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

with him in adopting the Resolution, which hit
Lordship then read as follows
" That the employment of hired ruffians to instigate the
needy, starving, and destitute, to acts of den-crawl, in order Id
impute to Parliamentary Reformers thf crime of Treason, and
taking away their lives under that pretence, is more etre:loaf
than any act of the Tyrant of Algiers against who,e woe*,
it is stated in a Morning Paper of this day, that has
interfered for the protection of man by sweeping tht &got to
his grave, midi; the rejoicings of the people v. hom he had w
grievously oppressed.' "
had no doubt but they would see the propriety
of adopting this as an amendment, and le felt him-
self bound to press it on their notice.

Mr. HUNT• then came forward, and having suc-
ceeded in getting over the railing between him and
Lord Cochrane, he proceeded bh addressyhe meeting.
lie said he came forward for the purpose of suggest-
ing to the Noble Lord the propriety of suffering the
Electors, or more properly speaking, the inhabitants
of Westminster' to decide for themselves. It might
be considered obtrusive in any person to submit, in
that place, shy proposition which had not been pre-
viously assented to at a private meeting of a Com-
mittee. This he knew to have been a practice ; and
in consequence of that practice, the opinions of the
citizens at large had generally been treated with
contempt—(Cries of No, no, O off; and hisses).—
Mr. Hunt proceeded. He said, he contended that
any Petition to the House of Commons, whether
printed or not, if men put their names to it, must be
considered as the Peutton of those who signed it,

and that, therefore, it ought to be received. -It was
as much the Petition of those who signed it, as if it
were written by their own hands ; but, according to
the doctrine of the Noble Lord, and of the House
over the way, it was laid down that no Petition
should be printed. But he maintained, that it was
at once contrary to right, to law, and to precedent,
to kick Petitions out of the House on that account.
He therefore hoped the proposition of the Noble
Lord would be withdrawn, and that the Major's Re-
solution would be put and carried. He was the more •
anxious on this point, because he did not see how
they could otherwise adopt the remaining Resolutions
of the venerable Major, who, they all knew. was the
indefatigable champion of the cause.
Major CARTWRIGHT said, the Noble Lord mistook
the object he had in view by his Resolution. It was
an illegal act for the House to refuse any Petitions
to which sign.,tures were attached, whether written
or printed. All Petitioners had a sight to print or
I write, just as they pleased. Five or six years ago,
the late Speaker of the Hou.e of Commons, who had
as sharp an eye and as long a sight as any man,
knew that hundreds of Petitions were intended to be
presented tc the House, and that they were all print-
. ed. He then thou:•,ht it would be a good opportu-
nity to put an end to them all ; and therefore he said
it was contrary to the rules of the House to receive
them. He (Major Cartwright) therefore wrote to the
Speaker, in order to set his opinion right on the
subject. The next time a Petition of the kind came
forward, the Speaker said it was . contrary to the
practice of the House. That expression was also in-
correct, and was contradicted by the Journals of
Parliament. It was. easy to see the drift of the
Speaker, as it was to enable the Bbroughrnongcrs to
put an end to petitioning altogether. He hoped,
therefore, that the doctrine, which was wholly ille-
gal, would be resisted. He had no objection to ae,ree
to the Resolution of the Noble Lord : but it ought
not to be substituted for his, which he also hoped
would be agreed to.
Mr. WALKER said, that unless it could be proved
that a Petition in print was less intelligible than a
Petition in manuscript, it might be received. lie
therefore would not consent that Major Cartwright
should give up his Resolution. Petitions in print
were necessary, because it was necessary to have
the opinions of the People as universally diffused as
possible.
Lord COCHRANE again said, that printed Petitions
did not appear to convey the sentiments of those who
signed them. The local grievances of the people
were always best expressed in their own words, which
were always sufficiently intelligible to enable the
public to judge of their sentiments.
Mr. HUNT observed, that as his Lordship per-
sisted in his amendment, it was necessary to explain
what would he the consequence of it. If it was
adopted, then the original Resolution could not be
proposed. It was, therefore, necessary to negative
the Noble Lord's amendment ; but he would after-
wards cheerfully join in carrying it as a distinct Ito-
solution. If they went on upon this principle of
printed Petitions, it would by and bye be said, thae
no man ought to adopt the LORD'S Prayer, because
it was printed.
' Sir FRANCIS BURDETT put the question. The
Amendment was rejected, and the original Resolu-
tion carried almost unanimously.
Major CARTWRIGHT said he begged to propose a
Petition to the House of Commons, with a view to
correct that which appeared to be very erroneous
conduct on the part of that House towards Petitions.
Mr. CLEARY read the Petition on the subject of
rejecting printed Petition. The Petition was read,
Major CARTWRIGHT moved that it be signed by
the Chairman, and nineteen householders of the l'ity
of Westminster, in order to its being presented to ,!,e
theAt• of Conineets.
Mr. 111/NT said, that whenever lie felt an attempt
at deception was going forward,-he had always telt
it his duty, and should now, to lay it before his •1-
low-countrymen. lie had attended the Alerting
prepa.itory to the present one. At that Meeting the
several Resolutions which 'Major Cartwright pro-
posed were agreed to. The previous Meeting had
agreed to call a Meeting of the inhabitants of the
City' of Westminster, anti the persons attending it
signed a notice, to be given to the Clerk of the Peace,
in whi..li it was said, " Vie, the undersigned, do
hereby give notice, that a Meeting of the househol-
ders, inhabitant:, &c. will be called on such a day."
Now this notice had bscii sisoe.: v,ly with, and a