The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-04-26 00:00:00

THE STATESMAN.

I tiun on a Comse, he proceeded to state sevetal facts
anti viri most:awes, nhieh, in his opinion, made this
tibjete nt Itefi.rsts essentially necessary. "It was per-
t'', neiterstmos,•' he observed, that there were
s the bur•iughs very generally nailer the infnestre of
the Treasurc, and others tut,il4 possessed by them.
It was man:fest that surli boroughs had no one tetality
ut representation in tin lit. i here were uther bo-
roughs which had stow in feet no actual existence.
but in the return of Members to the !louse. They
had no exis'ence in property, in population, in'
trade, or its weight of ny kind. 'I here were
hardy assy men in such b.iriouglis who had a right
to venue ; ana they were the slaves and the eubjerts of
pi mins who claimed the property of the boroughs,
and who in tact made the returns. 'lbis also was toi
representation, nor any thing like it. Another set of
bor awl too Its claimed to themselves the right
sit bringing their votes to market. hail no other
market, tin iltiwr property, and no other stake in the
tonntry, the property awl !wire Ilhirh they
ptu-
coresl for their \tit' if b. rues Kis• urre 111.• most
dangerous of aI others.. S., for Genes etoM.11111111: the
itnerests ut their country, in the flat.ter they made,'
they held out their borough to the I-est purchaser ;:
and, in fact, souse of them 'whinged more to certain
princes in India than they 'lid to the people of Great i
Itritain. They were towns :In I boroughs more *Rhin
the jnrisiiirtion of the I 'artiatir, than the limits of the
empire of great Britain. The Aaholi of .-11 s-sit, it nits'
reflerally had serail or right riwitilwrs ut
that House and it was a lisies‘liun deserting of nob-
-lisleration n heater a foreign State in oniiiity with this
etimitry, might Hot, by means of Barr. inoroliglisi, p.p.!
cure a party Tii art fist them smiler the mask and rillb• I
ratter of 311rniliers of that II Ilse

During exhibited this sherds of Ow state of Par.
liamentery representation, Mr. l'itt pros...yard to infer,
that the borough, lie 'lesser heal were manifestly assurers
of corruption, by shills no interest of the country
was pro 1111 l tell : and that therefore they ought to be
abolished. " They were defects,- he declared," which
altered the Radical Principles of the l'unsfittrion.”--
" It hail been truly said," he added, " that the corrupt
issenence thiss introduces! into Parliament had grown
with our growth, and strengthened with our strength.'
—I nlsappily, Isoweser, fur this country," continued he,
" it had not decayed with our decay. nor diminished
with our decrease. It bore no sympathy nor Connec-
tion with our falling slate : hut upheld by that Minis-
try, who, by their inspoliey, hail contras-teal the
ut the empire, this corrupt hairiest.. was still found to
exist in a I it+ stsength, anal had supported that
Ministry for a length of years against all the coare-'
qurutes of a mischievous sysstetit, and a desolated emu- I
pine."
After adserting to certain plans that bad bees pro-'
posed for olectisig a more near relation between the
Bepresentati es of the People, Mr. l'itt emulsified by
sul 111 l itting the a hoice of the means, free from all par.:
tialitirs ol his Ott n, to the judgment of the Committeel
that might be selected, and to the lights they would
reerive orison the subject; and conterderi blmarlf wtth I
into ing the appliitftwient of a Committers iu the wanner
Le had intimated at the commencement of kis speech..
This muti of lir. Pitt ass seconded by Mr. Alder
man Saw litislge, and supported byte elosprester of
some the most eminent Members of the (louse.
Among those u Ito thus diatingnisherl themselves. were
Sir lissorge Saville. laird Surrey (afterwards Duke of I
\ orlon:), Mr. ityng, Sir Charles unser, 11r. Baker,
Mr. Fox, Mr. Dempster, Mr. Sheridan, sod Mr. Alder-1
Luau Townsend ; anal among those who spoke against,
the proposition were Mr. Powys, Mr. T. Pitt (after-
wards Lord l'amelfortl), Sir Horace Mann, Mr. (now
Lord) Rolfe, the Lord Adiocate of Scotland ((henryl
Duesdas), and Mr. It igby.--The grounds of opposition
to the 1111/1. generally, were, the fear of alarming
the country—the dangess of innovation----and the
petition., front which the proposition had sprung, being 'I
not the petitions of the people, but of delegates of.
County Meetings, who wished to urge their suggestions
on Parliament as the sentiments of the country at large.
The only observation proceeding from torit side of the
Douse, whirls deserves pkrticular notice in a review of
public opinion, was an insinuation of Mr. Rolle, which,
when made. was probably regarded lightly, but which
would hare justified %coy serious suspicion. and sub-
sequeist experience may now induce a belief, aas Out
with-ut a just foundation. lie expressly intimated his
opinion, that the real expressed by Mr. Pitt was either
not eonsistrtet with his temper and sentiments, or nut
sqiuniancou‘ and hearty in the cause of Parliamentary
Reform. " The Ilesoaarable Uralle.aart,- ha said.
" /rod burs pressed ialu Me terrier ."
As a means of getting rid of the question proposed,
Sir Horace Mann moved the order of the day. Dis a
division, there appeared for Sir (homer's motion, 161 i
_against it, VII ; so that after all the efforts of the
Borough Patrons, and of the other askoratea of the
ll
established system, the appointment of a Committee lel
enquire into the state of Representation, was thus de-'
feated by a urajririty of only twenty .11euilsors.

sishversiee of every principle of the British Censtit u
titan, and retch as never before disgraced the annals
of any civilised or barbarous nation. authorising
the inhabitants of the sister kingdom to be dragged
from their homes, and to be immured in pest-houses.
by compulsion, when eeepreted of labouring under a
obi-dispel reetagiore disease.
5. Imposing on the already overburthened people
of Ireland, under similar unfounded pretexts, con-
siderable additional taxes, to defray the expense of
building. and permanently maintaining ea-dienst eue-,
isri.,ex fever hospitals.
K. th:casioning similar effects. in an inferior degree.
in tireat Britain, by the maiutenante of similar insti-
tutions, upon a less extended wale.
7. Multiplying, by the effects of the terror occa-
sioned by these unnecessary and pernicion. measures,
the othernise kevitafile sickness and mortality.
S. Continuing, to the great prejudice of this nation,
in its present itiqiot eriplied state, to expend a sum pro-1
1.4.1i1y not less than half a million sterling
at home and in our colonies, in the vaaintenanee of
vstablishmenis, emanating from doctrines demonstrated
to lw unfounded, and to have originated in train'.
9. Refusing to abolish qnarantine in England, or to
itsipt*.re into the expeiii. ncv of so doing, after it had
been shown, by undeniable facts. that, even if con-
tagion were infinities.' to exist in the plagne of the Ls-'
rue/. quarantine could have no uhject its England.
In. lh dining to appoint a commission, or to take;
any other efficient step, for prosecuting the inquiry
concerning the validity of the doctrine of contagion in
evid • diseases, notsvitlistantling I bad pioved the
Reports of the Collette of Physicians, in adirutation of
that valifiitv. to be frivolous and unfounded, and the
Report of tile Select C tee of the House of Com-1
won., to be irrevelant, or unintelligible, or, in as far
as its meaning could be divined, in direct opposition to I
the facts of the evidence laid befo.e them.

I. Refusing, upon frisolous and unfounded pre-
!
tellftli, and notwithstanding the urgent representa-
tion of the Levant Company to his Royal flightiest.
the Prince Regent in Council, to that effect, to de-
fray, out of the public purse, the expense (not exceed-
ing a few thou-and pounds) of en experimental in-
quiry, which could not fail, as far as the plague of
the Levant is concerned, in the course of a single
epidemic. to set the question of contagion for ever at
rest ; thus continuing, beyond a doubt, that decided
hostility to investigation which the whole of their
proceedings had by implication r% inced.
C milting individual injustice, by withhold-
ing from us) self the suitable reward fur wy services in
the Levant recommended by Sir Robert Liston, the
British Ambassador at Constantinople, and by the
Levant C panv ; thereby e%inc.ng a spirit of perse-
cution disgraceful to any age or nation.
13. Refusing even to reimburse the expenses which
1 bad incurred, in the course of my researches, fur a
period of npuards of four years, the greatest part of it
bring occasioned by their oun evasions, and contrived
_ _

14. Discouraging scientific investigation, by not
availing theniseltes of wean•, which werrupen to them,
the ministers of other powers having enpreased a wil-
lingness to c►-operate towards the establishment of
Any general Ilan fur the further prosecution of my in-
gair►• respecting the plague, to which the British
too‘crainrut might the initiali►e.