VOL. 50.-No. 7.] LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 15, 1824. [Price 6d. Published every Saturday Morning, at Seven o'clock. the House, that I should have to go, if I chose, to be heard against the Bill. Thither I went on the KENSINGTON TURNPIKE. 11th instant; and the result was, Kensington, 12th May, 1824. that the Committee of their Lordships (by a vote that I shall speak of presently) put an end to the Bill. IN my last I gave an account of I, together with others, had pea Petition from me to the House of tioned against this Bill before, and Commons, on the subject of a of this petition I shall speak byBill, which had been petitioned for and-by. My-present petition was by certain persons of the Kensing-grounded on a gross falsehood ton" Trust," as it is called, and contained in the preamble of the which had, before my petition Bill, and which falsehood, gross could reach the House of Com-as it was, had been enacted by the mons, gone from that House and House of Commons, not intentiongot into the Lords. Here I left ally, to be sure; but, the thing the matter last week, when I ob-had been done. served, however, that it must be brought forward again. This is a matter of very great importance to the public. It is a The Bill had passed the Com- subject that we all ought to undermons and was gone to the Lords. stand. I shall, therefore, make it I pursued it with my petition; but, as clear as I can; and shall begin quick as I was, the Bill had been by inserting again (in a clearer read a second time before my pe- way than last week) the account tition could get before their Lord- of this famous "TRUST." I ships. But, it had to go into a shall speak enough of it hereafter. committee, and I now found, that At present, I shall insert it in due it was there, and not at the bar of form. N Printed and Published by C. CLEMENT, No. 183, Fleet-street. General Statement of the INCOME and EXPENDITURE 1st day of January, and the EXPENDITURE. To Surveyor's Accounts of Day-labour, between the first day of January and the 31st day of December 1823, for maintenance or repair of roads, and watering the same Team labour for the same period, including water-carts and clearing the roads Watching the roads Contractors' and workmen's bills, for materials supplied for maintenance and repair of roads and foot-paths Repair or maintenance of toll-houses, gates, lamp-posts, and new toll-boards Lighting the roads Purchase of land for widening the roads, building a brick sewer under the surface of the road instead of an open sewer, and a new fence to widen the road Ten turnpike bonds paid-off........ ......... Salaries and other payments of clerk, surveyors or other officers ...... Printing, advertising and stationery Interest of bond debts Annual sum paid to the Commissioners of Paving, of St. Commissioners of Hans Town.... Incidental charges GENERAL STATEMENT OF An Account of the Amount of Debt bearing Interest (£1000 of which has subsequently been paid). An Account of Interest due An Account of Floating Debt.. of the Kensington, &c. Turnpike Roads, between the 31st day of December, 1823. INCOME. 8. d. By Balance in Treasurer's hands 3147 17 4 Amount of one year's rent received from the lessees of the Tolls 14000 O 0 Now we come to my Petition to " sum of one thousand pounds be the Lords, which I insert, and I "paid to the said Committee of number the paragraphs for the" Paving for St. George, Hanover66 square; nor can the said Roads sake of easy reference. "be effectually amended, widened "and improved, and maintained To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Par-« in repair, unless the term and liament assembled. 66 powers granted by the two first The Petition of William Cob-"recited Acts be continued, and bett, of Kensington, in the "further provisions be made for County of Middlesex, "that purpose." Most humbly Sheweth, 1. That there is now a Bill before your Right Honourable House, entitled, "A Bill for more effectu"ally repairing, widening, and im"proving the Road from Hyde "Park Corner to Counter's Bridge, "and certain other Roads, in the "County of Middlesex, and for "lighting, watching, and watering "the said Roads." 2. That, in the Preamble to the said Bill are the following words: "And whereas the Trustees ap"pointed by or in pursuance of "the said two recited Acts (mean"ing the two local Acts) have re 66 3. That these words contain a barefaced falsehood, as will be seen by your Right Honourable House in the following statement of the pecuniary affairs of this Road. 4. That this statement has been obtained by your Petitioner, agreeably to the Act, from the Clerk of the Peace of the County of Middlesex; that your Petitioner is ready to prove at your Bar the authenticity of this statement, which is in the following words, to wit: [Here the Account was inserted.] 5. That, according to the foregopaired and improved the said ing account, these Roads owe but "Roads, and have made great pro- one thousand five hundred pounds, gress in carrying into execution while the Treasurer has now in his "the powers and authorities there-hands four thousand five hundred "by vested in them; and, although and three pounds, and that he had, "they have discharged and paid at the settlement before the last, "off part of the monies borrowed upwards of three thousand pounds on the credit of the tolls autho-in his hands, while he was charging ❝rized to be taken upon the said the Road for interest of borrowed "Roads, a considerable sum re-money. "mains undischarged and cannot “be paid off, and the said annual 66 6. That, therefore, the above quoted part of the Preamble of passing the Bill. But, first of all, the Committee are to look well to these grounds. The statement of these grounds is called the Pre this Bill is wholly false; that the | Committee has to see that the principal pretence for passing the enactments or provisions contained Bill is unfounded; that the pre-in the Bill, be consonant with, sent Local Act does not expire for and adequate to, the grounds for two years yet to come; that a new Act is not yet wanted; that if this Bill pass, it will contain a flagrant falsehood, and will be greatly injurious to the public, and will encourage and foster a most scan-amble of the Bill; and preamble dalous job; and that, therefore, means, introductory statement. your Petitioner most humbly prays, that the said Bill may not pass; and that he may be heard against it at the bar of your Right Honourable House. And your Petitioner The Committee are to take spe cial care that every thing which is alleged in this statement be TRUE. Therefore, they first set to work, very methodically, to examine witnesses, and to have will ever pray. proof brought before them of the WM. COBBETT. truth of every part of the preamble. With regard to the present Bill, all this ceremony was gone through in the House of Commons. The Committee of that preamble to be true. That Honourable House, whose character and wisdom were so highly extolled by Mr. FREDERICK ROBINson; that Honourable body, after having proved the preamble or basis of the Bill to be true, built an Act upon this foundation, and having sent the whole of it to the The reader will perceive, that, by this Petition I became pledged to prove the preamble of the Bill Honourable House proved the to be false. I understand, that the mode of proceeding with Bills of this sort, before both Houses of Parliament, is this: Those who petition for the Bill, cause it to be prepared; to be drawn up, in short. It is then brought into the House, read a first time, and also a second time if not objected to. After this, it is referred to a Com-Lords, their Act is met in the mittee. The business of this Com- Lords by my Petition, declaring mittee is, first, to inquire into the grounds of the Bill, or the reasons for passing such a Bill. Then the this very preamble to contain a barefaced falsehood! Now, then, either this Act, which had come up |