The Statesman. — 1818-03-24 (London, England)

PAT! ON. Teal that Parliament bath authority  lotion, end, at its discretion, of the People. Parliament bath no such authority. The doctrine is utterly ()Ilse: nay, it is absurd: and not the lass 40, for having beets hid down 'by Law) erg ; for Lawyers not only inculcate absurdity in their bookx but they plead it at the liar, and declare it from the Bench. In the very same hreeth in which Blackstone calls Parliament '• despotic," he contradicts himself, by telling us that its power is a ". trusts." A trust it is: a mere trust : nothing more than a trust : a trust from, and revocable by, the NATION ; for mansgbig its affairs agreeably to its rights and to its Cottstitation:—that Constitution, or system of polity, by which the People agreed to govern themselves ; that is, through representative organs, and esecutire reactionaries, to enact their own laws, to impose their. own tales, anti to Itansact their own business for the common w,eal.. The Constitution,. then, is not an engine in the arbitrary litiod of any, to coerce. the People ; bat their oin free system of self-government. Neither _is the Constitution a dead letter, nor a lifeless car. eass ; bat, like living man himself, it is composed el body and soul. On strictly analysing this Constitution, we find It eisioposed of floe parts ; namely, four corporeal organs necessary to self-preservation, and its spirit, or fifth part. The said organs of self preservation ere, first a Parliament; for the community's self-legislatirio, and its controls' over all fuoetioneries, judicial,. tnilltary, or civil ; secondly, Juries, for the comatenity's seff-preserva lion, in civil defence; thirdly, a MUNI; for the community's eelf.pretervation, in milliliter defence; rod fourthly, Magistracy, for administit!l gag justice,,esecuting law, and conducting businent ksid the spirit of the Constitution, or fifth part,wbicb perfects the whole, is found in its principles; being the principles of Troth, Reason, Justice and Bette. violence; .on which Liberty, Property, yrangeillity, and happiness depend. Here you have the whole of the English Con:Marion; which is as distinct from*Low as a casket is dram thw treasure it contains; a title:deed, fiom the estate it conveys ; or a vessel, from the liquor drown jcom it. it• were therefore correct. to speak. of " Late, as the Constitution enacted ;" but to gabble about the " Constitution as by Low established," is to insult our common sense. they, however, must be ignOraut indeed who know not, that it is &Constitution which by [maraud Law?crs has been greatly seis E4lisliCoestitioo bad its origin 'warty four-*a ago, among the free Saxon.   *: • •   ..ditils iitii firerTpdlllioll'eterts of their wo. ItOt4 is Kiwi; 'theft SONlPtsieely did thwarts*, IS dit ibilaysisolktleillitgderrie; thsil,woder lislierr, ? en 'plias* 111.404 e One► sebleivrest oft &modem. of- new 'sift the ids:emirs es Host- Oat pleated. ' rtl4,•Constitistia, therefottli 'necessesily ?skied_ ant jor to aft Lalif;-dod 'veep long aketuriee !wall recorded hoc trod- t Coostitettoo eiStaiisskow. for the kw. wee Wpritni6O, ; or either tit* tin* of ePPolintOns of Laver wet knows io Nye hod. - I • h lb/ 'sow shoos *hat the Coalltitstlow la, Ina vitulltit • &NOT; and litesrise that sitliareeltoey, polies h'i meets trust ; a few words-silli farther es., plebs and Illoserate that propositios. ljoucSsiug 011 aadamin *ad Illeollieg of Parliamoek It hatb.a twofold Akter•l for allkdosh it week as a Pori of lilt itilkon„ its ii yet, Ks the hood% aopari of,s, osit whouy.poserusiessg ansYprootaisidalls ~ -. • I,t ~ ', .. It odes bk. our .cuttuctit -,0111114110,Mi1L ...:- '• —. . . of*, lekessi,thatt,olo4lioe, 4€oo:i. epeeil Whissi"lbePhite;st4otiaiderlattagleon4), 11:I..4till.ivonilthtai.\";;i .. . to oppressor !.4 04 that„. gimping a iiiirting4,ie. toity destroy the some: life ? : : -Can is then admit that/ because Parliament ii. pert of the Constitotiow, it comes within its 1.04 • Or authority, to• putdown free .speech and writing. that ist put out the intellectnal, rikw,politi9l, the re., !Woes, 'anti morakeyes 01. the nation:, Or‘that, ..,on any possible plea, it may suspend ,all personal, or, in other words, all puNis liteedom, !which is political life ? In event' sacs bet, ~Per,titiment ,titiment commits a Treason ' • as, ip tin _tin_other vase, of, a private felo de se, the hand commits etelonyt . Nor can the. wily caviller elude the.foscs of the foregoing illustration, by remarking, that, a Torii.... bleat, being deliberative, ought ratbey to 4 colisi. dared 31 the head, then as the hand of the State, whii\. latter is more .issitperly ,seen its the office .Of.iiiiii: feet° destroy the life of a State, wet, -Nosily' a tresson, in a Hand, Or a Head ; in-a lii46, it a, • Parliament. . From what has ,been premised, it most fol• low, that when the Mi.iilsters of sovereign °Houle ay have been convicted of having, with the blo.sd. bounds of false accusation, bowed Psrliamentery • i Reformers into chains, i;inl dungeons, and 'silo, there cannot be any authority in Parliament to grant such oppressors an indemnity for their deeds of atro.. city. For denying despotic power to be an sttribafe of Parliaments or that Inv. the practice of despotism In raisers, it bath authority to indelanify, a Resolotioe.' the first.ot a series, will be proposed to you.  iliSpead. men, in the person a- any wee ; by placing them at the ti/hi. *lay diaptoarof Ministers, deprived of legal protection s for that were tt complete suboersion tithe Constitution, the cownarota conservation of which is the phooey and most ;eared duty di Parliament : is And, from the same premises, this Meeting draw it ns evident otriclusien. that earliament letth not nathitrity to s by an Act of Indemnity, traitorous. or other mintiest who may have violated the, Cunstitutio.t, Rae thereto the libel Ile% and sovereignty of the nation, Noe, my friends, I ask you,—". Who, for Jour and-tuenty years past, have been objects of calumny' -and of &notorious persocatiou?" with one voice you. will answer—because there is no other answer*"PA RLI A MEN'f ARY It I: