The Sun.
London, England, 1820-03-31 00:00:00

untold tod:titild-s entiteted tti a village in the
norsh ? No ; it was by meeting of Corrorivion.,
n rorp •rate eapAcity ; by the assembly of
recogi ed bAttirs of the State, by the interchange
of 0rd1410119 5111011!. purl the community
known o each other. and capable of estimating
each o•her's views nuit characters. Do ‘‘e want
a mote striking mmit• nf remedying tltieva nee%
than this ? r. tioire I more animating ex-
ample ? Ass terrain fur the It.lot met s of
die present (14y to strike nut the co,,rse by which
alone Great Britain could make Mid keep hers: If
free?

Gentlemen, all power Iq, or ought to be, ae-
eompAtird by responiihility. Tyranny is irre.
opon,thie power. This maxim is equally trite,
whether the power he lodged in one or many ;
whether in N despot exempted by the morns of Go-
veromeot, from the control ot ; or ill a mob,
whose numbers put them hey.mrt the reach of
kw. Idle, therefore, and ah,n,d, to tAlli of free-
dom where mob dnmineels! !die, therefore, ant!

absurd, to talk of libvrr y, when you hol.l your

property, perhaps rine lice, lost indeed at the nod
-of ki despot, hot at the will of act ittliatned, tin infu-
riate populace! li, therefore,. &Inn"! the reign of
terror at Nlianeliester or Sp44elds, there were per-
sons in this country mho had a ri:4l,t to complain
of tyranny, it nas they who lo%eil the C.,oslito-
tion, who loved the Monarchy, bin who dared

nut utter their opinions or !hell wishes until their
bowies wete h:rrieaded, and their children sent to
a place of safety. 'chat was tyranny I. and so tar
as the mohs were under the confront of a leader,
that was de•potisut T. And it was against that ty-
ra•►ny, that ti spotistn, tl►at Parliament at length
a i-rd is attn.

Ali power, I say, is vicious, that is not accom-
panied by proportionate responsibility. Pet sonal
responsibility prevents the abuse of individual
power ; soch responsibility of character is the se-
cority aeaiost the aho%e of Collef:'lVC power, when
exercised by hodies,of men whose existence is per-
manent and defined. But strip botlO-s of these
el.,„lities, resolve theta into multitudes, and what
security have you against any thing that they may
do, or resolve ; knowiog that the moment the
meeting is dissolvt4l, there is no human being re-
sponsible for their proceedings 'the Meeting at
I‘lanchester, the Meeting at Birmingham, the
Met:tine at Spa&lds or Smithfield, what pledge
could they give to thr nation of the soundness ur
sincerity of their sentimen's ? The local charac-
ter of Manchester, the local chat aCter of Birinifig.
ham, was not pleoged to any of Lire proceed-
ings to which their names were appended.. A cer-
tain number of ionbulatoty tribunes of the.people,
self-elected to that high funetioti, assumed the
name and awbolity of whatever place they
thought proper to select for the place of meeting:
their matt um was pitched, sometitues here, some-
times there, according to the fancy of the mob,
or the patience of the Magistrates ; but the pro-
position, the proposer was in all places nearly
alike ; and when, by a sort of ventrilo-
quism, the same voice had been made to issue
from half a dozen different corners of the coon try,
it was impudently assumed to be an union of
sweet sounds, composing the united voice of the
people at England

Now, Gentlemen, let us estimate the mighty mischief that
has been done to liberty by putting down meetings such as I
have described. Let us ask what lawful authority has been
curtailed ? let us ask what respectable community has been
injured ? let us ask what form of municipal institutions has
been abrogated by a law which fixes the migratory complaint
to the spot whence it professes to originate, and desires to
bear of the grievance from those by whom that grievance is
felt ; which leaves to Manchester as Manchester, to Birming-
ham as Birnyugharo, to London as London, all the free scope
of utterance which they have at any time enjoyed for making
knuw•n their wants, their feelings, their wishes, their reason-
strances ; which leaves to each of these divisions its separate
authority, t) the union of all or of many of them the aggre-
gate authority of such a consent and co-operation ; but which
denies to an itinerant hawker of grievances, the power of
stamping their names upon his wares; of pretending, be-
cause he may raise an outcry at Manchester or at Birmine
bam, that he therefore speaks the sense of the town which
he disturbs; or still more preposterously, that because he has
disturbed half a dozen neighbourhoods in their turn, be is,
therefore, the organ of them all, and, through them, of the
whole British people.
Such are the stupid fallacies which the law of the last Ses-
sion has extiognished! and such is the object and effect of the
measures which British liberty is not to survive !
To remedy the dreadful wound thee indicted upon British
liberty, to restore to the people what the people bare not lost,
to give a new impulse to that spirit of freedom, which no-
thing has been done to embarrass or restrain, we are invited
to alter the constitution of that assembly through which the
people share in the Legislature; in short, to make a Radical
Reform its the House of Common..

It has al rays struck me as extraordinary, that there should
be persons prepared to entertain the question of so great a
change in so important a member of the Constitution, with-
out considering in what way that change must alreet the situ-
ation of the other members, and the action of the Consti-
tution itself.

I have, on former occasions, stated here, and I have stated
elsewhere, questions on this sulject ; to which, as yet, I have
never received an answer. " You who 'wish to reform the
house of Commons, do you mean to restore that branch of
the Legislature to the same state in which it stood at some
former period ? or do yon mean to reconstruct it on new
principles ?"

Perhaps a moderate Reformer or Whig will answer, that
he means only to restore the House of Commons to what it
w•as at some former period. I then beg to ask, and to that
question al,o I have never yet received au answer, " At what
period of our histary was the House of Commons in the state
to which you wish to restore it ?''

The House of Commons way, for the p`urpose of this argu-
ment, he con2idered in two views ; first, with respect to its
agency as a third part in the Constitution ; secondly, with le-
spect to its compsition, in relation to its constituents. As to
its agency as a part of the Constitution, I venture to say, with-
out hazard, as I helieve, of contradiction, that there is no
period in the history of this country in which the House of
Commons ill he found to have occupied so large a share of
the functions of Government as at resent. Whatever else
may he said of the House of Commons, this one point, at
least, is indisputable, that from the earliest infancy of the
Constitution, the power of the House of Commons has been
growing till it has altuot!, Elie ti;' r9d of Aaron, absorued its