The Statesman.
London, England, 1818-07-08 00:00:00

re rat EDITOR or rna STATESMAN

-.40•.-

Stag'—Mr. Nome's speech at the County Elec:
lion at Abingdon, having contained a gross misrepre-
sentation of my principles on the subject of Universal
Suffrage and Annual Parliaments, I sent a letter
containing a refutation of that statement, so far at
least as it concerned myself, to the Editor of the
Provincial Paper in which it was reported. As that
Letter has not been faithfully printed from the ma-
nuscript, some passages having been totally omitted,
and others changed, I take leave to request your
insertion of the following in your patriotic Paper :
1 Mr. NETILLE said, 6' That the Petition which Mr.
A Liorli supported, and signed in that County, re•
commended that Tuition and Representation should
be coeval.—(Mr. expressed dissent.)—At
that Meeting Mr. HALLETT introduced a Mr. JOHN..
EON, from Buckinghamshire, who detained the Meet.
fog opwsrds of two hours, in attempting to prove,
from old authorities, that • Universal Suffrage and
Annual Parliaments lied
rsstored.— been the cu(No, n o ! stom in former
from
igones, and ought to
!Mr. IiALLETT)._He (Mr. Nevit.r.t) never would
forget the circumstance, for the Gentleman spoke
from the mot voluminous notes he ever saw in his
life ; besides, all these Gentlemen were the friends
of Mr. Consul., who had hoisted the standard of
Universal Suffrage end Annual Parliaments." here
are four positive assertions, all of which demonstrate
in the assertor an equal deficiency of information
and accuracy. The Petition moved by Mr H. and
sprawled by me, did not recommend that Taxation
and Representation should be coeval; such a recom-
mendation would have been absurd, and Mr. Has,
I,Err's dissent no doubt was escited by the word re.
commendation, as applied to coeval, and asserted to
have been a part of the prayer of the Petition ; for
as to the historic fact, that Taxation and Representa-
tion were co-existent and co-extensive among our
ancestors, no man in the least conversant with our
history con doubt it. The next assertion i., that I
attempted to prove from old authorities that .4 Ulll.
verbal Suffrage had been the custom in former times,
end ought to be restored." Now, the very reverse
of this is the truth. I then maintained, and do still
maintain, that Universal Suffrage never did exist in
England, and I sincerely hope it wirer will. Every
man who has the slightest knowledge of the state of
society in this country during the feudal ages, must
know that Universal Suffrsgo COULD NOT then exist.
Mr. Nutr.t.e, in making me say that this was " the
custom of former times, and that it ought now to be
restored," has not only made me the upholder of a
tidicultsus doctrine, which on that and other occa.
sions I hove invariably opposed, but he has also re-
presented me as being to the full as ignorant of our
History and Constitution as he himself appears to be.
With regard to the notes, not above half the matter
contained in them was brought forward, owing to
the impatience of some persons who are disgusted at
Reform in any shape. The gram' object of these
notes was to show that it is impossible, without di-
rect violence to the Law and Constitution of Eng-
land, to take the money out of any man's pocket
without his free consent. These are facts to be
proved by authorities. The extension of the Right
of Suffrage is matter of opinion, and totally distinct
from the other. As to our forefathers, they never
gave a greater extension to Tasation than they did
to Representation ; and if we had kept close to their
example all would have been •ell. It is the men that
have given an unlawful extension to Taxation—who
have inflicted a frightful gash, it may indeed be call-
ed a mortal wound, in the Constitutioo, for which
sore some would apply the remedy of Universal
Suffrage. I prink with the late Mr. Fox, that this is
a desperate remedy. I think as he did, that it will
not fulfil tie end inteetied to be answered by it ; but
1 believe that they who propose this semi sly mein
well ; and to me it is quite monstrous that they who
have been the cause of the evil should upbraid them
with the danger or the difficulty that may attach to
the cure. Although it is my wish never to see Usti-
vessel Suffrage established in EttglAtid, yet 1 m!mit
that if the Government will have Universal Taxation,
Universal Suffrage must follow, or the Law, the
Constitution, and the Rights of Englishmen must
become as though no such things had ever been, in
short, as the baseless fabric of a vision ! This is my
conviction, arid therefore I hope that this lawless
extension of the system will be renounced, and
Taxation reduced to those constitutional hounds
it occupird in the good old times of our an-
cestors. Taxation, when extended to the laborious
end unrepresented classes, is, in the language of the
Constitution, ROBBERY ; this is the term applied to
it by Lord CAMDEN, in the quotation which Mr.
HALLETT brought forward io his speech in reply to
Mr. Nevtt.t.E ; and I cannot help observing, that
ether greet constitutional lawyers, as Sir E. COKE,
Sir It. AtrstNs, Lord SOMERS, end Mr. PETIT, have
spoke of it in similar terms : but history affords us
an eta rnple more primitive, and, to my mind quite un-
answerable ; an example which shows that this doc-
trine was not only coeval with our Constitution, bat
that it constituted the Prodice as well as the Theory
of the great founder of it ; I refer to no less a personage
than the great ALvauD himself, of whom we are told
that he hanged a greet many Judges; amongst these was
one named HALE, whose crime was that he did not
hang a Sheriff, an officer of great power and dignity
in those days, who had made unlaysful levies for the

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