Star.
London, England, 1819-11-29 00:00:00

CORNWALL COUNTY MEETING.

A Meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of
Cornwall, which was most numerously and respeca
tably attended, was held at Bodmin, on Tuesday
last.—.E. W. W. PENDARVES, Esq. in the Chair.
E. J. GLYNN, Es 3. said, the object of those who
signed the Requisition to the Sheriff was to vindi-
cate the insulted laws of their country, and to ob-
tain an inquiry into what appeared to be a wanton
effusion of English blood. Should such a Requisi-
tion have provoked these observations and reproaches
of imprudence, and of an intention to inflame popu-
lar discontent, which were contained in a Declaration
put forth by those who were opposed to calling the
County together on the present mamentous occasion?
Was not the mysterious ambiguity of the anonymous
Requisition, calling together a particular descrip
tion of persons, on the Bth instant, more calculated
to provoke discontent and jealousy, than the holding
such a Meeting as that he addressed? Mr. Glynn
concluded by moving a series of Resolutions.
J. B. TREVANION, Esq. seconded the Resolutions.
The case, he said, they had to consider, was not one]
of oppressive taxation; it was not a case in which
they were called on to condemn wild and impracti-
cable political theories, but it was one that affected
the vital parts of the Constitution, and involved the
very existence of their rights and liberties. The pre-
sent crisis had arisen from the unfortunate circum-
stances of the times, and the apathy of the natural
leaders of the people, which had given to ambitious
individuals a factitious influence over those who were
abandoned to their direction. It was unnecessary
for himself, his friends, and the present Meeting, to
disclaim all connexions with these persons, or with
their views or designs.
The first ten Resolutions were put from the Chair,
and passed unanimously.
WILLIAM PETER, Esq. rose to move an Address
to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, founded
on the Resolutions which had been just adopted. He
congratulated his friends and his country on the ap-
pearance of the Meeting—on the presence of so many
64 faithful Cornishmen," faithful, not in the perverted
sense of the word, as used by their political oppo-
nents—not by subserviency to bigotted faction or
corrupt power, hut faithful to the cause of freedom,
justice, and order—faithful to the laws and institu-
tions of their fathers—( Loud applauses).—His
honourable friends who had preceded him, in their
'eloquent and truly English addresses on that day,
lbad dwelt on the importance of the question before
them. It was one, indeed, of vital importance; it
was, whether or not a military despotism should be
established on the ruins of our civil Constitution?—
'This was the question at issue between his Majesty's
Ministers and the People. If an assembly of Eng-
lishmen, legally convened for the consideration of
real, or even fancied grievances, was to be dispersed
with the edge of the sword, and the perpetrators and
abettors of such apparent outrage were to render no
satii•factory explanation of their conduct, there was
an end to the laws and liberties of England. The
fate of Manchester to-day might be the fate of York-
shire or Cornwall 0-morrow, until the whole of this
once mighty and glorious Nation should be at length
reduced to a level with the slaves of Germany and
Spain, without consolation or hope, and with the
sense of its misery and degradation, aggravated by
remembrances of former freedom and former great-
ness—( Applause).—Whether Parliament will at
length interfere to redress our wrongs—whether it
will promote by its authority such an inquiry into
the late lamentable transactions as shall at once sa-
tisfy the ends of justice, and allay the irritation of
the people ; or whether, forgetting its high purposes,
it will league with the oppressor, and aggravate the
wounds which have been already afflicted on the
Constitution, it is useless to anticipate. But, what-
ever may be the event—whether we are henceforward
to meet as freemen, or to mourn in silence over the
liberties we have in vain struggled to preserve, we
shall at least find some consolation in reflecting, that
we have done our duty—that we have stood, like
Englishmen, at our posts—raising, to the last, our
voices in support of the Constitution—
" The first, the foremost to obey the laws,
" The last to brook oppression !"—( Loud arplause).
Mr. Peter concluded by reading the proposed Address.
The Rev. Mr. WALICICR seconded the Address.
The occurrences at Manchester were, he observed, of
so alarming a nature, in a constitutional point of
view, that they imperiously demanded a solemn and
public inquiry.
The Address was then put from the Chair, and
carried unanimously.
J. C. RASMLELOH, Esq. congratulated the Meeting
that Cornwall had now joined the rest of England,
in calling for an inquiry into these dreadful events;
and be the event what it might, they would retire to
their pillows with the consciousness that they had
done all in their power, to transmit, unimpaired, to
their posterity, those Constitutional Rights they had
derived from their ancestors—( Cheers). Neither he
nor his honourable friends were the advocates of An-
nual Parliaments or Universal Suffrage; the latter he
conceived to be as false in theory, as it would be in-
jurious in practice. He was no friend to Mr. Hunt
or his proceedings; but if he was the friend of that
person, he should rejoice at the plan pursued by Mi-
nisters, as that which was peculiarly calculated to
further his objects. It was distress and coercion that
had given birth to these doctrines. The cause of the
Stuarts in Scotland, owed more to the massacre at
Glencoe, and other severities, than to any abstract
(love of hereditary right. If they were charged with
making common cause with Mr. Hunt, they happen-
ed to be in good company ; they were united with
the Duke of Norfolk, the Duke of Hamilton. Earl
Fitzwiltiam, and others of the proudest names in
England—(Chart). In the dAys of their fathers,
when Mr. Wilkes had resisted general warrants,
even Lords Camden and Rockingham did not shrink
from supporting him, because they felt that through
•his side, Government had wounded the liberties of
England ; nor were they deterred from defending the
Constitution from a fear of being called the sup-
porters of a blasphemer and a buffoon.—(Applouse).
He concluded hy moving the 11th, 12th, ISM, and
14th Resolutions.
GEORG! CALL, Esq. seconded the Resolutions,
which were put, and carried unanimously, as were all.
the other motions.
The Rev. Mr. /locum junior, moved the Thanks
of the Meeting to the Magistrates, who bad medal