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would do perfectly well. The King | lature in America. The contrast is very cannot want them both, unless one striking; but the contrast is striking too were disrespectful enough to entertain in another respect; for, while every the supposition that his taste was like thing seems to be done to dignify these that of the sailor; who, having his legislative bodies, very little is done for pockets full of prize-money, hired one the executive officers of the state. You post-chaise for himself, and another for see a grand and fine House of Assembly, his hat. In short, the King does not and you see the chief magistrate, living want it; he cannot want it; aud, even if at a very common-place house in a he has talked about having it for a pa-street of a town, owned or rented by lace, there would need nothing but the himself. I never was at the city of advice of a wise Minister, who was Washington: there they have a house sensible enough to make himself re-for the President; but it is the house of spected by him; there would need no- the Congress, which is the grand affair. thing but this, to induce him to give it When the Congress sat at Philadelphia, up, and thereby merit and obtain the its place of meeting was the statethanks and the attachment of his peo-house; a magnificent and most commople. That people cannot help know-dious building, while the President Waing; they do know, and they do say, shington lived at a corner house in that there is a palace at Brighton, a Market-street, not a great deal more palace at St. James's, a palace at roomy or better house than that in which Kensington, a palace at Kew, and they now live in in Westminster; and a house remember one palace built there, and very far inferior to those of two or three pulled down there, within a very few hundred merchants of that city; he years; another palace at Hampton having no country house either, as the Court, sufficient for the greatest King greater part of these merchants had. that ever reigned in the world, which do not say that I wish to see the Sovethe King hardly ever sees, and which is reign of this kingdom living in the divided out into apartments for divers manner that Washington did; but I can families of the aristocracy, who live truly say that I wish he may be always` there both rent-free and tax-free, which is as much reverenced as Washington was, the case also at Kensington in great and that his sway may always be as part. They know that there is another much respected. I do not say that the palace at Windsor; and, while they trappings of royalty ought to be laid know all this, they know that their own wholly aside: I am not so very keen representatives are crammed into a hole, after the improvements of the age: I hardly sufficient to hold a club of "odd am not in such haste to rub off the rust fellows," and infinitely inferior to such a of antiquity; but I am very much for club-room, in point of accommodations causing the people to believe (and they and convenience. will not believe it, till they see it) that I have not yet taken an actual mea- they, out of whose labour so much is surement of the length of the bench, taken, are not entirely overlooked, when and of the area of the floor; but I will respect is to be shown. As things now do that, and I will publish the result of stand, they appear to be wholly overmy examination; and then I will leave looked; and besides this, it is impossithe people of the whole kingdom to say ble that due attention should be paid whether their representatives ought to to their interests, while the evil, which be thus treated, while the clerks in the I have here mentioned, shall remain offices are lodged in places worthy of unremoved. the name of palaces. Reason, common decency, common regard for the people, demand that some alteration in this respect take place, and that right speedily. I have observed upon the commodiousness of the houses of legis

I observed last week on the little nice. progress which we have made in the way of revolution, by first dropping the custom, of two hundred years standing, of appointing a grand committee of grievances, and a grand committee of

4'Per

my melancholy wailings at being obliged to sit still four hours and a half to hear speeches at Birminghain, though the speeches were good, and though I had the hopes every minute of hearing myself talk in turn. What, then, would be my sufferings if I had to sit twelve hours out of the twenty-four, and hear others talk, and have my own tongue tied all the time! When Sir John Mitford was Speaker, I remember that they said of him, that he had supposed the office of Speaker meant that he should have all the talk to himself. He had the great talker of all talkers, Pitt, to deal with, and Pitt found him so troublesome that he very soon got him out of his chair, and packed him off to Ireland, where he found talkers quite equal to himself. Mitford was an old crown lawyer, to the running of whose clacks there is absolutely no end. He used to be everlastingly interfering with the speech-makers, and to get into disquisitions upon points of law. We are not troubled in that way now; and really the only sufferer in the present case is the Speaker himself, as far as relates to the mere matter of talking.

courts of justice, besides others of very great importance. This was one step. It was produced by me; because I suggested that these committees should be reulities, and not mere matters of form. Rather than make them realities, it was chosen to drop them. Next, the receiving of petitions was said to interrupt the "public business" of the House. Just as if the receiving of petitions, and attending to them, were not the great public business" of the House! Just as if the passing of court-martial-bills, and the voting of money, were the public business of the House; and attending to the grievances of the people not its public business. However, an order was made to have a sort of petty session in the middle of the day, for the purpose of receiving petitions; and it was proposed by Sir Robert Peel, Colonel Davies, and some others, that the chairman of the ways and means should preside at this petty session, instead of the Speaker; so that, as there is no House without the Speaker in the chair, the petitions would never have been presented to the House. If this had been adopted, I, for my part, should have sent back all the petitions that I The petty session leaves off at three had; for I never would have presented o'clock; and if anybody is in the midst them to a nondescript assembly like of a speech upon a petition at that time, this. This was "too bad," as old bawl- he must stop. Then at five on goes the ing Liverpool said in the case of Lon-work of petition-receiving again for an donderry's claim, and which was, I ve- hour or so; at least this is the case rily believe, the only just and sensible when there is a ballot for elections. thing he ever said in his life. This, That has been the case to-day. therefore, was not adopted; and we take the Speaker, and bother him, and harass him, from twelve o'clock to three, in order to prepare him for a fresh set to take him up, and work him again from five till midnight; and there he sits (except when compelled to stand up to call us to order), "like Patience on a monument smiling at Grief." I have looked at him several times, and have calmly weighed the matter in my mind, whether I would endure for the rest of my life what he has to endure, or leap into the life to come at once by the assistance of halter. Endure it I could not, I am sure, for any length of time. Labour! My God! what is any labour compared to that? My readers heard

This is quite a new affair; and next there is another very new thing; namely, a committee is now appointed to consist of eleven members, who are to have all petitions referred to them (except for private bills); they are, to classify the petitions; they are from time to time, to report upon their contents; and they are to order, whether the petitions shall be printed or not; or whether part of them shall be printed or not. Thus this committee has the power to represent the contents of the petitions in that light in which the petitions may appear to them. The reader will see of what vast importance this is. He will see what a tremendous power is here delegated. He will observe that

this committee has been selected by the Ministers, and he will read with attention their names as follows:

Robert Peel

Sir Edward Knatchbull
Mr. George William Wood
Sir Robert Inglis
Sir Richard Vyvyan
Mr. Littleton

Colonel Davies

Mr. James Oswald

Mr. Clay

Mr. O'Connell

Mr. Hume.

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for, we shall know how to anticipate the work that is coming on in the evening. For instance, I have seven or eight petitions to present to-morrow, against the bill for substituting courts-. martial, instead of judges and juries One must talk upon these petitions, and one may notice that which has been said to-night upon the other side. In short, if the evening papers do their duty, again I say, that Lord Althorp will find his experiment fail of what I should suppose was the intend ed purpose, without intending to impute "bad motives" to any body. I desire the reader to look well at this Next to this affair of red-coat juris committee; to consider well what they prudence, is the affair of PARTIAL are empowered to do, and then to remem-TAXATION; stamp-tax, auction-tax, ber that they were selected by the Mi-house and window-tax. I have a whole nisters, and moved for by Lord Althorp. bundle of petitions to present on this Then, observe, that the Speaker is, in subject. Let the people read atten this petitioning parliament, to take the tively my resolutions on the subject. chair as soon as there shall be twenty Many thousand copies of them have members present; and not forty, as in been printed and circulated in Lancaall other cases. It is a scandalous thing shire: thousands upon thousands in to be sure, that it should be supposed London: they interest every family and possible for the case to arise, when forty every soul in the middle rank of life; should not be present out of 658. But the facts are wholly undeniable: they twenty is worse than forty; and it shows are undenied by the Minister, who says what sort of a session this was ex- that he has a "bill in preparation" to pected to be; and it shows what sort of make an alteration in the law on the a House was expected to be formed for subject; and what the people have to the receiving of the people's complaints. do is this: they load me with letters, a If twenty members be not present at a great part of which I am compelled to quarter past twelve, the Speaker is to refuse to receive, or be ruined. adjourn the House. them, instead of writing letters to me, write short petitions, stating their cases: let these petitions be signed by hundreds, by scores, by twos, or by ones; let the statement be general, or let it be particular; and let them be sent to me, at the House of Commons, the cover being open at both ends; the parcel weighing less than six ounces, and the word "petition" written on the outside of them. With my life I will answer for the zeal and fidelityof my colleague; but we have always said that we could do nothing without the people at our back. With them at our back, we can do a great deal, and do it peaceably. Our desire is to inculcate due obedience to the laws, due reverence for his Majesty and his just authority; but our resolution is to do every thing to procure justice for the

Now, leaving the reader to form his own judgment as to the real design of all this, I repeat what I said last week; namely, that we must endeavour to make the most of this petty 'session. We may if we will; and, if the evening papers do their duty, very soon make this the more important session of the two. There is time enough for three or four good speeches; speeches to pretty empty benches perhaps, but that would be of very little consequence if the evening papers do their duty; and the specimen which the True Sun has given us of the first "petty session" debate, leads me to hope that this will be the case. It will be an inducement for all the people in the country to take the evening, instead of the morning papers;

Let

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people, and to ease them of their bur- | A BILL, INTITULED, AN ACT FOR THE dens. It is as easy to send à short petition as it is to send a letter; and I do beseech my readers to remember that it would be unjust to compel me to pay taxes for the receiving of letters on the business of the people.

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MORE EFFECTUAL SUPPRESSION OF LOCAL DISTURBANCES AND DANGEROUS ASSOCIATION3 IN IRELAND. WHEREAS, there is now prevalent in certain parts of Ireland, a dangerous conspiracy against the rights of property and the administration of the laws, which has been manifested, as well by open and daring outrages against the persons and property of his Majesty's peaceable subjects, as by tumultuous movements of large bodies of evil-disposed persons, who have by their numbers and violence created such general alarm and intimidation as materially to impede the due course of public justice, and to frustrate the ordinary modes of criminal prosecution:

And whereas divers meetings and assemblies, inconsistent with the public peace and safety, and with the exercise of regular go.

that it shall and may be lawful for the Lord

With regard to the business before the House, the bill for red-coat jurisprudence engrosses every one's attention at present, and will continue to do so for a week or two to come; but, while that affair is going on, the petitioning Parliament is by no means to be overlooked; and again I recommend to my readers to consider what I have said about the evening papers; for observe, though Sir Robert Peel, Sir Robert In-vernment, have for some time past been held glis, Sir Edward Knatchbull, Sir Rich. In Ireland: And whereas, the laws now in force in that part of the United Kingdom, Vyvyan and Co., may not order peti- have been found inadequate to the prompt and tions to be printed, we may have them effectual suppression of the said mischiefs, printed in the evening papers on the and the interposition of Parliament is necesvery day on which they are presented.sary for the purpose of checking the further progress of the same: Now, pray, mark this: and it shall go Be it therefore enacted, by the King's most hard, if in all England, Ireland, and Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice Scotland, we do not get some good and consent of the Lords spiritual and tempoand sensible and able petitions; and ral, and Commons, in this present Parliament some good speeches made upon them assembled, and by the authority of the same, too: some good plain sense in Lieutenant or other chief governor or gover plaiu words. nors of Ireland, at any time after the passing of this act, and from time to time during the continuance thereof, as occasion may require, by his or their order, to prohibit or suppress the meeting of any association, assembly, or body of persons in Ireland, which he or they shall deem to be dangerous to the public peace or safety, or inconsistent with the due administration of the law, and by the same or any other order also to prohibit every or any adjourned, renewed, or otherwise continued meeting of the same, or of any part thereof, under any name, pretext, shift or device whatciation, assembly, or body of persons, the soever; and that every meeting of any asso meeting whereof shall be so prohibited or suppressed as aforesaid, and every postponed, adjourned, renewed or otherwise continued meeting thereof, under any name, pretext, shift or device whatsoever, shall be and be deemed an unlawful assembly; and every person present at the same shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, and every such claimed in pursuance of this act, shall be offence committed within any district procognizable by any court appointed as hereinafter mentioned, and if not committed within any such district, shall be tried and punished according to the course of the common law.

WM. COBBETT.

I INSERT below the red-coat jurisprudence bill, just as it came from the Lords; and I beseech my readers to peruse every word of it with attention. I insert also some extracts from the Monthly Magazine of my sons, which I have never noticed before; not because it was uninteresting to me, but because I have not had time to look at it until now. If written by anybody else, I should speak of it with admiration; and there is no reason why I should not do it in their case, as well as in the case of others. The first article which I have extracted, is, I think, the very best piece of criticism I ever read in my life, accompanied with sentiments the most just, and expressed in language as correct and unaffected as language can be.

And be it enacted, that any two or more justices of the peace shall and may proceed, with such assistance as shall be neces