Star.
London, England, 1811-06-11 00:00:00

VENDS e PARLI4MENT4R? REFORM.

The Meeting of the Friends of Reffirm, which has
wen announced for it considerable time, took place
vesterday at Freemasons' Tavern. The Meeting,
highly respectable, was ecit so nume.ous as it
:,ad been expected, a circumstance which was Ire.
velitiy adverted to in the course of the discussion,
end variotoiy accounted for.
At one o'clock the Chair was taken by Sir JOHN
T;:e Chairman very shortly stated to the Meeting,
;fiat the ehjects for which they were assembled were
eertectle known and familiar to every person in the
room. "I'liey met for the purpose of promoting, by
over y constinitarnal means in their power, the cause
of p.nliarrieittary Reform. This object must be sup.
Itirted by their best exertions, net only in that room,
tort in their several counties and districts. Certain
:a,obirions were prepared, which would be submitted
iiteir approbation.
Mr. TREVANNION then rose to move the first rem,
lotion. He began by reading several extracts from
th: petition presented to the House of Commons by
the present Earl Grey, in 1793 This petition was
addressed, "To the Honourable the Commons of
Great Illitain in Parliament assembled ;" but he must.
observe, that this description would not now be pro-
per, for the complaint was, that the Commons were
tint in Paqament assembled. The substance of the
extract., which he read were, after defining the powers
of eve Xing and the House of Lords, " that those
tan Powers, if they acted without controul, weuld
form either a despotic monarchy, or a dangerous eh.
rarchy. That the wisdom of our ancestors had con-
trend, that those authorities should not only be harm-
less, hut beneficial, and exercised for the security and
happiness of the people. The elective franchise, how,
ever, was so partially and unequally distributed, that
(
Rutland and Yorkshire bore an equal rank in the
scale of county representation ; but that Cornwall,
by its extravagant proportion of Borough Members,
outnumbered not only the representation of Yorkshire
and Rutland together, but of Middlesex added to
them. The petitioners affirmed, and offered to prove
at the bar, that 70 members were returned by 35 in-
dividuals; that 90 more were elected by 46 places,
in none of which the number of electors exceeded 50 ;
that in addition to the 160 so elected, 27 were elected
by nineteen places, in one of which the number of
voters exceeded ene hundred ; and that fifty:two
more v.ere returned by twenty-six places, in which
the number of electors did tint exceed 200. In addi-
tion to the 249 members so (.I,,sen for England, 2% j
were chosen four counties in Scotland by less that, lost
electors each, and ten for counties in Scotland, by
less than '.:50 each ; and that 13 burghs in Scotland
not containing 100 electors each, and two burghs or.
containing 125 each, returned 15 Members. in this
manner 204 of the Representatives of Great Britain
were chosen, which formed An abs bitt. majority of
the House ef Commons." He would now ask, coold
that be called a representative body which vtais eaosen
in such a manner? Could the people conecto them
in any other light than as a moat dangerous riiigarchy?
The necessity of reform had.been clearly seen by the
peat Lord Chatham, by Mr. Fox, by Mr. Roscoe,
and even by Mr. Pitt ; was it therefore fair to repre-
sent it now as merely the idle dream of speculating
demagegurra ? Thr-people now anxiously wished for
the reformation of Anew, and the Teal of corrup-
tion. They were seniewhat astonished at seeing that
those who were formerly the summits advocates of
the liberties of the people, had now become instru-
ments of the system that oppressed them. The epos-
tacy was so glaring, that we might almost believe in
the fabled metamorphosis of men into brutes. The
Ministers accused the Reformists of appealing to the
passions of the people. It was the Ministers who ap-
raled to those passions. Their conouct was such as
irresistibly to move the passion of indignation. It
was impossible not to see with what contempt the pe-
titions of the people were twitted at the bar of the
Molise of Commons. They could not avoid seeing,
that all the avenues of- the Throne were beset, and
blocked tip by those very delinquents against whom
they cowl tined. He hoped, however, that the re-
spectable names which were now ut.ited in the cause
of reform, would be a complete answer to the asset..
n of Mr. Canning, that the reformees were o a con-
temptible crew ;" or to the assertion of Mr. Perceval,
" that reform was not the wish of the people of Eng-
land." He concluded by moving the following reso.
Itition :
Resolve., That the muck-quoted Petition, presented by Mr.
Grey (i.ow Earl (trey). en the 6th of May, I'M, to the Corn-
mons House tit Parliament, and then entered on its Journals, at-
ton's a demonstration that the said House cloth not represent the
P. °pie
I hat it path been the perpetual theme of the despised Prayers
and einciiisttances of innumerable Petitioners, that the said
House doih not speak the sense of he Na:ion.
I by it bath been a subject tint only of national complaim,but
of Pai narisentary Protest, that Paraaments have had an uncon-
sin utional duration
That these fatal corruptions in that Assembly, which ought to
be the Gi.ardian of our Liberties, are the radical and true causes
or national wrong and calamity, in all their forms and varieties ;
whether of int, mperate quarrels with other State., or of ruinous
Dent, and the pauperising of millions—or of the oppressive, re-
terafeoi, and tat char7ctrr tit tazatin!.' or ef rep-wed
re.tr.rtii.n. on the. freedom of the Press—or of the complicated
evils and slartirs of the present conflict—or of encroachments
sir oboe ittdepeou, of the LIOWD; or, to sum up all, of a spite-
mat ie tendency to subvert the Constitution; wherefore it is the
convict ion of u.i. Meeting, that a Reform in the Couitnons House
of Parlament is equally essential to the independence of the
ettinn, and to the Liberties of the People.
Mr. Prreits (efCornwall) seconded the Resolution.
Ile did not think it necessai y to r at much length
into a subject upon which reflectin7 men were gene-
r iiy agreed. As a Collective .aedy, when did the 11
Liaise if Commons pay any attention to the wish of j
die people, or what national grievances had they re-1
dressed ? They might talk °lobe degraded state of
the Senate of Bonaparte, but where was there more
ehseqiii usness shown to the wishes of the Govern.
a. _nt than in our uwn ? Not to go farther back than
• single week, wart ever a greaten insult offered to the
npinions and feelings of a nation than in the restora-
tion of a certain Royal Personage to an office which
1-e had been obliged to quit ? What could be added
to the quotation which had been made from the peti-
tion presented by Mr. Grey in 1793 ? Of the accu-
racy of this statement there could be no doubt, as the
enemies of Reform would never ventme to elontinei
or to dispute it. Indeed the very accuracy of the state-,
trent was, in the eyes of Mr. Burke, its greatest cr.
What could be wore insalting to such a people as wimee
ate, than to be told that
.ocr ancetaors were able to
estableth the best Cogoismilus bt tee the P"-