Star.
London, England, 1822-06-12 00:00:00

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people of England wished seriously for Reform, they
had only to vote in favour of those men who, when
elected Members of Parliament, would be the sellout
defenders of their rights and liberties--(Cheers).--”,
Lei this be done in the County of Kent; let the exam-
ple be followed in the other Counties throughout the
Kir.g.lorn, and then, and not till then, would an effec-
tual Reiorni in Parliament be effected—( Cheers).
Sir E. KriaTcnauLt. said, in the situation which
he had the honour to stand as one of the Members ror
the County, he should feel guilty of a gross neglect of
duty if he declined making a few observations upon
the present occasion. He regretted that the ques-
tions of Agricultural Distress and Parliamentary Re-
form 'tad been mixed up, as such a mixture could
only have the tendency of dividing opinions, and
Weakening a cause which all were anxious to sup-
port. He was most anxious to give,, as he had hitherto
done, his Zealous support to every Measure calculated
• to afford relief to.the agricultural interests; but upon
the question of Reform he differed from the Gentle-
man who had.spoken before him. He denied the
existence of such sorrupt influence in Parliament as
had 'seen stated; or if it did mitt. he pledged him-
self that he was ignorant of 'it. Adverting to what
had been said of the press*, of taxation, be stated
that £4,000,000 of taxes bad heen'tecently taker{ off
—a pi etty strong proof that the. calumniated House
of Commons was not so bad as it had been de-
ecribed—(Applause).
Mt...LARKIN forcibly impressed upon tlieMeeting.
the absolute necessity of Parlia:nentary Reform.
• Mr. Ilosliwoon, in an animated address, pointed
out the necessity of adhering strenuously to the cause.
of. Parliamentary Reform, and assured the Meeting
that he should ever, tshether their Representative. or
otherwise, feel the warmest interest in the prayers and.
Petitions which came from the Freeholders of the
coantrof Kent— (Applause).
Mr. HonCts supported the prayer of the Petition,
and congratulated the Meeting. upon the very great
increase %Adel' had taken place in the number and re-
spectability tithe supporters of Parliamentary Reform.
for. Cosset?, who bad taken his station in one-of the waggons
placed at some distance from that occupied by the High Sheriff,
stood forward to address the Meeting, and was assailed by loud
cries of—" Off ! off! No! no! he is not a Freeholder!" mixed
with cries of—" He is ! be is! this is unfair ! hear every man !"
The Lana Samar? here asked Mr. Cobbett wheeler he was
a Freehold.' ?—Mr. Cosastv—" I am, Sir."
The lltaht SHERIFF (to Mr. Cobbett)—" Are you, Sir, a Free.
holder of the county of Kent?"
tlr. Cossrer—u I am, Sir, a Freeholder of the county of Kent."
Several voices here exclaimed that Mr. Cobbett had a freehold
at Greenwich. Silence being now obtained,
Mr. Cmiarrr proceeded 'to address the Meeting.
Hz state,' that it was the Radicals, as they were called,
Who, in 1817, gave an impulse and stimulus to the
feelings of the country. They had at that time caused
a Petition, signed by 4,000 indiv;duals, to be pre-
s rated P.O lia:rent. What had they asked for ?
T.iey asked precisely for that which the Noble Lord,
a man of great property, now demanded—a reduc-
ton of taxation. Now he would say to those Noble
I. 'rds and those Gentlemen, that they never would
p eserve their estates except by the assistance of such
rum as those whom they saw that day assembled
f r the purpose of petitioning Parliament. Much
had been said about the necessity of Reform, but.
s ,me Gentlemen were hardy enough to say that the
Muse of Commons WAS not corrupt, and. did not
t lc; efore reqiiiie reformation. If that. were so, th.at
body must be guilty of falsehood, fur the fact
had been acknowle:ged by themselves. The ne-
cessity for Reform was clear enough, but the dif.
ficult point w as the manner of bringing it about--;
The Noble Lord (Darnley) said that a great step tr-
wards Reform would be the independent election fir
p-pular towns. Now his objection to that was, in
tire first instance, there would be a long time to w.
If agricultural distress was not relieved till tl en,
ago icultutists, he feared, would be in a very bad w ay.
But supposing that period to have arrived, wl.ere,
would be the chance of their election being more free
or open than before? The way, the only and effec-
tual way to bring about Reform was to ptess legally
(mind that), upon the proper Authorities, its absoltite
nece_sity. The Members did not take their seats of
their n accord, neither did they go in by the autho-
tity of the People; but they did go in, or at least a
great majority of them did, upon the authority of
some fifty Peers er Gentlemen of large landed pro-
perty. In short, if they wished for an effectual Re-
form, the right way to proceed was to petition the
Poets to abolish the boroughs which were in their
gift. They talk, indeed, of blasphemy and sedition,
and riot and confusion—they talk of corruption and
corrupt influence—why, if they wished to put an end
to that corruption, let them openly and honestly walk
down so the House of Lords with their Jirty title-
deeds, and say, " take them for ever from our sight."
That would be the most effectual mode of Reform—
tApp/ause).—lf they do not do so, they will (said Mr.
Cobbett) witness scenes in this country which I wish
not to contemplate. What he should recommend
would be, that the yeomanry of the County of Kent
that the yeomanry of every County in England, should
petition the Peers to give up this influence, this cor-
rupt influence, which they possessed. If this were
done, he had no doubt that even in the present Par-
liament the Reform which he had recommended would
be brought about. If any Nobleman who beard him
possessed property and such influence in that County,
let him manfully lead the way. It had been said, and
they all felt it, that taxation was the cause of the dis-
tress under which they laboured ; but no one had
clearly pointed out how the grievance was to be re-
moved. It had been said, " Let us be just ;" he said
so too—let them be just even totastlereagh—even
to him he was ready to deal out even-handed justice.
But they must admit that it would be unfair to ask
him to *educe taxation, unless there was a corres-
ponding reduction of the expenditure to meet it.—
A good deal had been said about retrenchment and
econ smt, and it was true that little reduction had
taken place ; but there could be no effectual reduction
of taxation, no effectual relief afforded to the country,
until they reduced the whole of the national debt.—
They had been told, and truly, that the present am-runt
of taxation was nearly 70,009,0001.. a-year. Now,
how were they to 'educe it? Suppose that they had
reduced half the Army, and hall the Navy, and all
the Civil List, and all, or a great proportion of public
places and emoluments, still they could not bring the
pendituie of the country down to 40,000,0001. so
in fact, there would still be a difference of more
20,000,0001. between our present expenditure

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and that
.aid they

Mean to

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dead and
Englishman*. appear
picture ofireland, lately hung up _ ing
the Operk House? Ak ! no—they meant no such
thing—they only used words, the ironing of
which they certainly did not clearly nrielers•
The cause of Reform was mainly inpirml by the ne-
cessity of keepiis up a large standing army, to en--
force the collection of the Revenue. This evil the
Parliament would gladly reduce, were it not that we
tack a rider to it,—we say we shall have Refortn—in
fact, the Borooghtnongers stood
betweeorthe nation
and its happiness. They did not know what to do—
they said, is Wh devil should we be deprived of
the influence ofour Boroughs r But he answered
this by saying, as Why the devil should the People of
England be obliged to pay all these taxes?" He was
anxious to support-the Petition, because he was anxi-
ous to prevent the child in the cradle from being
mortgaged to the Jews and Jobbers of 'Change-alley.
With this view he would • move, in addition to the
Petition,ai rider, with a view to prevent all the use-
ful classes of satiety from being . robbed by a set of
Jew's and Jobbers, who had always in their mouths
the cry of national faith and national honour, while
they were anxious only to promote their sordid inte-
rests, and their selfidi and ungenerous views. He
conth ded by proposing that the following be tacked
as a rider to the Petition:
"And your Petitioners beg leave likewise most humbly to
pre that your Honourable House will cause a just reduction of
the interest of the National Debt, u soub as you have completed
a Befouls of your klecourable ouse."
• The Earl of DARNI.Ex said, that he had never be-
fore had the'pleasure -of seeing the Gentleman who
bid last 'spiiken—a Gentleman who was kno.vn to
everybody by his. writings, and for whose powers of
mind jie in common with the . Yea of the world felt
great respect. In. answer to what that Gentleman
observed, he felt it necessiryao slim, that it would
is his mind be unfair in those persons who had sup-
ported the extravagant projects of Ministers, to turn
round and say " now we ate, in distress, and are de-
termined to pay so much in the pound." He (Lord.'
Darnley) as anhouest man, was of opinion that they
were bound to pay their public and private debts as
long as they were able.
Mr. COBURTT said, he had spoken delicately on the
subject of Reform; bnt if the Noble Lord forced him
to it, he must say, that in hisilpinion; every man who
might be forced to take aims in defence of that Noble
Lord's property, was de erving'of a vote in the elec-
tions of those persons by whom his life and his pro-
perty, however humble, were to he protected. If that
were the case, the property of the Noble Lord would
be safe; if that were the case the Freeholders of Kent
would not sec the disgraceful anomaly of the Electors
holding one opinion, and one of their Members
another—(Cheers). They would not see their Repre-
sentatives, like an angry man and wife in a post-
,hai,e, one looking out of one window and oae out
of the other—(Chews and laughter).
Mr. BICVNILL addressed the Meeting, and recommended the
exclusion of political discussion, a confidence in Parliament, and
the appointment of i Committee to receive subscriptions to re-
lieve the distresses of the county of Kent.
After some further observations, it was decided that Mr. Cob-
hetes rider should form part of the Petition ; and the Petition
thus added to was carried, with the exception of three or four
hands. among whom was that of Lord Darnley, who could not
accede to Mr. Cubbett's Amendment.
A vote of thanks was proposed to Mr. flume for his able
exertions in Parliament. but the High Sheriff declined putting
it, as it was not included in the Requisition. It was, however,
ultimately put and carrier; with loud applause.
Thanks were voted to the Sheriff, and the Meeting disperSed
• four o'cicck.

THE EVENING STAR.

ebexai
thi

of "'Mt • The i; Lot'd aad Bea. Karate
r woniepay to the list moment—did they
say they would go on paying till that were
d stiff? Or.didithey mead to go oa tilreschi
man shall appear like the famished and forlorn
ofireland, lately hung up before the King at