Star. — 1810-05-11 (London, England)

HOUSE OF LORDS, THURSDAY, MAYI S. The House, in a Cammittee of Privileges, was for a length of time employed in hearing Counsel, on the claims to the Banbury Peerage, and the Judges attended to deliver their opinion on a point of law. Several private Bills were brought up from the Commons, and read a first time.  Lord BORRINGDON moved for a number of papers Madre to the late Campaign in Spain and Portugal, The papers were accordingly ordered. The Bills on the Table were forwarded in their re.rectlve stages, after which the House adjourned.  greater, expedieney of proeeeding by trial in cases similar to those to which it alluded, it prayed for the liberation of Sir Francis Burdett and John Gale June's,  The Petition was ordered to-lie on the table. Mr. SHAW LEFEVRE then rose, and said hi held in his. hand another Petition, which he begged leave to offer to the House. It was voted at the same meeting, and transmitted at the sane time with the petition just received, and prayed for a reform in the representation of the United Kingdom in the Commons. House of Parliament. It was couched in decorous and respectful language. .It stated that the 'necessity of reform was more than ever apparent, since the commencement of the present war, It adverted to the opinions expressed in former petitions and discussions on the subject, and also to the opinion expressed by the Speaker on the point of obtaining seats by purchase, and it prayed for the establishment of triennial instead of septennial Parliaments. He moved that the Petition be now received, Mr. SIMEON seconded the motion ; but begged leave at the same time to observe, that although the requisition to the Mayor for convening the meeting at which the petitions were voted, had been signed by a number of respectable per Sons who were voters, yet the meeting consisted of the inhabitants at large, whether voters or not, who were very numerous ; so that the voice and opinion of the real electors might be completely drowned by the voice of those who had not the elective' franchise, which might mislead the ' House. There was nothing to guide the House but the names subscribed to the Petition; and here there were 'mly twelve names subscribed, though he did nett doubt but there was a numerous meeting of different descriptions, and many other voters amongst them. Those who had signed were very respectable in situation and character. He had noticed this dis' tinction. the rather because those who were in general the secret engines of these meetings (he did net say that was the case here, the requisition to the Mayor having been signed by a considerable number of voters) were desirous, for their own purposes, of bringing in a multitude of persons, whether electors or not, to carry a favourite point ; not considering, or else intentionally concealing from the real Cectors, that it was an act of political suicide on their part to suffer their opinions to be swallowed up by a slew of hands ' of every person present, of whom, peT:islps, pinetenths might not be voters. This was an intimida.. tion of the real voters, who ota!taps durst not ex. press their opinions upon popular subjects, urged by artful demagogues, for fear of the multitude th:tt tarrounded them. He admitted, and gloried in the admission, that the humblest peasant as well as the wealthiest gentleman should be the object of our care and attention ; and that the property, and privileges, and life of the poorest man was as much entitled to protection, and had a right to petition this House, upon every thing he felt to be a grievance, as the richest : all he meant to argue was, that those wno were the legal electors were the constitutional judges of the conduct of their members, and of the representative body which they had elected : and that their political opinions, for the sake of themselves and of their own independence, ought to be kept separate, in order to preserve their character and weight in the Constitution ; for they would speak with more weight when they were to speak the pure voice of the constituent body. Mr. WARD said, it was impossible to suffer this petition to pass without some answer to what had fallen from the Hon. Gentleman. Was it possible that any Member of that House could say there was any man in this kingdom who had not as good a right to discuss and to sign a petition of that nature praying for a Parliamentary Reform, as any freeholder or burgher in the kingdom, however legally authorised ?----If any one argument could be stronger than another for Parliamentary Reform in the conatitution of that House, it would be the denial of that right to discussion and petition in the persons who are not I reeholders nor butters in corporate towns. Would it be said that the inhabitants of those great and wealthy ruanu•! facturing towns, Manchester, Birmingham, and others he could name, had no right to discuss nor to petition Parliament for keform, or for any other purpose in which their interests were concerned ?  Mr. SIMEON rose to explain. He had been much misunderstood by the Hdnourable Gentleman. He had particularly guarded against the construction which had been put upon his words ; for he admitted in the fullest manner, and rejoiced in the right of every one, even the humblest Find lowest subject of the realm, to petition the House upon any subject of grievance, whether he was an elector or not ; but the opinion of the real Electors upon the conduct of their Representatives, or the House, for the sake of their own weight and consequence in the State, ought to be exercised as purely and distinctly as their. franchise was exercised in giving their Votes for electing a Member of Parlunent, and' that those who for private purposes called in persons' who had no vote to mix in tic deliberations of those who had a vote,'destroyed or lessened the consequence of the real Occurs, and wisLl-to govern by a mob. The seParation did not deprive those who had no vote of the right to petition, or lessen it. With the greatest re. specs to the Petitioners, he was bound by his Constitutional duty as .a Member of this deliberative Assembly, to suspend any opinion upon the important sub jects to which it alluded, until after he bad heard them debated. Saving, therefore, to himself, such opinion as he was bound to form and ace upon, after hearing all the arguments that could be urged upon lany proposition that might be (*red for the public good, he was happy to second the motion for receiving the petition offered to the Honourable Colleague. The Petition was accordingly brought up, and ordered to lie on the table. •