struction is given to their dogs, only their dogs are not cast into damp and cold dungeons, with their legs chained by galling irons to another dog; they are not sent hundreds of miles away from their own homes; they are not fed upon coarse bread and water, and kept half famished for thirty hours, by way of experiment upon their patience," amidst disease, and misery, and distraction.* 66 These infatuated men have frequently for vile, interested purposes, called you a low, degraded rabble, an ignorant and swinish multitude; but they have called you so, because they wish you to be such, that they might find a sort of plea for carrying on their system of odious oligarchical tyranny; they are conscious that wisdom is power, and they dread nothing so much as your getting wisdom. They are aware that it is impossible to enslave an enlightened people; that the experiment was made int America, and that it failed. Do they imagine that the parent is less vigorous than the child? Ignorance supported by the bayonet may for a time lord it over wisdom, but such tyranny is contrary to the order of nature, and the will of nature's God. Wisdom I repeat is power; a pigmy may tread upon a giant, but the giant must be asleep; he will soon rouse himself, and shake his mighty limbs, renovated, with strength and terror. Even the secret committee allowed that the character of the people was changed;" they are wiser, and therefore more powerful, let corruption yield in time. It is not in the want of light in the political hemisphere, as the philosophic Ben"tham well says, but in the abundance of it that we must look "for the true object of their fears." That object is "to keep you plunged in the thickest darkness." Such is "the policy. of great characters," but their policy has turned out to be, like all their deeds, nothing but vanity. The swine are stub. born, and won't be fools to please them; nor are gagging acts, sedition bills, domiciliary visits, or violations of magna charta, at all likely to make them less enlightened, or to encrease their stupidity. That strange anomaly in civilized society, where the oppressor is indemnified, and the injured, unredressed, in spite of the prayers and supplications to offended heaven of bishops. and archbishops, for preservation “against the madness of a very sane Compare the cases of Roberts, F. Ward, J Baguley, W Ogden, æt. 74, J. Mitchell, W. Cliff, J. Johnstone, E. Dixon, and many other sufferers under the suspension of our laws, described in the Newspapers of January and February last 66 66 Bentham's plan of parliamentary reform. Sect. 8, people," will not have the least effect in blinding your eyes, or repressing your just claims and demands. You are in fact. fully enlightened as to your rights and privileges; your sufferings have taught you to reason,* and when men once begin to reason, neither spies, nor plotters, nor stupid state circulars, nor the vile machinations of instigators will aught avail. Depend upon it, Fellow Citizens! that all will ultimately turn out for good; and as it was necessary, according to Machiavel,t that the "celebrated legislator of antiquity should find the children of "Israel in a state of oppression and slavery, that they might be "disposed to shake off the yoke of bondage; so is it equally necessary, in the great moral order of events, that you should have experienced privation, and misery, in order that your eyes might be sufficiently open to the abuses of corrupt men, and the violations of a free constitution. Misery is a vast improver of the understanding. You have now a perfect conviction that fair, free, and frequent elections are a part of the English constitution that rotten boroughs, and the interference of Peers, are a direct violation of that constitution. You know that no laws should be enacted, no taxes imposed but by your own consent in parliaments of your own choosing; and that "the very reason why acts of parliament bind all "is this, becauseevery man is party, and consenting to them. +” You know that the basis of the English constitution consists in freedom of person, and security of property; and that as your freedom ought not to be endangered but by a jury of your equals so your property should not be taken from you but by an assembly (as Mr. Pitt of 1785 said) freely elected, between "whom, and the mass of the people, there was the closest union, " and most perfect sympathy. "§ 66 * Cobbett's Political Pamphlet, 22d November, 1817. + Prince ch. vi + 3 E. 4. 2. a. 21 E. 4. 45. a. Prynne on ship money, 7. "The determimation of parliament is presumed to be the act of every particular subject, who is either present personally, or consenting by his assignee, suffraged by himself.” Modus tenendi. 33. " Every Englishman is intended to be there present either in person or by procuration, and attorney." Commonwealth of Eng Jand, by Sir Thomas Smith, book 11. chapter 2. "There needs no formal promulgation of an act of parliament, says Blackstone, because every man in England is, in judgment of law, party to the making of the act, being present thereat by his representatives." Comm. i. 185. And again, "The lawfulness et punishing criminals is founded upon this principle: that the law by which they suffer was made by their own consent." ibid. iv. 8. See parliamentary history, xxv. 435. That the principle of “taxation 66 66 66 You know, for Lord Chief Justice Holt has told you, that the elective franchise is the noblest birthright, and invaluable privilege of the subject." It is this alone which can make the honourable House what it ought ever to be, "the express image of the feelings of the people ;" whereas there is now no other way for the preservation of a decent attention to pub"lic interest in the representatives, but the interposition of the "body of the people itself."+ Nay, even this interposition, as you have witnessed in the fainishing Corn Bill, which was passed under the protection of fixed bayonets; and as you have seen in the fate of all your numerous petitions for reform, hundreds of which were not so much as admitted to lie upon the honourable table, has not been attended with the desired effect. Yes, Gentlemen! the Corn Bill, the abominable Corn Bill, in spite of all your petitions, and remonstrances, was passed under the protection of the standing army, by your disobedient representatives, as they still affect to call themselves with a view to favor one class of men at the expence of nine-tenths of the nation, and its ultimate object was to bolster up the paper money, and accumulated taxation.‡ Our clergy teach us to pray for "cheapness and plenty,” and yet here was an act passed, as if in defiance of the bounty, and intention of the Creator, to raise artificially the price of the first necessary of life, and thus make every thing dear and scarce. Mark too the result; so far was the agricultural interest from reaping any advantage at that period from this tax-holstering, and tax-encouraging measure, that the whole expected benefit was rendered null by the withdrawing of millions of paper money from the circulation. Away went the agriculturists to crowd the gaols, and fill the pockets already overloaded of the commissioners of bankrupts.§ and representation being inseparable," is the priuciple of the constitution, was shewn in the fact, that when Calais came into our possession, it was not taxed till empowered to send two representatives. * See Plowden's Hist. of Ireland, ii. 91. + Burke. Thoughts on Discontents, 68, 100, It was upon this principle that Mr. Pitt, A. D. 1782, was of opinion, that" parliamentary reform could only be accomplished by resolutions of the people acting on the prudence of the House.-Nor would he, to preserve power, or gratify ambition, ever become an unprincipled apostate." See Oldfield, ii. 21. In the minority upon the third reading of the Corn Bill, (10 March, 1815) appear the names of Buller and Courtenay. "The contraction of the circulation," says Mr. Huskisson, May, 1818, But the ever-varying supporters of the system already begin to change their tone in respect to your capacity; even Lord Sidmouth complains (12 May, 1817) that "the danger is great66 er because more people read, and are better informed than formerly." This is somewhat curious to be sure; what then is the use of all the Sunday schools, and societies, that we hear of? and why are so many thousand bibles given away? If the being able to read promotes the cause of irreligion, sedition, and blasphemy, why are such pains taken to instruct the people? But the perpetual contradictions of the supporters of the system render all reasoning with them null. Even in your own Guildhall (3 Dec. 1817) when you were convened to express your deep regret at the loss of an amiable Princess, cut off in the prime of life, you were told, and told truly by a everend, and learned divine, "that the people of England were a wise and understanding people,* Yes, they are wise and understanding when they address a prince upon the throne; though in my opinion they would have shewn full as much wisdom, and more christian charity, if they had offered consolation to a poor, afflicted, deserted mother, whose feelings must have been of no ordinary kind upon such a lamentable, such an afflicting occasion. You were wise enough too when you made illuminations and bonfires on the downfall of Buonaparte, and the restoration of the Bourbons, and the inquisition; you were celebrated also for your understanding when you burnt Thomas Paine in effigy; so when you are wanted to fight the battles of despotism, you are dubbed gentlemen and perfectly intelligent: but then again when your rights are invaded; your liberties infringed; and d your constitu. tion voted av ay; corruption and her minions instantly impeach your judgment, and offer an insult to your understanding. in A D 1815, 1816, produced a great fall of prices from which the most runous mischief ensued; and if recourse was now had to cash payments. and a considerable diminution in the circulating medium_took place" (which in fact was the necessary consequence), "it would by July produce great pressure and distress." Well then, what says Mr. Tierney to this? why," A terrible revashon will take place1bis is the last struggle to guard against that meTane holy event." Here then is a pretty kettle of fish for the borough mongers, the and owners, and the fond holders Here is more distress in embryo. But the national disease is want of employment, arising from want of means toy, all means being absorbed in grinding taxation. Hence flow the great incase of crimes, the necessity of standing armies, and the progress of misery. See Cobbett, Feb 7. 1818. *Lord Castlereagh, says that there is " intelligence enough in these lower orders. And even Mr. Wilberforce admits that they are "persons of no ordinary powers of mind." Debates, 24th June, 1817. Thus you plainly perceive that you are called wise or ignorant, gentlemen or rabble, as it suits occasions and circumstances; and in truth it is no ordinary practice for men to blow hot and cold with the same breath, when their nerves are out of order. But the fact is, that you are too enlightened for the tricks of corruption; you see clearly the juggle between the bank and the government; you see that the national debt, as it is called, has but a nominal existence, the interest of which is paid only from the sweat of your brows; that more than half your earnings is absorbed in taxes; and you feel convinced that the time is approaching when the English bubble, like the old French bubble, will burst, and you will then, one and all, dispute the right to demand the taxes of you. The bank lends to the government, the government owes to the bank, and Johnny Bull pays all by virtual representation, swearing all the time that taxation should be virtual too. This is called government security; but secure as this "solid system" is deemed, the richest of the fundholders, it is said, has prudently sold out, not being willing to run the risk of being in at the death;" others will follow in proportion as wisdom encreases, nor will corruption with all her bristling bayonets arrest the "terrible revulsion." Even Walpole declared, speaking of the excise," that he would not be the minis"ter to enforce any system of taxation by the sword.“ 66 66 I repeat then, that you are too enlightened, you have shewn yourselves sensible of your own importance, and you feel (as Burke said)" that your freedom cannot long survive your importa nce :" you know that the system is at its last gasp; that it depends solely for its protection on the soldiery; and what is more stinging to corruption, the soldiery know it too, and already begin to laugh at the wincing, and kicking of the old jade. What! can she be so stupid as to believe that an English soldier will imbrue his hands in the blood of his own friends and kindred, his parents, and children, and favorites, to uphold the usurped power of a corrupt oligarchy? why; the soldiery are composed of that very people, those very labouring classes, who are groaning under accumulated distress and misery, a misery more difficult to be borne from the contrast afforded by the hated leaves of the red book, overloaded as it is with pen sioners, and place-men, aye! and place-girls, and place-boys too to the second or third generation. No! no! The soldiery savour of the people, they are a part of them, and corruption can |