Star.
London, England, 1816-12-18 00:00:00

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LORD. COCHRANE.

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The High tailik ,ha‘ing 'cl*clined to till. a .Meet-
ing Of the Elector's of Westminster to take into con-
sideration' the case of Lord CestakNa,, the Gentle.
men who signed the Requisition Met iestetdAy at the
Crown and Anchor Tavern,
Major CanTwatatx was called to the Chair. He
opened the business'of the day by lamenting the sb-
sence of their very good friend the High Bailiff. Hal
called the High Bailiff their very good friend, .as; he
was a man of excellek character; and one whose
' mind was well affected towards the great question of
Reform. His failing was an easiness of disposition,
which sometimes left him open to the influence of
bad advice. In his opinion, such an officer had only
to deride, when a Requisition wa; forwarded to him,'
whether the object of it w.is legal or illegal—whe-
ther it was recommended by p:iod Cr's,dr by absur-
dity. Here it was of little to the Elec-
tors of Westminster whether their Requi,ition was
compliA with or not, :as they could leg wily meet
, without the sanction of the High Bailiff. At Glas-
! gow, through a reins:lt to comply with a Requiti.ion,
j Ow cause of Reform had been greatly be,,doeLt, as

A meeting had in consequence hen called in the open
air, which was attended by about 40,000 persons,
ani many were by this incident induced to takt!an
active part in promoting tha important work ot r.

orm, who would o:hea wise have remaincd

In the present instance, however, the Meeting had

been called urtier circumstances differing very ma-
terially from these which had opposed the requisition
to which be had just referred. After a few other

observations, he concluded by calling for the im•
partial attention of the assembly to all the spelkers
who might *near before them.
Mr. WALKER in rising to submit to the Meriting
certain resolutions, which hai met with the approba-
tion of the Committee, couid not hut lami.nt the

absence of Sir F. Burdett, who was still detained in

painful suspense at the sick bed of his son. He
(Mr. Walker) proceeded take a brief review of
the proceedings against Lord Cochnine, and declare
it to be his opinton, that sitting in the House of
Commons as the Electors for Westminster did in the

persons of their Representatives, the course which
Lad been taken with one of them struck through
him, at the honour of the first city in Europe—
(Applauir.)—Animated as he was by the presence of
such a Lindy of Electors as he then addressed, and
encouraged as he had been by their support and ap-
plause on former occasions, he would now speak out,
and express his sentiments with that ficedom which

GOD and the Constitution of the country gave to all.
He would not be deterred by the dread of any new

Gagging Mils, or liatnms Corpus Suspensina Acts.
Foolish as Ministers had ponved themselves on many

occasions, he did nt beiievu their folly would ye!

tore to go so far, now that we were at peace witliai
the world, as to add such measures to their regular
peace estahlishmeet. li this were done. the effect
of it won:d he to weak-n public credit to its centre—
to shake it in such a debtree, that the Government
:night as well at mice destroy ete National Bank, and
burn all its books. He did not Suppose they wettral
think of resorting to rneasuics like those which he
had mentioned, but they arighc r:ssibly have re-
course to a plot. ‘4 A Orr ! What do you think of
it ?" They might raise a plot, and a learned act.user
might raise a figure like that of be Berenger, a in
the costume of his crime." This mentioned by the
accuser, might he taken up by the Judge and given
to the Jury as evidence, and by those means the in-
nocent might be made to appear guilty. lie need
not now cldain the Meeting on the subject of the in-
nocence of Lind Cochrane, as on this point all were
satisfied. If he were to refer to tine fact snore than
to another to establish this, it would be sufficient for
him to recal the declaration made by the present
worthy Lord Mayor at a Meeting in Palace Yard,
when he asserted it had come to his knowledge that
one of Lord Cochrane's jurors had, subsequent to
tire trial, been heard to say, that if he had been ac-
quainted
.witla all the circumstances of the case,
which afterwards came our, he would not have
brought him in guilty. The Committee who con-
ducted the Election of the Noble Lord, had investi-
gated the charge urged against him; they bad exa-
mined the documents connected with them, and put
a series of questions to his Lordship, and the result
of all their inquiries satisfied them of his innocence,
and he ( Lord Cochrane) was re-elected. The real
cause of the persecution to which Lad Cochrane had
been subjected, was not the charges publicly brought
forward. His crimes were these: he had endea-
voured to get fair play in the Prize Courts; he had
sought to get the Admiralty Drotts restored to their
right owners, the captors; and he had come forward
to explain the causes of the glory acquired by the
operations in the Basque Roads (the plan of which
he had bad the honour to furnish) being incomplete.
It was these things, and not those with which he had
been openly charged, that had caused him to be hated.
Of these offences he was certainly guilty : and above
ill, he had moved for, and obtained to be published;
that memorable list of sinecure places which caused
the tax gatherer to tap so often at the dcior of all 'of
them, and in some instances, to snatch the bed of
the widow from under her and her orphan children.
(Applause). The tyranny of Judges had caused two
bloody revolutions in this country one was that
which closed the reign of Charles the First. It was
while he sat on the throne that the proceedings of
that illegal inquisition, the Star Chamber, had be-
come intolerable. •At the head of that Coed was
found that villain, that notorious ruffian,Atehbishop
Laud. it was there that that infernal blood-stained
monster presided. A Mr. Prynne, who had pub-
lished a book against the atrocities committed by this
tribunal, was in consequence sentenced by it to pity
a fine of af/5000, to stand in the pillory in various
parts of the town, to have his ears cropped irt that
place where the Electors of Westminiter most cons.
manly held their meetings (Palaceiard), and finally
to be sent to a distant jail. Hewes accordingly sent
to confinement in Jersey, bin When at last such a Par-
liament was obtained as the people liked, one of the
first things they did was to Order Mr. Prynne to be
released. This was done—thousands met him on
the coast—they brought hint back in triuthph to
London, and strewed his path With Rowers.. Shortly
alter, he became a Member cif* that Parliament, and
had the sadsfectiOn of bringing that' monster Land
to trial and riftieweidi to the block. Nor dl/41 the
Parliament stop Ire fiat the King himself Shinty
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