The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-08-04 00:00:00

THE STA'

tabling a population of near 80,000 persons, deter-

mined to resort to the new, and hitherto usthought of
experiment of convening to elect a person who 'should

present himself to the Commons House of Parliament,

and ask permission to officiate there in the capacity of
their Legislatorial Attorney. Their choice was, as is
sufficiently known, unanimously directed for this pnr•
pose to Sir Commits Womusumand for the share they

_ .
took in tLat Election the defeadanb referred to at the

Warwick Moises, are at preseat celled to answer.
Without stopping to comment apes the expediesty
of the measure adopted on the °cession, or to attempt
to anticipate the result of the process in hand, it is
impossible to restrain the mind, which has had an op-
portunity of observing the ♦arious and wonderful
changes that prodeced, and that followed the groat
conflicts on the Continent, from attending to the sin.

prising revolution that has taken place in the minds
of the people of Birmingham. Nut thirty years have
yet elapsed, when hurried on by a spirit of the most
blind and barbarous bigotry, they expelled from
their society some of the most venerable and valuable
members, destroying their property, and hunting for
their lives, because they were distinguished in poli-
tics for liberal views, and actually consigning their
habitations to the flames, on pretence of promoting
a religion by which their persecutions were con-
demned, and in the sacred names of " Church and
King !" What a field of reflection does the, extra-
ordinary change we now contemplate, present to
the enlightened mind ; and how useful to the moralist
as well as to the politician, would be the task of tracing
it to its causes, and availing of its results. " The
number of such desperate and profligate wretches in
this country," says a witness of the Birmingham riots,
" as were instigated to lawless loarock and pinmlet, on
the pretence of supporting the Church and State, at Bir-
mingham, and who would be equally ready to plunder
on any other pretence, almost exceeds belief, and we have
more to dread from this than all our other evils put to-
gether." Not taking into calculation the effects of popular
education, and the wide and wonderful spread, and the
moral and political influence which knowledge has ob-
tained among the people generally, in the course of the
last thirty years, the same judicious writer proceeds to
obserse,that " whenever the dyiknlties of this cower,
shall increase, so that these people ram Heitherbe
played see fed, (and from conies more than one we
draw sear to this slew/Ilion every day) every
great tows is Ragland, if so prurisios be I
made agnissat it, may be espected to exhait such
seises as Birmingham Ans lately dom. it has within
itself the ample seeds of such calamity, in the prodi-
gious number of the ignorant, the profligate, and the
profane part 4f the lower orders of the com:nunity.
Oar common soldiers are chiefly of this class, and
eases May arise, is which little dependenee ramood
be
plered upon them, far preserving the peace and g
order of the people.
" Let those who are not displeased with mobs when
they think that they only execute summary justice
and those whom the laws cannot reach, consider how
hasardour a weapon they wish to employ, and how
difficult it is to direct it. I shoaldnot wonder if the
time come when the same lawless rabble, who lately
shouted Church and King, *hula take *fp the cry of
No Church, no King, or at least that of No game laws
no Wises, no excise."
The style of these remarks, made near thirty years
ago, compared with recent occurrences, might strike
one as being uttered in a spirit of prediction. And bow
much more striking will the style appear, when it is
known to have been the language of Patzsmsr•!
• " An Appeal to the Public on the Riots in Birmingham,"
1791.

The following is an extract of a letter, dated Naples,
July 14
" Yesterday afternoon the first blood was spilled since
the revolution; but I am happy to say that it had
nothing to do with the general cause, which hitherto is
without a stain. The Farness regiment of the line,
having received orders to march for (islets, refused com-
pliance, on the pin of having, for a conaiderable time
past, had an undue share of don. With these feelings
MO men of this regiment rushed ant of one of the for-
tresses, traversed the city in a menacing attitude, Rod
made off for the country. They were overtaken in the
suburbs by a party of cavalry, and an action commenced.
in which 36 of the disaffected troops were killed, and
many wounded. The remainder, who were brought
back prisoners, are to be decimated, and every tenth
man slot. This circumstance has rather servid to give
additional confidence; for it occurred in one of the
went quarters of the town, and no advantage, was taken
of it by the populate to create a disturbance.'
In consequence of a Requisition presented to the
Sheriffs of Middlesex, signed by sixty-eight Freeholders,
a meeting of the Freeholders of the County is appointed
by Mr. Sheriff Parkins, (Mr. Sheriff Roaniell having
refined concurrence,) to be held at the Mermaid Tavern,
Hackney, on Tuesday, the Bth of August, at 14 o'clock,
fur the purpose of considering of the propriety of pre-
senting an Address of Condolence to the Queen Consort
of England. &c. &c. for the many and alßeting losses
her Majesty has sustained since her d re from this
cannery ; also to congratulate her Mearer:; on her safe
Maus to the British nation ; and to consi6w'the pro-
ceedings now pending in Parliament against her Ma-

jay.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of CLARECCIt. says
The Morning Post. is again in a state to gratify the
hopes of the nation.
BRIGHTON, Al7ll. 1, HALII•PAST Etsit.--111 rade.
man of the same of Hyde, a passenger ell board the
Elisabeth packet, just arrived in oar roads from Dieppe.
was. by a sadden gust of wi
ad. blown overboard, while
in its net of getting into a boat purposely sent from
shore, as is customary at this place. Every effort to
Iwo him was laeffsebsol. from the violence of a strong
soatb.wessetley wind, which tae been prevaleat all
gar-