or suspected of treason, sat in convention in the Guildhall of the city of London; delegates for different districts were appointed, some of whom are now in my eye; and you will find, in short, that no one step, in form or in substance, has been taken by the unfortunate persons who are now the subjects of this prosecution, that were not taken, and, in my opinion, legally and constitutionally taken, by their superiors, whose examples they have followed. Let my expressions be properly understood; I stand upon a great theatre, and should be sorry to say any thing which I can have occasion to recall. Let it be recollected, that I am not defending all the papers which have been read ;-some of them are rash and absurd in the extreme; many of them are indecent ; many of them clash with one another, which is not surprising, since they were written by persons of various descriptions, who had no communication with one another. But that is not the questionthe question is, what were the objects of these Societies, from the result of the whole evidence? These papers are not prosecuted as libels, but are charged to have been written with the intention to promote a convention to supersede and assume the government. But will any honest man say, that he can collect from these writings, taken in a mass, and as indicative of the pursuits of their authors, any such intention or system? on the contrary, it is impossible to listen to them with common candour and attention, without observing, that the needle is not

truer to the pole, though, when it is disturbed and agitated, it oscillates round the point of its attraction, than these poor people were to the promotion of reform IN THE COMMONS HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT, by collecting the sense of the people on the subject; conscious that though Parliament, as the Duke of Richmond expresses it, would not spontaneously yield, what those who sway it have a corrupt interest in refusing, yet that it might be obtained by that which must, and will in the end, obtain every thing from any government, however constituted-the slow, gradual, and progressive effect of public opinion -This was their object-and I do maintain here, in my own person, that it is the privilege of Englishmen so to collect the opinion of the country; and that it is the duty of Parliament, nay, its very use and office in the State, to attend to, and to give effect to the opinions so collected.-An eminent person, whose writings I have often had occasion to cite, expresses this sentiment with admirable justness and force-" The virtue, spirit, and essence of the "House of Commons, consists in its being the ex

press image of the feelings of the nation. It was "not instituted to be a control UPON the people, "as of late has been taught, by a doctrine of the "most pernicious tendency, but was designed as a "control FOR the people. It was supposed origi

nally to be no part of the standing government of this country; but was considered as a control upon "it, issuing immediately from the great body of

"the people, and speedily to be resolved into the "mass from whence it arose."

To bring back the House of Commons to this genuine office and character, by fixing the public attention to its departure from it, was the obvious drift of all the proceedings of the Societies, as they are fairly to be collected from the evidence. Undoubtedly there are among the papers strong invectives against unbridled monarchies, because they were written while monarchs, having no law but their unbridled ambitions, were laying waste thè liberties of the world;-there are, I admit, strong censures upon those corruptions which have embarked this country in a system (as they thought it) of tyranny and injustice; but there is nothing in them which touches the King of Great Britain's majesty or office, or the hereditary dignity of the Peers; there is nothing which glances at a wish to introduce a republic into England: there is strong democracy, indeed, but it is confined to its proper sphere-to the restoration of the House of Commons, WHICH IS THE IS THE CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY OF ENGLAND.

The House of Commons is perpetually talked of as if it were a self-existing body, independent of the people; whereas it is their mere agent; the organ by which they speak and act; and which betrays and abdicates its trust the moment that it assumes a language of its own, which the people do not auspicate and approve.. Take away such a

House of Commons from the British Government, -remove the control which the people have in it upon the executive authority by the free choice of their representatives, and then tell me how it differs from the most despotic establishments, which are the just detestation of the world. Yet how can it be asserted that the people of England have that control, if they have not the free choice which bestows it? The Society of the Friends of the People, part of whose proceedings the Crown has thought fit to make evidence, and to speak of with respect, have placed upon the Journals of the House of Commons, and demonstrated by positive evidence, this fallen, humiliated condition of the country. They offered to prove, that Peers and the Treasury actually nominate ninety members, and procure, by influence, the return of seventy-seven more, making together one hundred and sixty-seven: that ninety-one individual commoners in the country procure the election of one hundred and thirty-nine, and that one hundred and sixty-two individuals absolutely return three hundred and six members, a majority of the entire House of Commons.

Gentlemen, this is no vague assertion of mine-I am reading the precise state of it, as it was offered by a regular motion in Parliament, which I had myself the honour to second; we offered to establish, that one hundred and sixty-two persons did actually return three hundred and six out of five hundred nd fifty-eight, which is a majority of the House.

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So that every thing that is to bind and ascertain your rights or mine;—every measure that is to promote the glory, or to bring on the destruction of the country; every act or system of government, which is either to give us the continued prosperity of peace, or to afflict us with wasting and calamitous wars ;every event that may render this mighty nation flourishing and happy to the latest posterity, or bend it down to the ignominious yoke of foreign or domestic enemies; all these heartstrings of a people, instead of depending upon a House of Commons, proceeding from themselves, are to be pulled and torn asunder, as the caprice or interest of one hundred and sixty-two individuals, who choose representatives for the whole kingdom, may suffer or direct. Yet we are told that it is the pride and glory of the English Government that by law we are equal, living under the same sanction, and enjoying similar privileges.

Gentlemen, all this was made manifest to the House of Commons by the Honourable Gentleman who made the motion I allude to, and who held a language which the meanest man in England can understand. His language was this" I assert "this to be the condition of England; if you say it

is not-do justice to yourselves by calling upon us "for the proof, and expose your calumniators to "reproach-but if it be the condition of England, "shall it not be redressed?" Gentlemen, the proof was not received, and the grievance continues. This is the clue to the whole evidence.

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