288

(From Cobbette' Register.)

“ raocasnmos is THE noose or commons.” “ Bolt- Court, 30 Jan. 1833.

In another part of the Register, inserted, from the Morning Chronicle newspaper, an account of the first debate in the reformed House of Commons, it

~ * As to the subject of the debate, it be-

t i

came matter ofgreat importance, in a e- cuniary point of view especially when con-

nected with the previous enormous grants ;

to the speaker and his son. The question of fitness or unfitness for the office, though of some consequence, certainly, became matter of no consequence at all, when compared with the effect which must natu- rally be produced upon the people, by the choosing of a pensioner, with a son a se- necurist, to be put at the head of this re- formed House of Commons. There was something, to be sure, extremely strange, in the servants of the King making applica- tion to a known and decided enemy of parliamentary reform to become the Speak- er of the new House of Commons; some- thing that could not fail to excnte the suspi- ciOn, that they wished to have the Tories at their back, to assistthem in preventing any real change in the system. it is impossible not to believe that there must have been some motive of this sort at the bottom of this negociation; and, therefore, this was a good objection on the part of Mr. O’Con- nell: the argument of unfilness in Mr. Sut- ton, merely because he held opinions diffe- rent from those entertained by a supposed majority of the House, does not appear to have had much weight in it; and the real and solid argument against his elevation was this: that he is an enormous pensioner; that he has been living upon the public money ever since he was very young; that he belongs to a family aggrandized from the proceeds of the public purse; and that, therefore, to put him at the head of this reformed House of Commons, to select him as an epitome of the whole House, was to declare to the people, that the reform should produce them no alleviation of their burdens. It is a, pity that this was not made the‘ground-work ofthe opposition to his appointment. But this, which I am sure my readers will deem the great and sub- stantial objection, was not even alluded to by Mr. Hume, who brought forward the

’ motion for appointing Mr. Littleton in pre-

ference to Mr. Sutton. His was an argu- ment confined solely to comparative fitness

~ and compatibility; and as there was to set

against that, ‘the saving of four' thousand

pounds ayear,’ many men voted for the

saving.’ If it had been a question of pen- sioner, or no pensioner, the result would héve- been different. ,There -would have been many more to vote for no pensioner. I ans-not pretending to believe, that there would have been anything like an equal division, even then: for this was not a Ques-

, persons.

THE BRITISH AMERICAN.

tion on which any of the Members were pledged; it was not a question of taking off taxes; or oflaying on taxes; if- put in its

I have j proper shapedt still would have been only

' a question relating to the character of the

House, only a mere symtom of its future

a: lintentions; and though that was a great 1deal to decide, it was a matter that would

make adeepimpression only on thinking .Theret‘ore, probably half the members present looked supon themselves as giving a vote for the saving of public money. With regard to the Act of Par- liament granting the pension in fee, and in reversion, I think that Sir John Campbéll will find it very difficult to reconcile his construction ofit to' law or reason. He said, that the act provided for the pension’s beginning from the hour that Mr. Sutton ceased to be Speaker: and that he did not cease to be Speaker, untill another Sp'ea-

.ker was chosen; and that, therefore, by

being again chosen Speaker, he was in fact continued in his otiice, and that, of course, the pension would not_begin to become due, untii the time when he should cease to be Speaker hereafter If this he the true construction of the Act why choose him again?. If he were the Speaker at the very moment when the debate was going on, why propose him again; why debate about the matter; why propose him; why not let him take the chair as usual, and sit there till voted out of it? It was said, that if, the King had died, be- tween the dissolution and the return of the new Parliament, the old Parliament must have been called «together again, with their Speaker at their head; and that, therefore, he still was Speaker until the very hour the House was debating about him. There appears to be not the sha- dow ofground for considering him to be still Speaker, any more than for considering the members ofthe late Parliament to be the members of this. The construction of the Act is wholly untenable; and, it is clear as daylight- that Mr- Sutton might, the mo- ment that the pension act was passed, have sold the pension for his life, and have put the money in his pocket, and that the pur- chaser, would, under that act of Parliament, have had a clear right to come and de- mand his money at the Treasury, and to sue the otficers of the'Treasury, if they did not pay him the annuity or rent. His being re-chosen Speaker does not nuliify the act in the smallest degree; he can sell the pension now; and ifhe do not sell it and put the money safely in his pocket, it will not be owing to any impediment that he can find in that Act. [f be do not receive the pension and the salary at the same time, it must be owing to his own forbearance, and not to any protection that the public purse will receive from the law. So much for this first act of the reformed House of

I'Commons. It was always clear, that the

lilo 37

x\ people must not slacken in their exertions; that, whatever they want done they must petition for; that they must 1,; much more vigilent than ever they were in obtaining of the Reform Bill; that the must not delay; not neglect their imp0,_ tant duties; for that. if'they be silent, the may be well assured, that nothing will be done for their relief. They ought to meet in counties, in cities. in boroughs, in towns in villages: the right of petition is that, right, the vigilent and resolute exercise of which, English tyrants have always found to be, at last, too strong for them: The people should consider, that even the mem. bers on whom they mostjustly rely,stand in need of their support. Silence is prover. bially taken to give consent;and, if the people be silent, let them be well assured that no man. however great his zeal, his, industry, and his talent, can be of any ser. nice to them. It was the people them. selves who caused the Reform Bill to be brought in; it was the people themselves that caused the second House of Commons to pass the Reform Bill; it was the people themselves that finally caused the success of the Bill; and it is the people themselves, who must now cause that bill to produce any ofthe effects which they have expected from it. The means which the people have to use, are, first, petitioning; next, remonstrating;next, resisting. Theseare the means which they have used in former times. Let us hope that it never will be necessasy for them again to resort to ei- ther ofthe two latter. - That the right of resisting acts of undoubted tyranny, ex. ists in every people on earth; and ifit did not, men would‘be worse off than the beasts that perish. The right, this last and terrible right, was resorted to at that epoch, which was called the Revolution; and it is now, on the same principle, re- sorted to in the State‘ of South Carolinia; where, in my opinion, it is rightfully exer- cised; because it isexerciscd in resistance of heavy. unequdl, and unjust taxation. We, however, though heavily oppressed; though we have suffered long, and very severely, have, I am satisfied, no need to resort to desperate means of any kind. Our arms are Petitions, in the usual style and manner employed by our ances- tors. By the means of petitions, we hold direct communication with those who make, and who administer the laws; we tell them freely what we think of their acts; we express‘our wishes to them with regard to what they ought to do, and what they ought not to do: we complain ofthose oftheir acts which we deem injurious to us; and, though the form of our demand IS that ofa prayer, and thouzh that is a form, which is required by the great respect which every one owes to the laws, as well as to the office of those who make and ex- ecute the laws, this prayer is, in effect, as