The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-10-08 00:00:00

L.) the ELECTORS' of WESTMINSTER.

GlNvtr.strg,—ln addressing so enlightened a por-
tion of the community as the Electors of the great
Metropolitan City of Westminster, it would ill be.
tome me to adopt the hacknied style of congratula-
tion and profession usual on occasions like the pre.
sent. I ceneot congratulate the People on the op.
portunity afforded them for redressing their manifold
grievances, by a due exercise of their constitutional
right to appoint their Representatives in Parliament
well knowing, and that too they know full well who •
sause this cheating appearance of an Election to
take place, that no such opportunity is, in point
of fact, or is intended to be, afforded the Peo.
ple.—You, Gentlemen, are too welt informed
of the real condition of your country, not to regard
such language as deceptious. - d to treat it with '
merited contempt. Neithe- ~ with truth, pro.
fess that I shall be highly, ..11, gratified, by being
returned a Member of an ~sssemhly where corrup-
tion is acknowledged to be as " notorious as the sun
at noon day," and where 44 practices, which would
64 have made our forefathers startle with indignation
gc in utter oblivion of every former maxim and feel-
"
ing of Parliament," have been impudently avowed,
and shamelessly justified. This he' brenglit as into
e sitostfon almost impossible, within the !Units of an
advertisement, to depict. Nose hundred millions of
debt ; inland fortresses uivter the name of barracks ;
an army of Germar and other foreign inerce-1
tiaries ; an army of spies and informers ; of Tax
rind Excise Agents ; an Inquisition of pri-i
vale property ; a phantom for a King; a degraded
Aristocracy ; an oppressed People ; a confiding Par-
(lament; irresponsihle Ministers; a corrupt and in-
timidated Press ; pensioned Justices ; packed Juries
vague and sangeinary Laws, sometimes shamefully
relaxed, at other times violently stretched beyond
their tone; which, together with a host of Itileres
of foreign Expeditious, and the present crushing
eurthen of Taxation, are somo of the bitter fruits
,f corruption in time (louse of Commons. A House
if Commons, the :Weathers of which did, agreeably
o a return laid hefore it in ISOB, put into their own
pockets 178,991 i. a-year in sinecures, salaries, and
•leitsions, besides their S!atf-Appointinenfs, and their
:ominissions, and besides the money received by
heir Wives and other II lations. lii fact, the whole
f the evil arises here. TiloF.o who vote the money
're, some way or other, interested in the expendi-
ture of it. The small number of Independent Men
have no weight at all.
1, Gentlemen, it is often affirmed, that the savings in
cur power to make from Sinecures and Pensions,
•:ould afford no relief to the People : let us take a
fnv out of numerous instances. 'the House of Corn-
!ions itself( In sheer Places and Pensions, swallows
s nit.Ch as A ould also fifty shillings a-yrir to
:1,2.21 families. Would this be nothing? Would it
of be felt by the People ? Lord ARDEN, brother to
the late Minister, with reversion to the late Minister
tl Li:itself, receives from his Sinecures 38,5711. a-year.
Phis is the exact sum stated. But it is said, that he
las besides immense sums arising from interest. Here
support all the year round, at 12 shillings a week,
• ermore than a thousand families. The same may
be said for the family of GRESTILLt. The Duke of
riaArros's sinecures and pensions would maintain
all as many ; and, in short, it is in this way
(. ,he nation is impoverished, and reduced to mi-
'cry. The Lord Chief Justice, EbLEN milt:won,
tesides his salary, receives in Sinecures 5,9931.
s -year ; besides having offices to sell, and partici-
Whir in the emoluments of his own gaoler. The
.;inezures of the Chief Justice would keep 300 fa.
I silieE. Mr. CrAIZNI Ili, the Apotheeary•General,
)as a clear 12,0001. a-year, according to his own
ecknor lodgment ;--besides the sums given to the
raiNcEs out of the Droits of Admiralty, the K I NG'S
Ovate i ;•operty in the reeds, exempted from the In-
some Tax, and Mr. Ar DINGTON (the milker and the
breaker of the 'Treaty of Amiens) in 1801, mistip.
;lying upwards of 50,0001. (voted for the Civil List)
8s a I-can to the Duke of YORK. only a small pvrt
.0,11 ~..s I.,ttit .epa.o. !.itcl leet e ir,out le :',o est.
' ,Id., 7,43c.,p1es they so us, of making .... rei-
t . ,
..;...., :. „n, r , :'se Your!. to their suffer-
. '.et v eiot ei the !: vs, 4,1 d the diatreavi

Gentlemen►, there was f►•rmnris• a law for putting a
Cadge of distinction on every pauper receiving alms
'Torn his parish; but what fiAnors OF INFAMY do
hose men deserve, who thus extort alms from every
.+oor man in every parish in England ? who embezzle,
► unmerited pensions, and sinecure places, and di-
'vrt into private purses, the public resources of their
aouatr?.

Gentlemen, our usurping oligarchy assumes a
,over of making our most innocent actions misde-
pecanors; of determining points of law without ap-
• ; and of imprisoning our persons without trial ;
vf breaking open our houses with the standing army;
Ind murdering the People in the streets, by soldiers
paid by the people themselves for their defence.—
Gentlemen, before recent experience, we should
have hardly thought that a bare vote of the Lower
House would have been of sufficient force, in any
Court of Justice, to overpower the solemn enact-
ments of King and Parliament. Gentlemen, the
Judges, in the time of CHARLES 1., decided against
ihmentm in the great cause of Ship-money--`s ut
recunduns kgent nneretur JOJNNES HAMPREN."—
gentlemen, in the action brought against me by
the present excellent High Bailiff of Westminster,