The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-03-03 00:00:00


* meet 7,1100,6001. (hear, bear.) The qeeetion
owl tripe fen iii people imagined, namely, whet
Moe fartmehmese to fro on drinking barley in their win'
4hether they were to .retoro to their pipes and Sir .11
.11orleverwn ; the wain!) was whether the whole frame,
apricultaral sory..rius to be subverted, and whethi

.~

the hard earned freits of honest iodustry were ti
reliever/el lathe meet insidious and nefarious way ..
the Pockett• of thel tasteless Ate those of the idle.?—
eWbef was tfill
•sine? where the icimer paid
she. eteliiht • -ef *heat, three score of sheep,
'imams haidelitaineee tweinewer the deemed* upon him,
poq ettlieed toperetine., it sae singular that
allover to eletheapPlications Made hi the people to
retlinntellt wise Alta lending, could be donel What !
*oohing tabs done? Whim then; wait, the emeipotence
e'of Parliament ? Did riot thee hon. heomein 1797. pass a ,
• 'Mill, ebaeglng a gold for apaper eurreete—did they not
'vies a resolution Zedering that a Potted-
-Dote and a Shil-
lin were equal toe:Guinea, it satiate Shen Guinea, were
.actually selling in the eoinstff a-piece? What
.then were they to believe Where they to Understand
eliit.Parlianaent was omitipleteist only in enacting measures
which proittood ruin and Althssie • hot imaltent as to any
enetweee which might affordteller ?Ttwould ben libel upon*
bow. house to broach say each doctrines ? lint they.
were,told thafMinisten were willing to relieve them, bet
Iltet thee knew sot what to do When Ministers saw the
llnetion in diairess and difficulty; distress not .ruing out
of any finks or foillewof their owe, bat of circumstances
over which the sufferers had no oontrottl, and when those
Ministers stated that they knew list what to do, his an-
*wer would be, " I shall telt you what to ..do—gri out of
016eSsed svelte room for other men who will try what can
bejloae." Perhapn'theysnight-evant employment .on re.
Pine. from ace, if en he would recommend them to say.
1104 that.old sycophantic commie, Polooice, .who said:
, Let me he no awiatilitt to &State. e
• eee '• But keep a farm. end carters."
ikklllll4.`• Indeed he abould desire oo better spat in
these enll times than to see hii Majesty's Ministers
quittiewtheir present posts and iromedtarefy entering up-
on ]opt leans of large farms of poor land, with the
rent, tithe, and taxes, contracted during a paper curren-
cy.sed new to he paid in a gold onei[laughing]. The
tonht would be preferable even than sendin them to
erhloogl to Cohhett, although they could not have a
hettee master to teach them the theory of agricultural
distreme his plan would be spelt a practical lesson, that
they would. in one year; learn more of the real state of
agricultural distress, than they could obtain in ten years,
if they remained in their present offwes and salaries
[itteschine]. The Hon. Gentleman, after some further
observations, advised. that the people should persevere
in praying for a Parliamentary Reform, without winch
no effectuel relief could be afforded to the country. He
had beard it asked what benefit will Reform do ?—you
. emit alter the natdre of man. He thought very differ-
ently ; can was the creature of circumstances, and was
acted upon be what was passim; around him. Take any
tows where there was a free election, Reading, for in-
seines, of which be bee the honour of being an elector ;
in that borough every inhabitant paying scot and lot
lead e easeeani the electors, who were near 900 in num.
her, it followed as a matter of course that no two repre-
sentatives heiet able to provide for the private interests
of the whole of the voters, they naturally returned to
• Parliament awn who they were convinced wool.' watch
ever their public interests [hear, hear!) lie by no
werame meant to.claim snore honour or integrity for the
mood Reading than those of other places; he supposed
them pretty ranch on a par; but if these persons were
divided hat° small corporate bodies of 24, each to return
Peteoers, ft might then become their interest to return
Members who would support a profligate expenditure
of the public money. In short, it was not the man who
corrupted the system, but the system which corrupted
the mas, After some further remarks explanatory of
the inoperative necessity of a Reform in Parliament, he
concluded by reading the petition, which want of room
obliges ns to omit.
Mr. Neel.* seconded the Petition. . .
Mr. Conner,' wait his objection to the Petition was,
*it it was tool me, too %leak, and not astfici-ntly apple.
cable to the objects of the meeting. That petition had
beensent to him; he had pernse.l it attentively, and ha.l
duly attended to its arguments, the which appeared to
him not calculated to ansever their present purpose. He
had, before he left 'London, prepared a Petition, which
was certainly much shorter, he believed much clearer,
end he also believed more fit to he adopted on that occa-
sion. He had shews that petition to the gentlemen who
tad moved the petition just read, and had given hint the
'option ef presenting it for the consideration of the meet
ing, which thatehonotwable gentleman 1. .1 declined. It
not, therefore, quite correet in that gentleman to
'state tha' he (Mr. Cohhett) meant to enclose his petition.
Mr. Marsh said he (Mr. Cuhhett) woul.l answer his ar-
gument • ; ate ha I heard no argninenrs from that gentle-
man which he hail not heard or read somewhere before;
it was not necessary, therefore, that he should enter into
acceleration of those arguments. lie assured the meet-
ing that if, in the observations which he had to make,
be failed to rai'e their mirth, it must be not only from an
hut a want of inclination to do so. '1 hat was,-
in his opinion, a most melancholy meetint ;—many gen,
tlemen then present hail attended with sorrowful hearts
and with most Arent wishes for relief from their distresses'
.—(Hear.) If the meeting arreed with him in di at peti-
tion belled drawn np, the, would return home highly gra-
tified by the consciousness of havin it taken one step, at least.
aloud' the attainment of thee which they so much de-
sired. After some allusions to the Meeting which took
fiber six years ago on Portadown Hill, he proceeded to
*earl his Petition, sentence by sentence, ocrasiouiliy coin-
reusing as be went along. The snbstnnce oet the Peti-
tion was similar to that adopted at Norfolk. 'After some
olaseevatione neon the josticoas well as the eqeity of the
claims set forth in the Petition, Mr. Cohhat'adverted to
the Hereford County Meeting. The lying, stock-job-
bine, London Newspapers, had stated that he bad been
defected, that he bad been driven off the Stage at Here-
ford; this was not the fact. The proceedings of that
day had bean moat irregular. The Lord Lieutenant be.
amine frightened at tile noise which wag made—he left
the Chair, awl a Petition said to have been carrier' was
• 'at up and presented to the House of Commons. There
the &Wiens dropped until a few days after, when the real
' Petition, his Petition. was presentid by Mr. Price, who
observed that it *attained 1,180 signatures, the first of
which was that of a Cliegyinan, rector of a large parish
in the eounti ; that 400.0 f them were hirer. landholders,
Om fine 100 of whom were worth 1,000,0001. Upon that
petition Lord Folkstone who had given notice- of a
motion for the stb of Match, on the subject of an teptit-
able adjustment of the Public Debt, after observing that
this Vl•ifr till. 0001111 petition which hart barn
re
psented'
teethe honsieto that effect, postponed his motion to the
12th of Match, at which time he would submit to the'
ebetese, not only the necessity of reducing the interest of
the public debt, hut* also of adjuinine ell private com
users between maltase man. Mr. Cobbett concluded by
tereeeleca hope deer the Meeting Would adopt his pe-
atten—thesr doing so would have the effect of inducing
the other vountiet to follow their examplend the quee.
tins would shortly be brought to issue ina Parliament,
liether a etiaogeskonld take plate` or the landlord Imo
hie land, the tenant his last shilling, sad the labourer the
tend which was necessary to the support of himself and
his family. •
Ile. li% Renee seconded the motion for the adop'ion
of Mr. Cobbetes petition.
Mr. Mare then mime 'coward, sell aid, "Here 1 am once
mereeny frionds,elter two yeas and a bait incarceration in
a eaagoisa. wither altered i.spirit nor lo priusiples.—(Ap-

had -.7eys advocatei -
varong,—(Applaese.)-rlie was much gratified to pear the
tengitage and seatiyneuts *Web fell from Ike lipt•of the fló-
viewable Baronet who, resided ; hut balsam olasertat.**
for u,phOicling these opinions he had been peitieeuted for tal
lest tan years ; in fact helped never made use of lengnsge so
violent ; lie did not by this term mean to impugn it; on the
contrary, it was the language of an pigliahman of an ho-
nourable mind, coming before his countrymen prepared to do
them um let of justice.--(Appiesse.) The Worthy Baronet
hadaold them that Ifs object wow to dO away with the whole
corruptionin the House ofConunons. Why, whoever went
farther/ .iteppearecl.however,that lathe year IbuS a change in
*Onion had beenelfeetita ; and that parties weromunimous on
this question: lie bad beardaomething about a sutheientße,
fdrm,but not toga the whole length. Were tberthen ;for half
measures er whole ones? (Cries of " Wholeones, to hal
sure!"). Why tbeh he thought that they scarcely no!'
sietatood ;the Meaning' of responsible Reform; but they
'nil knew the distinction between liberty and thraldom;
and.that man insist be an infamous wretch who could. fix
the etignii of ./Flavery on any one [applause]. He was
preyared to pupport the• Amendment ploposed.by Mr.
Gobbett---There *appeared to be antstog the present ,as-
setithlt, about 1-241ths, who' *ere respectable. who hail
good hats on thrir beads, andlood 4)64 on. t heir Inadra.;_
netwi:listanditig diet:rink Of
.ti!e times.; he therefore
looped that no impiideitttnxesfitills "meld hare the audk.
city td stand up in the. Noose of Commons, and say, the.'
Meeting was composed of- the rabble of the county ; sea
should that be the case, he trusted that an honest indivi-
dual would be found in that 'place, willing and capable to
rosette them from the imputation. The times had'
wrought this change of opinion among the farmers,
who, however different their conduct on former occa-
sions, now patiettly listened like rational beings. The
crisis was now arrived, when all measures that did not
go to the root of the evil would be disregarded, and Re-
form would no longer be delayed by either Whig or
'fury. The landlords who 'mimed them to call for re-
duction in taxation should set the example by lowering
their °an rents one half (bravo!). He would ask, had.
Sir Thomas Baring lowered his rents one half (much
disapprobation) ? Some Gentleman behind him said he
bad done so.r.i(" What is it to you whether he has or

not?—'flff, off!")
Sir ['nom ss HARING begged that they would preserve
that quiet conduct which they had hitherto observed to
the other speakers, and hear Mr. Hunt. He [Sir T. H]
was ready to answer for himself.
Mr. Huss. resumed his address. He would ask the
farmers whether reduction in their rents would not be
a great relief to them ; but before that took place they
might be ruined (applause). Mr. H. then enumerated
from a Report printed by order of the House of Com-
mons, various items of expenditure for .the maintenance
of the Yeomanry Cavalry, to Somersetsblre pointing out
the swim re-rived by the Commanding (deer, contend-
ing that this expenditure ought to be abandoned. The
Chairman haul strongly. recommended them to abstain
from personalities, but in the commencement bad treat-
ed the late High Sheriff with one of the tightest dress-
ings be had ever beard.
Sir T. &salmi, after slightly imiicing the personal al-
Issions made to him by the preceding speaker, said, if he
had not lung ago made reductions in his rents, he should
have been ashamed to have shewn his face at that meet-
ing (bravo!). If lie stated any thing untrue, many of
his tenants were present to contradict him. The Hon.
Baroiset in moat &Aug ttr,ns animadverted ou the cruel
remarks made upon Lord Portsmouth's adiiction, and pa--
thetirally described the situation of the unfortunate
NObleman during his examination.
Mr. FLEMING, M. P., expressed his satisfaction at
seeing such a numerous and respectable Meeting of the
County assemblesi upon that occasion. He had abstained
from addressing the Meeting at an earlier period, he at-
tended the Meet:rig from a Terling that it was his duty to
heir the opinion+ of his Constituents rather than deliver
his own. The Meeting would do him credit for having
dour his duty as a landlord. They were told, it was
true, of the propriety of getting rid by a summary pros
ens of the oblivion+ which they were bound to bill
towards the right; creditor. This doctrine might do
very well for those persons who bad been guilty of such
an abandonment of their engagements in private 1 fa
(bear, hear!). Such persoits might perhaps recommend
such an outage upon public faith and public honour;
but he did trust, indeed lie felt confident, that the honest
upright Yeomanry of that county would never consent to
relieve themselves from their dismesses by an act of pub-
lie rebbery ; for he could give it no milder appella'ion.
Good God! if the public credit were to be once shaken in
this war, the whole frame of society would be overturn-
ed, social cempasts must I.e at an end, and the laws of
trntb, justice, and honour must perish amidst anarchy,
distrust and mutual enmity (applause). They would be
rich indeed, even stills the half of their present incomes,
could they but make up their minds to abscond from
their creditors, or avail themselves of the advantage of
the Insolvent Act (hear, hear!). They would be rielt,
if they made their minds up to plunder the poor mecha-
nic, the helpless widow, or the unprotected orphan. of
the hard earned pittance scraped together, and placed in
the funds as a provision against sickness, old age, or any
other c Amity (cheers). Would they consent to rob the
poor industrious classes, who had placed their little all
in a Savings Bank, upon the security of the honour and
character of the colliery (" no, no")? Or did Gentle-
men believe that a violation of public credit would affect
the rich fnnilholder only ? If so, they were lunch mistaken.
The rule of right once needed, who could draw the line?
Thelionostrable Member, after some further observations,
which want of room pretentsms from giving, coriclurbid•by
moving as en Amendment, Resolutions adopted by the Ge-
neral Cemmittee of the Scotch Counties (Sir sincteir in
the Chair) for the purpose of intmirlng into the mussel 6f
agricultural distresses of the country, and the means of re-
lieving them, in which it was recommended to make silver a.,
standard conjointly with gold; to these Resolutions Use Ho-
nourable Gentleman added a prayer for the further reduction
•of the euty on Malt: and also that a. proteethig duty upon
Flax, Hides, Tallow, Butter and Cheese, eettivelent.lo the
necessary burdens of testifiers paid by the • prods:m*7s of
those articles in this country, le highly exist:diem; that the
total exemption of farm houses from the,Window • Tax, as
well as the shop windows of these forged in mete, would,
In the present distressed cirettennahalls of the cultivators, be
an acceptable Indulgence.
The Rev. Mr. WRIGRE Wooded thle Amendment.
Mr. MARSII replied in an eloquent and argumentative
mannerto the observations which had been urged against
his Petition. We regret that want of space prevents tag
from giving the Hon. Gent.'s speech.
Mr. KNISH? (the present High Sheriff), said that though
he certainly would have c.rnvenert a Meeting If appliod to.
yet he felt himself hound to protest agalatt both the first Pe'
tition and that of Me. Cobbatt, as he did nut consider tie
prayer of either, if granted, likely to be productive of any
beneficial effects to the country.—(Cries of hear, and Wort.)
Atter a few words from Mr. Hunt, the last Amendment
was pat and negatived, there not beteg ono hand held up in
its favour.
Mr. Cobbell's Petition was also put and negatived by a
large Majority.
Mr. Marsh's Petition was then put and carried with loud

applause.
Mr. Laws proposed a Vote of censtireon the late/fish She-
riff for haying refused to convene the :Netting; It was clr-
ried unaniothody, as was also a vote of thanks to Sir T.
Bating, slid the other Magistrates be whom the Meeting It LA
been contenell. It was put and eairied that the Maltese-
's

, ._
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MAILS. - • -
cytie. DIM AIR. DV/.
2.... bublirt 0 11. ;Holland • 1
11. •. . Waterford;. • • 0 I .... H aro hro 0
I ... . G & Jersey. • . .0 1.... Frayee 0
• (K... Lisbbn. • . w... .1 0.... Flanders . .. ... :3
0., .(19.ttenburg... 3 , o....maki
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I

y

Imiesing\!rif the itrice of beer would put the
r classes in good Atemour, and di.pose th,ro to
irw.tr.l in Nemec of national honour. Mr;
Itn in certainly a sound ploilns6pher as to this
We always told him how much more cffiraciu.:e
than tracts, either mural or religious. In a
this, a recruiting acrjeant is a much bettat.indo.
. other men ; andif Mr. Brougham bad real),
been a recruiting ',grant, ht could not have talked mu: e
senribly upon the subject.
House OF COMMONS CATECIIISM.—When we had Mr.
Vanning at school, we did not proceed with him by
question and answer: we proceeded as masters dealing
out instructions to our scholars. Mr. Brougloafn goes
another way to work ; and we think we are hint like
Dilworth in the picture at the head of his spelling-Folk,
sitting in his chair, with his pupil standing befooe Lino
and goingon thus :
Mmoren.—Have you read the speech of Mom. de
Chateaubriand ?
SCNOLAR.--lloareAraroed Sir.
MAirett.—Very well. M. de Chateubtiand rays two
things: first, that the Duke of Wellington said iu evolve:-
ration at Verona r that the King .of England had no
" objection to make to the conduct of with regard
".toSpuia :" second, thaethere wagon official cotegiteu
in by the Duke of Wellington at Verona, saying, "that
" this cannery favoured precautionary measures along
"the frontier between France and Spain." Now,
what say you to the first of them..?
SCHOLAR.-1 say, that "it is not to be received ca
authentic."

M As:ea.—And what say soon to the second of there?
SCROLAR.I say, " I have no doubt but the iiirlicidar_
" proposition to which he alluded was correct—that ;al •-
•• position was, however, part of a long and argumentut
" tire *etc, and therefore was not hr itself to be held es
" expressing the unqualified opinion* of Closer 'went upon
" tbetrubject. That paper might, in the course nf ar-
" potent, admit a proposition, for the sake of contra-
.' dictirg it afters aids."
M A STER.— What, Sir, do you say that the prop ;:,ion
was afterwards contradicted?
StiIOLAR...-" I beg leave to explain. I believe I al-
Wed to the admitting of a proposition for the sake
"of contradicting it afterwards. 1 meant that a prose-
" s:ti tn, which was not meant to be granted, might Le
" introduced for the sake of being contrasted with aa.
"other proposition, and that it might afterwards be con-
" tradicted by the general scope of the argument!'
Mamas.-1 am satisfied with this explanation.
So should not we have been. We are more severe
masters than Mr. Brougham. We can see something
very like a contradiction in the latter ease, of the state-
ment by the explanation. As to the first questisu, the
answer is by no means satisfactory to as. M. de Chatel%
briand may have told a lie ;' but we have no proof that
he has. He speaks positively, and without any di.sgaise
oe inset)* to disguise; and to tell as that we are ovt •o
believe him, is not quite enough to satisfy us of the faille:-
Wed of his assertion. In short, we do believe him; be-
*pose we find collateral matter to support us in this be-
lief. When the long argumentative note coiner, we
'Shall know which party speaks the truth. At any rate,
the language of our Minister at Verona Could not hsve
Wee very decisive in opposition to France. In short,
*it'll-ye that the views of the minister have greatly
elicrageil as to this matter. It would be useless to at-
tempt to come at the bottom of this until we get at the
official documents. Those must come out, first or Ist;
)11,is and we really think that until they do come est, we can-
not call in question the assertion of the French Minister
respecting thrum. As to the speechifying in legislative
egoldies,, we now see that the French can play at dist
etttavoll es we. We Dow see that they can answer the
.rtivectres that are made in one Houses of Parliament--
Ana our noisy piers may abuse the the speech of M.
Chateaubriand as long as they please. We look upon it
ai a most able and conclus:se manife'sto, as towarrlit all
those who approved of the war against -the French in
1793,--and at all the several pauses in that
war, down to the year 1815 inclueive. Intetropted
by other and more pressing matter, we were compelled
to be, ak off abruptly in the IlVister of lan Smut-Jay;
or else, in of e and the same day, the English press. and
the French press woald have contained complete proof
that the wars of England against the French people
Were acts cf most abominable ag,greesion, or else the
King of France is now most folly justified in the
war that he is entering on as to the people of Spain.—
Tbe ,horning Chronicle says that M. de Chateaubriand
has shown the cloven JON, by pointing out the necessity
of the nor, for the sake of preventing Spain fromform-
-I'.l alliances that might endanger France, and even ex-
pose her to invasion, at some future time, from the Spa-
nish fronti'r.—lf this be a (-Liven foot, we showed it to
the Chronicle /bur monthi ago. We then told ttte
Chronicle that the French would go to war.ahrl that one
of the objects of the nar would be, to make Spain as
mach dependent upon Frame as s':e formerly watt.—Bat
l'it is no cloven foot. It is an open declaration of an In-
stentiost founded io true French policy; sod if we bad
I had a mind to thwart this policy, we should hats.
,tire rerolution in Spain
_limn the beginning, and by th:s
Terme taken it fur ever (nab( the-bands of the Hoare of
Bourbon. Ths hared of our Government; its bassta
of the principles of the Spanish revolnilms,prerentei ,:s
from doing this before ;. and now it very likely to be too
late to attempt to do it.— We, therefore, should have teen
by no means satisfied with Mr. Canning's answer;
though they were so perfectly satisfactory to Mr
Bruneham.— Mr. Brougham asked Mr. Canning 57(114,
thing about the prospects of grace or war, and Mr. Can-
ning answered that the hope of peace was diminished.
We never saw any such hope at all ; and the 'only vet-
sion for us is, whether we, England, are:to take an:, part
in the war.- This question and answer work betwe, 9
Mr. Canning and Mr. Br.rtteltain we rptrEci Lli
UNDERSTAND; and the public will be enabled to :111
•••
i drrtand it in a very short time. .
ten 1

HAMPSHIRE MEETLY(}.
The Meeting ea; Lehi at iVischester. on Senn*
lest, called by Sir Thomas Baring and other tusgistrati'.*,
threeof %shorn were clergymen, in consequence of a ref.•
icd to call the :11eeting on the part of the late !With

• Tiiit STATESMAN...... .. • . •-• . .
, .-----
1 Wa. Lens.
17gine I 110 d 3$ Wi1t."1.f'41110.11131,70,1 4 Petition nn behalf skiltbE •i,, pod j,. it that the lo
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• . .
,ether ens; the pli risj,lnitt 10,1 i . pie
_poit
.. . roil by the Bounty•l'le , i • , i.lii lirigorotts t
100ipt siatvsbi d. 4 i .1 sottoin returning then!cs.. se hat art, Acorns forty
Jam P I 1111Plf lea 1141. ' e erigitefuse to call a Conti's? N ' i • for vett
-•••-.„, sis f• - It had's.° 'e t tut owled of eau - (air T.• 11.). should consider a roniu lint lona' pulln%e; h. Brougham
I"," her of them that binee that time a dispute had taken p ace would always be reedy to 'unveils - s true couracibatbelnall matter. 11
etn";..betweesiblot tad dlr. Gobbet bat he homer leo should eon. done upon that occasron.—(Loud cheers.)
10 oe. since there that no private ;reline-0o personal paimosity, •Mr. litaaosfrli. M.P. said he should feel pleasure in pre- beer was t
from -should induce him to betray the great pohlia mile which he void!, their Petition to the House. ' case like tti
le,?— had always advocated since he could. disilltltuish tidal from The Meeting was dfssolved at tes minutes to Ire o'clock. -dim moat
..-