lest? the Corvée, and the Tithes, in France. He was able by the aid of that system which has made the English guinea worth 29 shillings in Bank Paper; by such means he was able to plunge France into a state that called for the government of a single man; but, he was, with all the hundreds of mil able to re-establish any one of those oppressions by which the people of France were induced to revolt against their old -Through the war of Pitt and millions of our money the people of France were deprived of the sort of government that they at first contemplated; but, they were not deprived of a very large part of the advantages which they expected from such a government. They revolted to get rid of Lettres-de-cachet, the Gabelle, the Corvée, the Tithes, and numerous degrading and cruel feudal rights; they revolted to get rid of a corrupt and partial administration of justice; they revolted to get rid of a clergy and nobility who insulted and oppressed them without mercy. This was the grand principle of their revolution, and this principle has not been resisted. However, if the merchants and traders of Liverpool and of the rest of the kingdom are satisfied with what has been done in the way of resistance to French principles, I congratulate them thereon with all my heart, and leave them and Mr. Canning to the enjoyment of all the tranquillity and security which that resistance is, of course, calculated to afford them. the government had been reduced to the necessity of discontinuing the contest many years ago. But, the question is, will Pitt's plans enable us to get safe out of this conAnd this question every man is ready to answer in the negative.. Mr. Canning concludes with the old cheat, which, though threadbare long ago, has,lions of our money that he squandered, unit seems, still its uses. He told the crew, that Pitt had successfully resisted that ❝ volcanic eruption of desolating principles "which, at one time, threatened to over-government. "whelm the civilized world.". -He alludes here to the principles of the French revolution; and, if they did actually threaten to overwhelm the civilized world, is it true, reader, that Pitt successfully resisted them? How were they expected to operate in the work of overwhelming This flashy orator delights in figures; but, at last, we must, if we can, reduce his words to some plain meaning. What, then, does he mean by the overwhelming of the civilized world by principles? Why he must mean, that those principles tended, not to the producing of a real deluge, or flood, in the civilized world, but that they clearly tended to the subversion of the settled order of things in the civilized world; that they tended to the oversetting of establishments in religion, in law, in ranks and degrees, and, especially to the pulling down of sovereigns and of thrones, That this is the only rational sense in which the words can be taken is, I think, evident; and, that being the case, what impudence, what brass, how hardened the front or how empty the skull, of the man who could stand up and assert, that Pitt London, 5th Nov. 1812. had successfully resisted those principles, when, at the same moment, it was a notorious fact, that scarcely a throne remained unoverset in the civilized world, and that all the establishments, connected with regal or aristocratical sway, had shared the same fate? Perhaps Mr. Canning meant to say, that Pitt had successfully resisted the principles of the first French revolutionists; that is to say, the principles of freedom; and, if that were his meaning, it must be confessed that his patron and the object of his praise was but too successful. Nevertheless, there is much which he left undone. He was unable, and so have been and will be, his followers, to restore the ecclesiastical and feudal and aristocratical tyranny in France and Italy, in Switzerland and in Germany. To give a pithy instance or two: Pitt was unable to reestablish Lettres-de-cachel, the Gabelle, WM. COBBETT. P. S. Since writing the above I have seen a Speech of Mr. Canning, made at Manchester. This speech I shall notice in my next. WESTMINSTER ELECTION. Letters of Sir Francis Burdett and Lord Cochrane, upon their being returned for the City of Westminster, in 1812. The following Letters have passed between the Committee appointed to conduct the Election for this City and their Representatives. The Resolutions of the General Meeting on the 5th inst. at the Grown and Anchor, had been previously transmitted to Sir Francis Burdett and Lord Cochrane. power which they may think advantageous. The enclosed Answer you will have the goodness to communicate. -Your's, very sincerely, 66 F. BURDETT. To the Electors of Westminster. GENTLEMEN,It is impossible for me to To Sir Francis Burdett, Bart. Sir,-In announcing to you that you have been again returned to Parliament for the City of Westminster, we cannot suppress the satisfaction we feel in observing the steady, though slow advance of public opinion, manifested in the disposition of the Electors of Westminster to do their duty to themselves and to their country-be insensible to the extraordinary mark of to the utter dismay of all Parties, and the confidence with which you have recently destruction of the formerly overwhelming honoured me. And although I am thereby influence of base, corrupt, and infamous again placed in an arduous and difficult Administrations, who have merely regard- situation, from which I should gladly have ed the ruling, not the benefiting the nation: withdrawn, I cannot, under such auspices, who have considered power as every refuse to undertake the forlorn hope of comthing, the peace, prosperity, and happiness bating that wide-spreading corruption, of the people as nothing.- -We would which seems almost to convert the severity willingly spare you the mortification of of satire, "that not to be corrupted is the "passing a painful life in undignified ef- "shame," into mere matter of fact; or, "forts to stem the torrent of corruption." at least, to give room to suppose such to be But when we contemplate the effects pro- the prevailing opinion. Nothing, thereduced in this great City, exemplified as fore, remains for the friends of their counthey now are, in the return of yourself and try, but to stand it out as long as they can, your late worthy colleague, without expense prepared, at all times, to make as decent an or personal trouble; without communica- exit as their enemies will permit.-Gention with either, and without a struggle-tlemen, the small portion which remains of when we hear from various places, that the People, rousing from their apathy, are endeavouring to imitate the example of Westminster, we cannot but indulge the hope, that at the next Election, better informed by precept, by example, and by experience, they will so exert themselves, that the "torrent of corruption" may no longer be irresistible, nor your honourable and manly efforts be unavailing" in promot-liament.I may, however, Gentlemen, ing the happiness of your country. the real Representation of the People (the sole Constitutional Guardian of our Liberty and Property) is now confined to the Counties and great Towns; and even in them, for the most part, Government patronage, places, pensions, promises, threats, and the various methods practised at Elections, render an uncorrupt body of Electors no more to be expected than an uncorrupt Par be allowed to say, without incurring the By Order of the Committee for con- 1812. SAMUEL BROOKS, Chairman. Commillee Room, 38, King-street, Covent Garden, 9th Oct. 1812. (A Letter to the same effect was written to Lord Cochrane.) ANSWERS. Oxford, Oct. 16, 1812. DEAR SIR,-I found your very flattering Letter on my return here from Tiverton. The noble behaviour of the Electors of Westminster towards me, makes it impossible for me to refuse any exertion in my -Gentlemen, at the Revolution one honest line, securing to the People freedom' of Election, would have been worth more than all that tedious and ostentatious display of principles and objects set forth, but never really provided for, by the Bill of Rights. I would fain hope, that the example given by the Electors of Westminster, might encourage other places still to contend for that small portion of Independ the Corvée, and the Tithes, in France. He was able by the aid of that system which has made the English guinea worth 29 shillings in Bank Paper; by such means he was able to plunge France into a state that called for the government of a single man; but, he was, with all the hundreds of millions of our money that he squandered, unable to re-establish any one of those oppressions by which the people of France were induced to revolt against their old and millions of our money the people of France were deprived of the sort of government that they at first contemplated; but, they were not deprived of a very large part of the advantages which they expected from such a government. They revolted to get rid of Lettres-de-cachet, the Gabelle, the Corvée, the Tithes, and numerous degrading and cruel feudal rights; they revolted to get rid of a corrupt and partial administration of justice; they revolted to get rid of a clergy and nobility who insulted and oppressed them without mercy. This was the grand principle of their revolution, and this principle has not been resisted. However, if the merchants and traders of Liverpool and of the rest of the kingdom are satisfied with what has been done in the way of resistance to French principles, I congratulate them thereon with all my heart, and leave them and Mr. Canning to the enjoyment of all the tranquillity and security which that resistance is, of course, calculated to afford them. the government had been reduced to the necessity of discontinuing the contest many years ago. But, the question is, will Pitt's plans enable us to get safe out of this contest? And this question every man is ready to answer in the negative. Mr. Canning concludes with the old cheat, which, though threadbare long ago, has, it seems, still its uses. He told the crew, that Pitt had "successfully resisted that "volcanic eruption of desolating principles "which, at one time, threatened to over-government.Through the war of Pitt "whelm the civilized world."— -He alludes here to the principles of the French revolution; and, if they did actually threaten to overwhelm the civilized world, is it true, reader, that Pitt successfully resisted them? How were they expected to operate in the work of overwhelming This flashy orator delights in figures; but, at last, we must, if we can, reduce his words to some plain meaning. What, then, does he mean by the overwhelming of the civilized world by principles? Why he must mean, that those principles tended, not to the producing of a real deluge, or flood, in the civilized world, but that they clearly tended to the subversion of the settled order of things in the civilized world; that they tended to the oversetting of establishments in religion, in law, in ranks and degrees, and, especially to the pulling down of sovereigns and of thrones, That this is the only rational sense in which the words can be taken is, I think, evident; and, that being the case, what impudence, what brass, how hardened the front or how empty the skull, of the man who could stand up and assert, that Pitt had successfully resisted those principles, when, at the same moment, it was a notorious fact, that scarcely a throne remained unoverset in the civilized world, and that all the establishments, connected with regal or aristocratical sway, had shared the same fate? Perhaps Mr. Canning meant to say, that Pitt had successfully resisted the principles of the first French revolutionists; that is to say, the principles of freedom; and, if that were his meaning, it must be confessed that his patron and the object of his praise was but too successful. Nevertheless, there is much which he left undone. He was unable, and so have been and will be, his followers, to restore the ecclesiastical and feudal and aristocratical tyranny in France and Italy, in Switzerland and in Germany. To give a pithy instance or two: Pitt was unable to reestablish Lettres-de-cachel, the Gabelle, WM. COBBETT. London, 5th Nov. 1812. P. S. Since writing the above I have seen a Speech of Mr. Canning, made at Manchester. This speech I shall notice in my next. WESTMINSTER ELECTION. Lellers of Sir Francis Burdett and Lord Cochrane, upon their being returned for the City of Westminster, in 1812. The following Letters have passed between the Committee appointed to conduct the Election for this City and their Representatives. The Resolutions of the General Meeting on the 5th inst. at the Grown and Anchor, had been previously transmitted to Sir Francis Burdett and Lord Cochrane. power which they may think advantageous. F. BURDETT. To Sir Francis Burdett, Bart. Sir,-In announcing to you that you have been again returned to Parliament for the City of Westminster, we cannot suppress the satisfaction we feel in observing the steady, though slow advance of public opinion, manifested in the disposition of the Electors of Westminster to do their duty to themselves and to their country-be insensible to the extraordinary mark of To the Electors of Westminster. GENTLEMEN,—It is impossible for me to to the utter dismay of all Parties, and the confidence with which you have recently destruction of the formerly overwhelming honoured me. And although I am thereby influence of base, corrupt, and infamous again placed in an arduous and difficult Administrations, who have merely regard- situation, from which I should gladly have ed the ruling, not the benefiting the nation: withdrawn, I cannot, under such auspices, -who have considered power as every refuse to undertake the forlorn hope of comthing, the peace, prosperity, and happiness bating that wide-spreading corruption, of the people as nothing. We would which seems almost to convert the severity willingly spare you the mortification of of satire, "that not to be corrupted is the "passing a painful life in undignified ef-"shame," into mere matter of fact; or, "forts to stem the torrent of corruption." at least, to give room to suppose such to be But when we contemplate the effects pro- the prevailing opinion. Nothing, thereduced in this great City, exemplified as fore, remains for the friends of their counthey now are, in the return of yourself and try, but to stand it out as long as they can, your late worthy colleague, without expense prepared, at all times, to make as decent an or personal trouble; without communica-exit as their enemies will permit.-Gention with either, and without a struggle-tlemen, the small portion which remains of when we hear from various places, that the the real Representation of the People (the People, rousing from their apathy, are en- sole Constitutional Guardian of our Liberty deavouring to imitate the example of West- and Property) is now confined to the Counminster, we cannot but indulge the hope, ties and great Towns; and even in them, that at the next Election, better informed for the most part, Government patronage, by precept, by example, and by experi- places, pensions, promises, threats, and the ence, they will so exert themselves, that various methods practised at Elections, the" torrent of corruption" may no longer render an uncorrupt body of Electors'no be irresistible, nor your honourable and more to be expected than an uncorrupt Parmanly efforts be "unavailing" in promot-liament. I may, however, Gentlemen, ing the happiness of your country. be allowed to say, without incurring the By Order of the Committee for consuspicion of flattery, that your conduct ducting the Election for the City forms a shining exception. Á conduct unand Liberty of Westminster, ap- paralleled in the annals of this, or, perhaps, pointed at a Public Meeting of of any other country; proving to demonElectors, Friends to Purity of Elec-stration the falsehood of those malignant tion, on Monday, the 6th October, assertions of unprincipled men for traitorous ends, that the great mass of the nation is corrupt, and that Reform is, therefore, neither desirable nor attainable. This outrageous doctrine, invented by knavery to palliate plunder, you have nobly confuted, and furnished a practical and unanswerable argument in favour of freedom of Election. 1812. SAMUEL BROOKS, Chairman. Committee Room, 38, King-street, Covent Garden, 9th Oct. 1812. (A Letter to the same effect was written to Lord Cochrane.) ANSWERS. Oxford, Oct. 16, 1812. DEAR SIR,-I found your very flattering Letter on my return here from Tiverton. The noble behaviour of the Electors of Westminster towards me, makes it impossible for me to refuse any exertion in my Gentlemen, at the Revolution one honest line, securing to the People freedom' of Election, would have been worth more than all that tedious and ostentatious display of principles and objects set forth, but never really provided for, by the Bill of Rights. I would fain hope, that the example given by the Electors of Westminster, might encourage other places still to contend for that small portion of Independ 1 ence which yet remains in the country; and thereby keep alive, at least in the remembrance of their countrymen, their ancient constitutional right to a full, fair, and free Representation of the People in Parliament, their only quiet and peaceable security at all times for their rights and property, against the despotism and plunder of the few.- -For these purposes you shall always find me, either in or out of Parliament, READY TO LAY DOWN MY LIFE. Gentlemen, I have received the highest honour I can receive, and the best reward the approbation of those who trusted me, on the expiration of the trust. the PRINCE REGENT: and being fully convinced that dissolutions of Parliament contribute to the emancipation of the Crown, even more (in the present state of the Representation) than to the Liberty of the Subject, I confess that I am not one of those who anticipate that the late constitu tional measure will be followed by a breach of the law. -Gentlemen, no part of the cant of the times seems to me more absurd and hypocritical, than the declamation by party men against what they term the overwhelming influence of the Crown," when the fact is notorious to us all, that the ruling Faction in Parliament seize the offices of State, and share them amongst themselves. If a doubt as to this truth is entertained by any one, let him reflect on the language of the Parties themselves, -That I should have, and that the Electors of Westminster should think, that I have conducted myself in it with honour and integrity, will be a never-failing source: of satisfaction to me, as long as the powers" Such an Administration cannot stand.” of recollection shall remain to,Gentlemen, your most affectionate and devoted Servant, To the Electors of Westminster. GENTLEMEN,-Being unable to convey in words the sensations I experience in reflecting on the manner in which you have returned me to Parliament, I shall leave it to you, who are capable of such acts, to estimate my feelings.- Permit me, however, in acknowledging the receipt of your Letter of the 10th inst., and transmitted to me through your Committee, to trespass a little on your attention, to offer my congratulations on the effect which has already been produced by the example set by you, on a former occasion, to the Electors of the United Kingdom, and to anticipate, that on every future recurrence to the elective franchise, the noble principle for which you are contending will be felt more strongly, and that "the People, rousing from their 66 apathy," will imitate the City of Westminster in the purity of their Elections. In this view of the subject, Gentle men, I cannot but congratulate you on the recent exercise of the Royal prerogative by And why, Gentlemen? not because the Royal protection has been withdrawn, but because a sufficient number do not agree as to the division of the spoil. What motive has the Crown for supporting scandalous abuses that are hostile to the interests of the public? As far as the question regards those who fatten on the plunder of their Country, it is needless for me to put it. Our liberties in these days are not in danger from violent and open exercise of Regal Authority; such acts being free from the deception practised by the mock Represen tatives of the People, would not be tolerated for an instant. No, Gentlemen, it is by the House of Commons alone that the Constitution is subverted, the prerogatives of the Crown usurped, the Rights of the People trampled upon.Gentlemen, I shall not attempt to enumerate the decisions of the late House of Commons, that will stamp indelible disgrace on the memory of the principal actors, who cannot escape from the contempt and execration of posterity, like the nameless individuals who composed their corrupt majorities. The effects, however, of the system of corruption can be more briefly stated-the prolongation of war -the increase of the National Debt-the depreciation of our currency-the disappearance of our coin-the stagnation of our commerce, and the consequent unexampled embarrassment of our manufacturers.These are the result-for all which evils, Gentlemen, there is no remedy but in the control that would be exercised over the public expenditure, by an honest House of Commons, and in the attention that such a House would pay to the interest of the State. Without a change in the principle |