The Statesman.
London, England, 1810-06-09 00:00:00

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TET,

.P ACE sin.'

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that the reason why the Petition is signed' bionly
.
twenty Freeholders is this : the House of.Com-
s
mons has found•fault with us for only having hail
eight or nine names to our fortnerePetition: It
has generally been the custom to have only the
names of the Sheriff and a few of the rreeholders
7-in 'fact there is an Act of Parliament. which
enacts that there shall be no more .than toenty
,
nimbi to any petition ; and therefore, as we did
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not wish to.make ourselves liable to a penalty at
the suit of a common informer, we have never had
the Petition signed by more than nine or ten is
holders, [This speech teas frequently interrupted
by plaadits tia. delpressionrof approbation.]
The first
.Itesuluden and Petition were then . .•
read it Mr; -Currants, bet- heap:We had finished
rotding.the Petition, he*as, from the weakly state
of his health, oisliged to give it to another Gen,
tteutatt.—The Petition is as Tollows :
That on the ?6th day of April last, your Petitioners, in '
All Comity assembled, agreed to a Petition, which was pre.
rented to your Honourable house on the ad of May last, and
' which. your Petitioners have been informed. seas rejected by •
your Ituauurable,House, because certain allegations therein
contained were believed not to be true ; because it was not
~
thought its be worded in a sufficient) res Amman I was e.
signed by a small amber of F `parrotrotest
against your proceedings; and been tiktnlss
ei. to he •
au attempt to degrade your klunon •
of their
Your Petitioners complain of this -Peti-
tion. The free toil encontronled e of the right of peti-
ti. wing was claimed; demanded, insisteditas aid rmoirtned by
the Bill of !tights, as one of the true, andeut, and indubitable
rights and liberties of the People of this kingdom. That sta-
tute declares, '' that it is the right of the Subject to petition
the King, and all coionsitmeuts and prosecutions/wank pi*
tinning are illegal." It had never thee occurred, even to the
tyrant James, to refuse to receive the Petitions of the People.
• is it, then, to be permitted to them to tell the King with im-
puuity (as the Seven Bishops did, in that detested reign);that
" his proceedings are illegal s" and not to tell their owp ter-
Vallig, professing to represent them, that t' they hive violin-
eat the Law and the Coo titutioo s" or to protest against their
acts when they deprive them of their rights, or subvert their
liberties ? But to reason on so plain a point is adomosary.
A right to petition, and a right to refuse to receive Petitions
cannot exist together.
Your Petitioners assure your Honourable House, that the
assertions contained in their rejected Petitions are trutlk;
which they trust they shall mete evident to sour Honourable
• .House. "'That in the cases of Mr. John Gale Jones and Ste
E raucis Burdett, your House manned and exercised o potter
Unknown to the Law, and unwarranted by the Constitution," is
-manifest from the statutes enumerated in the Act of 16 Charles
I. for abolishing the infamous Court of Star Chamber, which
recites, " That by the Great Ciairter maopvbees confirmed
Ju Parliament, it u enacted, That no free maa shall be taken or
, imprisoned, or be outlawed or exiled, or otherwise destroyed ;
mid that the King a ill not parsupon bistro` cendemq bitrirbut
by the lawful judgment of his Peen* or by the la* of the
butt". Autby another statute, rota la the htb sear of the ';
reign of King Edward 111. it is enacted, That ass man shall
be attached by any ataisatioa, or forejudged of his, life or
limb, nor his bads, teoements, goods nor chattels seized into
the King's hands against the fono .of ihe Great Charter, we
f theta* of the land. And by another statute, made in the With
1 year of the sante King Edward 111. it is accorded. assented,
jend established, "That none shall be taken by petitioatursurs
oration made to the King, or to his Council, unless it be by in-
`&emetic ill, presentment of good and lawful people of the saute
neighbourhood where web deeds be done, its due manner, or
I by process made by writ original at the Cranium 'Law ; and
I that Wile be put uut of his franchiie or freehold, uuless he be
1 duly brought iu to answer, and forejudged of the seine by the
1 course of the Law ; and if any thing be done against the same,
!it shall be redressed and holden fur none." AM by another
I statute, made in the adth year of the reign of the same K lug
Edward 111. it is arnougit gtherthints selected. " Tbat no neu4 .
of What estate or condition suinet he be, shall be pet oat Dr
his lauds or teneineots, our takhi nor imprisoned, mit disiete-
, rited, without being brought into answer by ice" protest of
Lao." Aud by another statute, made in the 496 year of the
reign of the said King Edward ill. it is enacted, "That no
; man he Intl to answer without presentment before Justices, ur
twitter isfrecord, or by due process nod writ original, accord-
', Mg to the old Law of the Land ; and if any thing be doge to
I the contrary., it shall be void its law, and holden for error."
Y our Petitioners, therefore, a ere jostifiod is asserttng,that
the committal to prison of Mr. John Gale Jones and Sir
Francis Burdett, in punishment for libel without trial bY'
Jury, is "a practice unknown to the Law, and totwarraate.o
by the Constitution."
That " the Speaker's warrant has been executed by tntlia,
tary fuzee—an Englidunsiu's house, his sanctuary, has bent'
violated, and the blood of unotiendiog Citiaeus has been shed
in the streets," bas been proved at the Bar of your Honour-
able House, and by two verdicts of Wilful Monier against
certain of his Majesty's Life Guards.
That " the Letter of Sir Francis Burdett to the Speakers
denying the jurisdiction of the House, has been directed out
to be entered on the Jeannie of yner Hoaeorable Ileums"
will appear by reference to your pouted Votes,
That' in the'early part of this reign, is the case of Mr.
Wilkes, the rights of Otis County, ants of the Nation, were
grossly violated by the House of Commons;" that "aelengtlt
the low triumphed ;" that " after a struzgle of nearly twenty
years, the Horse abandoned the pretensions they had urns-
Fated, mid expuged frosts their Journals all their Llectara-
nem, Orders, and Itesoletions, as being spbvenive of this
rights of the whole body of Electors of this Kiagdom," arc
farts reoardcd in the Journals of your flonourable House,
Your Petitioners have now fully established the truth n 1
the allegutions Contained in their rejected Petition, nd ei bleb
' they know not how to set forth in any but the plain and ho-
nest la tune they have used—language in which they feel
justified by prece&mt, and by the example of your Hooour-
able House, who, in the ressons given to the Lords against
their claim to appellant jurisdiction, informed their Lord-
ships, that " they were contriving by all methods to bring
the determination if liberty. and property into the bottomless
and iumtiable gulf of their Lordship s judicature, which
stupid swallow up both the Prerogatives of the Crown and
the Liberties of the People;" and further, "that their Lord-
ships had assumed sued exercised judicature, contrary to the
known laws and customs of Parliament. and tending to the
overthrow of the Eights and Liberties of the People of Eng-
land."
As to the number of sigoistorcs to their former Petition,
your* Pei it issuers were guided by the Law of the Land, which
directs that no snore than twenty signatures should be affixed
' Wady Petition to the King or either House of Parliament.
" Against the existeuce, as well as the exercise of the
power assumed by your Han. Houses'' your retitiouers did
iii theirslute Petition, and do now, " solemnly protest ;"
and they nee satisfied, that its so protesting, they are justified •
by numerues precedents, particularly by a Petition of the
Bettors of Westminster, tuserted in your Journals of the 54
day of February, ritls: wherein they " solemnly pretit
against the origiu and principle of certain Resolutious of
your Hon. Roosts, as contrary to the spirit and practice of the
Coustitutioa, to the plainest provisions both of Common tied '
Statute Law, and to the Itiglin nod Privileges of the Electors
of tires* Britain.
Your Petitioners assure you, they had no intention to de-
grade your flon. House. They knew that no language they
cueld possibly use, could degrade your Hon. noose. By its
o wain:time atom can it be degraded its the minds of the
recipient England.
Your Petitioners are firmly attached to, and will Uphold
the form of Gorernment, cemented by the blood, and est*-
. Wished be the wisdom of their ancestors; they mere the
Kingly Ace; they respect the House of Peers—and ate of
opinion, that a House really representing the Commune attire
:United K ingdom,would secure all the blessings of our fresCon-
monism ; and that person:: fairly elected to i scat to sock a
thaw, would have an tumour conferred span there greaser
thsui any o hick Kings or Emperors cats bestow. floor fee
your Honourable Huthe is gich a representation of the peo-
ple-and hew mousy of your lionerable Members are thus

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