The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-01-20 00:00:00

DIARY FOR THE EXSUING WEEK.

WITH THE TIMIS OF MOH WATAII 4T LOWDON-ORIAGH.
Jan.
QI, s.—TUIRD SUNDAY •FTEN EPIPHANY.
High 'a ater—morit. 4 m. after 4; ma. 18 m. after I.
22, 21. l'inrenf.
Iligh water—morn. 33 tn. after 4 : even. 48m. after 4.
23. T.—Hilary Term begins. Agnew.
Iligh water—morn. so. after 6; even.ls in. altar 3.
24. W.—Bun rises 40 m. past 7.
High water—murn. Um. after 5; etew. 81 tn. after 3.
85, Th.—Cons. fir. PA
High water--morn.
16. P.—Day incr. hoof
liieh water-
-27, o.—btae or
High water•

Sr. PAUL.
r--morn. 10 m. after 6; even. 30 in. after 6.
T. 1 hour 4 min. Mlns Lisr gonerran.
r--isoro. 31 no. after 6; even. 14 min. after 7,
r flcssix horn..
•—raorn. 41 in. after 7; even. 11 to. after S.

4-..

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~M

1

.WEETING OF Till COUNTY OF WILTS.

(Concluded from our last.)
On Sir FRANCIS BVIOZTT coming forward to ad-
dress the meeting, he said he really felt ashamed to
be called npon, at this late hour, to address the meet-
ing, after so full a discussion of every topic had been
Rene into with such ability as would redound to the
credit of the county in time to come, and prove a sti-
tnulus to them on future occasions, since it now ap-
peared that they could meet together and conduct them-
selves with the strictest propriety, notwithstanding the
impression which had been attempted to be created,
that to assemble for the purpose of public discussion
nn as a great public mischief. After the eloquent
speeches they had heard, there remained little for
him to say. The consequences of the persecution of
the Queen had been foretold ,by every man who was
capable of giving a disinterested opinion, and taking
nu impartial view of the circumstances under which
it was commenced. To foresee that it would pro-
duce all that agitation which prevailed in the
country, required no spirit of -prophecy. To any
man whose eyes were clear enough to see a church
by day-light, the difficulties in which Parliament and
the country would be involved were sufficiently ma-

nitest. The whole of the transaction was so extra-
ur•linary, that, after all the eloquence which had
hreii employed npon it, both in and out of Parlia-
ment, still son:wapiti rem ined to be observed ; so
...range and unnatural were all the circumstances,
that something slew would still start out. They
had all heard of a rotrupt and blind Bench of
.Angel existing at different times. This was a thing
could easily be conceived, and, indeed, he
bad himself felt the consequences which resulted
tram x syetem of packed Juries and corrupt Judges.
In the prosecution of the Queen, perjured. corrupt,

nod bribed witnesses had been employed, but it was
the first time he had ever heard of a prosecti!or, not
content with the bribery of witnesses, attempting to
Wert his purpose by bribing the criminal.—(Loud
applause.) If the Queen had consented to stamp her
name with infamy—if she hail been content to receive
the plaister which was to be applied to her reputa-
tion—if she had accepted the humble vote of Parlia-
ment, and fifty"thonsand pounds a-year out of the
pockets of the people ; if she had so far sacrificed
her character to the convenience of Administration,
Ow might then hare revelled in all the turpide which
was imputed to her, at the expence of the people of
this country: she might have indulged in all those
low propensities with which she was falsely charged.
—(Continued cheers,) Had that nnworthy compro-
mise been acceded to, Ministers were prepared to go
the full length of turpitude, in unison with her—had
her mind been as debased as theirs, the conspiracy
would have taken effect, and Europe would hare wit-
nessed the strange spectacle of a degraded Queen,
stigmatized and blasted in character, but receiving
large emoluments out of the purse of the people of

Engl.and. But her Majesty was too high spirited a
WO11141), and too conscious of her own innocence, to

li‘trn to their degrading propositions. She said—
'. Nu : take bark your money ; you may heap upon
me every injury which power can inflict upon the
head of an unprotected woman ; I will brave every
tin in defence of that character which you attempt
to tarnish, and that innocence, of the consciousness
of which you cannot deprive me." And still we
were to be told that this illustrious person, though
acquitted, was not innocent. He hail heard with
sorrow the declaration of an Honourable Baronet
on this subject. He did not dis3pprove of the lone-
liness of arowing an opinion; but he did sly, that
after the prosecutors themselves bad thrown up their
own eharges it was a little too hard for any gen-
Crnian to say, under those circumstances, that be
did not consider the Queen as having been fully
acquitted.—(Applause.) Good (Icul ! in what situa-
tion should we all stand—wkat was to become of
our characters, if, after a false accnsation was with•
drawn for want of being supported, some part of
the scandal, which it was found impossible to sub-

stantiate by evidence, must still b.• presumed to ad-
here to us? He knew only of one case which was
at all similar to the conduct of Ministers in this
respect. The conduct of that great company of
r.erchants, the Bank of England, did in some degree
furnish a parallel, for they did bribe men to
plead guilty to the charges which they brought
against them—they bribed thew with their lives to
plead guilty to a part at least of the charge. This
however, was one of the anomalies arising out of
tLe strange circumstances in which the country was
placed—it was one, and not the least, of the evils
arisin4 out of the ministerial abuses of that trading
company. The Member for Crickiade (Mr. Gordon)
had dwelt upon a topic, by no means disconnected
r ith the subject before the present meeting ; a
tupie so interwoven with every important political
consideration, that Au an who applied his wind
to the state of the country could omit it—
_ _

1.- mean!, the mode in which Members were sent
to the House of Commons. Could that topic be
any u here more properly introduced than is this
pla,•o, ‘vhere they knew how the Member was

returned.—(Laughter ?) They, the inhabitants of
a rotten borough, were we* an are that the Member
was sent at the beck and' nod of a Noble Lord, whom

be respe, ted in every view except in that of a horongh

proprietor ; but in that character be considered him
one of the most mischievous men in the country, as be
contributed to support a system by which the Consti-
tution of England was destroyed. -Even Mr. Pitt, in
the earlier days of his political life, had felt so strongly
the necessity of a Reform in Parliament,• that he de-
clared the evils under which the country liboured
could never be redressed without it. Without a Re-
form ih Parliament, said be, you must look for frtsli
and accumulated grievances; without it there can be

no security for your liberties or your property, nor
can any honest man become a Minister of this coun-
try. They had beard touch of professions of loyalty ;
nue/ what he understood loyalty to mean was, devotion
to the ions and liberties of the reentry, and devotion
to the King ass branch of our Constitution, intended
plairld those liberties. 1• that sense of the word
field ha loyalty to tut man ; and if any man
him, or any other man, that he was dis-
deserved no other answer than a blow.--(%p-
•hat n•as the prarical effect of this nomo-

poly- df teyalty in toles and corners? What bet to
degrade the Royal Family, to destroy the sanctity of
the laws themselves, and to pervert every principle of
the British Constitution? They had misdirected the
whole mind and energies of the country from the dif-
ficulties it had to eicounter. Did the family of Bruns-
wick think that this was the way in which their cha-
racter was to be upheld? Did they think that by de-
grading the Queen, and giving provocation for every
kind of recriminatiun, the character of King or Queen
was likely to be maintained in the estimation of the
country ? If there existed any disaffection in —the
country towards the Royal Family, the persons who
had created that disaffection, and who were ansuerable
fur the consequences, were the Ministers of the
Crown. He had declared his attachment to the Con-

stitution as by law established, but when he said
that, he meant the old, free 611stitution of England.
He was not to be considered as advocating the cause of

the new Constitution, which had of late-been imposed
on the country. He was not advocating the Peare
Alien Bill, by which our abode had been rendered

inhospitable, and the nation, which once ',periled the
high rulogiuui of giving freedom to the slave that

once set his foot upon its soil, could now only be,
pointed out as the countr♦ in which the foreigner)
tiring frum the chains of tiespotisut, would tint! inure

palling chains, and more intolerable oppression (Con-
tinued applause). When he spoke of the law of the
land, lie did not mean the law as it was now fettered
by restriction on the liberty of the Press, which sub-

jected a man convicted a second time of pahlishing a
libel to transportatitm. This was a part of the new

Constitution in which he was somewhat interested, for

he hail himself been once conaicted of publishing a
libel, and was ther.fore liable to transportation for
w•h;at might be deemed a second ; but no consideration

should iodate him to desist from it riling. whatever lie
thought caleulati.ll to promote the liberties of the

conntrv.—(l,nuil and rontinnrd rherring.)--He was
no advocate fur this innovation, 'tut for that ancient

...... .. . - -
tioi. but the regatd and good opiuian of the people.
That, he acknowledged, was a great protection ; it
was one which her oppressors never possessed ; which
corruption could never purchase (Applause.)--He
trusted that something 1;8041 be done in Parliament,
'Omagh he could not flatter himself by saying that
something would be done. The Noble Marquess
(Lansdown) had said. that Minister,' proposed to send
the two Houses of Parliament up to her Majesty like so
many sheep. The two Houses were geneally treated
like sheep by Ministers. The Ministers generally
made them appear disgraceful in the eyes of the coun-
try. In the higher House, some Noble Lords, true
to their dignity, as well as to the hiterests of the coun-
try, had honorably resisted the attacks of Ministers—
(Applause.)--Ministers were defeated, and they flew
for protection to those who dealt in mock loyalty ;
those worthy persons appeared to him, anxious to mo-
nopolize, not merely the good things of the world, but
the good %voidsmodestly iepresented them-
/ selves as the onlyalso good husbands; the only affection-
I ate fathers in the country ; the only men, in short,
I who paid adoration to Ood, or service to the King.—
(Langhter).--The people would despise those usurpers
r4ithe loyal dictionary.---(.1 laugh.)—They would con-
nce them, to use the language of a book he had
lately read, that the Deity was not on the Government
Iside of the question this time: and applause.)
He hoped that the country would shew those desperate
men that there were pro; he left in England who were
not like stocks or stones, but men worthy of atten-
tion, whose interests must be consulted ; whose feel-
ings must be respected, and whose liberties most not
be violated by any se! of men who might pretend to
got ern England.---(Applaue.)

to uphold tb
hr w uuld yie
dared to tell
loal, hr des
pl.usr.)—W
, •
1'
I 111:'