The Statesman.
London, England, 1810-05-25 00:00:00

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the nation, smut be Imputed as matter of biome, either.tia
the Cniantaaffers efftployed execute the measures of ,to
verninent, or to Ministers. who, by the unskiladness of toeir
plaits. have Loa attninable objects, or by their folly and oh •
stinacy base wasted the efforts of the nation on objects which
are spattajnahle. .
Afhl yelyour Petitioners tut eniripellert to sane, that, save
in the case of the Commander of the Expedition to Buenos
Ayres, no individual, either Minister or General, has been
brought to punishmeat, as being accountable for the Ins,e,
and misfortune: which have befallen the Britisti aims. That
on the contrary, the pion and tonilitet of one diaro rous Expe-
dition after another, stands vindicated on the Journals of
your Hon. House ; and that nothing aippears there to deter
his Majesty's Ministers from again wa.ting tae blond mid trea-
sure of the country, as they have lately dime in the Expedi-
tion to Walcheren.
Yodr Petitioners farther beg leave to state. that they are
humbly of opinion, that this intim:illy of the planners and
conductors of disastrous enterprlxes, and the consequent re-
petition of such einerprizes, is no At.lerWisC to he accounted
for, than by the mode in which many of the Members of
your Hon. House obtain Seats therein; and especially, by
the introduction into your Him. House of numerous Place-
men, pensioners, and dependants on the Minister for the time
being, whom your Pet Masters hoinhly conceive to have an
obvious interest in forbearing to condemn, When etmdentria-
tion would remove from office, those to whom they look up
forfortune and influence.
Your Petitioners further beg leave to state, that this their
opinion hunt late been strongly confirmed; by the • open de-
fence of the system of Parliamentary Corruption, which,
during the last Session of Parliament, was set up in your Ho-
nourable house, and which drew from yottr Speaker the me-
morable remark, that the practices so defended, were" prac-
tices, at the mention of which our ancestots would have start-
ed with nalignation and disgust." .
-
Your Petitioners have been still more strongly confirmed
in the opinion above Stated, by the fact, that Lord Viscount
Castlereagh, a Menther of your Honourable House, Was in
the said Session, convicted of the t &nee of offering
East Indio patronage in barter for a Seat in your Honourable
House; and that this offence, and the vindication of the sys-
Wm of corruption above alluded to, woe passed over by your
,Honourable Howe without any vnte of censure thereon.
And that Si: Francis Burdett, Bart. also a Member of the
Honourable House- having, in a Letter to his Constituents,
on the committal Of John Gale Jones, questioned the right
of your Honourable House to commit any one, nit being, a
Member of the same, for an olleacc cognizable by the laws
ttf the land, has for the publishing of te abve-mentioned'
Letter, been himself committed a prisneehr to theo Tower.
Your Petitioners further beg leave to• state, that, reflect-
ing upon the long-continned impunity of tae authors of na-
tioo:a disaster?, and also upon tha impunity of Lord Castle-
reagh, and the vindication of Parliamentary Corruption, ps
compared with the proceedings lately adopted against Sir
Froncis Burdett, they are greatly apprehensive that an opi-
nion may go abroad among the people at large; that a atm-
lints maintenance of the lik.aty of the subject is a more fla-
grant offence in the eyes of yoar Honourable House, than the
wanton destruction, by rashness and imbecility, of thbusands
of his Majesty's gallant soldiers and seamen, the profuse ex-
penditure of the public resources, or the. corruption of the
representation of the people.
Your Petitioners, abstaining from animadversions on mat-
ters which will, in all probability, become the subjects of le-
gal investigation, humbly slate to your Honourable House,
that, moldering the premises, and being anxiintly desirous
that the true dignity of your Honourable House should be
maintained, they do strongly, but respectfully press upon the
consideration of your Honourable House the necessity of a
Reform in the COIIIIIIOIIS House of Parliament, which may
ensure the purity and integrity of your llouourable House,
and, above all, the responsibility of 'Ministers.
And they further beg leave to submit to the wisdom of
your Honourable House, the expediency of summoning Sir
Francis Burdett, to assist in the deliberations which must ne-
cessarily take place dn this momentous subject—and also of
performing what your Petitioners cannot but consider as au
act of justice, by the liberation of John Gale Jones from hu-
‘aionnient.

LIVERPOOL LETTER TO SIR PRdS.
BURDETT.

Copy of the Letter to Sir FRANCIS BURDITT,
Bart. bearing the. signatures of upwards of 3000
of the most enlightened and respeetable-iuhabit-
ants of Liverpool, which, we understand, was
delivered yesterday to that Hon. Baronet, by J.
Cattiii., Esq. the Gentleman deputed for that

purpose. •
We; the undersigned inhabitants of the town of Liverpool
and its vicinity., beg leave to offer you our sincere and grate-
ful atlorowledgmenta for that zeal and ability with which,
nit so many important occasions, you have stood forth in de-
fence of the rights and liberties of your fellow-citizen.Q, and
for the indiums integrity and tiranne,a by which your politi-
cal character lea been so eminently distinguished,
(in the pre,ent occasion, we desire inure particularly to
Seta, our public approbation of that line of conduct which
you have thought it incumbent ou you to pursue, in oppo-
sition to measures, which ne cannot but regard as entirely
repugnant to every principle of a free' Constitution, and ut-
terly subversive of our rights as Englishmen. We have ever
deemed it an excellence peculiar to the Government of our
co,:titry, that it was a Government of Law, to which all
other authority wirsubordinate, and by which the rights and
duties of the subject were cicaily and accurately defined; if
however, tinder the vague and indeterminate name of Privi-
le*,e, the Representative Body are to be invested with no
arbitrary power of dispensing with the laws, we are at a loss
to comprehend on what fimudation oar much boasted li-
berties rest; such a discretionary authority has ever been
deemed to constitute the seri essence of despotism, and the
exercise of it would at once render uttgatory all the salutary
provisions of our ancestors for the security of personal
dom. To wrest this dangerous prerogative from the hands of
our earlier Monarchs, was the great object fur which they so
utility and so successfully tonteuded; and were we now to coon-
cede such a power to the popular branch Of oar Constitution,
it would, in bur apprehensions, be productive of conseqaences
still more injurious, since that jealousy and suspicion, which
might controul Its operation as ao exertioa.of prerogative,
would cease• to influence when it was exercised wider the
mildeunattwof privilege;. Fur ie.w•fwsa, heaythosty so secuFe
or so pernirions, as wised it assumes the semblance of free-
dom. When privilege is perverted to such purposes% there-
fore, We Cannot help viewing it as an arbitrary assumptidn of
power at once uncoustitutional, illegal, add unjust; in direct
violation of the Great Charter of our liberties; supported ou
the authority of no one statute; and revolting to all our coo-
ceptions of justice, which forbids the characters of accuser
and judge to be united in the same party. Bat though utv-
willing to entrust to our Representatives stick an indefinite
power of commitment, yet we are far from questioning sach
as authority, when immediately necessary for-theremoval of
obstructions that directly impede their proceedings; but we
see no reason why all other supposed violations of privilege
may not safely be confided to the cognitance of oar crlininal
Courts; nor can it surely be regarded as derogatory to their
character, tit resort to the same mauls of redress which our
Monarchs thenwelVes have recourse to, foe the vindication of
their dignity nod authority.
Conceiving, therefore, such a 'claim to be at variance with
the whole system of our jurisprudence, and subversive of the
very foundations of civil liberty, we regard the manly oppo-
sition which yon have made to it, as dictated by your love
of the Constitution and the Laws; and though wu regret the
privations to which it has subjected you, yet we feel confi-
dent that you will derive ample means of consolatiOn in the
approbation of your own conscience, and the applause Of
good men; nor willposterity, Sir, be wanting in its just tri-
bute of respect and gratitude to your virtues aud your meths,
as the intrepid assertor of the plbplera rights, and the
.en-
lightened advocate of truth, liberty, and humanity.
That you may twig be pre►erved to us, to exert those great
abilities with which yon are entrusted, fur the common bene.
fit of your country and mankind, Weer sincere and fervca
pra yel.

Tfl STATFSMAN.

Wee the Undersigned, Housekeepers and other Inhabit:pis
residing a ithin the City and Liberty of Westniinster, deeply
deploring the lwe alarming Riots, and believing She same
to have hen stimulated by a delusion calculated to work up
the. minds of the lower orders of the p'eosle..s. acts of violence
injurious to the public peace, and clootottus in the highest
degree to the safety of the item. •t• ,übject, and to property
iu general, and apprehsnsive the probability of a recur-
se.oce of similar acts of net ,age arising from the exertions
which are usisg by misgovoled individuals to keep up the ter-
tarot —fe -I ourselves called upon at this crisis of getwial alarm,
to declare publicly our sentiments, and earnestly solicit the
ellen:ion of our fellow-citizens to the spirit of insubordia'
nation which threatens the destruction of our invaluable
Constitution with all the train of evils attaching to life and
property, which are not foreseen, or in the contemplation
of many of these deluded individuals who are disposed to
for Ward the designs of the Demagogues of Faction and
Anarchy&
Many of the undersigned are old ennugh to recollect the
horrid and digracefal ellects of delu,ion rind error practised
upon a misguided multitude in the year 1780, by which this
metropolis was given up to the wild ravages of an infuriated
snub, for more than a week, duriug.which, property to an
immense extent in point of value was destroyed, and many
houses and public edifices reduced to ashes, to the terror
and dismiy of more than half a million of his Majesty's
peaceful and loyal subjects-oand at a period too when no real
evil or cause of discontent existed.
The attempts in 1792 all 17913 to subvert the Government
and Constitution of the country by a vast body of inditriduals
equally worked up to a pitch of misgitided phrenty by the
mania of the French Revolution), mud be in the recollection
of many inure, who now reflecting on the miseries which
this .Revolution has produced, not only in Fratire, but
throughout the whole continent of Eueoue, must bethank fill
to a beneficent Providence that the machinations of the demo.
gape. of faction and sedition were thendefeated, and that this
.happy codntry has escaped the ravages which have enslaved
so many nations ; and instead of thstmuch-boasted freedom
which Trance was expected to enjoy, has entailed upon that
unhappy country, a military despotism and tyranoly, which
scarcely knows any parallel in the history of the world —e x-
hihiting a sad and melancholy example of the d roger o; dis-
seminating wild theories among the multitude, and of bring-
ing into action their iii-regulated passions, which the history
of all nations have evinced to be fraught with every possible
evil to the peace and well being of civil society and of all
regular Governments.
To expect perfection in any Government, is a vain hope,
while mankind themselves are so imperfect ; hut looking to-,
the present state of all the nations in the world, and parti?'
cularly to those in civilized Europe, it may be triumpliantiY
asked, where is the country its be found which enjoys so) great'
a share of civil liberty, as this highly favoured nation ? where
the laws are administered with so much purity? and where a
beloved and reveled Sovereign has, for half a century, go-
verned with so much inildosos, or exhibited to his subjects
sorb an example for religion :rad virtue ? Has he not .maid-
tested these excellent qu ilooSa, by repeated recommendations
to his Parliaments and Moats:eta to adopt measures for the
correction of all those abuses in the public expenditure which
have occasionally arisen, an I must arise in every Government t
and is there not tlbusidanc.e of evidence Ail convince any man
that will he open to conviction, that Boards of Commissioners
have been estahlished, and Committees funned in the present,
and al most every preceding Parliament. during his NT tj;...t...'s
auspicious reign, for the purpose of correcting triese,ahlts.:?
and are they not daily in the pregress of correction ?
Can it be denied that there Ms been a progressive prospe-
rity In the emintry, daring the present reign ; and that this
prosperity, arising from improvements in agriculture, manu-
factures, and commerce, has been rapid beyond. all example,
during the last twenty years. notwithstanding the pressure of.
a war of unexampled difficulty, ;there, in the revolving of
singular and unprecedented events, the whole force of all the
maritime Powers of Europe has bren brought to bear, at dif-
ferent periods, against this comparatively small c tunYry ?
Is it not a matter of exultation, that in a strttegle against
suck formidable anil numerous enemies, this country has not,
during a war of eighteen years (with a short interval), lot
single inch of territory ?—ls it not true, on the contrary, tleat
the energy of his Majesty's Government has so crlppled the
Naval Power of all the Ileiligereilts in Europe, that an coed
my's flag dare not appear on the ocean without a certainty of
captUre?—is it not also true, that (Stith the single exception
of two barren Islands in the Indian Ocean) there does not
exist a single colony or possession, heretofore belonging to
France or.her Allies, pithier in the West Indies, the Continent
of South America, or in the East Indies (Batavia extepteds
which policy forbids to capture), which is not now in the
possession of Great Britain—sgiving to this country the cous-
inand of the commerce of the world?
Does history record a nation arrived at so proud a height
as Great Britain and Ireland at this moment? These are facts
that cannot be contradicted, and the result (so far) of the
success of the present contest is a matter of astonishment and
wonder to the whole stf the civilized world.
•It is true, awl it is snitch to be deplored, that the Public
hurtheas areteavy ; hut it. is also true, and self evident, that
the increased opulence of the natiott has been folly equal to
the pressure. The In xisrles and the splendoetr of the higher
orders of society.do not appear to be diMinished. The mid-
dling classes appear also to enjoy even attire emnforts thou
a hen taxes were not one-fourth of what they areal present,
While the condition of the lablitriog people is equal, if not
Netter that at any former period.
, 'The wise measures.udnpsaLla the coarse of the mien of
our benign Sovereign, have provided a remedy for the Paine-
lion of the National Debt, which is advancing with a de- ,
gree of rapidity towards that great object which is truly as-
tonishing, and will soon operate powerfully in diminishing
the public border's.
Before we complain, therefore, let as look to the state of
the Continent of Europe compared with the happy Country
in which Providence has been pleased to place us, and judge
of out true-sltuatiOn. In France, and the
.Countries she has
brought under her yoke, it is known, to a certainty, that the
taxes are higher than in Great Britian, and collected in the
m.st arbitrary manner by the Military Poster—the Agri-
culture is every where crippled—the Manufactures are para-
Is zed—and the Commerce almost annihilated. The unhappy
people under the dominion of France are actually. compelled •
to make bricks without straw. The means of subsistence
by the different sources of industry are denied to them, while
they are oppressed by exactions and contributions (o support
the Military, by which the little capitals they possessed are
nearly exhausted, and their situation rendered unhearahle by
a system of ts runny and oppression which has scarcely any
parallel in the history of the world.
But this is not ail.—Their arms are torn from the bosom of
their families by the Conscription LAWS as soon as they arrive
at the age of 18 years, and sent to perish in the armiesof Spain
and Germany, where, there is the strongest reason to believe,
V.30,0tX) have been laid in their graves by sickness and the
sword during the last two years.
How very difierent is the situation of the People in this'
happy Country ; and how much reason they have to he thankst•
fat to Divine Providence for thl blessings they enjoS
These, and many other coo-ides:ohms, have tuduced
undersigned to manifest their thaukfultiess to Divine Prods-.
deuce, for the many blessings they enjoy,, by supporting the
Constitution', from which these blessing have been derived;
and to declare, as they now (10, in the Most explicit terms,
their firm resolution to stipport the Government atm venera-
ble mid virtuous Soverei.n; as by law established, against all
combinations to excite popular clamour, by diaeininatiog
wild and imprarticabletheortes, which have lascn at all times.
deprecated as pregnruit with 'the greatest danger, amid the ar-
guments in their favour satisfactorily refuted at ditterent times
during the last And present century, by the wisest. the most
enlightened, and the most virtuous +Alen that 114, ur auy other
country ever produced.