Star.
London, England, 1810-04-28 00:00:00

We would therefore, Sir, gladly knesi why Minirl
ters and Pediment do not, in obedience to the Con-
stitutien, and in the honest performance of their own
THE ADDRESS OF THE FREEHOLDERS OF MilibLF.- duty, "restore.to full vignuF and energy" the County
SEX, IN FULL COUNTY ASSEMBLED. Power, which hi the very infancy of its organization
SIR —With the name of Hattapden, consecrated to by the immortal Alfred freed England of invaders
who had mastered half the counties, or converted
theeternal gratitude and veneration of Englishmen, those invaders into peaceable and loyal subjects ?
for having resisted the illegal exercise of power by a
King, the present .and future ages will couple the And we would also 'gladly hear the reasons why
Ministers and Parliainent, while neglecting a duty so
name of Burdett, for having resisted an illegal exer- obvious and so imperious, spare neither pains nor ex-
cise of power by a House of Commons. pence—an expence paid by the People—for adding
To you we are indebted for having caused discus- to our vast native Standing Army. another numerous
sloes which have done honour to our age
toad nation ; Standing Army of Germans, Sicilians, French, Pot-
,
but such a variety of principles have been shaken in tuguese, and other foreign mercenaries ; seeing at the
the strange proceedings against you, that the extent same time that nonce is so strong by land we cannot
of our obligations to you, first, for your constitutional annoy her by offensive war ; and so weak by sea, she
doctrine, and then for your resisting the violators of I cannot even alarm our external possessions in any
our Constitution, cannot as yet be estimated. We
part of the globe i
trust the obligations will prove beyond all estimate;
as we trust they must terminate in a restoration of
taw, being yet a free part of a free community, muse
that violated Constitution.
Whatever, Sir, may be the prostitution within know, that to violate law would be to violate its own
liberty, and must ever be alive to the feeling, that, to
certain walls, whatever may be the profligate abuse preserve the common liberty, must be the first and
land pecul.ttion of office, we may, however, congratu- most sacred of its duties.
late our country, that she has yet able defenders of Concerning a Standing Army, an acute writer asks
I her tights, who, with you, are rallying around our 41 Is it not possible that these keepers of ours may
two-fold Constitution—a Constitution that bath not come to resemble those of a seraglio, and hate the
only a Law, which is o the perfection of reason," very name of liberty, when totally deprived of their
' but whenever that law may meet with lawless oppo- own ?,, And s' a Standing Army," it has been re-
sets, hash also " a Sword of its own," without needing marked, 4, ever has converted and ever must convert
to borrow any other, native or foreign, for the sure Imen into machines. The individuals of a Standing
' and resistless enforcement of that law.
I Army, when they receive. orders, cast away the 'Jude-
. Inquiry, Sir, is now awake and at we: k. Reason,
constitutional principle, bath now i meet, the moral discretion, and the will of rational
foundine itself on
ej beings. Obedience with them is the law and the pnt-
Ito decide, whether, fur either keeping the peace, or ! phets, and he that gives the order, they think, is the
' for enforcing any process of English Law, recourse only person answerable for it."
ought to. wbe ultimately had to the County Poer, or
Should England's liberties survive the sealed est i-
• to the Standing Army ; that is, shall the peace and
blishment of a' Standing Army, she will he the only
the law of England be upheld by the Civil Power, I country on earth which in that predicament ever re-
or by a military force ? ' mined free. This as yet unseen plienomenon —the co- '
It is, in fact, to be decided, whether Governments ' •
I existence of a Standing Army and Liberty—it doubt-
I (whatever be their form, or their current denomina-
. less is in her power to exhibit to the admiring eyas cf
V on) are not definable to be civil governments, or mankind ; but it can only be effected be " restoring
military governments, that is, free states, or despo- to full vigour and energy" her County Power. That
tisms, as they shall ultimately resort, for execution of once done, the Standing Army woad no longer be
their Laws, to the civil power, or to a military force. I, an object of fear and jealousy ; but must henceforth
The County Power of England, which has been Ibe viewed in the amiable light of a bode of men de-
aptly called the martial branch of the Constitution, voting themselves to the interest and glory of their
is yet strictly a civil power, being composed of free country, in all her foreign services.
citizens only ; whereas the Standing Army is wholly Ignorant and weak men, imposed on by tl:c crafty
a military force, composed of ~ soldiers," who from and the knavish, are taught to believe. that the Civil
the nature of the military law to which they are Power of England is inadequate to the quelling of
subject, are not free citizens ; and, according to Sir riots. But what says that faithfUl expounder of the
W. Jones, " in fact, no more than instruments in the ; law, that " most enlightened of the sons of men,'' Sir
hands of their Commanders." William Jones ?
When (as remarked by Blackstone) " the Laws 44 Having shewn," says he, " the nature and ex-
and Constitution of this Kingdom know no such state tent of the Posse Comitatimm, and proved that it is
las that of a perpetual Standing Soldier ;" and when required by law to be equal in its exertion to a well-
(as observed by Sir William Jones) the Power of the I diseipiined army, Lhave established the prole sin on,
County includes the whole civil state, from the Puke which I undertook to demonstrate, that the Cenimon
to the peasant ; while the military state, as such, and Statute Laws of the realm, in force at this day,
forms no pert of that power, being under a different give the Civil State in every Cuanzy a power, which
' command, aril " subject to a diflerent liw ; must it ;f it were perfectly understood and continually pi era-
not follow, that the law cannot be carried into exe• red, would effectually quell any riot or insurrection,
cation by the standing army that being an insteu- without assistance from the Military, and even with-
ment it does not knew, an instrument " under a dif out the modern Riot Act." 1
ferent command," and " subject to a duffel ent law." And one who has carefully trod in the .teps of
And when Blackstone, concurring with numberless Jones, has also shewn that " an internal tranquillity,
writers of the highest authority, and with every intel. which nothing could disturb, would be .mother liapp
ligent man's reflection, al-n remarks, th it 44 in a land ' effect iif ieviving the constitutional system of ien au-
of liberty it is extremely dangerous to make a distinct cestors. An armed power of the county, every.% h-re
order of the profession of arms;' and likewise adds. present, constantly ready at the call of the Magi-
"in absolute monarchies this is necessary for the I trate, and abundantly able to crush all ; ICS. it 111 CO, must
safety of the Prince, and arises from the main princi- I have the effect of preventing tumult, which a Stand-
*of the Constitution, which is that of governing by ing Army can only quell."
fear," will it be possible, Sir, any longer, to doubt that In 179!-, " while soldiers were quartered at You k,
it is the deign of Ministers to bring Us under an ob- rioters razed to the ground the houses of magistrates
solute monarchy, especially when we shall combine 1 at Sheffield ; while soldiers were stationed at Nottie-
together all their arts and all their practices to that gham, rioters set Pirminghatn in flames !" This
end ? Do we not hear our English Government. by conflagration made a feature in the reign of terror, in
Ministers, by Court Lawyers, and by all abettors of support of the Minister Pitt ; and was effected' by a
arbitrary power, perpetually called a men irchy, rabble of miscreants, bellowing ' Church and Icine.,'
which ts a Government wherein one man's will is the as similar rabbles have more r, cently, in the service
law ? Do we not hear our King as constantly styled of another Minister, vociferated 'No l'o;,ery !' and,
a Monarch ? And ever since tile dreadful riots in 1 during the Ministry of Lord North, while the cowl-
1750, when Sir \V. Jones took occasion to complain I try was Ina of Snldierc, 'g the capital was in flames,
that our County Power " had been shamefully tie- and at the mercy of the veriest brute; that ever bore
glected, and ought to be restored to hill vigour and i human shape." Such is the protection of a S;eedinfe
energy," has not that County Power from that day I Army I But, if it were better, who weel.l purchase
to this, now thirty years, continued in the same lit at the loss of libertv—at a siirrender to miii:ary des.
shamefully neglected condition, unorganized, un- I potism ! If the Standing Army be native, what must
armed, untrained ? And for what conceivable reason 1 the men of it feel, when, either on occasion of petty
can there have been this shameful neglect, but that it I riots, obeying orders, and shooting their country men
might be diyested of all power and respect, and then, r and companions—perhaps their fathers and brothers,
as a thing usel. ;s and contemptible, be wholly super- 1 or women :and quiet tradesmen in their shops, or else,
seded in the quelling of riots ? And have we not ac- I for disobeying such orders, be liable to suffer death
cordingly seen on all occasions the Standing Army Iby martial law ?
officiously and ostentatiously called firthon every Against the light which the brightest luminary of
leivolous disorder in the streets, as well as uniformly the age had beamed in meridian splendour on the
paraded and held in readiness whenever the people subject of the County Power, proving it to be equally
are t't have meetings on public affairs, so that the na- lour sure, as our " legal" protection, whether assailed '
lion, 64 governed by fear," may quietly yield to " ab- !by rioters, with their mt.!, their stones, and their
solute nimearchy ?"
I
' torches ; or by a Napoleon, with his (hikes, his kings,
lf, Sir, we be correct in our conception of the I and hi legions, Ministers, and Parliament', with a
County Power, it is as old as the Constitution and t. perverseness and obstinacy, which have but one expla-
Common Law, and vital to our liberties. nation, have inflexibly refused to their country the
The Standing Army is a novelty of yesterday ; and I
benefit of that light, or to adopt a " legal mode of
when not constitutionally overbalanced by the County , suppressing riots."
Power, "in full vigour and energy," must be dange- Thirty years long, therefore, have we felt the mili-
rocs in the extreme to public freedom. 'taint rod of an evil generation of statesmen, haters of
A County Power is the-sword in the hand of the light, and truth, and liberty*; lovers of darkness, de-
nation, regulated by the ordinary law of the land. Its ceit, and despotism, who, in contempt of proof and
sole object self-preservation—that is, the preservation Idemonstration, have, as absurdly as incessantly, la-
d law and liberty. i boured to cause it to be believed, that a Stabding-
A Standing Army is the sword ill the hand of the I Army are legal keepers of the peace, and that Foreign
Minister ; and we have recently seen how prone Mi- Mercenaries are a Constitutional and an honourable
nisters are to find other objects for this sword, than I defence !
those which should seem to he its only legitimate To your patriotism, we shall have been indebted
ones, namely, offensive war abroad, and defence of i for a discussion of these high questions, and all that
external possessions ; because, a species of force, is collateral. To your firmness, we shall owe much,
which is a comparative novelty both in principle and very much, of the benefits to be derived from the in-
practice with our Government, as well as utterly un- . quiries which now occupy all minds.
known to " the laws and Constitution," never could l We particularly thank you, enlightened country-
hive had for its object the defence of our island ; i man, for continuing your resistance to RIGHT the
which, as already shewn, was most amply provided I point ; that is, until your house, in law your sacred
for defence in the original institution of our Govern- ' place of repose, was forced by Military Violence.
ment ; since all the County Powers collectively must Had you sooner submittted9 Our oppressors would
amount to tar more than a million of men able to only have been guilty, of once more repeating the
bear arms, and willing to defend their King, their stale and hackneyed illegality of keeping the peace
t
Country, and their Constitution. The conquests of by Military force. But you have extorted from-
y
the Standing Army abroad ought only to be over our ranny a manifestation of its latent wickedness.
enemies—its conquests at home, it it be to obey the This new stretch of arbitrary power, of executing
will of Ministers, and to have its operations directed legal process against an Englishman by military force,
by the analogy of time-serving Laviy
over our laws and liberties. ins can only be is to be considered as the Minister's Proclamation,
that we are henceforth to consider ourselves as living

TO SIR FRANCIS BURDETT, B.►at.
A PRISONIR IN THE TOWER.