The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-08-06 00:00:00

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.to solitary Imprisoninenc—anu osiers .•••••• -r ---- -
'sported to Botany Bay. Trade was at that tithe to submit to the Meeting, he hoped and trusted, was
rishhig—le different parts of the country the ,not unworthy the signature of any Englishman. It
Minister (Mr. Pitt), was considered as an idol was a Petition of right—it asked, for no favour
ufortutiately - for -the EmPire, he had the voice —4t only claimed these rights snd liberties which
:he people with him. But be could inform theM, helowged to the people. When their ancestors spe..!
iu the very same 4istricts, where, at.thelitue .titioised King John, they did net seek for favour 1
which he had allot/10d, no man could, -without the they only demanded their rights. Att the perital
fie 4 i 4 wimp Awn*, dooms avow awspip* of4lle-glories iteribigesi siothiorod .earth -war
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15. Wht. _ hereditary privileges and
htlative authority uninterrupted tied undisturbed, the Pea-
for whose benefit it is said those Privileges and that euthos
Shy are only held is trust—the People have undoing of political
liberty or legislative authority 'left; for instead of those " un-
doubted rights and liberties" which in the Bin of Rights it
ancestors declared, but did not establish, they sirid Is
place the direscourge of " Taxation without Rearresentatims,"
instead of a free Commons /louse of Parliament, an Assembly
in which they scarcely know where to find an independent
'ltemiser truly identified with them and their constitutional La.
betties.
When it is publicly known that a wet in poor Rormacablo
lEibsse for Wooon Basset made on Item in the „Accolade of s
BankrupC(Mr Benjamin AValsh) as a Commodity saleable fee
the begat b( km tar/floors; when it has been openly avowed
is mar Honourable House itself, that a sale of its seam otadit eat
be • because it was become as notorious as the Son al
agentsweseveral of the
Nabob of gArcwot k bywiateahants of -Asiatiri gglorg
became Hew
len of your Hon. Moose ; %best *e have grounds for beljelisi
oat; on another occasion, a French Kiaga Concablue (Madamerompodourl, purchased for her liaglish Arm a Sea' in your
lion. House in a time of War with France; and when from such
*mate of things it of course follows, that at a General Llectioa
the Emperor Napoleon may, by means of French gold, place is
your Hon. Moser, " under doe mask amid character of Represen-
intives of English Boroughs," a ausriesous Band of his Peasion-
ers in the French interest;—when sucb things have been, and
Slay again he, it is, as your Petitioners humbly thiak, high time
fur radical Reform.
17. Although nineteen years ago, in a Fetid" entered oa
Vor Journalson the 6th May, 1793, it was averred that your
Htiaourable House did not represent the Sationitberebyagremeg
with Sir George Saville, who, in his place in Parliament eleven
years before, on the 7th May 17k, had solemnly delivered it as
his well-weighed opinion, that your Honourable-House " might
tae well call itself the Representative of France as of the Pros&
of England," yet, from that day to this, now fell thirty years,
your Honourable House has bee's content rather to acquiesce in
em reproach, than to attempt a denial of the fact.
18. Here your Petitioners trust they cannot offend by advert-
fag to the claim of your I lononrable House to be, in respect of the
etsetive and legislative Rights of the People, a Court of Jaidire-
iligre ; nor can be thought deficient in respect, by endeavouring
to skew the utter inconsistency in the practice of your Honourable
House with the principle of that claim, and the obligation it
imposes.
19. In the Invariable postponements, or rather denials of Jos.
tiee, which, on all applications for a substantial Reform in the
legislative Representation of the People, has been the Invari-
able practice, your Petitioners with deference contend, that
your Honourable House therein aniformar disregarded a distinc- ;
{ion which it could not legally, or morally, overlook ; and de- j
parted from a straight course of juridical proceeding, from
tibia, as a Court of Judicature, it was not at liberty to de-
part.
?O. Your Petitioners know that your Honourable House in its I
functions of legislation, although limited by the Constitution
sad the liberties of the Nation, must necessarily be free, within I
those bounds, to exercise on all occasions a sound discretion ; I
Sot when your Honourable Home, as a Court of .ludireiture, is
appealed to for JUSTICC, It hath not, in the humble judgment of
your Petitioners, any discretion at all; hut, by a ditty as ob-
vious as it is sacred—a duty owing both to Goo and to our coun-
try, it i, bound promptly to enquire, and forthwith to decide.
Kl. Oa the principle of law, that " There is nit wrong without
a retnaly," we believe a e may, without fear of contradiction,
affirm, that if, touching the eleetios and legislative Rights of the
People, yonr llonounible House be indeed a Court of Ju-
dicature with exclusive jurisdiction, and as such be petitioned
for re3ress of the greatest of all a rongs, it cannot in such case
'become a question, whether it shall, or shall not. try the Witte
and render justice; for, to the apprrhewaion of your Petition-
ers it is manifest, that is such case there can be no alternative ;
that the judicial functions of your Honourable House must
be performed ; that it must both hear and determine; and a ith-
out delay, according to law, and to the sacred Rights of the
Illation, recognized and declared in Magna Charts.
22. The Argument of your Petitioner; has the powerful sup-
port of' Lord Chief Justice Ellenixwougla—The late Lord Chan-
crllorofireland, and the present Lord High Chancellor of Eag-
land, having, on the 24th of June last, stated in Parliament,
that the interference of the business ef-Chancery with the Judi-
cial business of the Lords having caused a vast arrear in the dis-
patch of Appeal Causes, to the extreme itteouvenienceand vexa-
tion of the Suitors, whence it was ohs iously necessary the Chan-
cellor should have as istance in Ms iron Court, " Lord Elleobo-
rough cone erred in opinion, that some prompt arraegement woe
absolutely nereAutry, with a view to the more expeditiously
bearing of Appeals; otherwise there would he a oestaa nr
josses: to the public, and THII CILIRACTLit or Tan HousE
went,n sa DISGEIACKD."

D. For a pretension so monstmus, as that of DENYING JCS-
ONCE, or of indefinitely postponing it according to will and
pleasure, your 14etitioners doubt it any example could be found
on Ibis side of Algiers or Morocco.
21. Thio dm of vont tloa. House to an exclusive jurisdic-
tion over tae Elecilse and Legislative Rights of the Nation
wholly rests on a presumed (bigger to public liberty: should
causes loathing those Rights be decidable in the Courts of Law;
because those c.wse might then, it is argued, be removable by
appeal into the House of Lords, and so that House might ac.
quire over the iudepeudeuce of your lion. !louse an improper
influence. . .

25. After noticing how easily a statute might cut off that dun-
rleeby barring the appeal! It only remains to calculate the danger
en; should the taw continue as it now stands, and a radical
orm in the Representation take place. Lnder such circum-
stance, it may,lbrough the aid of history, he believed, that
an election appeal to the House of Lords must be a prodigy not
likely to be seen once is seven centuries; and, therefore, in re-
*ect of danger, a most extraordinary plea in the mouths of men
who have a certain kunst ledge that usurping Peers are at this I
moment absolute masters of seats in your Honourable House by 1
hundreds; and that in their hands those seats are a source of I
Sought but rank faction, jobbing. barter, sale for to much hard 1
money, and all that is politically corrupt and profligate. •
25. On a point so supremely important, as that of the Nation
basting been by Intruders disinherited of its Constitution and for-
cibly kept out of posses,ion, despoiled of those sacred Rights,
Liberties, and Properties, which distinguish freemen from
Slaves, it is not possible agreeably to law or reason that any
Court of .111(We:sire can to ENGLAND lv, allowed a dist-mitre,
either to render, or not to render, Justice at its more kill and
pleasure.
27. Wherefore the Undersigned, not soliciting a favour, but
Claiming semen. now confidently trust, that an kale in the case
itouiraoa to themselves, to the whole nation, and to their poste-
rity, will at length be tried without further denial or postpone-
ment.
28. Your Hon. !louse is entreated to reflect on the natural coo-
tequences that mostiollow, if a Court of Atiteature were openly
to break down the Carriers he•vieeo Right and Wrong, in• a
we wherein its own self-interest could neither be hidden nor
disguised;• if, against the universal sense of mankind, and in de-
twee of shame,—wheal in the face of day, in a matter vital to
every interest of the Community, it should flagrantly deal out
)njustice itatead of justice, tyranny instead of proteetims, awl
weer; in the same persons the People should see their oppressors
and their judges.
29. Yourilononrable Horse is therefore exhorted to consider
linw, in its present unreformed state j
it can be a coMpetent
gnardian of use People's share in the Constitution; seeing that
ih breach of that Constitution, a; does not represent the Nation;
and that, moreover, a certain part of its Members are in the vi- :
sihle receipt of money from the Crown—certainly not given
them to protect the Rights of that Natiota—aad to au amount of
nearly 200,030 t. a year.
30. lf, with Mr. 1114,1.4, we look on a frame of Caatataas I
as, ~in the higher part of gosernme at what a Jury is in 114 •
" lower," and if we madder how transcendently more loped I
ant it is, that no suspicion should fall on a Vote affecting a !
whole kingdom, than ono Verdict, merely affecting au indsvis j
deal, it certainly cannot be reconciled to justice, to coussmq I
sense, or to decency, that any Member of your Hos. House
who is a servant la the pay of the Crown, or thodepeadent of a
Close-Boroughs Patrols, gotta be allowed to vote on any (met- ,
Mon touching the Propetty or the Legislative Rights of the '
People.
• 31. In the composing of a ,turn far a cause between moo and j
eau, no servant is the pity of one St the parties could be put
an the panne, ; but should be, surreptitiously get there, and
then give a verdict for his
i, paymaster, an indelible infamy would .
attend him to his gran.
'32. When a charge is exhibited against any particular meas-
lier of your Honourable House, usage requires that be refrain
from voting in his own cause, as serf-intarevied. On behalf of
sitirselses and fellow countrymen, the People of England, we,
your Petitioners, claim the bmilit of this wholesome usage.
SS. lu trying the issue which this Petition brings before your
Boa. House, we, therefore, pray that neither
Crowe,
nor
pensioners, nor sinecurists in the pas, of the Crowe, nor the
timainea, sot any person in the pay of any close-borough Pa-
tina, be allowed to vote.
94. Other causes of disqualifieation being likewise notoriously
known to the nation, we also pray that It may be required of
fiery remaining Umbers to declare apou his honour as a geu-
damn, that, to the best of his knowledge and belief, he owed
•hiteltglioa wholly to thalkear.lioice of wax sacorritpted by me ,

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Tij"I"17111111111"."Ill""Millillt
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14. Praftliltiltag lath teemed with its disaiters; its crimes,
and its calamities, until at length the countlers way portends
if the proper remedy be not without further procowtmation ap.
plied, to sweep before it the but reinitaat of our freedom, ex.
Posing, at the same time, our much injured country to dire cod
stablest, bloodshed, andanarely.
15. While the Peers enjoy all their hereditary priyileges
lantianwitv .Im.st•rra.ntodi Asti utidisturbed, the Pea.

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