VOL XII. No. 9.

[PRICE 10D.

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TO THE

INDEPENDENT ELECTORS

OF THE

CITY AND LIBERTIES OF WESTMINSTER. LETTER XXIV.

GENTLEMEN,

Let us turn to other matters. Having taken a view of our affairs with regard to foreign countries, let us look a little into our situation at home; and see what is necessary to be done there.

When we couplein, that, under the name and she of pic offices, our money is squandered away upon idlers and rogues and plunderers, we are reproached with Jacobinism. It was thus," say Jon Bowles and his crew, "that the French revolutionists "began their works." And, the inference is, that, we wish to bring about here what was brought about in France. That we wish to destroy the nobility and to kill the king and his family; and that, the consequence of this would be, a military despotism under an English Buonaparté. Whether the present state of France, compared to its former state, be an example so terrific as John Bowles and his crew would make it appear, I shall not attempt to determine. But what have our complaints to do with the French revolution, or with any revolution? If, how ever, it be insisted upon that the French revolution began in complaints like ours, would it not be advisable to remove the ground of our complaints? No: that is never thought of To villity, and, if possible to oppress, if not kill, the complainants, is the mode which John and his crew recommend in order to prevent our complaints from producing effects similar to those produced in France. They accuse us of falsehood; and therefore, it is necessary, nowand then, to state an undeniable fact. What Would John say, I wonder, to the public advertisement for the purchase of an office? such as I have placed at the head of this

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sheet, and scores of which we daily see in the newspapers? What would he say to it? Why, Gentlemen, nothing at all; not a word to it or about it; he would instantly fall upon the person who noticed it, with a full-mouthed cry of Jacobinism and disloy alty and treason; and, when he sees this sheet, he would have me strangled if he legally could; for John is quite one of your legal men.

But, to you, Gentlemen, and to all those who have to pay such heavy taxes, without having the means of licking yourselves whole again by getting a share of those taxes; to you I put the question, whether it be not a scandalous thing, that offices, the salaries of which the public par, should thus be bought and sold? It is well known to you, Gentlemen, that, where one estate, or one thing of any sort, is sold, or bought, in consequence of public advertisement, there are fifty sold, or bought, without such advertisement; and, if this be the case, in transactions where no desire of secrecy exists, or need to exist, how large a proportion of all the offices is it reasonable to suppose, are bought and sold? And, as to who are the sellers of offices need not be pointed out; for, whether the villains be great or small, whether they be male or female, the wrong done to us is exactly the same; and, besides, though a little villain may be the actual vender, he has obtained his power to sell from some one above him.

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When we complain of the enormous amount of the taxes, for the collection of which such rigorous laws have been passed, we are tauntingly asked, if we would have no army or navy." We must have both; but, we would not have Barrack masters and Pay masters upon an establishment, which will enable the officer to give five hundred pounds for his commission; for, reckon how we will, that money is so much of the taxes wasted. Besides; if the offices are sold, who is it that chopses and appoints offi

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cers? This is one, out of many, of the ways of wasting the public money; and, my real opinion, is, that if all waste was as effectually prevented as it night be, the navy and the army might be maintained for less than one half of the present expence, while, at the same time, those who now live in idleness upon public plunder, would be compelled to labour for their bread, and thereby augment the resources of the country. This, however, according to the cant of the leeches, who are determined to hang on upon the carcass of the nation till they are absolutely cut off, is termed "Jacobin doctrine." own, this name of Jacobin, therefore, we must make up our minds; and wait patiently for the day when we can give the bloodsuckers a hearty squeeze, reminding them, at the same time, of their past abuse.

Το

The second part of my motto, which was pointed out to me by a correspondent, whose letter you will find in another part of this sheet, relates to a subject, which cannot be brought too frequently under discussion. It is not, verily it is not astonishing, that offices should be bought and sold by public advertisement, when, by public advertisement, "the political rights" of the people are unequivocally offered for sale. When their votes at elections are tendered publicly as an object of purchase; and, when no scruple at all is made to treat them as the property of individuals.

In the midst of all this, Gentlemen, there are men base enough, wretches so impudent, so abandoned, so prostituted, as to represent you as the enemies of the constitution of England! When called upon to give our money, or to risk our lives, in support of the constitution, it is painted to us in colours the most delightful; it is arrayed in robes of purity, justice, and freedom. The election of members of parliament is, we are told, in the words of the law, " perfectly free;" and, when we complain, that seats in parlia ment are publicly advertised for sale, the infamous wretches, who are concerned in, or who connive at, such sale, have the audacity to accuse us of wanting to destroy the constitution. Vengeance upon the heads of these unprincipled and audacious miscreants must come first or last, and it is little matter from what hand it comes.-Not one inch would I, for my part, stir to save their heads from a mill-stone falling from the clouds. John Bowles and his set are well aware of the laws respecting elections; and yet, John's piety, which is almost incredible, has never led him to descant upon the perjuries which must take place when seats in parliament are bought and sold. He can read these adver

tisements as well, or nearly as well, as you can; but, though he be a leader in the ViceSuppression Society, not a single word does he say upon the subject of this enormous vice. John pretends to be in great tribulation, lest the two-penny hops and the gingerbread fairs should bring down the vengeance of heaven; but, the purchase and sale of seats in parliament, with all their indispensable perjuries, are beneath the notice of John, though John would, I dare say, have a beggar most heartily castigated, if he were to prevaricate in his worshipful pre

sence.

Gentlemen, Pitt, before he became minister, spoke with horror of the sale of seats in parliament. At that time he was engaged, with Mr. Horne Tooke and others, in forming a plan for collecting, by a circular correspondence,, the sense of the people, in their parishes, or smaller districts; which sense, when obtained, was to be pressed upon the House of Commons, for the purpose of obtaining a reform of that House, which reform he, Pitt, asserted openly in the House, to be absolutely necessary, in order to prevent the government of England from becoming, under the names and forms of freedom, a mere despotism in fact. But, in ten years afterwards, this same Pitt being minister, and having rendered a reform more necessary than ever, caused to be prosecuted, that same Mr. Horne Tooke and others for having endeavoured to bring about, by the very same means that Pitt had before recommended, that very same measure, which he had represented as absolutely necessary, in order to prevent the government of England from becoming a mere despotism in fact, under the names and forms of freedom. Now, Gentlemen, though some persons, from ignorance of the history of these matters, and others, from feelings of alarm which Pitt craftily raised, have attempted to justify this his pursuit of the life of Mr. Tooke and others, it is not, I hope, possible,. that there can, at this time, be found, in all England, one man so impudently, so profli gately unjust, as to continue such attempts. Yet, are we to pay for the raising of a monument to this man, as we have already been compelled to pay his debts,

The way, Gentlemen, to combat our revilers, who are almost all of them profound hypocrites, is to put this question to them: "Do you approve of the sale of seats in

parliament, and of the indispensable per

jury thereon attendant?" They will always equivocate and evade and shuffle. They will tell you, that it always has been thus. They will instance something worse, if that

be possible. They will (precious hypocrites!) lament the frailty of human nature, and the cousequent imperfection of all human institutions; and will, very likely, con elude with a prayer that it may please God to remove these evils. But, be you not so cheated. Repeat your question. Stick fast to them. "Insist upon a categorical answer; and, you will find their hypocrisy too profound for them to say that they approve of the sale of seats in parliament and of the indispensably accompanying perjury. Well, then, if they disapprove of these, they must next allow, that it would be desirable to put an end to them; and, it necessarily follows, that they must approve of the conduct of those who endeavour to effect that desirable object. But, no: they will not. Bring them to this point, and off they start again into their ejaculations and prayers, first, and, next, into their impudent accusations against those who would, if they could, accomplish what they themselves have acknowledged to be desirable. So that there is no hope of Converting them. They are bent upon plunder, or upon the support of plunderers. They are resolved upon sucking the blood out of the carcase of the nation as long as they can; and, therefore, let us, on our parts, be resolved to pluck them off that wasted carcase as soon as possible.

In the meanwhile, Gentlemen, you have real representatives, The silly observations of the newspaper hacks, in which they affect to regard their predictions, about the insignificancy of Sir Francis Burdett, as being now accomplished, only betray their apprehensions for that part of the plunder which they enjoy; or, rather, receive; for, it is impossible, that such wretches can enjoy any thing. They well know, that it has, as yet, not been in the power of Sir Francis to attend in his place with any effect; that he could not, without risk of his life, have sit a night in the House of Commons. He him self has told you, that, without the aid of the people, he shall be able to do no good; but, one thing he will soon be able to do, and that is, to convince the people, that, without their acting, all of them, with the public spirit that has animated you, nothing is to be done for their good by any body. He will be able to make the people fully acquainted with many things, which they now understand but imperfectly. He will be able to expose to their full view things, which are now hidden from them. He will, you may be assured, take part with no place and pelf seeking faction; he will have a hand in no motion, calculated to amuse the foolish and somewhat base people, who are

yet to be amused with what is called debaing a question; he will be guilty of no act which shall give countenance to the impu dent pretence respecting decisions in the House; he can, without even one man to co-operate with him, make the Honourable House itself show you what the Honourable House is and what the Honourable House is capable of doing. This he has perfectly in his own power, and this he will, if he lives, assuredly do; and, it is because he will do this, because they know he will do this, that the newspaper hirelings revile him. There is not a man amongst them, who is not convinced, in his own mind, of the falsehood of the assertions and insinuations, which he is daily pouring forth against Sir Francis Burdett. He knows they are utterly false; but, a considerable part of his daily bread depends upon his writing and publishing them; and, while this is the case, publish them he will. In one part of his paper, you will find the dangers of the country pourtrayed in horrid colours, and the necessity of an union of all men in its defence strenuous

ly urged; but, he is sure to have, in another part, something or other' to convince you, that he would much rather the country should be conquered, than that corruption and peculation should be destroyed. He and the plundering gang, the den of thieves, who support him, must not, however, expect our love, in return, but our steady and active hatred, and our vengeance, when we shall be able to inflict it. They have declared a war of extermination against us; and, I trust, I confidently trust, that we shall not sue for peace.

The motion of Lord Cochrane respecting places ing places and pensions and fees and perquisites held or received by members of the Honourable House and their relations had done great good. He wanted to have a list of these alone published, that the public might judge of the state of the Honourable House; that the people might know how much of their money went into the pockets of those, who are said to be the guardians of the public treasure; who are said to "hold the purse strings of the nation," and who, in good earnest, do seem to hold them. The Honourable House did, however, not relish this. The Honourable House thought that a list of all places, and pensions, &c. &c. &c. held by all manner of persons, preferable to the nice little Hist pointed out by his lordship, and, then, you know, Gentlemen, we might. if we could, find out who were members of parliament and their relations, and who were not. Even this list, however, has not yet been

If

produced, and the persons, to whom the making of it was referred, declared, that it was impossible for them to say what time, during the next session of parliament, they should be able to produce it. Never mind! The motion has had an excellent effect. It has shown us the feeling of the Honourable House. It has furnished us with one proof more, and a most convincing proof too, of the nature of that feeling. These proofs, frequently repeated, are what we want. any thing can do us good, these proofs, well packed upon one another, will do it. The plunderers have not accused Lord Cochrane of treasonable designs yet; but, they, in the superabundance of their charity, suspect him to be mad only. If a man be not a coward in the field, or a plunderer at home, or a partizan of one or the other, the miscreant writers are sure to represent him as a traitor or a madman. And, it is after this, that they expect us to love and cherish them!

In a future letter I purpose to give you an account of some curious contracts. In the meanwhile, I remain,

SUMMARY OF POLITICS. PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT (continued from page 181).----There are three subjects, which came before parliament, during the last session, upon which I think it may be useful to offer a few remarks: I Poor Laws; ¡I Election Writs; III. IRISH INSURRECTION BILL.Mr. Whitbread had two or more bills prepared for altering and adding to the Poor Laws. There are only two of his intended provisions that it is my intention to notice, namely, the giving to each parishioner a number of votes in the ves try proportioned to the amount of the rates paid by him; and, the taxing of the several parishes for the purpose of providing schools for the children of the poor. I object to the whole of his plan, as calculated to do no good whatever, while it might, in many cases, tend to evil, by causing it to be believed, that the misery of the poor and the increase of paupers had their rise in causes other than those of taxation and the idleness of the innumerable swarms who live upon the taxes. From the accounts, laid before the Honourable House, it appears, that the increase in the number of has paupers kept an exact pace with the increase in the real

amount of the taxes. Yet, it never appears to have occurred to Mr. Whitbread, that' the taxes were the cause of pauperism, not-“ withstanding the history of all countries might have aided in producing in his mind a conviction of this truth. In the American, States there were no paupers previous to taxation; but, they are now found in tolerable abundance; and, we have heard of the, soup-shops and other quackery of that sort, even in Philadelphia, where my poor rates amounted to a considerable sum annually. In New Brunswick, when I was there, there were no taxes, and there were no paupers, Am I told, that there would have been paupers, if there had been a law to relieve them? My answer is, that there is no such law in Ireland; but, that country, heavily taxed, has a population of one fourth paupers, while in England the paupers amount to about one seventh of the population.--But, supposing him to have overlooked what was pointed out by experience, reason alone might have convince him that taxation must produce paupers; and, if he himself had wanted the faculty of reasoning, a correspondent of mine has, long ago, reasoned the matter ready to his hand.--I object to the whole of his project, therefore, as totally inadequate to the purposes professed to be in view; but, as the project has been rejected, I shall, for the present, content myself with a remark or two upon the two intended provisions above-mentioned, and which, to me, are particularly objectionable-The first would have changed the mode of voting at vestries. Every parishioner, who pays poor. rates, has now a right to vote, in these parochial assemblies, and the decision, upon all occasions, is by the majority of votes. Mr. Whitbread would have given to each parishioner a number of votes in proportion to the amount of his rates. So that a man of large property would have had ten or a dozen votes, while some of the parishioners would have had but one vote; and, in some parishes, a decided majority of the votes would have been in one single person. "Very true," will he say, "but, who should have the votes but those who pay the rates, and who

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are, of course, the persons solely interest"ed?" If we were speaking of the concerns of a trading company, I should have no ob jection to this reasoning, though I should advise no one to take a small share even in such concerns. But, we are here speaking of an establishment where something else besides the mere interest of the persons paying rates is to be considered. There are here the interests of two parties to be taken care of, namely, those of the persons paying.

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rates and those of the poor; and, in order to insure the best chance of a proper feeling prevailing upon all occasions, you must give to every parishioner, from the Esquire to the shoemaker and the little farmer, a right of voting. Many of those who pay rates are but a step or two from pauperism themselves; and, they are the most likely persons to consider duly the important duty of doing, in case of relief, what they would be done unto. "But." Mr. Whitbread will say, " is "it right for these persons to give away the money of others." It is not the money of others, any more than the amount of tithes is the farmer's money. The maintenance of the poor is a charge upon the land, a charge duly considered in every purchase and in every lease. Besides, as the law now stands, though every parishioner has a vote in vestry, must it not be evident, to every man who reflects, that the man of large property and superior understanding will have weight in proportion? That he will, in fact, have many votes? fhe play the tyrant, even little men will rise against him, and it is right they should have the power of so doing; but, while he conducts himself with moderation and humanity, while he behaves as he ought to do to those who are beneath him in point of property, there is no fear but he will have quite a -ufficiency of weight at every vestry. The votes of the inferior persons in the parish are, in reality, dormant, unless in cases where some innovation, or some act of tyran., is attempted. They are, like the sting of the bee, weapons merely of defence. If this proposition of Mr. Whitbread were adopied, why not upon the very same principle, change the mode of voting for members of a county? Why not give to the freeholders of ten thousand pounds a year five thousand votes each ? Mr. Whitbread is, or rather, was, a parliamentary reformer; and this would be a reform with a vengeance! There needs nothing more, I think, to show, that Mr. Whitbread must have considered the subject very superficially. The other intended provision, which was framed into a bill of itself, and which bill, after passing the Honourable House, was thrown out by the Lords, is, in my opinion, full as objec tionable. I like not the ground, upon which it stood, namely, that the poverty of the peopl arises from their vices. This is first assumed, and then it is asserted, that education, as Mr. Whitbread calls it, would preven. those vices. It is very convenient for those, who, from whatever motive, are desi rous of supporting the taxing system, to take it for granted, that the cause of the increas ing wretchedness of the people lies with the

people themselves. Government is continually represented as the guide, the guardian, the nursing parent of the people; and, therefore, it is maintained, that its powers ought to be great as they are. But, it is truly curious, that when the people, when these guided and guarded and nursed children, become half-starved and ragged and filthy, the fault is laid solely upon the children, and not upon the guide, guardian, and nurse. I do not say, that poverty and misery do not sometimes, and even very frequently, arise from vice. They are, indeed, the natural and just punishments of vice, in the lower as well as the higher orders of society. The drunkard and glutton shall come to

poverty," is a judgment which applies to all ranks of men. Dishonesty, hypocrisy, laziness and insolence are followed by a loss of confidence and regard; these by a loss of employment and of profit; and these by poverty and misery. But, we have, in England and Wales, 1,200,000 parish paupers; and, that all these have become paupers from their vices is utterly incredible. These paupers are nearly, if not quite, three times as numerous as they were when Pitt, to whom we are to raise a monument, became minister; ; so that, at any rate, if increase of vice, and not increase of taxation be the cause, the people, under Pitt's sway, have become three times as vicious as they before were. The cruel malt and hop tax has, indeed, driven them from their homes to the public-house, where some increase of vice may have been engendered; but, one would have thought, that, though this terrible tax is a great gain to the brewers, the man, who was shocked at the increase of vice, would have proposed to remove the cause, or would have held his tongue. An increase of vice is not, however, the great cause of the increase of the number of paupers. The great cause, is, the system of taxation, which creates such a number of idle persons, which draws from labour so large a part of its fruits, which has an inevitable tendency to reduce the number of proprietors, and which, as inevitably, increases the number of paupers; for, when men see not the least chance of obtaining property, it soon becomes a matter of indifference with them, whether the means of their subsis.ence come to them in the shape of wages or of parish relief.— But, supposing, for argument's sake, that the poverty and misery of the people have risen from their vices; and, carrying our omplaisance still further, supposing, that, some how or other, the people have, since Pitt became minister, become,, all of a sudden, cursed with a vicious propensity, how