The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-02-10 00:00:00

THE STATESMAN.

The High Sheriff havingsconvened a meeting of the
Freeholders of this county for the purpose of address-
ing the Houses of Parliament on the subject of Reform,
a numerous and highly respectable assembly filled the
Town Hall on Saturday, soon after 12 o'clock, thehour
appointed.
At half past twelve, the Sheriff took the chair, and
.proceeded to read the sequisition, which was signed by
Lords Estee and Darre, Mr. Calvert, and other free-
holder". The requisition called upon him to convene a
meeting of the freeholders and inhabitants of the county,
for the purpose of considering the state of the House of
Commons, and the necessity of a reform thereof. He
had, however, thought it better to deviate from the
terms of this requisition, and to follow the usual course
of proceedings in the county, by calling a meeting of
the nobility, clergy, gentlemen, and freeholders, in
which classes were included, those persons who were
qualified to pronounce an opinion upon the matters
proposed to be discussed. He then re9uested that the
meeting would listen with an impartiality, a decorum,
and a propriety, suitable to the importance of the sub-
ject, to whatever sentiments should be expressed.
31r. Hats then addressed the meeting. He felt it his
duty to apologize for the imperfect manner in which the
subject was to be introduced by him, and regretted that.
the task had not been confided to more worthy hands.
It was now some years since lie had stood in that place
as a humble advocate, but a sincere friend to Parlia-
mentary Reform. He had then, as he now proposed to
hes e, the honour of submitting resolutions earreesive of
his own sentiments and of those of the majority of the
meeting, as to the necessity of endeavouring at least to
effect a change in the present system of representation.
At that period the meeting had been called by the etre-
the constitutional, and powerful exertions of his
noble friend (Lord Deere), whom be was glad to see
once more in this place. It was impossible on the pre-
sent occasion to overlook his services in the cause of
reform ; and although he was removed at a greater dia.
tance from them, lie trusted and believed that the same
hopes, the same feelings, and the same anxiety for re-
form, actuated him .whom he scan proud to acknowledge
one of its most effective friends. It was long since they
hal last met in that place.: he could say for himself that
the time which had gone by had ugly served to strength-
en his conviction of the necessity of reform. No session
of Parliament, he would boldly say, had passed since the
period to which he alluded, which had not given
birth to some act or other injurious to the best interests
of the country, and had been brought about, as be con-
ceived, by improper and undue influence. Since
that period the Habeas Corpus Act had been, in
his poor judgment, unnecessarily suspended, since
that period the Six Acts had passed —(Applause)—
arts which were utterly subversive of the liberties of
Englishmen. What had they gained ? They had met
in that place for the purpose of expressing their griev-
ances, and praying some relief from that overwhelming
taxation which bore so heavily upon all of them. They
had seen, by way of answer to their prayer, that •
minister of the Crown got up, and in the face of their
din a unequivocally expressed, unfeelingly asserted
(lie would not use harsh language, since that minister
was no more), that taxation was not an evil, and more-
over that it was indespensably necessary. Till then he
had honed that the country gentlemen, as they were
called In the House of Commons, had some influence
there, and that they had power to procure the relief
which was sought ; he was at once sorry and disappoiat-
ed to find their inflame's° entirely impaired He was
there, then, firmly and explicitly to state his opinion
that no means short of an effectual reform would suffice
to restore this wretched country to the condition she for-
merly enjoyed: nothing less than a House of Commons
less alienated from the people than was the present—al
House of Commons more controlling, and less controll-
ed. He was aware that to enter upon an explanation
of the theory of the House of Commons would be a
waste of his own words and of the time of the meeting.
lie was confident there were few, if any, Englishmen
who did not understand so much of the constitution
at least, as that no man ought to pay taxes unless
he was properly represented. (Applause.) He was
to.xions now to draw their attention more imme-
diately to the subject of the meeting. He knew that re-
formers were looked upon in the light of disturbers of
the public repose, and that those who advocated the
doctrines of reform had been characterised, as the advo-
cates of improper innovation. Nothing could he more
false than such imputations ; nothing more foolish than
the policy which prompted them. With respect to a
strict public public economy, he took it for granted that
in asking for that, it was allowed on all hands, they
' a 'lced for nothing more than what was due to them.—
This, at least, was due to a brave and generous people,
whose sacrifices had been great, and who had struggled
cheerfully and fearlessly under the pressure of their
difficulties, until they bad become too great to be longer
horne.—(Applause.) With respect to a reform in Par-
liament, it would he well they should satisfy themselves,
C at in asking for it they did not ask for that which they
Lid no right to expect, and which was not warranted by
precedrets. Upon this point, the most satisfactory in-
fortuation was to be gained. It had ever been one of
the principles of the constitution, to amend the various
branches of it as often as occasion should require. From
• the earliest periods of the history of Parliaments—that
l's, from the reign of Edw. I.—the system of representa-
tion bad always been subject to variation. This was a
matter of history open to all, incapable of misrepresents.
Lion. and no more to be doubted than the very existence
of Parliaments. He could, if it were neceswy, or con-
sistent with the object of that meeting. cite acts of
arliament, to show that these were not slight variations
holt that they were considerable, and that they deeply
Involved the rights of the people. Were tl.ey then
to be told, that to reform the Commons House of
Pediatrics' would be to violate the Constitution of the
country; when the proof was obvious.that it was perfectly
conformable to the practice of other days ? He wished
not to be misunderstood, though indeed there was now
less chance of it than heretofore, because where there.
had been one reformer fifteen years ago. there were many
hundreds now. It was true they had lost, and he deeply
lamented, many able leaders, but the troops were still
numerous, and fresh recruits were daily pouring in on
. every side. Alen who had hitherto reposed in fancied
security, began now to see the danger which threatened•
them and to arm themselves for the purpose of opposipg
its farther strides. His object in endeavouring to bring
about a reform was by every constitutional miens to'
"assimilate the feelings of the people. lie would take
the representation from individuals, mid give it to popu-
lation. Ile would shorten the duration of Parliaments
by lawful means, so as to make the House of Commons
whet Air. Pitt said, and what every man knew it ought
' be—an image of the riation ; and he would promote the
tlosest onion and mast perfect sympathy between that
aseesubly and the people of F.ngland. I f this state of
'things did exist, let ,ratters retuftin as they were : hut it
it did not, it was their duty, as reasonable men, and as
. lavers-of their e.ountry, to apply tbe legitimate means of
establishing that which they knew to be right. These,
be said, were his °pinkish; be silted no man to adopt
them; lie sished rather that those who heard him
should act froaftbeir own discretion and goad joolgusent.
He %mild only ask whether the Hone of Cottunons, as
it was now cunstii ut-d, was likely to protect, as it ought,
the rights and liberties of the people? He then con-
cluded by moving;that a petition from that meeting he
presented to Parliament, praying for an effectual and
speedy reform.

Mr. Warin rose to second the motion. He felt there
was no question, the principles of which it warless ne- I
cessary to detail than, that of Parliamentary .Reform,'
when he was addressing an assembly constituted like
that he had the honor of then meeting. All the dis-
tinguished statesmen whom our country had produced
in latter times, had at some period or other of their lives
been seen to advocate the principles of Reform. Many
of them, it was true, had fallen off; they had changed
their opinions, when sonic powerful inducement had
tempted them, and they had ceased to advocate the
cause; but still it might be claimed for reform, and
scarcely any distinguished statesman had liven who had
not, at some period or other, seen and felt its truth and
expediency. Frequently as the subject had been consi-
dered, it was impossible on the present occasion to re,
train from urging some points for the purpose of show-
ing the necessity of again, and at this time particularly,
addressing the House of Commons. When the ques-
tion had formerly been discussed, he had found that the
comparatively few persons who contended that Reform
Was not necessary, intrinsically, and of itself had gene-
rally met the question with some sirgament of postpone-
ment. They said the subject, whatever might be its
merits, was not fit then to be entertained ; there was
something in the peculiar situation of the times which
rendered it either unsafe or unadvisable to carry up their
petitions as they ought. They said that foreign wars,
or domestic troubles, threatened even the social instituti-
°snot the county, and asked if time could be atiOrded
to discuss the evils of their parliamentary representation,
if evils it had. These objections, however, did not
apply to the present time I no dangers threatened us
now; there was ample time and opportunity to give the
, most serious attention to the defects of the legislative
Constitution. Another reason struck him forcibly, why
this was, of all others, a most fitting time, It had
formerly been said, with a certain degree of triumph,
that however true the objections made by the reformers
might be in theory, yet, when the system came into
practice, it worked well for the prosperity of the king-
dom, and for the happiness of individuals. He only
regretted that this could not be said now ; be wished
very. sincerely, that what lie had to address to the
' meeting could he met by that argument now. But let
the meeting look at the various divisions into which
society was broken down, and they would find none is
which the system was working well. Let them look at
the peasantry, once the glory of England, the bold and
free -4efenders of their country, and the cultivators of
its soil, and they would find them degraded into servile
dependents upon parochial assistance. (Hear.) Let
them look at the farmers, who were the cultivators of
the land, and at every man who, like them, was engaged
in agricultural laws; he knew that a voice wuuld
echo from every corner of that hall, proclaiming
loudly that the system did not work well. (Loud and
continued applause.) They had wasted their capital
upon the land ; they were suffering privations and dis-
tress which broke down their spirits ; and the future
seemed more gloomy, if possible, than the present state
of their affairs—there was no prospect of their being
restored to that situation in the country which
they were born to fill, or of receiving again the
capital they had upended upon the land (Applause.)
Let them look then to the country gentlemen, the owners
of the soil, and they would be seen also suffering under
privations and distress peculiar to this period. Thus
the argument that the system worked well, which it was
at least always pleasant to hear, was no longer applica-
ble. This, then, was the time when of all others it was
most necessary for them to express their opinions and
detail their sufferings to Parliament; this was the period
at which it could not be denied that reform was neces-
sary to the salvation of the state. Ile begged to call
their attention to some particulars respecting the repre-
sentation of the people of England in Parliament: 4119
members were returned ; of these the 40 counties, send-
ing two each, made up SO, thecities 50, the Universities
4, the Cinque Ports 16, live boroughs sent 5, and 167
other boroughs returning the remaining 334. They
must immediately perceive the immense and overwhelm-
ing preponderance of the borough representation. It
was an great, that if every county, and city, and other
place not a borough, in this kingdom, were to endeavour
to procure the adoption t.f any measure by Parliament,
and the members returned for the boroughs should think
fit to oppose it, it would he negatived in the House of
Commons by a majority of nearly two to one. Putting
this aside, he would come to the manner in which the
influence was shared among counties by the boroughs ,
which happened to be within them, Cornwall had 21
boroughs, and with the county it returned 44 members
to Parliament. The counties of Derby, Warwick,
Chester, Huntingdon, and Rutland, returned only four
members each, In Cornwall there were, as appeared
from the returns, 250,000 persons, and the amount of
taxes collected in the county was 1,300,0001. War-
wick contained 275,000 souls, and paid in taxes,
1,901,0001. Thus the population of Warwick was great-
er than that of Cornwall by twenty five thousand, and
its revenue exceeded it by 600,0001. ; and yet it possessed
only one-eleventh part of the influence claimed and ex
'reified by the secondary and inferior county. He de
dined to enter into a detail of the County of Chester,
where the proportions were even greater, and where
the representative influence would remain one-eleventh
as before. For the manner in which the elective
franchise was distributed, it was necessary only to look
at the example of the borough of Steyning, and that
immediately adjoining it in the same street, both of
which returned two weathers to Parliament. There
were others, consisting of two hamlets, but both in the
same parish, each of which returned as many members
to Parliament as the whole County of Middlesex, the
wealth and importance of which was represented only
by two members. The borough of Dunwicli in Suffolk
bad formerly been a place of considerable importance,
an emporium of trade, and containing eight parishes,
and a large population; vow it was submerged and
swept into the sea, one parish alone and a few inhabit-
ants remained; and this miserable remnant from the
desolation exercised the same privileges which had been
granted to the city in its most important condition.
There were other boroughs where not a single inhabit-
ant dwelt; such were Old Sarum, and Alidhurst, in
the county of Sussex. If it was asked who were the
members representing the towns where there actually
were houses and inhabitants, the answer would be, they
were persons returned by the will of individuals ; those
individuals were mostly peers, who ought by the laws
to have no voice in the election of members of Parlia-
ment ; and justly were they debarred, because they had
another and most important privilege of sitting else-
where. But the evil was nut confined to these boroughs.
Bath was a city which for its importance ought to have
• share in the representation. instead, however, of the
nnmeruus and respectable persons who lived in that city
having any thing to do with the return to Parliament, it
was managed by a few corpuratars and self elected
aldermen. The town of Bury, in Sulfide, was in the
saute condition ; the member was not returned by the
choice of the inhabitants, hut by self elected corporators.
It was, however, not necessary to go so far for an illus-
tration. The members for the borough of Cambridge
were returned, not by the 10,000 inhabitants of the town,
but by 150 peculiar freemen and corporator'. Even
these freeholders and eurporators owed their freedom to
a gift, and resided at Cheveley, near the property of a
noble duke who was supposed to have a great interest in
'the return for Cauibriuge. There here others still
worse than these, which were private property; he meant
those in which toe elective franchise was vested
in the Lands of persons unqualified by their rank in
life and their education to exercise it properly, and wh

therefot4 &Lytle sell it. The consequence was, that this
abuse had been carried to so high a pitch, that more than
711 acts had been pitied to prevent bribery and corrUption.
and yet it appeared by late investigations id Parliament
that they existed now in a greater degree than had
been known before. If the origin of the elective fran-
chise were investigated, it would be seen that it furnish-
ed a pa/ireful argument in favour of parliatrentary
reform. From the reign of Edward 1., until eoinpara-
tively modern times, it bad been the practice not to
summon members for sonic of the boroughs; others had
been compelled by the will of the Monarch to return
such members as were nominated to them ; and Whets
had been suspertied, and their privileges never
restored. lie could only attribute the favour they ex:
perienced to their political subserviency, and the neglect
to summon them to their sturdiness and disinterested-
ness. The town ef Berl( iminstead,of which he knew nothing
and that of Bishop's Stortfurd, of which he did know
something, had been so disfranchised ; if that inhabitants
I of the latter town had always been as remarkable for
their love of freedom as those of the present day, he
could not wonder at their being out of favour. The
borough of Hertford had been summoned by Edward
the First, discontinned by Edward the Third, and
restored in the 20th of James the First. Among the
towns which hail been disfranchised and never restored
Leeds and been Ilalifax,in Yerkshire,and Chelinsford,in
Essex. These instances of arbitrary power would serve
to show that there was no solid foundation for the man-
ner in which the elective franchise was distributed : it
had not even antiquity or consistency (if they were any
arguments at all) in its favour, to sanctify it or to shut
out the reform a hich was now so loudly called for.—
They were told that reform was a panscea, a sovereign
remedy fur all the evils of the state: he did not say it
was so ; hut he maintained that it would go far to cure
most of the disorders and grievances, by restoring the
empire of:public opinion. This was all he asked by the
reform for which he sought. By the restoration ui the
empire of public opinion, every vote a member gave,
every speech he uttered in Parliament, would be subject
to that wholesome controul which was likely to lead to
the most beneficial results. He bad been accustomed
early to venerate the principlesof reform, sad he thought
it would be to the country at large, and to each indivi-
dna!, the greatest of those blessings which terminate
with the present life. He then sat down amidst loud
lapplause.
Some confusioo ensiled as to the mode of putting
the question.
Sir J. Senattanz spoke to order; after which the High
Sheriff put the question, whether a petition for Reform
should be presented, which was immediately carried by
acclamation,—four hands only being held up to the
contrary.
Mr. WEBB again ri ao, and said that the meeting
having decided upon presenting a petition, it was to be
considered of what nature it should be. He belt' one in
Lis hand which was consonant to that agreed to at
York. It was desirable that the Reformers who were
actuated by the same motives should adopt the same
means for accomplishing their object, and act together
as much as possible. 1 t was fur this reason he had
brought it forward, and he now moved that it be read
and adopted.
Mr. WILTSHIRE seconded the motion.
The following Petitionwas then read:
"TO THE HONOURABLE THE COMMONS OF THE UNITED
KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN, IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.
/IThe humble Petition of the Nobility. Clergy, and
Freeholders, of the county of Hertford.
" Showeth—That your petitioners have upon former oc-
casions submitted to your Honourable House their opinions,
that, as at present constituted. your Honourable House did
not adequately represent the people of these realms ; and
the recent proceedings of your Honourable House, which
has in each successive session given fresh proofs of a de-
viation from public opinion, hale confirmed your petitioners
In the conviction, that neither their interest) nor their wishes
are duly attended to in your Honourable House.
Instead of a determined resistance to the encroachments
of power, a tender care for the rights of the people, a jea-
lous eye over the executory and judicial magistracy, and a
vigilant watch over the public treasure, it has been tee mis-
fortune of your petitioners to witness too ready a compliance
with the wishes of whatever Minister may have dispensed
the favours of the Crown.
" Of this unconstitutional tendency in your Honourable
House your petitioners feel the fatal effects in the wantou
and profligate expenditure of their resources, in the mainte-
nance of a military force dangerous to their liberties, in the
enactmeat of laws inconsistent with the spirit of the consti-
tution, and in the frequent neglect with which the petitions
of the people have been treated in that quarter where they
ought to have experienced the readiest and most anxious
attention.
The evils of an inadequate representation have been
complained of by eminent Statesmes of all parties, and at
different periods ; but to your petitioners these evils appear
greatly aggravated by the additional power and influence
over your Hon. llouse, which are derived from the present
large collection.of taxes, and the unprecedented amount of
our civil, military, and colonial peace establishment.
" Your petitioners beg leave to represent, that if the
state of your Honourable House, and the circumstances
which affect its independence, are at all times subjects of
great public interest, they are more particularly so at a
time when the absolute Monarchs of Europe, not content
with arbitrarily governing their own dominions, are leagued
together in an alliance, the avowed object of which is to
check the progress of liberty, and to prevent the establish-
ment of Representative Governments—an object which they
have bat too successfully carried into execution by the
military occupation of those countries to which they have
power to dictate
" Your petitioners apprehend no such immediate violence
to the British Constitution, but they are fearful lest a perni-
cious influence should destroy the basis of their liberties,
and ultimately convert the forms of a free constitution into
the convenient instruments of an arbitrary Government.
" Your petitioners, anxious that Parliament avail itself
of the present period of peace and tranquillity to enter into
a full consideration of the state of the House of Commons,
respectfully but earnestly entreat your Honourable Itehse
to inquire seriously into the causes of a state of thisgselin-
jurious to themselves, and dangerous to their posterity, and
by a speedy and effectual reform of your Honourable House
to adopt the measure which alone can remedy the evils of
wnich they complain, and restore that good agreement and
perfect synipathy which ought ever to prevail between the
House of Commons and the people."
The HIGH SHERIFF then put the question, whether
this petition should be adopted as the petition of the
meeting, when
Mr. G. FOEDHAIM said that he had some additions which,
he submitted to the Meeting, ought to be made to the Pe-
tition. His opinions on Reform were, if possible, srronger
tban they ever were before. The evils that grew out of
the present system were so numerous, that it would take at
least a week to enumerate.—( latigh.)—He would confine
himself to the most prominent of the public abuses. First,
the great and original source of all abuses was the state of
the representation—that system produced the enormous
taxation under which the country laboured. Before the war
the taxes amounted to 16 millions; they now amounted to
60 millions. That fact alone might well account for the pie-
sent distress. The taxes were the cause of that debt which
was contracted, to carry on a war against France—to put
down in that country that very cause of Reform which they
met that day to support. France, at the commencement
of the war, stood iu the situation of Spain at present,
threatened, as she is, by a combination of despots, who
wish to put down the spirit of liberty in that noble nation.—
The standing army was another great source of taxstion—
a standing army which was most unnecessary. When Queen
Elizabeth, accompanied by the Spanish Ambassador, passel