The Statesman.
London, England, 1810-04-03 00:00:00

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To the ELECTORS of WESTMINSTER.

" What is this mysterious power, undefined by Law—un-
" known to the Subject, which we mast not approach
" without awe, nor speak of without reverence t which
" no man may question, and to which all men must submit ?"
—Lord CHATHAM'S Speech 10 1770, on the privilege ex-
ercised by the Commons to die ease of Wilkes.

GENTLEINEN—When the stomach has been ren.
derail squeamish by a satiety of delicacies, a course
of plain solid food will sometimes best restore it
to its vigour. It is thus with air pOlitical palate,
which, vitiated by .a long indulgence in the high
seasoned entrometr of courtly adulation', must
now have its tone restored by a good wholesome
constitutional joint ; such as forty years ago was
seen at the best tables, which men then cat with.
out makinglaces, and which kept them hale and
hearty. It is a treat of this diet which I now
wish to serve up to the Public, and when they
have tasted it, they will see, with surprise, how
mneh, in a very short time, their appetite has al.
tered.
I will not recur, for a light of this old fashion to
the anonymous meteor which scorched the Duke
of GRA ETON, and almost singed " ROYALTY ;"
but I wilt look for it in a high recognized Consti.
tetional Authority, in the immortal remains of
the greatest Patriot and Statesman that England,
in all her history, has produced.--I mean the il.
instrious Earl of hive doubt.
less, all of you, Gentlemen, perused the Address
of your patriotic Representative, and read with
attention and deepieterest kit elaborate research
into Parliamentary preeedents,iwith his unanswer.
ed and unanswerable argumentdeduced from them
and Preen the land-marks of the Constitution, in
defence of the liberties of the lbsople of Eugland,
whom the House of Commons claims the yaivt.
LEGE of locking up during its pfeature.—By
some of the Gentlemen of the Honourable Rouse,
this appeal of Sir F. Bennett to his Constituents
has been called a libel. It seriously offended
ethers, alarmed several, and of one in particular,
it is said to have "frozen his young blood," made
" his knotty and combined locks to part, and
46 each particular hair to stand on end, like
" quills upon the fruitful porcupine,!" But, un.
til the Honourable liptise has really voted-it to be
a libel, we may, safely discuss it in print, and may
meet it with, our dent or our approbation', as it
may merit either.'" And you, its particular, Elec.
tors of Weaminster, his Constituents, either be.
fore or after such vote, hfol3 a right, and are even
called upon to mark it solemnly and publicly with
your censure or your sanction. 'This is a duty
which you Poem conspromise—To you it is ad.
dressed—to your good sense it is referred—and'
the interest, nay, the very WERT T of every man
in England is involved in tit!' consideration which
you may give it !
Gentlemen, if the WOll4O vf Commons is not
constitutionally invested with the power which it
has claimed, and which it has exercised—if it is
nut constitutionally girded with this tword, with
which it guards itself (for Vie a misnomer to call
it by the name of privilege), then your worthy
Representative has not libelled or attacked its
pricile*e ; since it is quite clear, that if these
Gentlemen have no such privilege; he cannot
have attacked it,. That they really have such
privilege.' they have not yet even themselves at'.
firmed, althottgle they bare been two nights con..•
tittering the subject. It iv perhaps fair, and aer.
• tainly candid, then, to infer, that the Honourable
Gentlemen are scandalized (I allude to iudividuals
only, as we do not yet knovi the opinion of the
Ilouse, or majority), not so much by the duc.'
trine, as at the bold 'and obsolete language is
which it is conveyed. By the ene or the *that,
the offence mesChave been given.
There is proverbially, as well as is fact, no
disputing about tastes, and some of the passages
to which individuals object, may appear to me,.
sail to others, amongst the best in the Pamphlet :
" Resistance," for example, if Sir F. BURDETT.
bad not qualified it with the epithet 66 legal,".
' wonld not of cooseciasence have conveyed a tents.
meet and exhortation either illegal or unconstitu.
!tonal. RESISTANCE, in certain eases, is the un-
doubted doctrine, because it has been the clear'
practice of the British Constitution ; whose ex.
• oellence, nay, existence; have even directly arisen
out of the very act; and there are as good pre-•
cedents, however Lawyers may built them; for
Resistance against Tyranny; withers ore for any
other Constitutional deelvion. Did not that very
body, which now etercemes the privilege of ins.
prisoning the pee* of England, once set up the
standard of Resistance against the King of Fug.
local, because-he was a Tyrant ? And is tie: King
of England to be treated in a way in which we
dare not presume to talk even of treating a res..
lution of one Representative', should such IMF
unfortunately hippen to by Mega/ r—With-ee.
sped to the expressions, " tricked out in the
trappings of Royalty," hey are obviously meta-
phorical and figurative; for this plain reason, that
they cannot be any thing else. Personally anti
substantially speaking, the honourable Members,
as every body knows, have no particular dress ors,
trappings, anti Inver have arrogated-any. It is,
. therefore, absurd to impute suc meaning to Sir
F. BURDETT. The expressions then, are but a
figure of language, which might, indeed, have;
been omitted, because they add nothing to the
argument, yet are not mere expletives, becauset
they raise and carom the idea, or the picture, tot
the imagination. They, as Lonotetts woulcC
say, " amplify and aggravate;" they enforce
the impression—but they affirm no fact. Some
little allusion there sweeties* Mast have been,
or your eloquent Represeatadve woild probably
not have used them ; and when. tide Indeed corw
eiders that the KING is the gati constitutional,
fountain of Justice, which is Ms most hotteurible.
prerogative—and when one see* the Gentle:ls& of
the House'of Comm Ons dipping their. mace into
it, assuming even in a case 'of criminal charge,
(which is peculiarly the King's) original jurisdic-
lien, mesna process and warrant of execution, all
in their own name, and not in the King's, it may
be a ithout doubt a fair question of criticism in
this view of the words, how far the imputation
is overstrained, which metaphorically 66 tricks