jonathan Page ,
:E. K. Fordham, Seth' Bull, Win. Harlock,
Townley Clarkson, Clerk, John Flemington, Thomas Hovell,
Ebenezer Foster, John Meilen, George Pryme, S. P. Beales,
Francii Pym, . inn. Thomas MUlgraVe, clerk, Francis K.
Eagle, jun. John Hailstone, clerk, -George Adam Browne,
clerk, Thomas Robinson, Henry Wilt s, clerk, Thomas Fryer,
"John Fryer, juil.,Thomas Skeels, Richard Huddlestone, Geo.
Thomson.
lie.exhorted the Meeting to give' every Gentle-
man a fair and impartiaChearing, and then- read
a letter from Lord F. Osborne, who, we regret,
was detained by indisposition from the Meeting.
Lord DAcnc rose to address the Meeting, he
observed, under considerable embarrassment, as
he appeared. that day but as a substitute for his
Noble Friend, and their Representative, Lord
F. Osborne, whose ill state of health alone had
prevented his presence to-day. The last time he
(Lord Dacre) had the honour of addressing the
Freeholders of the County of Cambridge, it
on the occasion .when .he recommended his H.
nourable Friend to their. notice; he had sincoe
fought by his side, and had seen him oppose
those measures of the Ministry, which had en-
tailed so much misery upon the country ; he had
seen him oppose those measures of the Ministry
which, instead of tending towards economy- and
retrenchment, had led only to wasteful ex-
penditure, extravagance, and their own. profit ;
and which have brought the country to that