Star.
London, England, 1823-01-24 00:00:00

rteiod,' concurred with his Hon. Friend in opposing
parliamentary Reform. If there was any value in
consistency, it was now his duty to state what had
induced mei to change his opinion. He had been
te ,rest that the sentiments which he once
entertains were erroneous. He consulted those
gime lo him on the subject, but his Constituents
were the lest to whom he thought it his duty to state
the dotes( . which had occurred to him ; and he
bad ehelefore, NV hen last elected, given no pledge
en this subject, ae if he made himself subservient
logien), it might be thought he would be subset-
lieu to others. lie would now tell them that his
eanduct had been much influenced by the proceedings
of the Government in 1817,1/ben the people had
been excited to outrage by spies, to furnish a
latest for depriving them of their liberties. The
imposition of new taxes to the amount of 3,006,0001.
when the whole country rang with calls for retrench-
bine had strengthened his suspicion that the system
%mot what it ought tto be. It was further strength-
ened by the proceedings of the memorable 16th of
August in that year. The celebrated Six Acts con-
armed the opinion lie had thus been led to adopt, as
those Acts went, in his judgment, to take away some
of the most material parts of the Constitution ; and
the manner in which the ease of the Queen was treated,
when Mr. John Smith brought forward a motion for
restoring her late Majesty's name to the Liturgy, con-
vinced him that the People were not properly repre-
sented in that House. He read Mr. Burke's descrip-
tion of what a House of Commons ought to be, and
appealed to the Meeting if, in vatious instances to
which he referred, the conduct of the existing House
of Commons answered to such description ? lie felt
that it did net, and therefore he considered the pre-
sent to be a monstrous and unnatural state of things.
With this feeling, why (eight he not to state that con-
viction %%hick had come over his mind, and own that
prejudices which he had once cherished were no more?
Redeemed it his duty to come forward as he had done ;
and he was persuaded, that u ithout waiting for the
plan which his lion. Friend desired to sec produced,
they ought to endeavour to impress on the House
their feeling that the system was defective. It had
been said by one Right lion. Gentleman that the in-
fluence of the Crown was necessary in the House of
Commons, to counteract the voice of the People.—
I'Vhen he heard this stated, and by the brother of
Lard Grantham, lie thought it high time to look
abut him, to see in what respect such counteraction
could he necessary. Then his Honourable Friend.
spoke 'of the influence of the Press, as controuling
that of the Crown. Why, there were two tides with
the Press. He would ask the Meeting if they. had
ever heard of a Paper called John 13n11?—(A
laugh)—Why should it not be assumed that the
itifluenee of the Press was as peat on one side as it
was said to be on the other. Having explained the
circumstances which had induced him to join the
friends of Parliamentary Reform, and remarked on
sonic of the statements of his, Hon. Friend, he would
ait detain them longer. His Hon. Friend referred to
1596, %d hen the Sheriff of Staffordshire was written
to by the Patron of the Borough to nominate Mem-
le% to serve in Parliament, he (Mr. Stuart Wortley)
ought to have proved that the reign of Queen Eliza-
beth was one of great liberty to make good his argu-
ment. It as doubtless one of gieat external glory,
bat it certainly was not distinguished for civil liberty.
Ile cautioned them against violence, as tumult and
anarchy invariably ended in tyranny ; this had been
seen in the case of the Long Parliament, succeeded
as it had been by the domination of the Army, and
the tyranny of Ca om well. It had been also seen in
our oss n times in a neighbouring country, and they
might depend upon it that similar disorders would
always produce the same results. He therefore ex-
horted' them to temper their ardour with moderation.
This he particularly recommended; but at the same
time he wished them to pursue the object in view, as
he would do, with persevering teselution, and un-
ceasing zeal.
Mr, Wevi Lt. contended, that if, as the Hon. Gen._
tlenaan (Mr. S. Worthy) had told them, the Borough-
System had continued through four centuries, that.
was no reason for upholding it still. He denied that'
Parliament, as at present constituted, spoke the sense
of the People. This lie thought had been proved by
the Noble Lord. The American war he considered
to have been produced by taxation without repre-
sentation, 'and he did not hesitate to say, that the war
against France, in 1792, was merely undertaken to
prevent the accomplishment of Parliamentary Reform.
Mr. BEVERLEY supported the Resolutions, and
commented with some severity on the arguments
which lied been applied to them. The propositions
of an More Member in defence of the House of Com-
mons were, he was sorry to say, of such a naterethat
no mace could sit and hear them avowed—they being
of that iiatore, that to a man dead to all political
feeling, they would
" Create a soul under the rites of death !"
The Hon. Gentleman had said the Revolution would
never have been brought about had a r eformed Par-
liament then existed. But he would ask, if the Par-
liament had been reformed ? Could those abuses
which made the Revolution necessary ever have been
known? He insisted that if the war with France had
been popular at its commencement, it would never
have been continued as it was if the People had been
fairly represented, as they would sooner have pre-
ferred a little parsimony and a little safety to all the
chatter which they had heard about glory. The Hon.
Member had spoken of the increase of Newspapers,
as counter acting the influence of the Crown !
The Pekin Gazette was published every day, for the
ediscatton of the 500,000,000 of Chinese subjects;
but could a more rascally and villainous system of
tyranny exist than was established in China? It was
said that all subjects were discussed in the House
of Commons with eloquence not to be surpassed ;
but he knew of nothing very extraordinary in that way,
and the best eloquence heard there, was but as a
farthing candle to the sun, compared with that of
Cicero and Demosthenes. If grievances were felt, it
vas seen, as in the Manchester case, that redress was
hot easily obtained in the Courts of Law, and when
Petition was presented to the House of Commons,
if the language were strong, it was rejected as scan-
dalous and seditious, with a loud cry of " Hear, hear,
*r!" He knew of no remedy for the evils corn-
panned of but that which would be found in a
thorough and Radical Reform.
Mr. WooLett called on the Meeting i 6 come to an
Intanitoot.s decision in favour of Parliamentary Re-

formß,; Ave .11191, Gendemau (Mr. S. Wortley) W
chtc.**-that he would oppoie the opinkori which had.
beelpromulgated by some Who called for, Aeons's.,
to the last moment of his life..ind to the last drop of
his blood. He hoped the Hon. Gentleman hiMself
would regret having used these words, as it should
seem he contemplated the use of force and bloodshed
to oppose the progress of opinions; and thus coun-
tenanced that violence himself which he was not
slow to condemn in others. The Hon. Gentleman
had defended the abuses of which that Meeting
complained, because they had existed through the
last four hundred years.7-(Loud and repeated cheers.)
If a Bill were brought into Parliament to prohibit
murders and robberies on certain highways, the Hon.
Gentleman might with equal reason contend that
such.a measure ought not to pass, as murders and
robberies had been committed on those spots four
centuries ago. Ile proceeded at considerable length
to animadvert on the Other arguments of the lion.
Geotlesnan, and strongly supported the Resolutions.
They weie not exactly couched in the terms which
he would have preferred, but they embodied all for
which he thought it necessary to contend, though he
could have wished to call for the desired Reform in

stronger language. The real traitors to the State, he
maintained, xvcre those who had involved both King
and People in .onc common chain to support the inte-
rests of the existing Oligarchy. Ile asserted the right
of the People to he free; and to those who maintained
a different opinion he would ever give this.answer—
,, When you can shew me a man on whose brow Gon
has stamped the name of slave, I will own it reason-
able that that man should be so considered ; but till
then I will not allow any lloroughmonger to place
his cloven foot on the head of a freeman, and call
him slave!"

Mr. S. WORTLEY, in explanation, said, he had de-
clared he would oppose to the last hour of his life,
and with the last drop of his bleod, not opinions, but
measures which went to produce a national bank-
ruptcy, and to defraud the public creditor: Such
measures, he repeated it, lie ever would oppose, while
he was capable of resistance.
The Resolutions were then separately put and car-
ried,. the single hand held up against them being that
of Mr. S. WORTLEY.

Sir F. WOOD, liar t. proposed the following Petition
" TO TM* HONOURABLE THE HOCRI OT COMMONS or GREAT BRITAIN

AND IRELAND, IN PARLIAMENT ASSIMIILRD.
" The I fumble Petition of the Freeholders Of the County
of York,
" Suawrret—That your Petitioners are duly and deeply im-
pressed with veneration for the Constitution of this Realm, as
Consisting of King, Lords, and Commons, and are anxious to
prserve in purity and vigour the privileges of each coniponent
part, being convinced that the same were well adapted to the
benefit and protection of the People.
" Impressed with these sentiments, this County has not been
fOrward to complain of the conduct of Parliament, but the re-
cent proceedings of your Honourable House, which has in each
successive Session given fresh proofs of its deviation from public
-opinion, have convinced your Petitioners that neither are duly
attended to in your Honourable House.
" Instead of a determined resistance to the encroachments ci
Power, a tender care for the rights of the People, a jealous
over the executory and judicial Magistracy, and a vigilant meth
over the Public Treasure ; it has been the misfortune of yost
Petitioners to witness too ready a compliance with the wishes of
whatever Minister may have dispeustd the favours of the Crown,
" Of this unconstitutional tendency in your Honourable House,
your Petitioners feel the fatal effects in the wanton and profligate
expenditure of their Resources; its the maintenance of a Military
force, dangerous to theirliberties ; in the enactment of laws in-
consistent with the spirit of the Constitution; and in the frequent
neglect with which the Petitions of the People have been treated
in that quarter where they ought to have experienced the
readiest and most anxious attention.
" The evils of an inadequate Reprrsentatiott have been com-
plained of by eminent Statesmen of all parties, and at different
periods, but to your Petitioner's these evils appear greatly aggra-
vated by the additional power and influence over your Honour-
- able House which is derisred front the present large Collection
of Taxes, and the unprecedented amount of our Civil, Military,
and Colonial Peace Establishments.
" Your Petitioners beg levee to represent,, that if this state of
your Honourable House, and the circumstances which affect its
independence are at all times subjects of great Public interest—
they are peculiarly so at a time when the absolute Monarchs of
Europe, not content with arbitrarily governing their own doinl.
aeons, are leagued together in an alliance, the avowed object of
which is to check the progress of liberty, and to prevent the
eitablishment of Representative Governments ; an object which
they have but too successfully carried into execution by the
military occupation of countries to which they have had the
power to dictate.
s Your Petitioners apprehend no such immediate violence to
the British Constitution; but they are fearful lest a pernicines
influence should destroy the basis of their liberties, and ultimately
convert the power of a free Constitution into the couvenient I
instrument of an arbitrary Government.
" Your Petitioners anxious that P?rliament should avail itself
of the present period of peace and tranquillity to enter. into a
full consideration of the state of the House of Commons, respect.
fully but earnestly entreat your Honourable House to inquire
seriously into the causes of a state of things injurious to them-
selves and dangerous to their posterity, and by a speedy and
effectual Reform of your Honourable House, to adopt the mea-
sures which alone can remedy the evils of which they complain,and
restore that good agreement and perfect sympathy which ought
to prevail between the true House of Commons and the people."
he Petition was put and carried, Mr. S. WORTLEY
being again the only dissentient.
After some observations from Mr. BARNES, thanks
were voted to the Sheriff, and the Meeting dissolved.

A Deputation from the Committee of Common Council for
promoting Parliamentary Reform, waited yesterday upon the I
LORD DlAvoa with a Requisition for a Court, to consider of a 1
Petition to Parliament, when his Lordship was pleased to gram
a special Court for Wednesday next.
Yesterday a Cabinet Council was held in Downing-
street, which was attended by—
Theim, Earl *of Ha °why. the F.ad of Westmorland, the Earl
of Liverpool, the- cellor of the Exchequer, Lord Mery-
borough, Viscount dmouth, Earl Bathurst, Mr. Peel, Mr. &-
cretary Canning, Mr. Robinson, &c.
The Council sat in deliberation an hour and a half.
We understand (says the Dublin Morning Poet of Tuesday)
that a man was taken into custody yesterday evening for striking
the Loan Marna, al his Lordship was about to enter the
Theatre. He was lodged in College-street Police Office.
One of the most peculiarly interesting and useful
Books of reference ever printed in England, will be published
next week. It consists of Accounts of 3,000 Living Cotempo-
raries, or Public Characters of all Nations, English, French,
German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, American, and other coun-
tries, with above 150 engraved Portraits. It is printed as a
companion to the Peerages, and is in truth, a general Peerage
of Nature and Talent.
The guard of one of the York coaches brought an accoudt
yesterday evening of an alarming fire raging at WoodlerLedge,
the seat of Mr. PETTINGIR, about dm miles from lliggiesiVade,
yesterday morning. It raged with great fury, and had been fur
some time. We cot.id not get information how the fire origi-
nated, nor the extent qf damage • bat the interior of the how
was destroyed, and the flames had reached the stabling.
Last night, Mr. Pt:nails for the first time this season. gave
his Periodical Readings and Recitations at the. Argyle Rooms,
before a numerous and genteel auditory. The gelectlons, from
Snacsrr.asit, Mitron ' Cowrie, and tither favourite Authors,
were delivered with good ensphaiis and taste, and the ever.ing's
entertainments wet.: announced for repctitioa with emihiii.iiic

applause.

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FIRIDAY,"SANUAItrY Is2lk, • i •
STOtic lixo4*(l/4'iiAdr-PliSTl4liltittii
A great paose pneosiSipOws4 •above Market tldB iritiOrlfi
(mint to the arrival of explicit% FpogKris, and the .141:7 rat-1
like preparations in Frances WWI as the tail of the F,rench.
Funds, which were dune at l'aris ander 80,. but left 4at 811,
Spanish 41 ; in consequence of which, Consels, that opened at
77, were done at 76k, and up to this hour they arc 76j to 77
Spanish Bonds opened at 42i j, but recoveredagain to
.43.
The people In the City, who were decidedly of opinion that no
war would take place; begin now to view the measures of
France, in putting her troops on a warlike footing, ar rendering
it beyond doubt that hostilities will take place. Great monied
men in the City, who have been speculating for Peace, and
carried over their accounts with a high interest, begin to shake in
their sheet, as their losses must have been already v:..ry guat.
YORIILIII MICH&
All was bustle and confusion in the Market this morning.—
Current Prices :—Chilian 72, New Spanish 41, Old 48, New
Prussian 7.9 i. Old 83, Russian 77i, Danish 881, Ncapolit.72/ Sc.
PertLvian 76, Colombian 53i, Spanish Sc.
NEAPOLITAN LOAN OF 18'22.
Trw COURT, JANCART
At the request of several of the holders of the Neapolitan
Scrip Receipts, .a further extension for the payment of the bk-
lances will be granted by Mr. N. M. P.m .us follows,
viz.-5 per cent. to be paid on the Ist of February next, with
the interest on the receipts up to that day, hut urn) this amount
no bonds will be delivered; 5 per cent. to be paid on the Ist of
March next; 10 per cent. on the 15th of April next; 10 per
cent. on the 15th of May next; 10 per cent. on the 161 h of
June next ; 10 per cent. on the 15th of July next ; and the ba-
lance on the 15th of August next, with interest, at the rate of 4 per
cent. from the Ist of February, payable as these amounts become
due.'The parties who intend availing themselves of this arrange-
ment, in preference to the terms proposed in the Advertisement of
the 11th instant, are requested to state their intentions at the time
of leaving their receipts at Mr. ROTHSCHILD'S Counting-house, as,
in the event of their not doing so, they will be considered as
-acceding to the terms contained in Mr. Ro-rusetituir former
Advertisement.
PRICES OF STOCKS AT ONE O'CLOCK.
13k. Stock 241 A 242-8 per Ct. 773( % 78
per Cent Consols 77 76% 771/4 IA;
34 per Ct. 89Y8 901/8-4 per Cts. Old, 961/s 1/a 1,4
4 per Cents. New 97 A Ve• % 96% 97
Bank Long Ann. 20V8 20—Imp. :3 per Ct. 76 rs 77
India Bonds 88s 40s. pr.—South Sea Stock 87%
Oid Annuities 771%

Exchequer Bills olt:1,000, 123. 153.144. pr
Consols for Acct 76% 77 76% '77

The accounts from France are now generally war-
like; but, with the exception of incite from Calais,
dated yesterday morning, which .stAtes. that " the
troops at St. Omer and part of those la Calais have
orders to march to the South," there are are no posi-
tive data on which to infer that Walt' is More probable
now than it was a month ago, unless the hostile tone
of the French Journals can be considered as such.—
Even the Journal des Debuts, the accredited organ of
the more moderate party of the Cabinet, now calls
out for war, and abuses the Spaniards ; and even thid
country comes in for.* abate of its impotent angeic—
The Editor of this Joernal has made an important
discovery—no less than that the Emperor of RUSSIA
is " a Prince the most moderate and most friendly
to the liberties of nations that ever existed ! !!" Now,
who will despair of the discovery of the Longitude,
the North West Passage, or the Perpetual Motion,
after this? Friendly to the liberties of nations, in-
deed ! Well might Madame ROLAND exclaim, when
suffering on the scaffold, with a statue of the goddess
before her—" Oh, Liberty ! what crimes have been
committed in thy name !" A greater insult to com-
mon sense, a more gross libel on humanity, was never
penned than the assertion that the Emperor of RCASIA
is a friend to the Liberties of Nations. Ask the en-

slaved cerfs of his ewn Empire, who are transferred
like cattle with the soil? Ask the oppressed Poles,
from whom he wrested the few remains of in-
dependence which his ancestors had left ? Ask
the Swedes, from whom be tore Finland when he
had joined BONAPaRTE in his ambitious views?—
Ask the Piedmontese and the Neapolitans, whom, in
conjunction with Austria, he crushed? Ask the poor
Greeks,whom he incited to revolt, and has abandoned
to a desperate struggle with their ferocious enemies,
in order that he may profit by their mutual weakness;
thus, like " a cowardly marauder, lingering behind
till the danger is past, that he may steal forth in
darkness and obscurity to insult the bodies of the dead,
and retutn with the unresisted spoils of the field."
Will any of these proclaim the Autocrat a friend
to liberty ? No, certainly not—it is the fawning sr;
cophanct of a French hireling, who thus administers
the flattery, and would the nest hour, did his masters
command it, charge the EMPEROR. with every crime.
'But who wilt dare to assert that the Emperorof Rtirr-
SIA'S conduct towards Spain is that of a friend of
liberty—unless indeed
.d' that liberty tibial Sove-
reigns assume.—" that right divine to govern wrong;?";
We have shewn oat the Spanish Government and
Spanish Constitution Have been solemnly recognized,
by the Empeior of Ruessk, and he novi wants to re-'
duce Spain, and indeed every ;ration iu the would, to
the,same vassalage as his own subjects. - • *;-J
'The most absurd rumours prevail in Pais; at one.,
'time war is stated to be inevitable, and that France
is incapable of undertaking it withbnt tKe aisiitance
.of the Allies, who will thu,, a third:tiase, slOeypy.soi
pus through her territory.:: Another.-statemenn lau
that the Martlais de Vary-bad left the Army of Oebi'
nervation to represeni its disaffected state. It third
IgliPSikr- "AD .04 .M.Yik-4,4-4*LrAl