The Statesman.
London, England, 1810-04-27 00:00:00

?Hg STATE 7 MAN.

doctrine. and Ft ' not ihe test time.' I hive
heard ii, ke ought to go unshackled to listen to
the arg,tments he may hear, and to form his own
opi„iteli thereon, and therefore it is contended
by him that he ought not to attend to the advice
of hip Constituents. Now, Gentlotnen, hich of
°pinions are we to follow—which of the
these
two itrocriptions of these learnos Dodoes are we
t„ Swallow ? The one says—you are not to find
f,,,,s with your Representatives for not doing what
you consider to be their duty—you ought to cell
„won them and point out what it is you wish to
lave done, and then, when we do call upon theiN
mother says, I shall pay no attention to your calleet
I must art independently. Gentlemen, we have
uo remedy for these opposite doctrines. If me
arc to look fur independence, I should be glad to
kilow where we are to find it. Certainly it is not
by adopting' the sentiments of either of the
Representatives who addressed you. The present
cootest is, as I have observixl, very similar twthe
contest which was carried on forty years ago.
It is similar. in its effects, and similar also in an.
point of view ; for when the assumed privi.
lees of the Secretary of State was exercised, it
was exercised against the people, and by the most
weak administration that ever disgraced the Go.
vernment before that period. Like the present
administration, they disregarded the interests of
the people, and they found it necessary to stifle the
public voice by resorting to unconstitutional mea-
sures. Gentlemen, I will ask you one other
thing. If the present administration, Wowing
thil might have committed faults, had been actu.
ated by an honest desire to promote the welfare of
couetry, could they have resorted to a measure
like that which_ ig the subject of our censure and
disapprobation? Tou will recollect that they.were
at the time engaged is an Inquiry upoa the sub.
Jett of one of the most disastrous events that
over betel this country. We saw the delinquents
voting for themselves in their own defence, in
exculpation of charges proved against them. We
'saw them surrounded by Placemen and Pensioaers,
who were also vuting fur them, and we saw them
also send an honest man to prison, whose oppose-
titan they dreaded, and whom they therefore would
nut suffer to be brouga to their Bar to speak in
his own defence ! This is what they call justice.
This is the conduct of these criminal Ministers,
else ought to have been taken to the block—.
Wear, hear, hear, hear, hear ! Loud accla.
;nations indict:tali:at the opinion of the Meeting
tor in perfect unison with this sentiment.]—,
Yo, Gentlemen, they ought to have been sent to
the block, together with this independent Mem.
her helsind roe, (alluding to Mr. Mellish). Vehe.
otos( plaudits.] Gentlemen, I will ask you,
whether, during this discussion, wherein the peo-
ple were so deeply concerted—metre deeply jute.
rested than ever they were before on any discut-
sion..l will ask youj say, whether that indivi.
thud Member, Mr. Yorke, in excluding the
Strangers from hearing what was about to take
place, was or was • not: guilty of an outrage
agstnst the Peopled England? t ale am! he was!
exclaimed numberless voices.) I ask you whether,
it the !Joule of Commons Could be legally armed
with the privilege they contend for, we should at
this moment have been able to have entered into any
discussion upon the public conduct of nnr repre.
Imitative'? I believe the worthy Gentleman be-
hind we (that is to say, Mr. Mellish) woOld
have escaped with impunity ; lie would never have
witnessed a County Meeting upon the subject, or
if he had, he never would have found a man to pass
an opinion upon his conduct. Gentlemen, I will
not detain you longer ; but I will only observe,
that it is absurd to imagine, that the House of
Commons can want such a Privilege as that for
which they contend ; because there never was e
period in our history, in which the Rome of
Commons acting for the people, and contending
fur their Privileges, were :sot supported by the
people. I defy any individual to chew we ao in.
stance to the contrary. The people may be occa-
sionally wrong, but they have no interest to err
wilfully. There is less chance that the people
should err, than that their Representatives in the
House of Commons should depart from their duty,
because the latter have mono temptations to en.
taunter. The worthy Guillemots behind me,
(Mr. Mellisli) perhaps has more understanding
than all the Freeholders of Middlesex put together.
Ile will find it difficult to persuade us that he has
;Imre honesty ;' but if he is put into a situation
where his has great temptation to resist, and
Ishere he has your business to transact,-and nut
his own, I think there is no reason, why he ought
to sacrifice your opinion to the one he may please
to adopt. When you find public men attempting
to .give a tone to the opinions of 'their Coustitu.
ents, instead of receiving it from them, you will
do well to resist such a disposition. Yon will do
your ditty to yourselves; I trust you will not re.
fix, bat Petition the House of Commons from day
ta.day, until you obtain the Reform you want. I
tst you will do this, without waiting for the To.
;.iiit4ry exertion of any individuals in the House
of Commons ; but I must observe, that when a
man is a candidate for tuhlic favour, when he is
poking to conduct the public affairs of a great nu
tion, he ought not to wait for the call of the
People, but in proportion to the weight and con.
sequence he derives from his rank and property,
'e ought to make greater efforts than it is possible
"it tits, in our situation, to make for ourselves.
the House of Commons arc a part of
• :11e People, and they ought to go hand in hand
pith the People, not standing aloof, and waiting
till a call is made upon them. Rut, however they
may choose to act, I trust that you will persevere
till that reformation in Parliament, which is so ne-
cessary for you, shall be obtained.
Mr. JENN,INGS.—I should not have intruded
"spun you any observations of mine, after the ex.
cellent speeches you have heard, if it was not that
I wish to take this occasion to congratulate you
on what has been stated to you by your Respre-
sentative, Mr. Byng. Ile has met the whole
question. Ile has given you a pledge that lie
will vote for and supped your Petition and Ice-
se:lutions. In proportion as you have .slerited
pleasure from his declaration, the Gentleman
whom you have also sent to Parliament to take

, -
care'of your rights must, by the fesi words he has
uttered to you; have excited your reeretthat you.
should ever have deputed such a Memtla repre.
sent yon in Parliament. Gentlemen, upon
question with respect to which it is dunghill du 1

which side the right lies, a Member who is sent

to Parliament may beat liberty to follow his own
opinion, if the opinion of his Constituents has not
been clearly expressed. But when the question
is.the personal liberty of Englishmen, what can
we think of that Representative who has had
the hardihood to come here and declare, that when
your sacred rights arc invaded, he will not be
the man to defend them f This is nut only the sen:
dissent expressed by Mr. Mellish, but.it is also the
sentiment Of that corrupt majority of the house
of Commons, who resolved to send to prison its
most independent Member, who had manifested to
his country that its interests was the object nearest
I.is heart and affections. Gentlemen, the whole
House of. Commons, and this your Represents- '
tire, who is behind me (Mr. Mellish), bare turned
upon the people, and the sense of the poopli
ought to be manifested by an unequivocal expres.
sion of disapprobation at their and his conduct.---
Gentlemen, the first step theel sisituld recommend
that you should take, is to- petition the King to
dissolve this Parliament.—(Great approbation.)
After what has passed during this last Session, it
is quite impossible that the people can any longer
give them their confideneesti they must be dis-
graced in the eyes of all burope; they can only
give confidence to the enemy, and despair to
the people of this country; they have snorted
to thu worst of times in our history, .in order
to find precedents fur wielding the personal
liberty of the subject. They have resorted to
times when, by the authority of Acts of Parlia-
ment, the most atrocious murders were con.
muted. They have resorted to the reign of
Henry the Eighth, when it was enacted, if that
any person should speak, or even think any thing
to the prejudice of the Queen the King should
marry, he should be guilty of high treason, and
punished with death. This was done by a House
.Commons;dif but the King afterwards wished
to get rid of Anne Sullen, his wife, and then he
made the same Rouse of Commons put to death
this Anne Bullets, his Queen. Gentlemen, the
only remedy you can look to is the sense and
opinion of the people, expressed in public meet-
ings. Oue of your Representatives has declared
he will not support your votes.; I think that by
such a declaration he has been guilty of a most
flagitious, public act, and I am 'of opinion, you
ought to pass your rote of censure upon him.—
[Plaudits...There as a general cry for a rote
of censure against Mr. Mellish. Some- as.
claimed " is Mr. Lethbridge there P']
The first Resolution, expressing that the Peti-
tion should be presented by Mr. Byng and Mr.
Mellish, was pnt—the Freeholders unanimously
exclaimed, No i no I by Mr. Ding alone.
Mr. CLIFFORD-1 live you will agree td
leave in the name of Mr. Mellish. [No, no l re.
sounded from every _part.] I hope you will leave
in the name of Mr. Mellish, for two reasons : the
first is, if you omit his name, he may justify him.
self, by saying he has not your orders ; and se.
condly, now your opinion is so clearly ascertain-
ed, lahould like to see whether, in the House of
Commons, he will venture to disobey the instruc-
tions so unanimously expressed by his Constituents.
The Resolution was then put and carried nom-
nimousle, with the exception of one hand. Many
of the Freeholders exclaimed, " it is Mr. Mellish's
brother," and, upon inquiry, so the fact turned
out to be.
The other Resolutions and the Petition were
put and carried in the same manner.
Major CARTWRIGHT., Gentlemen Free-
holders, I have been between thirty and forty
years pursuing a voyage on the coast of Parlia-
mentary Reform. During that time I have expo-
rienced all kinds of wind and weather---some-
times I have met with foul weather—sometimes
with stormy weather, and sometimes with calms.
The calms I have found in the apathy of the peo.
pie, and the storms in the oppression and persecu-
tion of the Government; hut I flatter myself lam
getting in sight of land and a safe port ; I trust
the Tower of London will''serve me as a light-
house. I beg leave to read to you an Address
'which I have prepared to be presented to Sir
-Francis Burdett, POW a prisoner in the Tower.
(The Letter was extremely long, and contained, in fact,
the substance of those opioions respecting the nature and effi-
cacy of the posse eormitiesstis, which' Major Cartwright has
endeavoured to impress upon the public' mind for a long series
of years. It would be molest, tberefore. to our Readers.
to go at length into that arpiment, which has before been
communicated to them lo 90 many shapes. The following is
the substance of the Address:—The muneof Sir F. Burdett. it
said, for the noble resistance which he bad made against the
tenoned authority of the Noose of Console's, would be con-
pledby posterity with the name of Hampden, who in former
times bad so gloriously resisted the assumed prerogative of the
Crown. The country Mt good cause of congratulation on the
ilisloction which Sir F. made between the army of this couc-
h% and the misty power, a distinction which he hoped
would be always preserved. ne arbitrary measures of late
Administrations had idtscrit thrown the employment of the
latter power Into complete disuse, although it was well known
in former times to have quelled internal disorder, as well as to
have repelled foreign invasion, a duty which such a power was
always most likely to perform better than hired soldiers,
they natives or foreigners. because a regular .army was al-
ways a machine in the hands of its Com nouiderm ho himself was
under the absolatecontroul of the existing Miuistry. If Sir
Francis Burdett had thrown a chair at the Speaker, or bar-
tered for a dozen seats in the House, a reprimand at the Bar
might he deemed a sufficient punishment of his conchal ; hut
by exercising a wholesome and constitntiooal privilege. he
had been sent to the Tower for an unlimited period. Instead.
however, of degrading him, as his enemies intended, the
odium of his punishment recoiled upon themselves. The Ad-
dress concluded with exhorting Sir Francis to persevere in his
laudable endeavoan to effect what he bad so happily begun,
a Reform in ParUasient, and the restoration of the Posse
Cemitratel
Mr. CLIFFORD seconded the Letter, and the
Sheriff was beginning to read it ; but the Meeting,
by a show of hands, resolved that it should not be
read a second time, but that it should be presented
by the Sheriff to Sir Francis Burdett, us the Ad-
dress of the Meeting.

Mr. CLIFFORD then came forward, \and ob.
served, that several G-ntlentea ha, daring the
dismission, expressed a wish. to pass is vote of
censure on Mr. Mellish. lie, howefer, woad
nd; recommend such a vote, lest any pretext should
be thereby given for saying, that the Mooting,
which had comietted itself with such propriety
and ticcoruni, had been actuated by any motive
likh Malice. A vote of thanks was always more
agreeable to him to propose than a vote of censure,
and he held one of the former kind in hand, which
he hoped the Meeting would agree to, and as it
was only intended fur Mr. Byng; be trusted such
exercise of cool discrimination would have a pro.
per effect upon the mind' of the other Represents.
sive, who, by excluded from their thanks,
would thereby appear beneath their notice: (Great
applause.) fie then proposed that the Thanks of
the Meeting be given.to Mr. Byug fur his general
condtict in Parliament.

Mr. BENT LY here said, that ad expression Of"
Mr. Byng had been misunderstood by some Gen.
tlemen preseht, and he wished to take that op..'
portunity of putting them right. Mr. Byng, by
saying that many Members of Parliament waited
only far the countenance of the people to pra-
mote a Reform, meant, that without the assis.
tance hf the peeple, he and his friends could not,
in the present House of Commons, effect their ob..
ject, but did not require to be goaded to do that
which they conceived their duty.
Mr. WAITIIMAN taiel, he had no intentlowt
of throwing the least reelection on the conduct or
M. Byng, 'whose sentiments and actions be was
to well acquainted with.
The Resolution was then passed, and •
Mr. BYNG returned his warmest thindite for
the honour they •had just conferred upon Mm.
From the period he first was returned to Parlia.
meet, he never wished for any place or emote.
meat in the gift of the Crown, well knowing that
if he accepted of it, he could not do his duty to his
Constituents. He was always a friend to Perlis..
metftary Reform, and if the People were decided
in favour of it, they must attain it. lie %ruin the
habit of acting with men who acknowledged that
grand truth, that all power was derived from the
People, and that it was to be employed only for
their support. [Great applaucc.]
Mr. CLIFFORD then expressed his perfect
satisfaction at the alacrity with which the Sheriffs
called the Meeting, and their impartial conduct that
day. He therefore proposed that they should re-
ceive the thanks of the Meeting.
Major CARTWRIGHT seconded the motion,
and observed, that one of the Sheriffs (Mr. At-
kins) had a double claim on their gratitude, as
he understood him to labour under a se►ere bodily
indisposition, and that he was also affected with a
recent calamity.
Mr. CLIFFORD, proposing the thaots of the
Meeting, remarked that he must imitate the con.
duct of the House of Commons, by assuming the
authority of the civil power ; but that he was
constrained to do so, as the worthy Sheriffs had
too moth modesty to put the vote themselves. •
Mr. Sheriff WOOD felt highly proud that his
condoct had met the approbation of so respectable
a Meeting. He took that opportunity of observ-
ing, that he was called upon to give some explana.
tint) of a transaction wherein he took a part, and
of which some misrepresentations had gone abroad..
A 'Member of the House of Commorik had lavidi.
ously asked the Serjeant at Arms—whether there
was not a marked difference in his conduct from
that of his worthy colleague, when they were at
Sir Francis Burdett's house ? In consequence of
that question being put, he thought proper•to give
an account of his conduct when he dined last week
with the Friends of Parlimpentary Reform, at the
London Tavern. The report of what• he had then'
said, which had appeared in some of the papers,
was extremely incorrect; and partly in consequence
of that, two Magistrates bad thought proper to
publish a statement in the Newspapers not -very
favourable to him. The multiplicity of duties
which he had to perform during the last few days,
prevented him from publishing any answer to it
hitherto, bat he assured the Meeting it would
appear in a few* days, or, perhaps, to-nserrow,
and he trusted his conduct would then meet the
approbation of the County, as being legal and
constitutional, and consistent with the dignity of
the high situation he held. He stated ids perfect
readiness to give the Freeholders at all times an
opportunity of assembling, and fully and freely
discussing all political subjects. (Applause.)
Mr. ATKINS said, he had nothing more to do
than to act according to the best of his judgment ;
but as his situation was merely Ministerial, lie
wished the Meeting had not imposed, any ot::er
duty upon him. Ile concluded with saying, that
he should continue to exert his judgment, and
discrimination, that he should always be proud of
their thanks, as he then was, and should be very
sorry if he should lose their good opinion.
Mr. Sheriff WOOD said, he'shonld feet it his
duty to present.their Address to Sir Francis Bur.
dett in the Tower. (Applause.)
Mr. Ctierono then moved, " 4 That the Reso-
lutions should be advertised," which was agread
to, and the Meeting adjourned at half past four
o'clock.

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Just published, in large Demv Octavo, price Ss. 6d. (the
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TILE WHOLE of the late PROCEEDINGS
In PARLIAMENT respecting Sir F. BURDETT—
his Letter to his Constituents, with the Arguments thereon,
and all his other Letters—a faithful Narrative of the late
Disturbances—also as accurate Detail of the Westminster
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To which is prefixed, an Origiaal SKETCH of the LIFE
of the Hon. Baronet. The whole arranged by a Gentleman
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