The Sun.
London, England, 1817-01-24 00:00:00

. ,
1.00 evil in these popular meetings except Is itat was
eoujured up by fear no the one baud, or preju-
dice on the other. The people lied long sunk
Under a gulling weight of taxation, they hid since
labourer untler a floetuating. anthlectrying trade,
all this they lied suffered inlidenission, were they
now.to-he,-tiuspee,ted as seditious or disaffected?
They had a right to ask, what was the Constitu-
tion good for, if what watt called represeotation.
wet itt.faet, for the most part, in the bands of the,
tiorerotnent itself.
,They hail a right to ask why aft
espies* provision .of the Art of Settlement was
openly violated—that act which, in its cure to
prevent corrupt influence, .had declared, that:no
person holding an office tinder the King, or receiv-
ing a pension front theCrown,shall be capableofsit.
t ittg irt.the House of Commons. For his own part he
was convinced that triennial Parliaments, acid an
extension of the.elective.fronchise to all liousChol-
dersovould produce a reform that ought to be
,satisfactory. ,He was certainly no advocate fur
the support of rotten boroughs, though he kne4r, a
very plausible answer; might be reunited to those
who objected_ to them 'in that'phice, and thistly.
had been asked how the City 'of London, who
complained of rotten boroughs, should for thelitst
twentryears have sent 'men to Puiliament who
could not open their Mouths theft tvitbant eXCi[•
ing leogh, lint it 'vas not difficolt to explain
the ex,,—..ne,ary eiretoustinces which haul 'nits-
towed the eity,ltepreseot d4ing the la‘te,
Ns.-
rind, IVithregard to the common argument. tbit'
the rotten borough's were the means 'of in•
men of talunt,.he must reply that such men of
talent were in general a nuisance, and were sure
to get •intolhe pay. of some had, man or men
without talent, though possessed of all the means
of corroptioth There was akVit'Y'S'u natural in-
fluence arising from property, ihnluitry, and ta-
lent, which would have their proper weight. The
peeple would alway,s be, able to distinguish be-
tween an honest
,man Awl a rogue, a man of Went
from a fool, and a man of PrOperty from a hungry
grasper after' place nod emolument, In illustra-
tion of the effects of the rotten horongh system, it
might be easily rcnt,trked, that you had mortAtl-
"ldeals appoioted froin the county .of Cornwall
than from any other county of the kingdom ; and
front the same quarter canto a large proportion at
. the Commissioners of Public Boards, -who got
themselves placed there by being, eitbrerthent-'
selyts or their relatives, the proprietors of rotten
boroughs. The public were sery often indebted
to the Editors of Newspapers for the lists which
they piiblished of the names and votes of 111em-
b+, of Parliament on important questions , on
, those occasions it often appeared that a majority
of Comity Members voted directly in opposition.
tolklittisters, while,they had merely a corrupt ma-
jority ut placemen and borough-mongers tti their
hear!)--'Phis alone atorded the
people of England a ,specimen of what 'they were
to expect front Parliament as 'at present consti-
tuted, and furnished an irresistible argument in
favour of Reform.

Mr. Waithmun then concluded with reading cer.
Wit Resolutions, which embodied the leading
d0,tvh....., a his lowed'.
Davis rose to second the rtest.iuttoni.—
There was 1M one who must not sensibly feel and
deplore the present alarming situation of the coun-
try ; and he was glad that the great
.question Of
ParliAmentary Reform had.beett taken up in that
COW, beClMbe he was couvinced, Chet in ito
lic Holly collected for discussion, sirotild the noes-
qoti be debated with more independence and abi-
lity than by the Corporation of London. He was
well were that the• minds of vast body of the
people of this Country had of litte bet:" greatly
agitated by the question of Reform, awl they
would be indebted to the Corporation of London
for giving a tone and dircetiou to their feelings
oti this subject. . Nombets of per,uui, nn, the
other hand, who felt an ioterest i 6 the (pekoe,.
;lance of abuses, were quite satisfied with things
ss they are ,RiNcted view till attenipts.to obtain
reform as disturbing the public tranquillity, mud
branded all those Who supported ilia cause as Re-
volutionists. Now he would assert, that these
very alarmists, by driving the people to despair,
were the very persons most likely to produce the
effect which they deprecated.—(llear, hear !)
Such Men dwelt on thedifference of opinion among
cite advocates of the measure; but he would assert,
that unanimity of opinion as to modes was nnne-
.cessary ; it was sufficient that till should agree as
to the essential point : the absolute necessity, anti
the precise mode in which it flask*, he effected,
ought to be a work of deep ronsideratioU and at'
time. He had paid nitiehattention to the speech
of the worthy Motor of the Resolutions ; he was
astonished at the depth A( reading and considers-
thin which it displayed, end could nut sufficiently
,express his thanks for the trouble it must have
cost him. He Honeyed himself it h tit niatie its
slue impassion on, the Cc ttrt and though all
might not agree as to the specific ptiints, 'yettre'
trusted that all would agree on the .necessitrof
some Reform—that on this they would be ona-
nimous. indeed he could not comprehend hose
tang Mall of sense, of noprejudieed nsind, could
stand up in support or the present corrupt system,
Could it be supposed that person's who notorious"
ly purchased their seats. in Parliament, would not
rather look to their own private Interests than
those of the people at large ? Nothing else was
to be expected, anti therefore such an abuse of the
very name and porperse 'for which thel set in Par-
!lament wittno longer to he tolerated. lie hoped
the prtment Resolutions would lus.,unanituously
adopted,

Mr. Jacits agreed with the Mover in thinking
that the sentiments now delivered hi that Court
would go abroad into the world ; and he only
helped that his (Mr. J.'s) sentiments,,tnight also
go abroad with 001 e of Mr. %V. llt had /Mulled
to the Manchester Resolutions ; Mr. J. had not
read them with attention, but he could not help
being struck with the probability of the iiihabi -
tants ut a country town having the itupressiots that
the late riots in Landon bad proceeded from some
other cause than the object merely to assemble for
the consideration of petitioning Vatbament, espe-
cially when connected ,with the preparatiOns of
flats and other k'rench-revolutionary parapherna»
lia, lie had heard. with much astonishment, and
he could scarcely believe in the correctness of hit
bearing, when the worthy Mover avowed the sen-
timent, that the situation ut tilt country is now bi-

Mileri and even woraelhan it was previous to
'the Retrofeline of I 6118. What, had we now
a tyrant. Stuart on the Throne of these realms? '
Either he had read the history, of 'those tittles
to little effect, Or lie deserved. to. be shut up
(as Me. W. observed) in a madthousc, if ht-could
see th“omparison. He asked, 'did the present
Sovereign or his Vicegerent, ever, in the. whole
course of his reign, govern without Parliaments ?
They had annually assembled ever since he was
born, tanttilid he ever raise money Without the
consent of Parliament 'Haft 'he at any time de-
prived the City of London, or any other corpos
ration, of its' charter, in order to be better enes
bled to pack a Parliament, when be could no
longer go on Without one ? Or has he ever de-
prived a subject of his liberty, hie life, or his pro-
perty, without due course of law.? The worthy
Gentleman had admitted, that Patliaments 'first
originated in the wants of the Sovereign, and
were assembled' at first only for the purposes„ of
taxation : be, (Mr. J.) had 'hoped, that he would
have:gone on, and given the history of Parini-
meets, from the reign of Edward I, until about 120
years afferivards, when they became a branch
of the Legislature :sit he had gone into that histo-
rical detail, he' would have himself seen, from, the
whole of this time, and to the present day, a con-
firmation of his (Mr. J.'s) statement on a.former.
occaeion,riz. that property and pi ivilege, nnt,popti-
t...a b`..641. throughout, the ooly basis of re-
presentation, known to aim dt I,,,,,Avvirdgeti by tbe
COMititul ion. The piest ion now therefore teasov he-
ther'this principle should he altered ? The worthy'
Mover had quoted several. opiniona of great 'public
writers and orators, as to the theoretical and spe-
culative principles of Civil Covernment. Per-
haps it' he were to sit down and examine tither
hers, or other parliamentary urethra, he could
adduce al many, or perhaps mote, who combated
and denied those opinions. 'rite worthy Gentle-
man might have gone on and quoted French wiit•sl
ers ; he might have selected passages' frank Roos
Bean's .Social Contract ; from' situ works of Can-
' doreet 'on the Future Perfectibility of Man, and of
Societies ; or he might have proceeded, to quote
from that great code. of. radical Reform, " The
Rights of Man." The question to deter Mine is,
whether we !shall maintain the old Constitu-
tion, • as descended to us from our fathers,
or adopt- -new principles and new theories of
improvement, the ultimate end of which we
could not foresee ? The worthy Mover had.
made some tootations from parliamentary speaker's
in the debatei about the Septennial Act ; here
Again he would say, much had' been said on both
sides ; the result howeVer wits, that after about 23
years' trial of Triennial Parliaments, they were,
uttered by a very large majority of both Houses.ri:he
preamble to the Septennial Act recites, that great
tumults and disorders had arisen from the practice
of frennent general Elections: bethowever (Mr.J.),
thought possibly some good might arise from Tri-
ennial Parliaments : and as the extent of the pos-
sible .evit might be calculated, he for one should
have. no objection to their restoration. The wor-
thy Molter had admitted, that the constitution
had been settled at the Revolution, but that great;
corruptions had arisen since that time. Now he,
Mr.'J., would take upon Win t. aesort, that from.
the laistoryot Englend,t raced from that period to the
present, never Oid there publicly appear to be less
corruption than at present ; no instaocc of modern
' times had occurred of Ministers being charged with
receiving bribes in the execution of their office;
no instance had occurred of the Sovereign himself
being suspected of sUch a crime as had beefs
broadly stated in those dayi. Corruption ever
had existed in free States--.it ever w°ol4 exist,
like vice and moral evil ; the greet end, he
witted, of good Government is to check and
connieract such tendency. The sinecures of the
present day were held up as instances of corrup-
tion : lie most sincerely deprecated the existence
of 'such' evils in the Constitution ; but there was
some consolation in reflecting, that lithey could,
not at once be removed, an Act of Parliament
had many, years ago also.,provided for their dis-
continuance at the death of the preseuttholders:
Fire late Marqtas of Buckingham's had accord.
ingly ceased ; the others would also cease
eve long,. and now altogether; in
.atiment • did
not notch exceed 200;0001. poi. annum, making
a burden of about one-foOrth the price at a quer-
tern loaf to each individual, or abimt 411. each per
year.. The worthy Mover had, throughout lint'
argument, reasoned upon the notoriety Heat a Re-.
form in Pat liament would retursep the, wants of the
People : now this position was by no means eri.;'
dent.to:hiM ; be could not take up a newipaper
contains( letters from the Continent, without obs
serving, that the (inures* of the times seemed to
be eeiseral ; arising from two crosses, the ex-
haustion occasioned by thelate war, and the hand
of Providence in permitting an unfavourable sea-
son. Why thee, be would ask, should we expect
to' be exempt front the general calamity ? Was
it then fair or just that the Constitution and (Jo-
vernment of this country should be charged with
the infliction of She present distress ? end hoW
would a Reform in Parliament cure it ,? We had
to-day, for the first times. understood what were
the precise objects of the- Worthy- Mover's
views on the subject : it was true •
that Mr. Hunt,
and other political quicks, had recommended
universal suffrage; but the worthy Gentleman, us
a more regular ~and .sober practitioner,' seemed'
desirous to confine it to freeholders, Copyhoblera,,
and householders; in large town,. How wouldf
this operate ? It was, notorious that in the chi)
of Westminster teas the elective, franchise us exteiidetll
to this description of voters : and he would ask,
whether Sir Francis Burdett, or Lord Cochrane,
were the representatives of the property in West-
minster l Much property and many large !wines]
existed there ;, but: was it not notoriona that the
small hooka far exceeded-them it»trunber ?
.So;
therefore, the present members were more pro-
perly the representatiVes of the inhabitants of St.
Giles's, and other populous streets,. than of the
men of property in Westminster, This would also
be generally experienced in amber places ; coisSe-
quently population would swallow up the"itifit
epee, in a great degree,of properi y; and ripriiettt
•
tives only would be returned wlio to-tilrlttiost estsil
by fine speeches,work upon the piss:ions oldie mul-
titude, He ditlsnot see that reform in Parliatnent
wag necessary to the reduction at expenditure;
knew hot the present Ministers, or
he personally