Star.
London, England, 1821-01-02 00:00:00

MEETING AT .WARWICK.

• . ,
Tuesday a Meeting of the Burgesses and inhabi-
• tants of this Borough took place at the Town-hall,
for the purpose of considering the propriety of of-
fering an Address of.. Congratulation to her Ma-
jesty, on the abandonment of the Bill of Pains and
Penalties. The Meeting was the moat .numerous
ever witnessed in that Hall, and was attended by
many Gentlemen of the first respectability in the
town and neighbourhood.
KELYNGE GREENWAY, Esq. the Mayor, took the
Chair at twenty minutes past twelve. His Worship
said, he had called the Meeting in compliance with
the wishes expressed in a Requisition, signed by a
great number of the most respectable persons. The
Meeting, he was assured, was well acquainted with
the pui pose for which it had been assembled ; and
he should therefore only read ihe Requisition, and a
few of the names attached to it.
The Rev. A. S. WADE then rose, and addressed
the Meeting as follows:—" Gentlemen and Fellow-
Townsmen—lt is not from any spirit of party—any
impertinent officiou,ness—any unbecoming views of
ostentation, that I now rise to address you. I am
complying with the express wishes of several persons,
whose judgment would command your respect as
well as my own. Sure I am that you will indulge
me with a patient and candid hearing. In the public
papers you must have seen the clearest and the tullest
discussion of all those topics, legal, political, and
moral, which relate to her Majesty the Queen. You
have had time to consider them impartially and
gravely; and the result of that consideration is our
meeting this day. I allow that our Requisition, like
our illumination, admits the distinction lately set up,
between 'general and universal; and far be it from
me to speak with the slightest disrespect of such of
my fellow-townsmen who, upon the Freat question
whiCh now agitates the country, think differently
from myself, and, I confidently add, from a very
large majority of the inhabitants of this borough.
But I should hope that they who signed the Requi-
sition to our worthy Mayor, and those who attend
this day in support of it, will not be stigmatized
with the opprobrious appellation of a rabble.' In
maintaining the innocence and asserting the rights
of the Queen, we do not intend any affront to our
Sovereign Lord the King. We infringe not upon
his prerogative—we insult not his dignity ; and
grieved we are that any circumstances which certain
ii•easures may suggest, should compel us to remem-
ber, even for one moment, his possible infirmities.
With no less zeal, and no less sincerity, than the
warmest advocates of what are called Loyal Ad-
dresses, we, my townsmen, hold that the stability of
the Throne is inseparable from the happiness of the
people. We deprecate quite as sincerely as they do
the dreadful necessity of discharging what would be
our indispensable duty, to defend the ancient and ex-
cellent Constitution of this country against every
class of assailants whatsoever. But we are at a loss
to conceive upon what ground of reasoning, or upon
what evidence of facts, the friends of the Queen are
to be denounced as Radicals—to be denounced as the
subverteis of all social order—as the enemies of
all decency, all virt!:e, and all religion. Our
anxious wish is to avert the danger of revolution,
by opposing those corruptions in the administra-
tion of public affairs, which expose to common
danger the governors and the geverned, from the
Sovereign on his throne, to the peasant in his cot-
tage. • We lurid too; that in the representations giveu
of our countryn;en, they are most unjustly reviled.
If licentious and impious doctrines have been pro-
mulgated, be it remembered that they are punish-
.dr,e, a .d have been punished, by the laws. Be it
,emembered, that general contempt, and general in-
dignation, have followed those attempts to vitiate the
latts:ic mind. lie it remembered, that the English
People are not only an enlightened and a free, but a
virtuous and a religious People. Are not new Churches
building in every part of the Kingdom, for the ac-
commodation of the poor? Are not the numerous
Conventicles, which the laws wisely tolerate, crowded
by attentive and serious hearers every Sunday ? Do
not eicellent books, for the purposes of devotion,
issue every day tram the l'ress? Are they not cir-
culated with a rapidity unknown to our forefathers?
Are they not bought eagerly, and read diligently, by
the very humblest classes of the community? Is
there not ample provision made for the faith and
good conduct of the rising generation, in the various
•and valuable books which are sent forth, at a reduced
price, by the meritorious Members of the Bible So-
ciety, and by the very numerous and most respectable
supporters of the Society for diffusing Christian Know-
ledge at home? Is there any one article of religious
belief—is there any one law of social virtue—is there
any one principle of our duty towards Goo and man,
which the labours of those Societies have not a ten-
dency to bring within the immediate view of our
youth and our poor? And shall any Loyal Ad-,
dressers, then, presume to tell their Monarch, that
such a Public as I have described, are destitute of
good morals, and hostile to the sacred truths of Re-
velation? It is true, that the greater part of the
People rejoice in the deliverance of an insulted, per-
secuted, and slandered Queen ; but let us not forget
that their jity arises, not from the triumph of adul-
tery, but of innocence; that their joy sptings from
those very hallowed principles which they are impu-
dently represented, even in the very presence of their
Sovereign, as having renounced in speculation, and
abandoned in practice. Never will my fellow-towns-
men yield their assent to such false and malignant
libels upon the faith and morals of their country-
men. Let me ask you, is your detestation of per-
jured witnesses a proof of corrupted minds ? Is your
abhorrence of faithless servants and hireling spies, to
be imputed to sedition and depravity ? Are such
wretches the champions of public order? Have the
apologists of such wretches any claim to the honours
able appellation of good subjects, good men, good
Christians ? My fellow-townsmen, let me call your
attention to some striking circumstances which cha-
racterize nearly all the Addresses which arc called
loyal. They studiously and udiformly evade the
main points upon which the business of this day is to
turn. ' They abound with ardent professions of loy-
alty ; and of such professions we should approve, if
they were made by well-informed, dispassionate, and
independent fellow-subjects. They abound with re-
vilings to which we disdain to give our assent; and
which our Sovereign himself has in effect °antra-
-1 dieted truly.and magnanimously, when he told the

Court of Aldern a
Confidence which was
of the great body of the Nation. Servile mid vel.'s
Addressers may sometimes flatter h ins, and eil;f:.
honest men; but English Kings will, I trust, eye,'
disdain to re-echo declamatory calumnies against the
English People. Observe, townsmen, that the ae.
cusers of their fellow-subjects have not ventured le
Thsaye;
ytldoiat
nthote
paresccuosmer o
es
to insist
itohLQeet
uponuii have s
lierguriol ;t:e;n tip
ti.o6
they throw out the basest ansinuati..ns .
to;nst
motives and the views of other men, who, like 04.
selves, feel apd avow the completest coavic.;na
her innocence. They attempt no vindication of the
Italian witnesses, whom we totally disbelieve_ They
are discreetly silent on the atrocities of the
Commission, which we reprobate, and the eeis.
tence of which they themselves dai e not deny,._;
They clamorously inveigh against the licentious.
ness of the Press, and yet employ it in confounding
real Constitutionalists with sii,•posed Radicals; and
in pointing the shdrpest investives against multitudes
of free-born Englishmen, who, like ourselves, rill
not deign to dissemble their abhorrence of petjury
apionagc, and oppression. The promoter. 0: sonre •
Loyal Addresses have insidiously attempted to un..
dermine the freedom of the Press, by compla. 11.; 11g of
its abuse for seditious purposes. But has it Lot been
discovered that placards, teeming with the grossest
insults on all Constituted Authorities, and inciting
the unwary or the ill-disposed to the most daring
outrages, have been traced to the hireling emissann
of Ministers? Can more heinous wickedness be car.
ceived than such perfidy, combined with such crue:tr,
in wretches, who first decoy, and then hang tip their
deluded victims? Is it not a shocking .4gg ay.itinn
of such wickedness, that it is secretly encouraged bf
the very persons who claim our confidence, as th
guardians of our peace, laws, and Constitution, while
they are contriving to disturb that peace, to viulata
those laws, and to betray that Constitution? But,
if the issue of a certain process had been dia rent,
then, my fellow-townsmen, with throbs in bo-
soms, and a gag tit:on your motiflis, you tilidn have
been doomed to witness the triumphs, not tl inno-
cence, but of notoi loos and inveterate libo
not of truth, but of deep•laid and even oigaiii2.ed
falsehood—not of justice, but of tell and insatiable
revenge—not of our ancient, glorious, and inestimable
Constitution, but of an incompetent, oh eqiiiou,, cot. ,
erupted, and corrupting lidin;oistratioti." The Iltsi
verend Gentleman corcltided his Address (during
which he was frequently cheered and lout:ly
plauded) by proposing the first Resolution.
Mr. Alderman COLLINS seconded the llesalution,
which was carried unanimously.

The Rev. Mr. FIELD next rose, and, in proposing
the second Resolution, said, lie could not heii. feel
ing a little pride and pleasure, in comparing; that
public, ol,en, well-thronged Meeting, with the Hal;
snug, sly, secret, skulking parties, which stele now
so fitshionable among the Ultra Loyalists, where Ad..
dresses were got up—(a which they had just heard
so true a description— we:flow ing with what is
called loyalty; but if it be loyalty. be niust 547 it
seeme.l to hiM as it did to :he Reverend Gentle m
ssho ,oke before him-I;,yaity stauck blind. or leiy:
alto gone mad. of anything but true, wise de!.:
lightened loyalt. " Gentlemen," said the pealtei,
with impressive earnestness, 44 am foi the King as
much as the most of these loyal Addressers. Ile is
the first and most important meniber in the State:
and .whilst he acts in the spi is of that o:llst:union
he is sworn to maintain, he is entitled to our hn;;our,
our reverence, and our obedience. But lam 1-, r tl.e
People also. They, too, are members, and, though
'inferior, most important members of the State; and
1 their good is the true end of all just and Inkful ge,-
vernment. An inconsistency had been charged upon
the people cf Warwick, because they illuminated
I first in honour of the King, and afterwards in honour
of the Queen ; but he could not discern the least in-
consistency in that. They honoured the King; nor
did they honour him the less because they told him
that his confidential servants had wofully deceived
him, and had insulted, oppressed, and almost ruined
his people. They honoured the Queen also; net
only because she was their lawful Queen, but also be-
cause they discovered in her character some great
and good qualities not always discoverable in the
character of Kings and Queens; and, convinced that
she had been basely and barbarously injured, they
were deterrninetto stand by those who stand by her.
But where is the inconsistency in all this? " We did
illuminate (said Mr. Field), and joyfully too, when his
present Majesty, then Prince Regent, conferred upon
our town the honour of a visit. And we did iilurni-
nate, with equal, or indeed greater joy, because the
occasion was greater, when our magnanimous Queen
beat down all her enemies, and broke triumphantly
away from all the horrible snares which they had
drawn around her, for the vile purpose of degrading
her dignity, and destroying her honour, her charac-
ter, her happiness, if not her very life."
lr. Alderman EDWARDS seconded the Resolutior.,
which was received with very loud acclamations, and
passed unanimously.
The Rev. Dr. PARR proposed the third Resolution.
The Doctor then presented the Address ; and he
hoped they would permit it to be read by his friend,
Mr. John Parkes, jun. " Here is the Address (ob-
served the Learned Doctor), and I hope you will
listen to it with attention. Mark every word of it :
it is no common object which now demands your at-
tention"—(Loud approbation).
Mr. PARKES read the Address.

Dr. PARR..--I beg leave to propose, that the Ad-
dress now read be adopted as the Address of this
Meeting—(Great applause).
The MAYOR put the question, which passed with-
out a dissenting yoke.
The Meeting was then dissolved, and the company
proceeded to sign the Address.

Hopes are now entertained, that the projected Meet-
ing of the County of York, to petition the Legisla-
ture not to sutler the country to be again agitated,
and the public safety endangered, by any further
hostile proceedings towards the QUEEN, will be held
previously to the meeting cf Parliament. A pretty
general feeling now begins to prevail, even aniongft
those Gentlemen who are the most ardently attached
to the cause of Parliamentary Reform, that it is ad-
visable td let the two questions stand perfectly dis-
tinct, and upon their own respective merits,

I,no
the

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tit
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. •
that he well knew the
------411.411Ticlue
to 'the vittue'lld