Star.
London, England, 1819-11-16 00:00:00

. . •
individuals. This was the common trick, but the'
people were daily growing more enlightened, and
had generally discovered the cheat. The existing
law, as was seen in the case of Carlile, was sufficient
to punish sedition and blasphemy; and there was
therefore no necessity for those salutary measures at
which the Gentlemen who signed the Declaration
hinted pretty broadly. They complained that blas-
phemous works had been read : but had they not
taken great pains to have children taught to read
their Bible, and when they had received that portion
of education, was it to be supposed that they would
read nothing else but the Scriptures? These Gentle-'
men spoke in strong terms of sedition and blasphemy;
but during the many years he had attended public
meetings, he never heard any seditious doctrines pro-
mulgated ; and as to blasphemy, he begged of the
Meeting to bear in mind the definition which the
great Mr. Pope gave of a blasphemer. He described
the man who lived.on the labour of the people, who
rioted on the fruits of peculation and public robbery,
as a real blasphemer. The lines were these:—
" Those who from your labour heap their board,
" Blaspheme their feeder, and forget their LOAD l"
a right inherent and indefeasible in the of
' England."—(Cleera),The right of' ineetinglifing
thus clearly. established, the next qu'estion which
came under their consideration was this—Was the
Meeting rightly ,convened, or was it hatched in a
corner, at a meeting of conspirators, amidst repeated
whispers of " Hush, don't let Zile Magistrates hear
;any thing about it?" No suchthing, itwas publicly
called ; it wasadvettised in the ditfirent Newspapers,
The Meethig was Was it held peaceably ? All
the accounts stile that it Was Oerfectly quiet-and tram-
Till up to the ilatolthriite moment when a band
,of
armed men•attaniteit the liberties Ord the Rerstons,of
their count!rymen W a•inanner which had 'Cricked the,
indignation of•every honest man in :the rolintry.-
That attaelt* had been.well described.bythelr Worthy
Chairman, and had brought from him a,4etter; which
would 'be engraven for ever in all their hearts-.
( Cries qf Read if ; reed' it;" from. :the crowd
" I have not got a copy oft," said Mr. Itigby,,
I have it allAere,"-. beating. his heart—(Loud cheer' s).
was Written in sucha spirit of genuine patriotism,
ttliat; i'verie:aahe- Was in general to.praising parties
to chit* (ices, he must for once'overconse his relict,
ntierand ettlogise the author of it whilst he was
prqseutt.. It was identified completely with the busi-
neis.of the. Meeting, -and he trusted that it would
go down to posterity hand in hatid with the'Bill of
Rights, and be enrolled and transcribed in the an-
nals of history for the use of future generations.—
The speaker then proceeded to ,comment at some'
length on the conduct of the Loyal Declarators .of
the County of Berks :•and expressed his itirprise at
their assertion, that the transactions at Manchester
were already before the tribunals of the country.
He maintained that they were riot. To- morrow was
the 16th of November, and then three full months,
would have elapsed since the perpetration of those,
offences, and yet no inquiry'Was instituted into thein.
The island was resoundingliom one end of if to the,
other with the cry of " Justice for the murders (he
must so call them) committed at Manchester,"
What had been done to- forward it ? A Coronet's
Inquest bad commenced its sittings. What then?',
After pursuing an erratic indescribable course for
some time, it was adjourned. Then came the Term ;
ten days at' it have. elapsed, and'not a word from
either the Solicitor or the Attorney-General, both
very intelligent men, eager in the cause of improve-
ment before they became Crown Lawyers, for a cri
urinal information against the Magistrates. Why
not? They are waiting for orders which he would'
make bold to say they would nevef receive. The
Judges had informed one of the complainants,and they
had informed him truly, that they could not institute
proceedings. But could not his Majesty's Ministers do
this? Certainly; but they had declined. to do it, though
they were well acquainted with the blood which had
been shed, and the atrocities which had been com-
mitted. But then Hunt was on his trial! That,
however, had nothing to dot with the sobject •in dis-
pot*: for if the liberties of England were to be made
to dePend upon one man—if, because he was bear-
ing a bag of treason, all those surrounding him,
being innocent and unoffending individuals were to
be immolated along kith him—if this were to be al-
lowed to be sound constitutional doctrine, the people
of this country would indeed be badly off—(Cheers).
—ll Hunt should be brought in guilty of as foUl a
treason as ever disgraced a British subject, it would
be no justification of the conduct of the Magistracy ;
and it he was on the Jury to try the grand constitu-
tional question between them and the People of Eng-
land, on his word, on his honour, on his conscience,
on his oath, he should not consider it as such. For
he would ask them, whether., if a Wretch, who like a
'Castles or an Oliver, would sacrifice his conscience and
his GOD, should be present hatching treason in one
pocket, and bearing a pardon for doing it in the other
—nay, if those who were mean enough to employ such
nefarious agents to transact such nefarious purposes,
Were to stand on those hustings with them;—he would
ask them, he repeated, whether that would sanction
an attack being made upon those who were now pre-
sent in the peaceable discharge of their constitutional
rights ?—(Leud cries of No, no.) The worthy Speaker,
atter condemning in strong terms the blasphemous
productions of the day, and asserting, in spite of all
the- obloquy which had lately been pouted upon
them, that the People c,f England were a loyal, a
constitutional, and a peaceable People, took leave of
the Meeting, by reminding thein, in the words of
Blackstone, that " the.protection of the Liberties of
Britain, was a duty which they owed to themselves,
who enjoy it, to their ancestors who transmitted it
down, and to their posterity, who would claim at their
hand:, this, the best birthright and noblest inherit-
ance of mankind."—(Appla:fsc.)
Mr. FYsHE PALMER, M.P. cornrnontcd at some
length on the whole series of events which have lately
occurred at Manchester, and particularly upon the
efforts which he said that the Coroner
obstruct the course of justice, In maki
servations on the conduct of the Coroner.
afraid of those prosecutions with which
*threatened if he dared to make them ;
the conduct of that Officer would be .
brought forward in another place by al
friend of his—(Cheers.) The Honor
then concluded a very able speech, by
follow i:lg ltcsolution:—
'° this -.Niceties views with difz::s:

.: .

, . . .
glisters. in having dismissed 'ATI 41016151 i Lrieti
Lieutenancy of the West Ridinruf tae Count% afterit for
is
other cause than his independent trappik-t of the.' •
Rights of the People."
Mr. H. MARSH, in a speech of cOnsictiiibie
and eloquence, seconded the motion:
Sir FRANCIS BURDETT then put the• who're or thi
Resolutions, at once, to the Meeting, which were
carried with only two dissentient voices. iff.s.`sodnai
the two dissidents were discovered by the mnltitude;
they expressed their discOntent by. it long'ind loud
hiss, winch caused the two Gentlemen hi take them=
•selves, with great rapidity, out of the Meeting. A
part of the mob followed them ; and it appeared as
if they were going to treat them rather rud Iy, Ain
Mr. MARSH said a few words, which recalled them
to their former station. The Resolutions were then
again put and carried, but no dissentient voices were
this time heard. .•
•

• • Mr. HALLETT moved, and the 'iniatien being Se-
conded by Dr. Mrreoamovas carried in the affirma-
tive, " That Sir Francis Burdett, be'Arieed to put
into the hand of any Peer to whom he may think fit
to apply, the Address of the Meeting to• the Prbace
Regent, and to request him to present the said Ad:
dress to his Royal Highness ie person, and to read it
over to him when presented..
Mr. H. Mallen then proposedl Vote of Thanks CO
!Sir Francis Burdett, for his ma years exertions in
favour of the Rights of the People, for his -invaluable
Letter to the Electors of Westminster on the events
of the 16th of August, for, his }west and manly
avowal of it to Lord Sidmouth, and fer his conduct
in the Chair, that day.,
' This Motion was serried,. amid .acclamations of
three times three. - •
. Sir
.Fstaticis ButvciArr then rote to return thanks.:
In taking leave of than, he could...not avoid expresse
ing his gratificaiien• at teceiviag the approbation of
so enlightened-a body cf melees those, inhabit:rats of
Berkshire, whom)* then saw befor.e him. It would
be. uppecessary, *ed he might add impolitic, after the
ample mutable discuseion, which they ha., that day .
heard, for him to detaiii them by attempting to.agid
any thing 'of his Own ;tp •the 'afguttents which had
'been advanced, Cr• by attempting to illustrate those -
'points ,which had received sucb great elucidetion
already. In all the sentiments contained in she Reso-
lutions and, in the Address, in every opinion ex- -
pressed that day. by the Gentlemen who had ad. •
dressed 'item, he full/ ind entirely concutred.—
He begged their pardon ; there was one point men-
tioned by-the.Honourable Member for Reading, _with •
which he could not altogether coincide; it was
that pupposingady part Of ,those.trausactions which '
were deplored. by. the ..Meeting: were likely to be '
brought under the cognizAnce of a Jury, he would
consent to withdraw the present Acldrest,• Ifey(gir
Francis Burdett) would not do so; because there were
points_ in the conduct of. Goveriarneet.far Itanseende
ingin atrocity *those of their•inferior agents. There
, were wounds inflicted on the Constitution, which
could not be healed by the verdict of a Jury; there
'wes:in unprecedented use of the Royal nemea whicle
could not be too loudly censured and deplored. They
had made the Prince Regent .use language wleieli he
never would have used Ontliis occasion, if left to the
dictates of his own feelings; they bad made Rim lock
with an unaltered eye on the blood of Englishmen,
aye, and of Englishwomen .too, shed in a manner
which, even if' it had been unavoidable, .would cer-
tainly have moved his sorrow and compassion. Viese
were points which it was imposiible to alter or to mend
by the verdict of a Jury, and the; efore for that:it:se
it was requisite that sonic ulterior imibity-shoalti be
instituted. Melancholy as the scene Of blood lite!Y
transacted at Manchester was—melancholy too ax were
the sufferings- of. the individuals maimed; ehounfird,
and disfigured en that day, they all sunk into nothing
when compared with thole of Constitution. Whieh .
now lies bleeding at every pore, stabbed ro the-heart
by those very Ministers who'ought to have defended'
it from all wrong, and who, bx. failing to -do' Le; CM-
mitted, in Jiis opinion, treason to.their country.—.-
How could he, whist on this subjeti;Totget that ce-
lebrated answer which they had advised the Prinee
to make to the City 'of LOnden, and whichthat body _
(no ; he did not wish. to insult them, the Court of'
Aldermen) had inserted on their Records as,a graci-
ous Answer? In that .Answer there were two re-
markable points.:-la.•The People were told, that
they were quite ignorant of the steps which had been
taken previous to the 16th of August: In his con-
science, he believed that such steps Had been'taken,
and—it was a mere fancy of his own—,that commu-
nications had been made from, the Ministers to the .
Magistrates. 'With those steps
_he allowed that the,
People were unacquainted, and to them he conceived'
that allusion had been made. Then they were talc!,
'that regarding the matters with which they thought
themselves acquainted, they laboured under great
misapprehension.. They did sot for they thought
that the Riot Act had been, read, but it . was not
known that it had not ;, yet, though that circum-
stance would Make no difference in the guile of tite
Magistrates, Ministers were so ignorant onthe sub-.
ject, that they told their Prince it had been read.—
As to the right of Petition, he fully agreed in what
had fallen from a Learned Gentleman. It was'that
on which thellirone rested ; it was as much the in-
terest of the Bing to support this inalienable right,
as it was the interest of .the People that it should be
Those were the most loyal whosaid the
iaterests of the King and of the People were one ;
whilst those were the disloyal Who would separate'
and divide them by teaching one party to infringe'
on the rights of the other. He said this as a mode-
rate man, though he, had been represented as a vio-
lent one—

• 'ln mn.leration.placirg 01 his glory; •
For Tut bias Whig, and Wltigs a Tory. •
He cared not for these distiocz:ons ; he stood up for.
the laws and he defied any man to say that he was
mote loyal, or more attached to the Consthution,
than he was. If he might appeal to 25 years of
political life—if he might appeal to the same number.

a t~

t •
fIT
•

nitihciasl
151 p.eualkai illigt—hatthiouietliiesaciodualdt
dn.(t)..t
,:...irk
.11 lead t
hmeas de ex. of fo
sysiebalr;
mer,tte was not fereta timcoalersrP,yosiliall, he had no I:esitation, from the
ich he had been knowledge whichlie had of the motives which had
1 ; especially as 'always actuated hint, to challenge any man to pro • .•
• most certainly duce; he would not •say a single speech, but even
r an honourable! a single sentiment, which did not designate a man •
)urable Member who knew what was due to the King and to the ,
by moving the Laws. ~The riAbt of Petition was all-important:. it
• - • was the only right which the Public at large cr.
ta• cc:ldt:c: of Mt- eyed: Corporate Bodies, and men is the higher and
. ,
- .
' •
. •
- • --,..:- . ---- . • -
•