The Sun.
London, England, 1820-03-13 00:00:00

[PRICE SE VENPE

Mr. Leyland. Sir, I aria glad to Itels: it. No doubt, Nlr
Leyland, thus announced, is among those whom I am "sow ad
dressing. '1 know.not his person, indeed, attic therefore tan-
not he assured ;bathe is present, But if he really be so, or
if be really intends coming forward in his own person, to Mr.
Leyland, as well as to any other Candidate that may be op-
posed to me, I hope to behave with the courtesy to which a
brother Candidate, however formidable as an antagonist, is
entitled. If, on the former occasion to which the Gentleman
refers, I spoke at all slightingly of Mr. Leyland, it was not
of his person which I sppke, but of the unfair use which was
made of his name, either without his knowledge or against his
repeated protestations of a determination to take no part its
the contest. Let him appear—and I hare nothing to say to
him or of him but what is perfectly respectful ; hut, should
the trick of 1816 be played over again, I shall again say plainly
what I shall think, both of those who liractiee it, and those
who suffer it to be practised.
" I have thus, I think, disposed of most of the topics of a
local nature which hare been brought forward by the several
gentlemen who have preceded me. Now for those of a more
general nature. When first I presented myself before yon, eta
your summons of 181 e, my public principles—my priticipleo
of Tot yisin, if you will—my declared. opposition to the wild
theories of undefined Helot lii—were as well known to you ale
they are at-the present shay. It is strange, therefore, that
lam 110 W catechised on that account. I ant to learn that Lis
verpool has changed its principles before I can apologize for
mine.
• " The Honourable Colonel (Colonel Williams) who opened
this discussion, I know, has always been an advocate for the
wildest and most latitudinarian principles of Parliamentary
Reform ; and be has been so, I hare so doubt, nom a coo-
scientions conviction, not only that such an extension of the,
right. of suffrage would ensure good Members of Parliament.
butthat, its proof of that result, he must himself become the!
object of the choice of his fellow-townsmen. The Honour-
able Colonel has, if I am not misinformed, in pursuance of
this conviction, found one chosen spot in England its which
that scheme of voting winch he is anxious to iotroduce, pre-7
• tails in its greatest latitude; and I am even given to hope
that, as Member for Preston, I shall have the honour of meet-
ing him in another place, there to discuss at large the ques-
tion of a Reform of Parliament. lam most happy, that he
has had this opportunity of bringing the operation of his
principles to the test. I can assure the Gallant Colonel, and
I extend the same assurance to the Honourable Gentleman,
(Doctor Crompton,) that though I am not quite ready to ab-
dicate the Representation of Liverpool, for the sake of hay-
ing bias for ins' successor, I do earnestly wish that sea's in the
House of Commons were provided fcr them, and for any other
eminent leader of the same principles; that in that tlouse,
face to face, we might hare the advantage of entering with
them upon the question 'of Reform, at much greater length,
than I em now disposed to detain you.
" But, Gentlemen, though 1 should. detain you too long
were I to go now into the consideration of this question,
have no difficulty in stating my opinion, and it is an opinion
which I have held jtsst as strongly since I have had the honour
of representing' Liverpool, as when I sat in the House of
Commons for a place less open to popular influ! rice. I think
that the House of Commons does best discharge its functions,
does best perform the part assigned to 'the House of Coots
moos, by a representation of a mixed character. Even in
this place, and addressing the most popular constituents,
do not disguise my opinion, that enough of direct popular
representation enters into the present CoMposition of the
Moose of Commons ; enough for that wholesome agitation,
for that continued cootact with all the passions and feelings
of the nation, which colistitutes: the certainty of a just and
rill: representative. I think even that those boroughs to
which the Honourable Gentleman has alluded (I speak not of
their !corruptions, but of their legitimate character) are of
essential service, as a part of the systensiof Representai loss.
I will go further, and say that if, by any wild species of Re-.
form, they could be extinguished; and it thaßepresentatioo
were to become universally and exclusively pooular,• in the
widest sense which the Honourable Colonel could give to that
term; and if to that alteration wire added the further im-
provement which he requires, that of an Election recurrin,,a•
annually ;—I say, that after the House of Commons had
been so reformed, many years *mild not pass before there
would be an end to our present happy frame of Government
-our mixed Monarchical Constitution. That, Sir, is my
decided opinion; it is an opinion which I shall he happy to
explain more at large to the Honourable Colonel, when we
meet in the House of Commons. This is nut the place nor
the occasion to ague it. l'he business of this day is to elect
Representatives for Liverpool, on the present imperfect Wass .
of Representation; and not to argue whether there shall
or shall not be a Reform its the Commons House of Parlia-
ment.

" The same Gentleman makes it a matter of accusation
against. me, that I venture to appeal to you again after the
measures passed by Parliament in the Session before Christ-
mas. Of those measures, undoubtedly, I was, according to
my measure and ability, a strenuous supporter. Tie ,se mea-
sures have restored the tranquillity of the country, and, I.
trust, will preserve it; and without those measures, 1 &Icily
believe that tranquillity could not have been preserved.
" The Gentleman (Air. Rushton) thinks it hard, that the
reformers, whom he -describes as the most peaceable and
orderly of mankind, should. be confounded the gang,of
assassins, to the atrocity of whose designs he has alluded
With respect to those designs, and to those unhappy persons
whose fellowship he is so anxious to disclaim for the Reform-
ers, I will say nothing : first, because the persons are now
awaiting their trial ; and, secondly, because I might he Sus-
pected of speaking with some personal bais on the suliji,ct of
their designs. Upon that pall of tilt:: Honourable Gentle-
mall's Speech, therefore, I will not say a single word but I
must not so pass over the part wl!ich followed it, in which•t he
Honourable Gentleman had recourse to the old fallacy, so
often exposed, but so pertinaciously repeated, that measures
directed to the repression of partial evil are, therefore, di-
rected against the community at large. This fallacy Inn-
' [orally pervades ail the arguments with respect to restrictive
measures. Da.l ever aq man suppose., that because murder.
is a crime punishable: by our law, the people of England'
are, therefore, stigmatized as 'murderers?—that, because.
there are specific statutes against frauds, and robberies, and'
burglaries, all the people of England have, therefore, been
denounced by their Legislature as fraudulent, and felonithis;
and burglarious ? The law must be directed against the
crime, however small may he the number of instances ,in
which it is. perpetrated, compared with the mass of the point-
latinn which is not concerned in the guilt, but which woad
suffer by its unpunished perpetration.
.Accordiug: to this
mode of reasoning, nut only the provisions of our statute-
book, but the denunciations of the &cologne itself must be
held to be ungenerous insinuations, involving theannocent
with the guilty, and calumniating the character of human.
kind.

" From the enactments and debates of the last session, the
Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Rushton) has gone hack still farther,
to the discussions of a former session ; and has taxed toe, quite'
fairly I allow, and not uncivilly, though with all the vehe-
mence with which it was natural that lie should insist upins
a topic which has been made, for some years, a subject. of
calunvny against me:. he has tasted me with certain expres-
sions of mine, respecting the case of an individual taken up
under the suspenQion of the Habeas G,rpos'. I will state to..
the Honourable Gentleman, for be seems to he altogether
uninformed of it, the course of toy •argument on that occa-
sion. I was. exposing the frauds and falsehoods which hail
been palmed upon,the House of Commons its certain state-•
merits which had been made to them, and in certain petitions
which had been presented from iiidividuals, complaining of
the treatment which they had endured under th 4 suispension.
act. ,Of these falsehoods I selected three, as peculiarly gross
add unjustifiable, and as, fortunately, susceptible of being.
brought to the test of the must decisive contradiction. The
first, I recollect, related to a supposed spy, of the n-nc, I
think, of Dewhurst, who was represented to have been seen
in a gig of Sir John Byng's, at Solar specific time and place;
the object of the falsehood being to implicate the Military
Commander, and through him the Government, in the trans-
actions imputed to this man. On further examination
it turned out, that of the two elements of this falsehoed
neither existed; that there was no such man as• Dewburst
that. Sir John Byng no gig. And I did humbly
to the House of Commons the (Instil and complete'
falsification of this story, as a specimen of the devices by
which the conduct of Governmeut and its agents had beers
belied. -Time second of the instances which I selected is not
at this rampant immediately present to my recollection. But
the third is that to which the Gentleman has alluded; mist