Star.
London, England, 1819-07-16 00:00:00

nEsoLuTtoNs.

'4 Whereas the Inhabitants of Birmingham have not, in the
Commons' House of Parliament, any Representatives, to assent,
on their behalf, to the laws they are required to observe, aid
the taxes they are required to pay.
" And whereas the said Inhabitants of Birmingham have an
unquestionable right to have in Parliament, Representatives,
not merely of tlivir own choice and appointment, but likewise
in number, corresponding with the population of their town,
compared with that of the kingdom.
" And whereas the said Inhabitants of Birmingham conceive
that the Commons' House, howsoever de Judo it be composed,
and whether it ought to be applied unto as a I..egtslatertal Re-
presentative of the Commons of the Realm, or as a C-ourr of
Judicature for redress of wrongs, in matters of election, touch-
ing Members to serve therein, is bound to do justice unto or
procure for them, the said Inhabitants of Birmingham, a full
and complete redress of the unspeakable grievance .and injury
they sustain, by reason of their not being represented in Par-
liament. •

" And whereas no principle of our Law and Constitution is
more certain than this—that even what Pathament may do
contrary to human rights, liberties, and free customs, founded
in the eternal law of Nature !which is the immutable law of
Gen) and at variance with the Constitution of the realm, as in
itself an error and injustice incapable of validity, shall be holden
for nought.
" And whereas this sound principle of freedom and justice
stands In effect recognized and declared by Patiament, in an
Act of the 34th of Edward I. s. 4. c. 4. in these words--" All
Clerks and Laymen of our land shall have their Laws, Liber-
ties, and Free Customs, as largely and wholly as they have used
to have the same at any time when they had them best; and if
any Statutes have been made by us, or our ancestors, or any
Customs brought is contrary to them, or any manner of Article
contained in this present Charter, we will and grant, that such
manner of Statutes and Customs shall become void and frustrate
for evermore."
" And whereas Petitions, although signed by a large propor
tion of the community, have not hitherto availed, it is therefore
'4 Resolved-Ist. That in the shameful facts which the quar-
relling of rogues at Barnstaple, Penryn, and Grampound have
brought to light, we have a lively picture of the bribery and
abominations, which almost, U not altogether, universally pre-
vail in those sinks of corruption, called open Boroughs.
" Resolved-252. That in an inramouktr:ansartion at Ilehester,
is the depth of last winter, we at once see the detracting spirit,
and the true muss by which unprincipled Peers, as Well as
others who are candidates for the Peerage, have metamorphosed

I open Boroughs into close Boroughs, for the purpose of guilty
ambition.
" Resolved.-id. That so long as such unprincipled Peers, and
would-be-Peers, shall have at their absolute command, a great
majority of the seats in the Coltunons' House, which is nothing
short of subversion of the Constitution, it is manifest they will wi
continue to defeat a Reform of that House, until the injured
people, determined onitectreering their liberty, shall become so
numerous, and shall raise a voice too awful to be treated with
contempt.
" Resolved-4th. That a number of Gentlemen in whom this
Meeting confide, having stated, that there has now for a year
and a half past, been before thexublie (published in London)
" A Bill of Rights and Liberties, for effecting a Radical lie-
form in Bus House of Commons, on the simple principles of
voting for Representatives (which is a common right) being ex-
ercised by all men of mature age and sound mind, who have not
forfeited the right by soy crime; the votes lating given by ballot,
and the Representative body being received once a year ; it is
the opinion of this Meeting, that the said Bill ought to be adopt-
ed and parsed into a law."
The foregoing Resolutions passed unanimously.—
After which the following Complaint, Remonstrance,
and Petition, was read :

TO TKL 110NOVitABLZ TIM COMMONS OF Tits UNITED 001420011 07

CALIT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, IN TAILLIAMENT ASSEMBLED,

•' THE COMPLAINT, REMONSTRANCE, AND PETITION,
OF THE INHABITANTS OF BIRMINGHAM.

44 With the deepest affliction, and with a discon-
tent it would be a crime to their country to disguise,
your applicants observe, that the complaints which
from time to time, throughout a long course of ye irs,
have been made, by a cruelly-aggrieved peoide, to
former Houses of Commons, touching the decays
and corruptions in the Representative Branch of the
Legislature, notwithstanding the truth of the facts,
and'the infinity of the natio,.!*l evils thence resulting,
have not as yet attained a radical reform of those
fatal decays and corruptions.
" Those grievances having been the subject of a
controversial discussion for upwards of forty years,
have been rendered both undeniable and notorious.
The evils which have thence arisen have been seen in
the shape of wars, not merely unnecessary, but big u ith
national calamity, and with ultimate ruin to the pub-
lic interests---of a succession of unconstitutional laws,
which have insidiously abridged public liberty—as
well as of an unceasing accumulation of oppressive
taxes, unjustly invading private property.
44 From an acute feeling of these complicated evils,
Petitions for a Radical Reform in the Representation
of the Commons of the Realm, signed as we heiieve
by more than a million of the aggrieved people, and
speaking, as we believe, the sentiments of other mil-
lions, were presented to the last Commons House—
but presented in vain.
44 Here your Complainants beg leave to call your
attention to a circumstance which must chew and
place in a strong light the horrid injustice, the mon-
strous treatment, which the Petitioners on that occa-
sion experienced ; and which treatment received all
possible aggravation, when it is recollected that they
prayed not for a redress due to themselves alone, but
to the whole aggrieved nation. The circumstance
alluded to is this, that in matters touching the elec-
tion of Members to serve for the Commons in Parlia-
ment, your Honourable House claims to be, and
exercises, the powers of a Court of Judicature, hav-
ing exclusive jurisdiction.
44 Those occasional tribunals for trying contested
Elections for convenience of your Honourable House
(which has the permanent power of creating and de-
puting them to transact that part of the business) are
so far 'from disproving the House's claim, that they
confirm and elucidate it.
" Those tribunals are no other than selections of
Members of its own body, to whom it commits the
exercise of its juridical functions, and thus it obtains
the convenience of carrying on various trials at once,
without interrupting its other proceedings. Its Elec-
tive Committees are therefore mere Juridical Repre-
sentatives, or Deputies, by whom it acts; and that
the acts are its own, is seen in this, that no decision
of an Election Committee hath any effect until re-
ported to and confirmed by the House.
4, By the Statute under which those tribunals are
authorized, it was contrived to confer on the House,
which it never had before, a legal sanction of its
claim to be a Court of Judicature ; while in this very
sanction the Statute bath of necessity imposed on it
not only the attributes, but the duties of such a
Court, for if it have the power, it must also have the
responsibility of a Court of Judicature.
44 The law being in England the supreme arbiter
of every man's life, liberty, and property, Courts of
Judicature must at all times be open to the subject,
and the law must be duly administered therein. The
emphatic words of Magna Charta, spoken in the
person of the King are these—" We will not deny or
defer to any man either justice or right."—Black. 1.
141. Hence your Remonstrants are authorized in
contending that an English Court of Judicature,
when duly appealed to for justice, bath no option
either to try or not to try an issue—no choice, by
which it can either deny or defer to injured right its
'legal remedy—nor to withheld from such as are suf-
fering under any dreadful grievance, their proper
rightful redress.
44 Discretionary redress, characteristic of despo-
tism, bath ever been peculiarly hateful to the free
mind and high spirit of England. An English Court
of Judicature cannot, like an'Asiatic Prztor, trifle
with a suitor, by saying, 44 Go thy way for this time;
when I have a convenient season, I will send for thee."
Neither is an English Court of Judicature privileged
to substitute its own will for law, its own caprice,
ifor the Constitution; much less to prefer the corrupt
interests of its own members, or of their patrons, to
the undoubted rights and liberties, the permanent in-
terests of the whole nation.

If any maxim of expediency could authorize the
shutting against the people, all other Courts of Judi-
cature, in order that for a. more sure protection, an
exclusive and absolute jurisdiction, should be con-1
ferred on any single Court, in which were united the
juridical with the legislative functions, such an extra-
ordinal y confider,ce must add to the obligation of
promptness and fidelity, in the redress of grievances,
an increase of moral force, ten times ten fold. But
should the betrayedpeople find that a House of Corn-
Mons had clandestinely obtained the powers of an ex-
clusive- judicature-over their elections ; not to pro-
tect, but to enslave them—not to rend,asunder, but
to rivet the hateful chains of an aristocratic oligarchy ;
not to defeat, but to give effect to the most virulent
treason by which their country was ever violated ; it
is for your ifonourable House to ruminate on what
might be the consequence of such a conviction in the
public mind. How, therefore, the late House of
Commons, either as claiming the office and attrihutes
of a Court of Judicature, or the character of a faith-

ful representative of the Commons, could be cnr, .1
in contempt of the Constitution, in breach of
in violation of justice, in defiance of right, 5 •
treachery to public freedom, not merply of tHri):: •
deaf ear to an aggrieved people. applying c'
.or 1,
of a wrong producing unspeakable m«cric ;
likewise of joining in aggravating that mow,
adding to those miseries, by a system cf te:ror
outrageous persecution for perpetrating the t:.,
and all its horrid evils,—can only'he un,+erst(;:

those who know that that House did • rot r

the Commons of the Realm ; but to a pie
idg extent, consisted of usurping oppressorF

corrupt accomplices, who bZiniju'ciges t?
cause, acted as such men (with a lust of

their hearts, and unbridled power in their 1

never fail to act.

" Your complaints have not been un01,F,e,,„
that quarrelling of rogues, in Barnstaple,
Camelford, and Grampound, which have itsf,
caused the disgusting wickedness and the gn,v
depravity practised in returning Members !„ ,