The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-05-25 00:00:00

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TRIG fpff OF WRSTMINSTER ANd
PCIRITY OF gLECTION.

h. Fifth Annixersary of Sir Francis .fittedetrs
morn to (nr ;tbe City of :Weittnlnster,
was celebrated on Saturday, at the Crown and. An-
chor Tavern, Sir Fonds Bdrdett in the Chair;
who, a little after five o'clock, entered the room, ac.
companied by the lion. C. 11. Hutchinson, M. P. ;
T. Blunt, Esq. of Statfordihire ; Fawkes, Eiq.
of Fernley, Yorkshire; Mr. Alderman Wood, at
*hen a body of nearly 500 independent Electors
of IVestminster sat clown, to an excellent dinuer.—
immediately after the removal of the cloth,

" The It gent...sad may be hear in mind the declaration of
the Prime of lVales, ' that the Crown is held iu trust for the
Wuebt of the Peoplee "
was drunk with thre, and loud applause—Tune,
" God save the King."
Sir F. Btllti err then gave—
l' The Memory of that tilt.. Patriot, who, for npwtsrds of
Shy years, athte.tt..,l the People,. Cause—Jota Horne Totike."
tbree.)—tune, •• The Dead March.
Mr. Sruscu, after a prefatory speech, in which
he observed, that every person who heard him, must,
from the present posture of affairs, feel greatly ap.
• probensive for the fate of the country—but this he
weald say, even if the worst happened, the inde-
pendent Electors of Westminster might very justly
entertain this copsolation, that their hands were clean
—that acme of the evils with which the country might
be afflicted were chargeable to them. They had acted
purely and virtuously,, in their choice of Sir Francis
Burdett, and they had sliewn to others how they
ought to act. lie concluded by giving—
,r Westminster's Pride, and England's Hope—Sir, beds
flordett,"
which was drunk with three times three, and the
most unbounded applause—Tune, " Britons strike
home."
Sir F. BCRDETT immediately rose, and said he
should be insensible indeed to any of those common
feelings which necessarily operated on the human
breast, if ha did not feel, in the strongest degree,
gratitude towards the electors of Westminster, and
devotion to their and the public interest for those
genuine marks of affection and esteem, which he had
so uniformly received from the public at large.—
They formed an additional stimulus for his adherence
to that principle of public duty, which had secured
him a reward, that, after the gratification of his own-,
mind, after the feelings of his own heart, was the
Most pleasing return which could be made to him for
his exertions—he meant the approbation of the eke. I
tors of Westminster.—[Bear!]—Calamitous as was
the situation of the country, he conceived little satis-
faction could be derived from reflecting on public
affairs. But he confessed he felt very great satisfac-
tion in having an opportunity of addressing so re.
spectable, so numerous, and so enlightened a body
of his Constituents; those sentiments, which, un-
fashionable as they appeared to be in many other
places, where one should suppose they would be re-
ceived with congenial feelings, he did experience
much gratification in avowing, before an assembly,
where public virtue, public feeling, and the consi-
deration of public duty, were not extinguished—
[Hear, hear!]—lt was often his lot, in the per-
formance of his duty to address number of. Gen.
timer, whose feelings appeared to be of a very
differeot description. Paying the electors of West..
Minster this Compliment, if, indeed, if could be at
all so considered, he begged leave to observe, that
it was a very ihdifferent one; and, therefore, they
mast place it on the ground of his not having been
in the habit of addressing assemblies in a compli-
mentary way. Such, however, as it was, he trust-
ed they would receive it as it was intended.--[Heat',
hat!]—Without certain great public Measures, he
observed, that the old sham miserable pretence of be-
nefiting the Public, by any change in Administra-
tion, would be found illusory. New, the measure he
proposed, and on which he would stand, was this—
that no Administration should be formed, except on
the principle of redressing the grievances of the pub-
lic ; of cutting off and stopping the profligate expen-
diture of the public money (for instance, the paying
of unmerited pensions, and the granting of sinecure
places to worthless individuals); that no Administra-
tion should be tolerated that did not proceed on the
broad basis of univerdsl rights, that would not oppose
the rights of the Constitution being withheld from
descriptioo of persons, on account of religious opi-
nions—together with this principle, which could only
secure the continuance of the benefits he lad men-
tioned, or. of any ethers which an Administration
might bestow on the country, " a full and fair Re-
presentation of the peoplein Parliament,'"—[flearl
—.to which he thought they were as well entitled as
the King was to the Crown. It was part of the com-
pact, it was part of the original agreement when the
Monarch ascended the Throne—and the people had
as full and completes right to It as any individual had
a right to his private estate ; and in one point of
view, the claim might be considered more powerful, be-
cause it was most essentially connected with the happi.
mess and prosperity of the country. By the recogni-
tion of that right alone could be supported the boasts
which they were so fond of making, sometimes, he
believed, without much consideration, that this was
a free and independent nation. It was not for him,
at that time, and before so enlightened an assembly
as he addressed, to trace back and chew that,
which was as plain and clear as the day-light, that
the freedom of this country depends upon a pare ad-
ministration of the Constitution. It had been the
fashion to talk of the present as the period in which
constitutional privileges were most attended to; but,
the more they went back into the history of the Con.
atitction, tg its primitive tinves and transactions, the''
more Is ttiey be impressed with the idea of? the
rate of freedom enjoyed by their ancestors.—
iNear .9 They were so jealoes of that freedom,'
that they appointed to most of the great offices in the
country. These rights, however, had either been'
taken away by. violence, or had' been juggled from
them by trickery or corruption—and the only popu-
lar right which was left, was tjiat of chasing their own
representatives in Parliament.. Ile had always be-
lieved and maintained, that. the great .constitutional
bulwark of a Parliament fairly chosen by the people at
. large, was slot more necessary to ,the dee administra-
tion of the laws -t lie safety of the conetry, and these_
entity of themeople hi general, than codduclvd to the
greatness andpermaiiency of the Throne. To Was!
grate Ibis tiolut a little, he would just gall their recta.