Commons, and injurious to the ho- 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. 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. V. "Resolved, That the true at once accusers, legislators, judges, privilege of parliament, meaning jurors, and executioners in their own nothing more than a protective cause, sheltering themselves under right, was really designed as an the pretence of privilege, and exer- immunity and safeguard, to be cising a partial and summary juris- wielded as a safeguard against the diction, without redress or appeal. 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. 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 tyranny of James II. by assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with and suspending of laws, and VI. "Resolved, That the cordial thanks of this meeting be given to that illustrious patriot Sir Francis Burdett, for his upright and independent 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 his 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 Londou, 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 meet ing 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 bave 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, and all constituremonstrance, tional 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 assem bled, 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 A a 4 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 impels 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 fellow-. subjects; 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 juris diction unknown-a power above the law, and which could be enforced 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 únoffending citizens. "Permit us humbly to observe, that the construction of your hononrable house prevents our sur prise at this conduct of your ho nourable house. We will not enter into the details, so often and so ably state 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 un controverted. This is the great constitutional disease of our country. This is the true root of ail the evils, corruptions and oppres sions, 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 wheu it was gravely averred, and proof offered, in a petition which stands on your journals, and the com plaints whereof are now unredressed for more than twenty years, That seats for legislation in the House of Commons were as notoriously rent ed ed 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 with the walls of Newgate, for an alledged offence against yourselves, which, if committed 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 laud! 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, declaratious, 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 vented from exercising therein all the duties of a member of the same. "Above all, we earnestly pray your honourable house, in conjunction with Sir Francis Burdett, and in conformity to the notice he has given, to devise and adopt such measures as will effect an immediate and radical reform in the Commons House of Parliament, and ensure to the people a full, fair, and substantial representation, without which they must inevitably cease to exist as a great, a free, a glorious, and independent nation." The petition was adopted unanimously, with the exception of the votes of Mr. Deputy Kemble, Mr. Samuel Dixon, and another. [For the Westminster and Middlesex petition, see Chronicle, supra, p. 258.] OBITUARY for 1810. JANUARY. In his 68th year, at his house in John Street, Bedford Row, Nathaniel Newnham, Esq. Alderman of Lon-don, and Colonel of the West London Militia. In 1774, he was chosen Alderman of Vintry Ward; in 1776 he served the office of sheriff; in 1780, he was returned one of the members for the city; in 1783, he was chosen lord mayor; in 1784, he was again returned for the city of London; and in the next Parliament he sat for Ludgershal, in Wiltshire. He afterwards with drew entirely from parliamentary business, and divided his attention between his regiment and the extensive concerns of his bankinghouse. He was likewise president of St. Thomas's Hospital, and at the time of his death was serving, for the second time, as master to the Mercer's Company. Tiberius Cavallo, Esq. F. R. S. This gentleman was the son of an eminent physician of Naples, where he was born in the year 1749. He was originally intended for a mer cantile profession; and he came to England with that view, in the year 1771. In 1779 he was admitted a member of the Neapolitan- Academy of Sciences, as well as of the Royal Society of London. The publications of Mr. Cavallo have been as follows :--A complete Treatise of Electricity in Theory and Practice, with original Experiments; one volume, octavo, 1777 (enlarged to three volumes in 1795.) An Essay on the Theory and Practice of Medical Electricity; one volume, octavo, 1780. A Treatise on the Nature and Properties of Air, and other Permanently Elastic Fluids (with an Introduction to Chemistry;) one volume, quarto, 1781. The History and Practice of Aerostation; one volume, octavo, 1785. Mineralogical Tables; folio (accompanied with an octavo explanatory pamphlet) 1785. A Treatise on Magnetism, in Theory and Practice, with Original Experiments; one volume, octavo, 1787. Description and Use of the Telescopical Mother-of-Pearl Micrometer, invented by T. C. a pamphlet, oc |