The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-10-20 00:00:00

TTIg STATOLV4I.-

.
PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. of those whom they appear to represent, but by the
recommendation of seventy powerful Individuals, I
added to the eighty-four before-mentioned, and I
* Authentic Copy of a Petition praying for a itc.
making the total number of patrons altogether only
form in Parliament, presented to the House of
.one hundred and fifty-four who return a decided ma-
Commons, by CHARLES GAEY, Esq. on Monday,
pray of your Honourable house. If your Ho-
05M of May, 17i)3. mourable House will accept as evidence the common
report and general belief of the counties, cities, and I
boroughs,• nhich return the Members alluded to,
your Petitioners are ready to name them, and prove
the fact ; or if the Members in question can be made
parties to the enquiry, your Petitioners will name
them, and be governed by the testimony which they
themselves shall publicly give. But if neither of
these proofs be thought consistent with the proceed.
Inv of your Honourable, House, then your Petition-
ers eau only assert their belief of the fact, which they
hereby do in the most solemn manner, and on the
most deliberate conviction. Your Petitioners en-
treat your Honourable House to believe that, in
complaining' of this species of influence, it is not
their intention or desire to decry or to condemn that
just and natural attachment which they who were
enabled by their fortune, and inclined by their dis-
position, to apply great means to honourable and
benevolent ends, will always ensure to themselves.
What your Petitioners complain of is that property,
whether well or ill employed, has equal power; that
the present system of representation gives to it a
degree of weight which renders it independent of
character; which enables it to excite fear as well as
to procure respect, and which confines the choice of
Electors, within the ranks of opulence, because
though it cannot make riches the sole object of
their affection and confidence, it can and does throw
obstacles, almost insurmoutpable, in the way of
every mau who is not rich ; and thereby secures to
a select few the capability of becomill_Candidates
themselves, or supporting the pretensio/is of others.
Of this Our Pititioriers complain loudly, because

and admire, they have thought it their duty to lay.
1 before you, not geueral speculations deduced from
theoretical opinions, but positive truths sascoptible
' of direct proof; and if in the performance of this
task, they have been obliged to call your attention
to assertions which you have not been accustomed to
hear, and which they lament that they are com.
yelled to make, they entreat the indulgence of your
Honourable House.--Your Petitioners %till only
Ifurther trespass upon your time, while they recapi_
tulate the objects of their prayer, which are,—That!
your Honourable House will be pleased to take such
measures, as to your wisdom may seem meet, to re-
move evils arising from the unequal manner in which
the different parts of
,the kingdom arc admitted to
' participate in the ripresentation.—To correct te
partial distribution of the elective franchise, whichh
commits the choice of representatives to select bodies
of men Of such limited numbers, as renders them an
easy prey to the artful, or a ready purchase to the
wealthy.—To regulate the right of voting upon a
uniform and equitable principle.— And filially, to
shorten the duration of Parliaments, and by remov.
ing the causes of that confusion, litigation, acid ex-
pense, with which they are at this day conducted,
wont
, to render frequent and new elections, our
ancestors at the Revolution asserted them to be, the
means of a happy union and good agreement between
the king and people.—And your Petitioners shall
ever pray."

iroseLuDeD !Rom outs rArra Or SATURDAY.]
" Your Honourable House knows that tumults,
disorders, outrages, and perjury are too often the
dreadful atcendatits on contested elections, as at this
time carried on.—Your Honourable Homo knows
that polls are only taken in one fused place for each
county, city, and borough, whether the number of
voters be ten or ten thousand, and whether they be
resident or dispersed over England.--Your Honour-
able House knows that polls, however few the
electors, may by law be continued for fifteen days,
and even then be subjected to a scratiny.—Yoor 110-
tnourable House knows that the management and
conduct of polls is committed to returning officers,
who, from the very nature of proceedings, must
he invested with extensive and discretionary powers,
and who, it appears, by every volume of your Jour-
nals, hale but too often exorcised those powers with
the most gross partiality, and the most scanda-
lous torrtylion.—Of elections, arranged with such
little retard to the accommodation of the parties,
ocku"wlrik,e(l to reqnire such a length of lime to
co.nplete, and trusted to the superintendance of such
suspicious agents, your Petitioners might easily draw
out a detail of the expense. But it is unnecssnry.—
The fact is too notorious to require proof, that
scarce an instance can be produced where a Mem-
ber has obtained a disputed seat in Parliament at
a less cost than from two to five thousand pounds;
particular cases are tint wanting where ten time,
these sums have been paid ; but it is sufficient for
your Petitioners to affirm, and to be able to prove it

The following curious phenomena were witnessed
at Giessen, in the circle of the Upper Rhine :—On
the 18th of August, after continued sultry weather,
a piece of woody grOund, comprising 12 English
acres, suddenly sunk about fire feet; on the 20th it
fell two feet more ; on.the 24th it sunk another foot,
and continued giving way, almost imperceptibly,
-until, by the 4th September, it had sunk 15
feet. This frightful chasm remained near a week,

if denied, that such is the expense of a contested re-
turn, that he who should become a Candidate with
even greater funds than the laws require him to swear
to as his qualification to sit in your Honourable
House, must either relinquish his pretensions on the
appearance of opposition, or to reduce his fortune
in the contest that he could not take his seat with..
out prjurv. The revision of the original polls be-
fore the Committees of your Honourable House, up-
on appeals from the decisions of the returning GK.
cers, atfolds a fresh source of vexation and expense
to all parties. Your Honourable House knows,
that the complicated rights of voting, and the shame-
ful practices which disgrace election proceedings,
Dave so loaded your table with Petitions for judg.
meta and redress, that one half of the usual duration
of a Parliament has scarcely been sufficient to settle
who is to sit for the other half; and it was not till
within the last two months that your Honourable
Ilouse had an opportunity of discovering, that the!
two gentlemen, who sat and voted near three years
as the representatives of the borough of Stockbridge,
bad procured themselves to be elected by the most
scandalous bribery ; and that the two gentlemen who
sat and voted during as long a period for the bo-
rough of Great Grimsby, had not been elected at all.
In truth all tioe mischiefs of the preseet system of
representation are ascertained by the difficulties
which e%eit the zeal and wisdom of your Honour-
able House experience in attending to the variety
of complaints brought before you. Though your
Committee sit five hours every day, from the time of

they cottecivP it to be highly unjust, that while the
language cf the law requires from a Candidate no.
greater estate, as a qualilicatiOn, th►►n a few hundred
pounds per annum, the operation of the law should
disqualify every man whose rental is not extended to
thousands; and that, at the same timb that the le-
gislature appears to give the elector a choice from ,
amongst those who possess a moderate and indepen-
dent competence, it should virtually compel them to
choose from amongst those who themselves abound
in wealth, or are.supported by the wealth► of- others.
Your Petitioned are the more alarmed at the pro-
gress of private patronage, because it is rapidly lead...
ing to consequences which meuace the very existence
of the Constitution. At the commencementof every
Session of Parliament, your Honourable ilouse,
acting up to the laudable jealousy of 'tour; predeces-
'ors, and speaking the pure constitutional language
of a British House of Commons resolve, as appears
by your Journals, That no Peer of this realm hath
any right to give his vote in theelection of any Mem-
ber to serve in Parliament;' and also, ' That it is
a high infringement upon the liberties and privileges
of the Commons of Great Britain, for any Lord of
Parliament, or any Lord Lieutenaut of any County,
to concern themselves in the elections of Members to
serve for the Commons io Parliament.'--Yore
tioners inform your Honourable House, and are
ready to prove it at your bar, that they have the
most reasonable grounds to suspect, that no less than
one hundred rob, fifty of your Honourable Members
orze their elections entirely to the interference of

and was visited by thousands. On the 12th, the
surface of the land became marshy • since which
water warof)serred to rise, and by the 19th, it had j
entirely filled the vacuity, and presented a level sheet j
of water.
On Saturday last, about seven o'clock in the even-
ing, Mr. James Bapter, of Tuntharn-green, was ate
j tacked by a gang of pickpockets near Burlington..
house, Piccadilly, and robbed of his gold watch,
chain, and seals. Mr. B. being surrounded by six or
seven of the robbers, was unable to make any resist-
, truce, and they in consequence escaped with their booty.'
It is to he regretted that some Police Officer.; are not
stationed near the White Horse Cellar about tbe'hour'
of the departure of the evening stages, as it is well
known that it is considered by these nocturnal ite—
predators a favourable opportunity for effecting their
schemes of plunder.
I CORONER'S INQUEsT.—Yesterday afternoon in
quest was held in Blackfriars, before Sur.t.toN;!
Esq. Coroner, on a view of the body of a wortidredf
the name of Clark, who, it appeared, had flung her
self off Blackfriars'-bridge, on Sunday morning last, I
into the Thames, and was drowned. Some persons I
who have seen the deceased, stated her appearibg
a melancholy.state for days past, when Itheeeitsry,
after a mature deliberation, returned a verdir4 of
Lunacy. •4 ir 41
I It blew quite a storm the whole of Sunday night
and yesterday, and we are fearful that muelidainv.age
has been done on the coast.

), II Valium .....-
their appointment, they generally are unable to! Peers; and your Petitioners are•prepared to show, r .
Saturday last, as Mr. Denis Quarman, of Ply.
come to a decision in less than a fortnight, andeby legal esidence, that forty Peers, in defiance of mouth Dock-yard, was inspecting the Rerolutionaire
very frequently are detained frone. thirty to forty; your resolutions, have possessed themselves of so . frigate, after the artisans who had been working by
days. The Westminster case, in 1789, will evenl many burgage tenures, and obtained such an able- ; candle light had retired, he fell into the hold of the
furnish your Honourable House with an instance,; lute and uncontrouled command in very many sofa ship, and was not discovered until the return of the.;
where, after deliberating forty-five days, a Com. boroughs in the kingdom, as to be enabled, by their li workmen into the yard, nmehe was taken up dead..;
mittee gravely resolved, that, " From an attentive; ; COWS positive authority, to return eight,y-onc of your This is the second fatal accident that has occurred on
consideratioss of a circumstance relating to the : Honourable House. , Your. Petitioners will, how-
board the same ship. 011 Thursday morning an.
cause, a final decision of the business before them ever, urge this grievance of the interference of Peers other melancholy occurrence took place in the Dock-
could not fake place in the course of the session, and in elections no farther, because they are satisfied yard. As rosiness' shipwrights, carrying a heavy
that not improbably the whole of the Parliament" ; that it is unnecessary. Numbers of your Ho- piece of timber, wore crossing a plank from the edge
,(having at that time near two years longer to sit) ; nourable Members must individually have known of the dock to the (been Charlotte it gave way, and
" might be consumed in a tedious and expensive lid.. the fact, but collectively your Honourable (louse has the whole were precipitated to the bottom. One of
gation ;" and they recommend it to the Petitioners to ! undoubtedly been a stranger to it. It is now brought them, called John Clarke, died soon afterwards,
withdraw their Petition, which, after a fruitless per. I ; before you by those who tender evidence of the from the violence of his fall : the others were much
severance of above three months, they were actually ; truth of %hat they assert, and they conceive it , bruised, but not dangerously.
obliged to submit to.—Your Petitioners will only I would be improper in them to ask that by petition, : A Correspondent congratulates Colonel Co:gene's,.
upon this subject farther add, that the expense to' which most be looked for as the certain result of on the safe arrival, at Drury-lane Theatre, of the
each of the parties who hare been either Plailtilf I your own honoumble attachment to your own li.. huge cylinders, which are to form his valuable en.
or Dsfentiant hi Petitions tried before your Honour.l berthas and privileges. Your Petitioners have thus gine for the extinction of fire. In the present state
able House in the present Session, has, upon an use. ; laid before your Honourable House, what the mss - : of the coatis, and of the pavement of London, we
rage, amounted to above one hundred pounds per i chiefs are which arise from the present state of the ! conceive it to have been extremely fortunate. The
dal ; end that the Attorney's bills' in one cause, • representntion, and what they conceive to he the ; ingenious and simple contrivance, by means of which
tSe trial ef which, in point of form, only lasted two grounds of those mischiefs, and therefore pray to i they have been conveyed to the Theatre, in the same
slaw, and, in point of fact, only six hours, amounted : have removed. They now humbly beg leave to offer i position in which they are to be laid down, does great
to very near twelve hundred pounds. And this your i their reasons, why they are anxious that some re- i credit to the Engineer. By his method,.no cranes or
Petitioners are ready to prove.—Your Petitioners i medy should be immediately applied. Your Peti-i engines were required to load or unload them, or to
must now beg leave to call the attention of your tioners trust they may be allowed to state, became I raise them into their proper position. We hope that
Honourable House to the greatest evil produced by ; they are ready to prove, that Seats in your Honour- ! the whole apparatus will be speedily completed ; the
these defects in the representation of which they ! able House are sought for at the most extravagant ; public will then possess greater security against fire
complain, namely, the extent of PalvAllg PARLTA. i and increasing rate of expense. What can have so jat this Theatre than has ever before been offered at a
ye ENTART Paraost tee ; an abuse which obviously much augmented the ambitition to sit in your Ho-' place of public amusement. -
tends to exclude the great mass of the people from i Pourable House, your Petitioners do not presume ae. I The island of Sabrina, near the Azores, which
any substantial influence in the election of the Housejeurately to have discovered ; but the means taken by ! owed its origin to a volcano in the !Western Ocean,
of Commons, and which, in its progress, threatens ; Candidates to obtain, and by electors to bestow, that , has gradually disappeared since the month of October
to usurp the sovereignty of the country,honour, evidently appear to hare beets increasisiglBll leaving an ertensive shoal. Smoke was dis.
:equal danger of the King, of the Lords, and of the a progressive degree of fraud and corruption. Your ;covered still issuing out of the sea,
Caminoiri. The Patronage of which your Petition.l Petitioners are induced to make this assertion by the: near the spot where this wonderful phenomenon :sp-
in February last,
ors complain, is of two kinds :—That which arises Legislature having found it necessary, during the ' peered.
from the unequal distribution of the elective hen- 1 last and present reign, so much to swell the statute ' Saturday morning a Court-Martial was held on
chile, and the peculiar rights of voting, by which , book with laws for the prevention of those offences. I William Gaiter, a landmass, on board his Majesty's
certain places return. Members., to serve in Perlin- I As far as conjecture can lead your Petitioners, they l ship Coquette, in Portsmouth harbour, for maiming
ment ; and that which arises funk the expense attend. must suppose that the increasing national -debt, and ; himself by chopping off his left hand, at the wrist
ins, contested elections, and the.consequent degree the consequent increase of influence, are the causes ! joint,-osi the evening of the Ist• of September. The
of power acquired by wealth. By these two means, ,of the increased eagerness of individuals to become Court agreed that the, charge had,
,been proved,
a weight of Parliamentary influence has been ob. ' Members of the House of Commons, and their indif. ' and holding in great abliOrrfisee thes,comrqission
Wiled by certain individuals, forbidden by the spirit I ference as to the means used to gratify theitespecula- I of so atrocious and ttinnaiily, an ace, ty which, his
of the laws, and in its consequences most dangerous , tions. To prove that they do not state this wanton. 1-Country is deprived of his 'effective` brikes; dict
to the liberties of the people of Great Britain. The; ly, or without substantial grounds, they humbly beg ' adjuge him to be employed: httivirtmit minial" tithe:,
operation of the first species of patronage is direct 1;to caU your attention to the following table',' all the : lion on beard such ship.ofi his Majesty, as the Corn.'
and subject to positive proof. Eighty-four indivi. vouchers for which are to be found in the Journal eat' mender-in-Chief of his Majettes shipiand•vessels ate
duals do, by their own immediate authority, send ! your Honourable House, or ha different Acts of Par. Sspitheed and in Portsmouth) harbour, or the,Lerds
one hundred and fifty-seven of your Honourable I Lament. It is upon this evidence of the increase of Commissioners of the Admiralty .11401 from lime tcs
• ever
are to Parliament. And this your Petitionereltaxes,establishments,andinfluence,and theincrease of time direct, and to be rendered unworthy .fOr ever
are ready, if the fact be disputed, to prove, and to !laws found necessary to repeal the indreesing attacks hereafter of being ettiployettlis'any 'situatiotiltilesSior
name the Members and the Patrous.—The second ',.upon the purity and freedom of elections, that your p 0... to landsmen-1n the Reyal liftef.-PcitoniAtlntA fla is-
species of patronage cannot be shewn with equal titioners couceive it high time to enquire into theptp. sootaresident. 4 ,A., 01 ..azi3Oi:i ..', -`041.;-'1••
accuracy, though it is felt with equal force. YOU!! mesas. Your Petitionersare confident that in What thily. The latai shooting psirtytit Sndboorn, ini Welly,
Petitioners are convinced, that in addition to the one have stated, they are supported bYtheevidence of factii, was 'yery, select; consisting only of the 44 f
' hundred and fifty-seven Honourable Members above., and they trust that, in ceaveying those (acts to plot York and Caintirldie 'attended by Captain . t
Mentioned, one hundred and fifty more, making in' Honourable House, they have not been bet:2l the •Mhttildstof Rertfbrti' iiiid• his Chapleiii: WS
.
v the whole three hundred and seven, are returned to into the language of reproach or disrespect. 4 d; llrenneidAra. Abgent eel *tilled On Election 'bus'.
your Honourable Mouse, not by the collective voice one to proem in its purity a Constitution they love

We..