Star.
London, England, 1810-05-05 00:00:00

Yesterday, in consequence of a requisition signed
by many Liverymen, a Common Hall was held for
the purpose of taking into consideration the conduct
of the House of Commons in the recent imprison•
=rent of Mr. Gale Jones and Sir Francis Burdett.
The requisition having been read,
The Loan MAYOR came forward, and said that he
had convened the Liverymen in consequence of that
requisition. He hoped that every person who pre-
sented himself to their notice would have a fair, kind,
and impartial hearing.—Then
Mr. FAYELL came forward to submit some Reso-

lutions for their adoption. He began by stating th.it
he could not avoid feeling the deepest interest on the
present occasion. He was persuaded that the Citi-
zens of London were really in earnest in their wish
to defend the rights and liberties of their country ;
but if they were not in earnest in this, he could assure
them that their enemies were altogether in earnest in
their wishes and endeavours to deprive them of all•
their rights---(Applause). He hiol told them the
last day that he addressed them, that he feared that
even the doors of the Hoase would soon be shut
against the people. This prediction had been veri-
fied on a very important occasion ; and he feared that
soon they would have little more to do than to per-
form a solemn dirge over the departed liberty of this
country. Magna Charts, the Bill of Rights, and
those other statutes which our ancestors conceeed to
be the great bulwarks of our Constitution, were in
future, as he feared, to be styled contemptuously the
4iurer barriers of our rights and liberties. We had
leen formerly told, that we had nothing to do with
tie laws but to obey them. and nothing to do with the
taxes but to pay them. He feared that this doctrine.
would soon be revived, if the people did not act upon
the present occasion with the energy that became
them. A great d.:,al was always said about modera-
tion, and about moderate measures and moderate men.
He would wish to know where thdly were to look for
1m example and standard of moderation. Were they
to be considered as moderate men who were for enfor-
cing warrants •by military power ? (,4 No ! no !"
from all parts of the Hall.) Was it any great in-
stance of moderation to shut the door of the House
of Commons against the people, at a time when a
mast interesting inquiry was. going on ? The Coun-
ty of Cambridge had, howcsikr, given a pretty good
hint that they did not like this sort of moderation—
( applause.) His Majesty's Ministers vrere, however, of
a different opinion, and advised his Majesty to place
the Moderator, whom his Constituents rejected, in
one of the most important offices of the State ; there
• was a sort of moderation, which might be called the'
moderation of indifference. If his house were on
fire, would any man tell those who worked the en-
gines to work with moderation ? (Laughter and
applause.) If a ship had sprung a leak, would any
b )(ly desire these who worked at the pumps to work
with moderation ? The question which was now'
agitated was infinitely superior in importance to that
which our ancestors thought of such great import-
ince, when they resisted the general-warrants. This
question was of importance as much superior to that'
es a man's liberty is to the security of his papers.—
This was not the first time, however, that the power
of the House of Commons to commit had been so-
lemnly denied. In the beginning of the last century
it had been formally denied by a declaration of the
House of Lords, which was sent to Queen Arnie.—
If it were true that the House of Commons had, in
point of fact, the power to imprison one half of the
people of England, they would still never be able to
convince the other halt that they had any right so to
do. It appeared to him, • that if the principle were
once adopted, the septennial election should not be
called an election of Members for the House of Com-
mons, but an election of Septennial Rulers. The
conduct of the Meuse of Commons, on a late occa-
sion, reminded him of a dialogue he had met with
in Lucian. In this dialogue, inpiter was supposed
to have condescended to enter into an argument with
a countryman, but being hard pressed in the argu-
ment, he had recourse to his thunder ; upon which
the countryman replied, ,4 Now, Jupiter, you must
be wrong when you resin t to thunder"-..( Laughter).
This story appealed applicable to a recent transac-
tion. The House of Commons felt themselves too
hardly pressed by the argument of Sir Francis Bur-
dett, and therefore had recourse to thander---(Ap-
vlause.) Mr. Favell then cited a passage from one
of our poets, in substance as followS: •
What constitutes a State?
Not tides, fortresses, or embattled towns;
But men who know their duties sad their rights,
And, knowing, dare maintain them!"
-The only cure for all our evi!s was a Reform in Par.
liainenr (Loud ifjolaure.) The same motive which
now prompted him to be an advocate for reform, was
that which had always made him stand up for Eng-
land as a country worth fight jig for. If it was worth
fighting for, it was worth reforming. (Alitlause.)—
England, so great in arts and arms, so celebrated in
ancient story, and now so abounding in wealth and
tremmerce, was too fine a country to be desolated by
the devouring locust, of corruption which are engen-
dered on both sides of the House of Commons. The
greatest of the country were those who protected
abuses. He need not go beyond the history of his
own country to shew that wars were necessarily pro-
ductive of taxes and corruption. He then quoted
expressions of the most eminent men in this country,
•ffom Lord Burleigh down to Lnrd Chatham and
'Ur. Fox, to skew that Parliamentary Reform was
absolutely necessary for the well:being of this coun-
try. He quoted these to shew that it was no new doc.
nrine which was now broached for the first time, but
that' it had been the language of our forefathers, lung
before the word Jacobin had ever been heard of. He
then read the following extract from a speech de-
livered in the House ot''Commons,'near 40 years ago,
by 'Colonel Ban:o
• hnour; I should

the dishonour, of sitting

MEETING OF THE LIVERY OF LONDON.

• Since I bad the honour; I should say the dishonour, of sitting
in this House, I have been witness to litany strange, many Infa-
Vous transactions. What can be your intention in attacking all
honour and virtue ? Do you mean to bring all men to a level
with yourselves, and to extirpate alb honour and indepen.i.ence ?
Perhaps you imagine a vote will sett)e the whole controversy !
Alas ! you are not aware that the manner in which your vote in
-' procured is a secret to no man. Listen! for if you are not totary
callous—lf your consciences are not seared, I will speak daggers
. .
your soul., and wake you to all the hells of guilty recollections.
Twill follow you with, whip, and stings through every maze of
our unexampled turpltpde, and place thorns under the rose of
• apptobetion. You have fiagraudy violated jou c
•
'
, .