The Statesman.
London, England, 1819-03-25 00:00:00

brEEF--'
To tar EDITOR or• ram STATESMAN.
Si R,—l confess I have felt mesidersbly surprised
at the rapid and unopposed progress which the new
Bill " to meemad the Laws fur the Relief of the Pont,'
has been suffered to make through the Holm of
Commons. Wbetber this is owing to the utter hope.
lessons of any attempt is that corrupt and incorri-
gible Assembly to arrest any measure maculated to
prolong the present system of misrule and oppres-
sion, or whether it has arisen from a disinclination to
divert public attention, even for a moment, from the
greet question of RADICAL REPORII, which is indeed
the only wens of redressing this or say other
tied mat, it is Impossible to conjecture ; bet with
becoming humility I do venture to my, that which•
ever of these motives may have influenced the few in.
dependent Members *boar, seated in the pestilential
peril's, of St. Semen's, to abstain from making any
effort to brand this iniquitous Bill with the horning
irons of universal °diem, they appear to me greatly
to have misjudged their defy. They are placed amid
those who pleader sad persecute us ;—wbo to-day
doom es to undeserved dungeons, and to-morrow de.
• ride our Petitions, justly enough deride us for our
6' fottlielmess" in pelithreieg them for the redress of
wadea indictions on age sad infirmity, the recital of
which affords only materials for jesting and mend-
anent. The patriotic few, I say, are placed amidst
this Assembly, the parallel of which is not to be
found is history situ" the degenerate days of the Ito.
man Senate, not to view with silent horror eh. deeds
doing amend them, bet to alarm the People without
on every occasion when a new infringement upon
their debts and welfare is meditated. The interest
*which eight le be attached to the success of the great
question, RADICAL Rtronw, whereon alone, be it
-ever borne in mind, our salvation depends, will suffer
no diminution by the agitation of inferior questions.
On the contrary, every new abuse that is exposed,
will bring ever to our b new class of Arnie-
rents, until .or numbers will swell to such irresistible
strength, that our final triumph could not be much
longer deferred. The Bill to which lam now ceil-
ing your attention has somehow or other passed the
Commons with bossed dispatch. No one appears
to hare Moved oddest it in any part of the country.
Can this proceed from say delusion generated by cite
title under which it is sortepthiowsly pawing ? A '
Mill to AMEND the Lima for the RELIEF of the',
Poor, forsooth ! A Bill, rather it should be dents-
wielded, to ►ORTIIT Tilt CORRUPTION Of TIM
MOM OF CONNORS BY lIITIINDI/10 AR ORGANIZ-
ED STUNK o► WARM CORRUPTION, Ann
MlsMs-
a.totertNT, TIIROVOROUT EVERY PARISH IN
THE KINGDOM ! The fist and direct effects of
this Bill will be to enerease the etrossinents for the
Poor. Sekd Vestries may be established in every
perish, consisting of not more than TWENTY per-
sons, including the Rector or Curate, and the
Church:mikes, end these member, are to he elysoint-
ed by o Justice of the Peace !
It empowers such a Vestry as this to borrow and
lend money "chargeable on the Mare Rates of the
parish," is fact, to mortgage the whole parish for
ever. A Eno expedient truly, for building up more
'morel, the Nat West Debt, by voicing in every parish
e little independent parochial one, by means of which
together, not a man possessed of personal property
will he to be Need, who will not be interested with
the interests of the system. The SAVING BARK
salter, artful as it was, and well adapted to bind
the poor to it by cheating them into the belief that
for the preservation of the reset they had loaded, it
was well for t►em pay as many rouses annually is
Usable, is, after all, not to be compared with this
iniquitous and dangerous MI, in respect to the obis-
chief it will do by connecting and 'evolving every man
with thelireading Systme,wholtes contrived to sa re any-
thing from tbe all-grasping bands of the tax-gatherer.
No sailicieet cheek to the wasting of parochial rates
can co-exist with this Bill. The Vestries which it is
its object to establish universally, are now nototh
steely keens, is the particular places where they are
already established, to be the most incapable and pro-
fuse, and most fertile in the production of wish jobs ;
bet as it will serve to introduce a new set of men into
power end profit, who will, both from necessity and
gratitude, be devoted to the maintenance of that se-
der which they thrive and loutish. the destruction
of which they must apprehend will teed to the re-
doction of them to their former Insienificence; the
scheme, I have en doubt, will he matured, unless
the loud and indignant voice of the Public be imme-
diately raised to prevent its success. I shall, Sir,
with your leave, address yoe again on this topic, and
remain an admirer of the patriotic seal and uscom.
promising principles of your independent Jeurnsl.
Sir.tod, Starch 93, IPI9. OB9LRVATOR.

A Petitin frost the Booksellers and Publishers of
London and Westminster wss presented ice Monday
night to the Hones of Cowen% praying to be re-
lieved frost the coutpolsatory delivery of II copies of
rear, book published, to tertian public lihreries.—
They stem that the grievances which they have les-
isipcd bate been fully shown In the evidence before
the lz*lvirt C,oinviitee of the noose lest Session ; iit
which it tears that the actual cost or the books de-
Itreted by sae hone (Men's. LONGMAN and Co.),
sine, the nviviwt of the Copy-right Act, in 1811, to
April, 1818. Ws- oboe. 30001. ; that Mr. PACIIRAT,
41,1 jog the I,ooe pviivi, had sestalned by the delivery
• loss of 12761.; •opies of live woe ks worthd
antivent to 119111. 14t.; that the delivery of 1 I copies
of another single work, wield be aboet and
ihet lb. law of it now Ms* kas prodeced she moo
iojurinus effects in the prolltity of lb. *litters and
aJthois of book!.