Star.
London, England, 1816-09-12 00:00:00

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in one word, to pay the piper. But what b.
I trick tem attemptec to he, put upon the peopitee.
They • e told—P We ate now at peace—never
A very numerous Meeting was yesterday convened mind olietresseso—all the Monarchs have 'entered
at Palace•yarci, for the purpose of taking into con•4into on a nee trienaiiiand defensive, and there is
sideration the distresses of the Country, and the re• nothing .. fear." What was the meaning of this
medy to be applied for relieving them. *femme and defensive alliance ? He would tell
Mr. ARTHUR Mosinee the High Bailiff, in the them. It'was a combination of tyrants, a conspi•
Chair, after. having read the Requisition for calling racy of despots, a royal baoditti of sovereigns leagued
the Meeting, stated, that he had received a letter together in an unnatural alliance against the tree-
from Major CARTWRIGHT, which, with their leave, dom of their own subjects. (Hear, hear.) The ty-
he would read. The letter stated his deep regret at rants of the house of Stuart, after many tough
Wei being able to attend the Meeting through intlis• struggles, were driven kiln the throne; not only was
position ; and proceeded to give his opinions upon one of their heads deservedly cut off, but they
the present s;ate of affairs, ali,l the distressed state of were completely driven away. These were the glo.
the Nation. The sense of the Meeting, however, rious deeds of our forefathers ; and when they were
owls declared to be against hearing the whole of the looking out for another family, before they took the
letter, on account of its great length. present House of Brunswick, the famous Act of Set-
The Rev. Mr. PARKES, after having paid a tribute dement was obtained ; a contract made between the
of pr.iise to Major Cart writ ht, who had never swerved King and the people, one of the provisions of which
from Iris duty, nor had ever been deterred from as. declared, that no man holding an emolument or
serting and supporting the rights and liberties of the pension under the Crown should have a seat in Par.
People, said, he now came forward as an humble liament. Was that solemn contract then violated, or
individual, at a moment the most important ever was it not ? It was offered to be prpved at the bar
witnessed by the Citizens of Westminster. Every of the House that it had been violated ; and it was a
man must feel that this was a most important crisis; well known fact that, that Honourable House, the
all were deeply interested, and all were called upon House of Cnmmons, returned a corrupt majority.—
to exert to the utmost their power and strength, to It was also entered on their Journals, that £200,000
recover those rights which had been so unjustly taken a year were paid to its Members alone, in the shape
from them. Universal distress was seen throughout of sinecures, defrayed but of the taxes. That corrupt
the Kingdom; our Commerce, Agricuhure, and villain of a Minister,. Sir Robert Walpole, went to
Manufactures were all participating in the general .work openly, and gave £5OO down, or put it under
ruin and devastation. What must the Cultivator of the plate at the cabinet dinner ; but the system of
Land tool, what must the Manufacturer feel, what Pitt and F.'x, for they were both alike, improved
must those who had lived in comfort and in happi. upon that villainy. (Griot of No, no • and Hear, luar.)
nets with their wives and families feel, when they are
They made a great lottery of that House s. they did
collecting t‘vtlier in manufacturing towns, falling not give every man five hundred pounds ; no, they
into lines like discipiined soldiers, and are obliged to had got some great prizes:; they had got a £2OOO
staad by each other, witnessing each other's dis- man, such as Mr. Horner—a £4OOO man, such as
tresses, and marching in companies for their mutual Mr. Pansonby, they had also their tea, their twenty,
support ? It was unnecessary to enter into all the their thirty, and 838,000 men, such as the Marquis
details of woe, for they surrounded us,on every side; Camden. (Loud aft/slaw.) Instead of being truly
we could not turn to the right or tn the left, but we represented, then, how were the peoplc ruled ? By
met calamity and wretchedness ; we saw our own a gang of borough-mongers, who met in their den,
resources dried up before our eyes, and this fertile not, however, until after dark, for
country would soon become a barren wilderness.— i
None shun the day, and Peek the arms of night,
The moment was now arrived when all Englishmen But those whose actions will nut bear the light.
would be compelled to think with unanimity, to There they were assembled, while all the good citi.
unite their exertions, and form their united strength, zens were quietly sleeping in their beds, little suspec-
like one immense barrier, to oppose the progress the Ling the treason that was hatching, to deprive them
present evil was making towards universal destruc- of their liberties. One of these state robbers took as
lion, and eclipsing the long prosperity of this highly much of the taxes to satisfy his own luxury as would
favoured Island. Men were every where to be found answer the demands of 500 half pay Lieutenants of
who could conduct the National affairs ; but where the Navy. Was it to be borne that such men should
were the men to be found who will conduct the Na. take the food from the mouths of so many starving
tional vessel in the midst of storms in triumph ? people.? He hoped he spoke. in plain and intelligible
They were not now to be found, and the Vessel language ; he hoped he made himself understood to
beating the British Flag was overweighed with un- all his fellow citizens : the time vas now arrived when
supportable burdens, that every moment threatened all Britons should, with one voice, and with one ac-
its destruction. In this dilemma, what was the na- cord, unite against the common enemy. The people
tural course to pursue?—to call upon those who have would never desert their friends—the citizens of West-
overladen it to take off the load, that it might su p- minim!. would never desert Major Cartwright, a man
port itself amidst the calms of peace. But what grown old in the service of his country, and who had
was the reply ? That they could not or would not, always done his duty. Would they desert this man ?
and leave the Vessel to its fate. It was the duty, (pointing to Sir Franciss Burdett) ; (great aft lante)
t erefore, of all the People of England to insist that
—but they would desert those who did not du their
tto dead weight should be thrown overboard, that duty as Diglishmen ; such men as some time ago
t ,ey might be triumphant in Peace as well as in War. made their appearance on those hustings—lawyers,
Every one should recover his native birthright, and who mount upon the backs of others into the place
resume the brightest gem in tl:c British Etere—the of Attorney-General. The people would be true if
native privileges of the People. A great and im- their leaders were true. He was observiag that Mr.
portant work was to be done to preserve the British Pitt and Mr. Fox were alike, one was as bad as the
Constitution pure and untarnished. Englishmen other; a gentleman behind him, a great advocate,
were now by one grand effort to maintain their [tide- as he supposed, for the Fox party, he believed a re-
pendence, that their children might feel thankful h'r ' porter of one of the newspapers, exclaimed ~ Nei, no,"
their exertions, as all Britons reel thankful for the but he (Mr. Hunt) would speak the truth at all times,
exertions of their foiefathers, who defended the Con- he would not swerve from the path of duty. He
stitution with their lives. The eyes of the Inhabi- had been accustomed, for the last twenty years, to
tants of this Kingdom were fixed upon the lahabi- speak the truth in the plainest language, and he
tants of Westminster : the time was come when would still continue to do so. Some time back it was
speaking was not sufficient, but every man's mind certainly not so teadily received as at resent;p but
should be made up as to what was best to be done not less than twenty years ago. he himself stuck
at this momentous crisis ; and as they valued their a final sinecure men, to the number of 20, against
wives and children, they. should strain their nerves the walls of Bristol—(Hear, hear.) It was but the,
to the utmost to rescue them from their wietched other day, coming to London, while on Bagshot-
situation, and restore them once more to happiness heath, be was accosted by a man, a royalist, a lover
and prosperity. He concluded with moving the of taxes, placemen, and pensioners, who said, g, Oh,
first Resolution, • Mr. Hunt, I find you have been quite right, all you
Itesolved—That the present unexampled and increasing suf- said at the Common Hall was quite true the other 1
feriags in Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, are not
an effect of a sudden transition from War to Peace; but of an day i arq M Camden does receive a pension of
undermining progressive transition from the Constitutional Li- £38,000 alear, a sum more than all Bagshot pays
berry of Englishmen, 0 the abhorrent Despotism of an usurping for its taxes." This is the way that truth comes out,
jullorousepethenneaciatirono,wwersh. lie Taxation without Representation, and and is at last obliged to be acknowledged even by.
It was read, and carried unanimously. our bitterest enemies. The people were told it was a
Mr. HUNT then came forward to • propose the 2d mere flea-bite, and that a flea-bite was of no great
Resolution, and began by exclaiming—"" English- consequence—it could soon be cured—but had the
men (for [ call you so rather than Gentlemen), Fit. people only one or two flea-bites ? They were flea-
low Citizens"--The worthy clergyman who moved bitten all over (laughter and applause) from head to
the first Resolution had dealt in meraphors, but, be- foot. There was certainly a remedy at hand, but
fere such an assembly, he conceived, metaphors unanimity of sentiment, and of strength, was required
should not be used ; he would only. state plain facts, to obtain it ; the sinecures must all be given up before
and call things by their right nanses. (Hear, hear.) it. was too late—before the nation was entirely de-
The unexampled distress of the country was, he be- stroyed. There was a petition to be presented, if
lieved, on all hands acknowledged, excepting, indeed, approve!d by the meeting, to the Prince Regent,
by those worthy gentlemen who lived upon the taxes urging him mto assemble Parliament for the purpose
e—and even they were obliged, at last, to admit of of receivingi the petitions of the people, which must
the distress which arose out of their own unexampled be attended to ; the voice of the people must be Lis-
. delinquency. It could not be denied, that all the tened to, and the question was, whether those bo-
evils by which: this unhappy country was oppressed, rough-mongers would grant the people justiciwithout
originally arose from a corrupt House of Commons; force, or whether they chose to wait un tit the people
it could not be denied by any man but those who took it?—e(offrplaisee.) Having gone so far in the re-
lived by plunder, that the want of a fair repreaenta• banns of plain facts, he would tell them another fact
aloft was the whole and sole cause of the distresses.— or two before he should conclude. The situation of
The great and immediate cause arose from a long, the navy was most wretched; the ships were all laid
up, the Lieutenants were receiving 4s. a day for their
cruel, bloody, unnatural, and unnecessary war,
waged by tyraney against the liberties of Britons, ball-pay, and thousands of poor midshipmen were
and of all mankind. It was to this war that English- sitring. without pay, and without subsistence--.
of :hawse, shame!) Many of them were working
men might be thankful for the enredeemable debt, k'
and insupportable taxation; it had annihilated our foe Ys. a day in hayfields, rather than go to the work-
commerce, destroyed our manufactures, ruined. our house, or go torah in the highways: and there Win
now, to his own knowledge, hundreds of these poor
agriculture, and left a starving population.
(Hear,
wretches picking hops in the hop-groves of Kent,
hear.) And yet those friends of corruption, those
while such placemen as Marquis Camden, Lard
slaves of state,, while destruction stared them in the
Arden, and others, and each women as Mrs. Fox,
face, and a national bankruptcy was fast approach Lad Grenville, Miss Hunts and Old Mother Hunts,
ins, had the audacity to ask—" Yet, have we not .
Yes, if it were receiving enough to support all of them with a
obtaioedimmortal honour and glory ?"
degree of independence—(Shame, shame.) A Ped-
were either honour or glory to have restored- --Pthe--ty---
lion was to be presented to the Prince Regent, if
room of the house of Bourbon to the throne of France,
pt?ss.
hie, to have our Grievances redressed; and let'
to have forced upon the French a Monarch without
.th_ere
advisers—let
dvlitsersupon his advisers, if be had any re-
their consent, to have restored the Pope, to have re-
—let the people call upon Lead,
established the beloved Ferdinand, with all the 'l"'npesi
Castlereagh to be careful how he advised the Prinen
blessings of the Inquisition—if this were their object,
Regent net to listen to the voice of the nation. He,
they bad attained it—they had covered themselves
knew his Lordship had courage and impudence fee
with glory; and John Bull had also his glory, which
any thing—(e kite), bat if he had even • pocket full
s
coats ' ted in being obliged to pay all eximoses, to in-
Throne *flit
he did not like—
cur all charges, thought fur Willy a.of honesty, or the leeecregard for the

WESTMINSTER MELTING.