Star.
London, England, 1817-02-06 00:00:00

LONDON PETITION.

Lord COCHRANE presented a Petition from the
Distressed Inhabitants of London, signed by fifty-
' four thousand and some hundreds. The Petitioners
prayed for Reform, and expressed it as their opinion,
that the distresses under which they laboured were
' caused by the state of the Representation in that
House. They prayed that Sinecures, the only use cf
which was to influence the votes of that House,
should be for ever abolished, and that pensions should
be given only to those who had really served their
country. It was certainly disgraceful for persons to
continue to bold such situations, while they saw their
fellow•CfeAttlrei daily perishing for want in every street.
The Petition, in his opinion, was couched in respectful
language. He bad been instructed by the Petitioners
to say, that there was no riot on the day of meeting,
and that the persons who had committed disturbances
in the eisy; were a horde of mad theorists, supporters
of the Spencean Plan, and from whom sentiments
they totally differed. As to their efforts, he thought
it would be as absurd. to suppose that' they could
overturn the Constitution, as it would have been to
fear that Johannah Southcote should subvert the
Religion of the country. As to the state of the Na-
tional Representation, it was bad indeed, when the
greater part of the inhabitants of the Borough of
Honiton lived by the sale of their votes. When be
had first applied to that place, on asking the electors
for whom tiny intended voting they had answered
" for Mr. Masi," meaning those who should pay
them best. He had still the bills which he had paid
them. The object of the present Petition was to
prevent the election of Members by pecuniary meant,
and the expenditure of the public money in such
practices. Individuals had been with him, thinking
he sills probably still " Mr. Mot," to inform him
that they had seats in that House to dispose of.--
rbey said that they could sell cheat to the Treasury,
but es,they rather inclined to the Opposition, they,
offered them first to him. He would now only add,
that every obstruction possible had been given to the,
signing of the Feudal. Publicans bad been deprived,
or threatened to be deprived, of their licenses—:
(Heir, hear)—so that they were afraid of allowing
any person belonging to them to put their names to
the Petition. He thought that it deserved the atten-
tion of the House. The distress of the people was
really dreadful, for hunger and starvation were still
lees lenient than the wretches , who plunged their
fellow-creatures into the black hole at Calcutta, and
at least put a speedy termination to their :Wining'.
He then stated, among the other contents of the Pe-
tition, that it prayed for the extension of Universal
Suffrage.
Mr. PASCOE Q REN FEL L expressed his anxiety
taVeeer a few words in reference to the prominent
pester of the Petition, as well as of other Petitions
that were lying on the Table of the House. Venc-
rating, as be did, that Constitution, which, whatever
were its theoretical defects, secured to the people of
this country more practical liberty and individual
happiness than was ever experienced by any other
country on the globe, he could not but feel some de-
glee of alarm—alarm, no doubt, considerably dimi-
nished by his recollection of the proverbial good sense
of the British people, at the wisd and impracticable
doctrines circulated amongst these Petitioners. He
had little expected to have seen revived these doc-
trines that bad in France, after such scenes of violence
and blood, destroyed liberty itself, and by men too,
who bad not only witnessed the atrocities of that Re-
volution, but have out-lived its results—(lirer, hear).
He was as determined as any man.to go to the tut.
lest length in urging every practicable economy and
retrenchment in the expenditure cf the country, or to
any definite Reform leading to practical improve-
ment, but be was u fully prepared to resist the at-
tempts at those, a great proportion of whom he be-
lieved to be deluded, whilst others, he was persulded,
were unprincipled, wicked, and dangetous, and who
in his conscience, he believed, under the pretext of
ReforM, directed all their efforts to Revolution.

The Petition was then ordered to lie on the Table.
RZIPORIII.

Lord COCHRANE presented a Petition from
the Borough of Leigh, praying for Reform gene-
rally, and one from Elorseford, Yorkshire, for An-
nual Parliaments and Universal Stelfrage:—Ordered
to lie on the table.

Lc rd JOHN RUSSELL presented a Petition from
the Freemen and Freeholders. and other Inh ibitantb
of Tivistock, for Reform generally, the abolition of
I.Sioecnres, and against the augmentation of-the-Civil
List.

Mr. HARVEY said, he held in his hand a Petition
from the City of Norwich for Reform, without any
prayer for Annual Parliaments or Universal Suffrage.
Though he differed politically from some of the
Gentlemen who signed it. he still begged to assure
the Hope, they were most respectable men, and
would never sauction arty bystem subversive of the