Star.
London, England, 1818-03-24 00:00:00

fresh notice, not signed as the former had been,
adopted in its steak; • tire consequence was, that as
the notice at presenl stned, none but householders;
had any business to be present. Was a canvass to
take place to ascertain who were householders and
who were not? Of all men the householders of
Westminster had less reason to complain than any in
the country, for they were represented and might re-
turn to Parliament whom they liked; but the Inha-
bitants of Westminster were not represented, and
therefore had reason to address a Petition to Parlia-
ment : as the present Petition was worded, no one
but a householder had a right to sign it. However,
even in its present shape, he would support it ; for
a better Petition, or better Resolutions, than those
brought forward on the present occasion, by Major
Cartwright, had never been expressed with a pen.—
He would support them one and all. He only wish.
ed to submit to the Major the propriety of extend-
ing the Petition and Resolutions to inhabitants ; for
his own part, it was of no consequence to him whe-
ther the Petition was presented to the House opposite
or not, for he was of opinion, that those who last
year had had their Petitions kicked out of the House,
were much more honoured than those who had had
them received. The Major had intimated, that
what he brought forward this day was his last legacy
to the public. It was to be hoped that would not
be the case ; but that, if unable to give his personal
attendance, he would continue to assist the cause
with his pen. If, however, that was his last legacy,
its value to the promoters of Reform would prevent
its being forgot. Upon the subject o 1 Petitions he
would observe, that he happened to be in the House
of Commons last week, and had an opportunity of
seeing the way in which Petitions were presented.—
Doubtless the present Petition would be treated in
the same way. The Clerk would say, this is the Pe-
tition of the Inhabitants and Householders of the
City of Westminster; he would then stuff it into his
bag, and there would be an end of it. The only
use of a Petition was, that being read in Parliament,
the contents might go forth into the country ; but
if they were shovelled over without being read, and
then stuffed into a bag, they might as well not be
presented at all.
Mr. CHARLES PITT, of the Adelphi, endeavoured
to address the Electors, but he was so much inter-
rupted by groanings and hisses as finally to give up
the attempt.
Major CARTWRIGHT said, that with regard to the
distinction noticed by Mr Hunt, he understood that
the first form of the requisition happened not to cor-
re pond with the Act of Parliament under which
they were assembled ; but Mr. Cleary would explain
the alteration. He would just observe, that as far as
his recollection went, in Middlesex it had always
been the practice, contrary to his opinion, to convene
the freeholders: but in Westminster he had always
understood it to have been the practice of the inha-
bitant householders. He remembered, a short time
ago, when the Duke of Bedford signed a Petition
from a Meeting in Middlesex of the freeholders, and.
three or four other Noblemen signed a notice for a
Meeting of the inhabitants of Middlesex, the Sheriff
made such objections to the form, that they were
obliged to alter it to freeholders. He had no recol-
lection in Westminster of any other form than inha-
bitant householders having been the practice. He
did not think it a rignt practice; but the reason given
for it was this—lt had been observed, that in and
near the metropolis, if; in addition to householders
and freeholders, the inhabitants were indiscriminately
called together, many, who were considered by some
as improper persons, would assemble under that ge-
neral description. Upon the present occasion, the
form usually adopted had been resorted to.

Mr. CLEARY said, that Mr. Hunt had charged the
Gentlemen who called the Meeting with a fraud, and
to repel that charge, he would call the attention of
the Meeting to the notice signed at a previous Meet-
ing. It would be observed that they were now as-
sembled in a different manner from what they had
been. On former occasions it was by certain inha-
bitant householders calling upon the High Bailiff to
convene a Meeting of the inhabitant householders.
There had been no public Meeting for the last seven
years, that had not been called in the name of the
Anhabitant householders; and for what reason there
should be any deviation from that mode, he con-
fessed he could not see. The City of Westminster
had done a great deal by their former meetings for
the cause of liberty; and they had always met as the
iihabiunt householders. At present they did not'
meet, as they had formerly dune, under the autho-
rity of the High Bailiff, but under the authority of
an Act of Parliament, upon the requisition of seven
householders. A notice had been signed, calling
only the inhabitants of Westminster together. They
had not then the Act of Parliament, but upon looking
into it afterwards, it was found that the notice did
not point the precise form of the Act, and as they
did not wish to give that power to the Magistrates
which they would have been glad of the opportunity
of exercising, they had thought it right to be as strict
as possible, in order to conform to the Act. Another
deviation from the original motion was, that the
Meeting had been intended to be called at Covent-
Garden ; but on looking into the Act they found that
as neither the two Houses of Parliament nor the
Courts of Law were sitting, they might lawfully meet
in Palace Yard; and therefore they had changed the
place of meeting to Palace Yard, as being more con-
venient. He trusted there could be no just imputa-
tim of fraud or deception in acting as he had done.
lie would ever repel such an attack, as he now did,
in the teeth of him who made it.

Mr. Huxr explained, and disclaimed any intention
of using the word deception or fraud in an offen-
sive sense.—The Petition was put to the vote, and
aiopted unanimously.
The fourth Resolution, recommending Petitions
with 20 signatures, in compliance with the 13th of
Charles 11. being moved by Major CARTWRIGHT, and
seconded by Mr. WALKER,
Lord COCHRANE said, he hoped he should not be
suspected of any intention to throw obstructions in
the way, but he could not refrain from expressing his
confidence, that the inhabitants of Westminster would
never chew such deference to the acts of a tyrant, as
was implied by the resolution now proposed—(ap-
p/awe). He begged again to express his strong dis-
approbation of printed and uniform Petitions. They
afforded great facility to forgery. He had himself
received numbers of such forged Petitions. He would