reigns derive an immense revenue, cruelly wrung from the hard hand of honest labour. I do however now entertain an ardent hope, that this degraded and degrading system, to which all our difficulties, grievances and dangers are owing, will at length give way to the moderate but determined perseverance of a whole united people.

"Magna Charta and the old law of the land will then resume their empire-freedom will revive - the caterpillars of the state, coiling themselves up in their own naturally narrow sphere, will fall off, and perish-property and political power, which the law never separates, will be re-united-the king replaced in the happy and dignified station allotted him by the constitution-the people relieved from the bitterest of all curses, the curse of Canaan-that of being the servants of servants; and restored to their just and indisputable rights.

"To effect these great, important, and necessary purposes, no ex'ertions of mine shall ever be wanting; '-without their attainment, no efforts of mine can avail. The peo'ple of England must speak out; they must do more; they must act; and if, following the example of the electors of Westminster, they do act, in a firm and regular manner, upon a concerted plan, ever keeping the law and constitution in view, they must finally succeed in recovering that to which they are legally entitled the appointment of their own guardians and trustees for the protection of their own liberty and property. They must either do this, or they must inevitably fall a sacrifice to one or other of the most contemptible factions that ever disgraced this or any other country.

"The question is now at issue ; it must now be ultimately determined, whether we are henceforth to be slaves or be free. Hold to the laws-this great country may recover--forsake them, and it will certainly perish.

"I am, gentlemen, Your most obedient humble servant, FRANCIS BURDETT." "To the electors of Westminster."

May 4. Further Proceedings on Sir. F. Burdett's Affair.---Meeting of the Livery of London.-In pursuance of a requisition, signed by a number of liverymen, a common hall was held, on this day, to consider the conduct of the House of Commons in the recent imprisonment of Mr. Gale Jones and Sir Francis Burdett. When the requisition had been read, the lord mayor came forward, and recommended an impartial bearing to every person. Mr. Favell then proposed the following resolutions:

I. "Resolved, That the livery of London, impressed with the deepest sentiments of alarm, regret, and indignation, at the late extraordinary and unconstitutional proceedings of the House of Comnions, which, by the arrest and imprisonment of two of their fellow-subjects, have, as they conceive, superseded the laws of the land, and set up in their stead, under the claim of privilege, an undefined, capricious, and arbitrary power-feel themselves irresistibly called upon to express, at a crisis so new, so arduous, and so fatal to their rights and liberties, their unqualified reprobation of measures equally subversive of the first principles of the constitution, derogatory to the real interests and dignity of the House of Aa 3 Commons, Commons, and injurious to the honour, glory, and happiness of the sovereign, and the people of these realms.

II. "Resolved, That it appears to us, that the Commons House of Parliament, in committing to prison Mr. John Gale Jones, and in breaking open the house of, and also in committing to prison, one of their members, Sir Francis Burdett, Bart. for alledged libels upon themselves (offences which, if established, were provided against by the laws of the country) have been at once accusers, legislators, judges, jurors, and executioners in their own cause, sheltering themselves under the pretence of privilege, and exercising a partial and summary jurisdiction, without redress or appeal.

III. "Resolved, That the whole system of British jurisprudence has been thus shaken to its foundation, and a discretionary power assumed over the liberties of the people, as declared and established by the great charter, repeated and confirmed by the petition of right, and the bill of rights, and recognised, enforced, and illustrated, by a multiplicity of statutes.

IV. "Resolved, That it has been idly and vainly enacted and re-enacted, 'That no freeman may be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his freehold or liberties, or be out-lawed, or exiled, or in any manner destroyed, but by the lawful judgment of his peers, or of the law of the land, if the House of Commons, which is itself but a single branch of the legislature, do, to use the language of the bill of rights against the detestable tyrauny of James II. 'by assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with and suspending of laws, and

the executing of laws without the consent of parliament, set itself above parliament, making itself greater than the whole, of which it is but a part, dispensing with the laws which give to all a remedy against commitments by the king himself, and thus erecting itself into a new and monstrous executive, the more dangerous to the lives, liberties and fortunes of the subject, inasmuch as it claims for its rule of action its own discretion, will, or caprice.

V. "Resolved, That the true privilege of parliament, meaning nothing more than a protective right, was really designed as an immunity and safeguard, to be wielded as a safeguard against the encroachments, usurpations, and tyranny of the crown; not to be converted into an active power of violating the rights of others-into an instrument of arrogance, and a sword of destruction against the people.

VI. "Resolved, That the cordial thanks of this meeting be given to that illustrious patriot Sir Francis Burdett, for bis upright and iudependent conduct in parliament; for his truly constitutional and irresistible argument, disproving the power of the House of Commons to imprison the people of England; and for his legal and manly resistance to the speaker's warrant, whereby he has given a practical illustration of its inefficiency, and demonstrated that, as there is no legal power without the legal means of execution, it could not be carried into effect without the aid of a standing army, a violation of the ancient laws and rights of Englishmen, and which in this instance was so lamentably exemplified in the breaking breaking open of bis castle, and so fatally preceded and followed by the murder of peaceable and unoffending citizens.

VII. "Resolved, That this resolution be communicated to Sir Francis Burdett by the sheriffs, and a deputation of the livery, who are desired at the same time to assure him, that, however grateful his release from arbitrary confinement would prove to the citizens of London, his liberation would be no jubilee to the British people, unless obtained by the triumph of those grand principles which in his person have been so shamefully and flagrantly violated.

VIII. "Resolved, That this meeting would become accomplices in the ruin of their constitution and country, were they to decline stating, what appears to them to be the fact, that the House of Commons, which has repeatedly rejected just and necessary inquiry, screened public delinquents and peculators from punishment, encouraged the scandalous traffic of seats in their own house, a traffic, ' at the mention of which their ancestors would have startled with indignation,' -sanctioned the most profligate waste of the public money, and approved and justified an expedition the most numerous, formidable, and expensive that ever left the shores of England, but the most degraded, disgraced, and ruinous that ever returned; alike destructive of the genuine energies of the empire, and holding out to the contempt and ridicule of the enemy the folly and imbecility of corrupt and wicked ministers.

IX. "Resolved, That under all these evils and calamities, these accumulated and accumulating griev

ances, it appears to this meeting, that the only means left to save the constitution and the country from impending ruin, is a reform in the representation of the people in the Commons House of Parliament, which, to be efficient, must be speedy and radical.

X. "Resolved, That the people of the united kingdom are hereby entreated to co-operate by petition, remonstrance, and all constitutional means, in the attainment of this salutary and indispensable object.

XI. "Resolved, That a petition, founded on these resolutions, be presented to the honourable the House of Commons.

XII. "Resolved, That the petition now read be fairly transcribed, and signed by two aldermen and twelve liverymen, and presented to the honourable the House of Commons, by H. C. Combe, Esq. Sir W. Curtis, Sir C. Price, and Sir J. Shaw, Bart.; and they are hereby instructed, as representatives of this city, to support the same. "To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in parliament assembled, the humble address, remonstrance, and petition of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Livery of the City of London, in Common Hall assembled, this 4th of May, 1810.

We, the lord mayor, aldermen, and livery of the city of London, in common hall assembled, beg leave, with feelings of the most anxious concern, to present this our humble address, petition, and remonstrance; and we earnestly entreat your honourable house to give to it a favourable reception; for how can we hope for redress and Aa4 relief relief, if the bare statement of the wrongs and grievances of which we complain be rejected? We also beg your honourable house to believe, that, in the language we may have occasion, and are indeed compelled, to employ, no offence is intended to your honourable house.

"The circumstance which most deeply afflicts us, and which most strongly intpels us at this time to approach your honourable house, is, what appears to us to have been, on your part, a violation of the personal security of the people of the land. We humbly conceive, that without law, and against law, you have imprisoned two of your fellowsubjects; and that, without a trial, without a hearing, you have condemned them. Law requires legal process and trial by jury of our equals: justice demands that no person shall be prosecutor, juror, judge, and executioner, in his own cause. We beg leave to express our conviction that this eternal principle of immutable justice cannot be annulled by any House of Commons-by any king-by any parliament - by any legislature upon earth. But it appears to us that your honourable house has, in the instances of Mr. John Gale Jones and Sir Francis Burdett, assumed, accumulated, and exercised all these offices.

"We feel it a duty which we owe to you, to ourselves, to our posterity, to state, that, in our conception, this jurisdiction is unfounded; and we humbly but firmly declare our opinion against the existence of this power in any hands;-a jurisdiction unknown-a power above the law, and which could be enforced only by only by military violence-a violence made manifest by the

breaking open of an Eglishman's castle, and by the preceding and subsequent murder of peaceable and unoffending citizens.

"Permit us humbly to observe, that the construction of your honourable house prevents our surprise at this conduct of your honourable house. We will not enter into the details, so often and so ably stated to your honourable house, by which it appears, that upwards of three hundred members of your honourable house, in England and Wales only, are not elected by the people, in any honest sense of the word people, but are sent to your honourable house by the absolute nomination or powerful influence of about one hundred and fifty peers and others, as averred in a petition to your honourable house in the year 1793, and which remains on your journals uncontroverted. This is the great constitutional disease of our country. This is the true root of all the evils, corruptions and oppressions, under which we labour. If it be not eradicated, the nation must perish.

"In support of this our sincere conviction, we need only refer to the never-to-be-forgotten vote of your honourable house, refusing to examine evidence on a charge against Lord Castlereagh and Mr. S. Perceval then two of the king's ministers, for trafficking in seats in your honourable house.

"We remember well, that when it was gravely averred, and proof offered, in a petition which stands on your journals, and the complaints whereof are now unredressed for more than twenty years, That seats for legislation in the House of Commons were as notoriously rent

ed

Led and bought as the standings for cattle at a fair,' the then honourable house treated the assertion with affected indignation, and the minister threatened to punish the petitioner for presenting a 'scandalous and libellous petition.' But we have lived to see a House of Commons avow the traffic, and screen those accused of this breach of law and right, because it has been equally committed by all parties, and was a practice ' as notorious as the sun at noon-day.' At this vote, and at these practices, we feel as * our ancestors would have felt,' and cannot repress the expression of * our indignation' and disgust.

"Under these circumstances, may we not be permitted to ask, where is your justice, where your dignity? Mr. John Gale Jones is confined within the walls of Newgate, for an alledged offence against yourselves, which, if cominitted against any other subjects of these realms, or even against the king himself, must have been judged by the established rules and laws of the land! Lord Castlereagh continued to be a principal minister of the crown, and is *now a free member of your honourable house! Sir Francis Burdett, dragged by a military force from the bosom of his family, is committed to the Tower, for exercising the right of constitutional discussion, common, and indeed undeniable, to you, to us, to all. Mr. Spencer Perceval continues a member of your honourable house, taking a lead in your deliberations, the first minister of the crown, and the chief adviser of the royal councils!

"Under the agonizing feelings excited by the late imprisonment of our fellow-subjects can it be ne

cessary for us to recapitulate the many instances, as they appear to us, of refusals to institute just and necessary inquiry, to pursue to condign punishment public delinquents and peculators, to economize the means and resources of the state, to administer to the people relief and redress for the various disgraces which the national honour has sustained, for the lavish profusion of British blood and treasure, extravagantly wasted in ill-contrived and fruitless campaigns, and more particularly in the humiliating and ignominious expedition to the coast of Holland, in which the greatest armament that ever left our shores was exposed to the scorn, contempt, and ridicule of the enemy; the flower of our youth wastefully and wantonly left ingloriously to perish in the pestilential marshes of Walcheren, without succour, without necessity, without object, without hope?

"These and similar proceedings of your honourable house require no comment; but we cannot by our silence become accomplices in the ruin of our country, and dare not conceal from you the wholesome though unpleasant truth, that they appear to us to have materially shaken what remained of the confidence of the subjects of these realms in the wisdom of your honourable house.

We therefore humbly, but firmly, entreat you to reconsider your conduct, to retrace your steps, and to expunge from your journals all your orders, declarations, and resolutions, respecting Mr. Gale Jones and Sir Francis Burdett; and that as Sir Francis Burdett has not been expelled from your honourable house, he be no longer pre