Islands with negroes from Africa; and that they, with their usual politeness, answer our great States our measures: and it would be to be sottish indeed not to be convinced, that they will not only as sume a tone, but take steps, ac-man's remonstrances, with “Oui, cordingly. oui, Monseigneur: vous avez raison;" but, that they keep on the SlaveTrade as regularly as they do from Baltimore; and, more regularly they certainly need not. We have had a little foretaste in the total disregard, on the part of France, of our remonstrances on the subject of the Slave Trade. This is a curious thing, and wants a This is a foretaste. They turn a little explanation. At the peace deaf ear. They shule us off. of Chantilly (we think it was) when They laugh, in short, at negociators our great political philosopher sent that come with a Debt of eight NAPOLEON to Elba, the King of hundred millions and a “ Dead France was not induced to stipu-Charge" of five millions a-year late positively to put an end to the hanging about their necks. They Slave Trade in the French Islands, laugh at a negociator without a which our philanthropists and our forty - pounder at his back; and colonial proprietors were so anxious they well know, that we can nover to see accomplished. When NA-again fire off a forty-pounder withPOLEON came back from Elba, out shaking the whole fabric of the thinking that this was one way of THING to pieces. out-doing the Bourbons, he abolish- The Bourbons must know well, ed the Slave Trade. But, he had that to mortify England, to shew to go to Waterloo and face our hostility towards her, to injure and last immense bale of Bank-notes! humble her as soon as they can, When, therefore, the King came and, as soon as may be, to shew a to Paris again, and when the Old disposition this way, is the surest Blucher work and museum and picture possible mode of gaining the hearts and statue work was going on, the of the French people. Stupid King was told by our great philo-hommes de lettres, as the coxcombs sopher, that he could now have no call themselves, may say what they hesitation to abolish the Slave please about mob; but, it was Trade, at once, and unconditionally, clearly rooted dislike of the English seeing that the Usurper" had that produced the pelting off of done it to his hand. To such an licensed vagrants that went to argument and such large armies of Paris to pick up some of the soall nations, in and about his ca- vereigns that had been carried pital, there was no answer; and the thither. What did the people King of France agreed to the mea- there care about the plays that were sure," so highly interesting to acted? What did they care about humanity," and by no means less Shakespeare or Sheridan? They disinteresting to our colonial pro-liked the thing because it was prietors, who, having a pretty mid- English; because English_plays dling stock of blacks themselves, put them in mind of what English naturally wished to keep the Bank-Notes hud done. This was the planters of other nations from get-ground-work of that clamour and ting any, seeing that the more sugar was raised the less profitable the raising of sugar would be! Agreeably to this humane sti-|| pulation the parties went on for It is to be mad to suppose that some time; but it has long been the Bourbons do not see this feeling notorious, that the French have in the people, and to be worse stocked, and are stocking, their than mad to suppose that they will pelting which drove the licensed vagrants off and highly honourable the feeling was to the French people. Register. not yield to it, for their own safety ance of the Work will be preas well as from motives of ambition. We look upon all the mea- cisely that of a Volume of the sures of the Bourbons to be taken with a view to our utter inability again to go to war. They will, every day, see fresh proofs of this inability. The constant prayer must be, that we shall adhere to the mill-stones; and they see that we must adhere to them until we have a Reform of the Parliament, COBBETT'S COLLECTIVE COMMENTARIES Or, Remarks on the Proceedings which they will, and, perhaps in the Collective Wisdom of the rightly, conclude that we never shall have as long as the system Nation, during the Session which can, by the means of any sacrifices, began on the 5th of February be held together. Such is our view of the State of and ended on the 6th of August, France, considered relatively to in the 3rd year of the Reign of England. As to the vehement debates in the French House of King George the Fourth, and in Commons, we, taking into view the year of our Lord 1822; being the character of the people, re To which are subjoined, A Complete List of the Acts passed during the Session, with Elucidations; and other Notices and Matters; forming, all together, a short but clear History of the Collective Wisdom for the gard them merely as proofs that the Third Session of the First the parties are in earnest. The Parliament of that King. Bourbons are sure to please the people, if they gratify them in their passion for glory, and particularly in their hatred of the Bank Note nation; the nation who got to Paris by dint of papermoney. The conclusion we should draw is this; that no time should be lost on the part of England to free herself from tithes or debts; but, as this does not seem likely to be the conclusion to which our Collective Wisdom will come, we must wait patiently for the operation of time and events. To give the Reader information year. In the Multitude of Councillors there is the wisdom. 13Proverbs, Ch. 24, Y. 6. PREFACE. THE Commentaries contained with respect to the nature of a in this volume, were, in general, Work which has already been made and published daily in the advertised, and which will be pub-Statesman newspaper. But, as I lished within a Fortnight or Three Weeks, I cannot do better than insert the Title and Preface, which did not begin with that paper, until the end of February, a short account of the proceedings up to will be seen below. The appear-that time is now given, in order that the volume may not be defective. The dates are those of the paper in which the Commentaries appeared, and not of the debates themselves. However, the very day of the debate is usually mentioned also; so that there can hardly be any mistake in this respect. The List of the Acts and the other matter subjoined will, I am persuaded, be found to be of the greatest utility. The great fault of Parliamentary Debates, as they are usually published, is their immense bulk. The heavy cost is something; but, it is nothing compared with the unwieldliness of that mass of confusion contained in two or three large volumes of what are called Parliamentary Debates; which, by the by, are frequently debates, or, at least, speeches, that have never been uttered in Parliament, but things written out by the orators themselves and got in the DebateVolumes by force of money; so that the richer the more eloquent the orator. This is a curious way of obtaining renown. It is, indeed, a mere matter of traffick: so much speech for so much money. Hence comes the curious fact, that those who make the shortest speeches in the House, or none at all in some cases, make the longest in the Debate-Volumes. However, we are arrived at a state of things, in which very few persons are to be duped by such means. And, in short, scarcely any body but the orators by purchase either buy or ever look at the cumbrous loads of trash, called Parliamentary Debates, which, in a few years, grow into such a heap, that the very thought of referring to them is enough to drive a man mad. VOL. 43.-No. 9.] LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1822. [Price 6d. On the Meeting, lately held in the Chair,) it was unanimously SIR, at York, THE steps which you have taken, in order to rouse the great Resolved; 1st. That it is the opinion of this Worth, Sussex, 27 August, 1822. Meeting, that a Reform in the Commons' House of Parliament, such a Reform as would render it the real, rather than a virtual, Representation of the People,-is become a measure of urgent necessity. County of York in the cause of Parliamentary Reform, merit the thanks of the whole country. That the Public may, as far as I have the means of conveying infor- corded history of the House itself, mation to it, be duly apprized of your intentions, I shall here first insert the Resolutions, agreed to by the Meeting at York, on the 22d instant, of which Meeting you were Chairman; and then, with great submission, offer you such observations as the case appears to me to call for. 2nd. That this Meeting collects the truth of this fact from the re where it is found, that every suc-` cessive Administration, of whatever party, can, with a few solitary exceptions, of which the interested spirit has been too manifest, at all times command a majority. 3d. And this Meeting is willing to believe that the numerous body a Committee of the Commons' of Placemen and Pensioners, which House of Parliament has lately reported to exist in its body, has R Printed and published by C. CLEMENT, No. 183, Fleet Street. greatly tended to produce this 6th. That the following Gentlespirit of dependance on the one men shall form a Committee achand, and of unbounded power on cordingly-Five of them to constithe other. tute a Quorum:— 4th. Further, that the return of Members to the Commons' House of Parliament, (as appears from numerous statements made in the House itself,) being effected through the influence of Peers of the Realm, as well as of the Lords of the Treasury, is another cause why the votes of the House so implicitly follow the dictates of successive Administrations, and frequently with the sacrifice of the best interests of the Country. Convinced of this great truth, this Meeting thinks it right to watch the opportunity for adopting the steps necessary to rouse this great County to those exertions, which may be wanted to effect such a Reform as shall restore our Representation to a state of Constitutional Purity, calculated at once. to protect the Rights of the People and of the Throne. 5th. Further, that to bring about this great object, it is the opinion of this Meeting a Committee be immediately appointed, with power to add to their numbers, who shall meet on the first Monday in November, at Mr. Etridge's Hotel, in York, there to organize a County Meeting, or to adopt such measures as they may conceive requisite, to promote a Reform in the Commons' House of Parliament. Walter Fawkes, Esq. Robert Chaloner, Esq. M. P. Rookes Crompton, Esq. John Wharton, Esq. M.P.. S. Scroope, Esq. J. Hutton, Esq. of Marske. John Haigh, Esq. of Crow Nest. WALTER FAWKES, Chairman." |