love for your faithful people which has been conspicuous in every act of your Majesty's reign, we humbly implore your Majesty so to exert your Royal powers as to insure the speedy passing of that bill which we deem the only means of restoring safety, peace, and harmony to this now suffering and troubled kingdom, and which blessing we shall the more highly prize as being the work of a Sovereign endeared to us by every tie that can bind to a gracious King a loyal, dutiful, and grateful people." expect, will avert the dangers by which the peace of Europe was threatened whilst this question remained unsettled, "Gentlemen of the House of Commons, 6. "I thank you for the provision made for the future dignity and comfort of my Royal Consort, in the event of her surviving me, and for the supplies which you have granted for the service of the present year. You may be assured of my anxious care to have them administered with the strict est attention to a well-considered economy. After this, Lord KING pledged himself most nobly to the schedules, and all the essential parts of the bill. The two county Members, after a good deal of 7.The state of Europe has produced the wriggling, pledged themselves too; necessity of an increased expenditure in the and, on that condition, I did not divide various establishments of the public service, the meeting: I withdrew my amend- which it will be my earnest desire to reduce ment; but I held up my hand against wherever it can be done with safety to the the address, which expressed confidence interests of the country. In the mean time I in the Ministers. have the satisfaction of reflecting that these While we were thus engaged at Er- demands have been provided for without any SOM, the King was proroguing the Par-material addition to the public burdens. liament, which he did by the following speech. "My Lords and Gentlemen, 1. "I am at length enabled to put an end to a Session of unexampled duration and labour, in which matters of the deepest interest have been brought under your consideration. "My Lords and Gentlemen, 8. "In the interval of repose which may now be afforded you, I am sure it is un necessary for me to recommend to you the most careful attention to the preservation of tranquillity in your respective counties. 9. "The anxiety which has been so generally manifested by my people for the accomplishment of a Constitutional Reform in the Commons House of Parliament, will, I trust be 2. "I have felt sincere satisfaction in confirming, by my Royal Assent, bills for the amendment of the Game Laws, and for the reduction of taxes, which pressed heavily on the industry of my people; and I have ob-regulated by a due sense of the necessity of order and moderation in their proceedings. served with no less pleasure the commeuceTo the consideration of this important question, ment of important improvements in the law of the attention of Parliament must necessarily bankruptcy, from which the most beneficial again be called at the opening of the ensuing effects may be expected. 3. "I continue to receive the most gratify-altered desire to promote its settlement, by Session; and you may be assured of my uning proofs of the friendly disposition of Foreign Powers. 4. "The Conference assembled in London has at length terminated its difficult and laborious discussions by an arrangement unanimously agreed upon by the Plenipotentiaries of the Five Powers, for the separation of the States of Holland and Belgium, on terms by which the interests of both, together with the future security of other countries, have been carefully provided for. such improvements in the representation as may be found necessary for securing to my people the full enjoyment of their respective rights, which, in combination with those of the other orders of the State, are essential to the support of our free Constitution." When his Majesty had concluded the above Speech, the Lord Chancellor, from behind the Throne, declared, by his Majesty's command, that the Parliament would be prorogued till Tuesday, the 22d of November next, and it was prorogued accordingly. 5. "A Treaty founded on this arrangement has been presented to the Dutch and Belgian Plenipotentiaries, and I trust that its acceptance The Prorogation is now for only one month, by their respective Courts, which I anxiously but as the words "for the despatch of business" are not mentioned, another short Prorogation | these speeches, and if you be afterward,8 of fourteen days may be expected. deceived by the professions of Ministers there is no punishment too great for you -no slavery too abject. The attendance from the House of Commons was very numerous, Look at paragraph 9, and then say how much of the "whole bill" they intend to propose! If RYDER'S self had drawn up the speech, it could not have been in other words. But, before I proceed further let me insert the remarks of THE BALLOT on this part of the speech. "The dissolution having taken place on the 22d of April, his Majesty once more addressed the assembled Parliament on the opening of the late session, on the 21st of June. What was said in this speech on the subject of re form? Dissolution Speech, duced to resort to this "I have been in and to give security to “I have availed myself of the earliest opportunity of resorting to your advice and assistance after the dissolution of the late Par-gatives of the CROWN, liament. Having had recourse to that measure for the purpose of ascertaining the sense of my people on the expediency of a reform in the representation, I have now to recommend that important question to your earliest and most attentive consideration.'. Prorogation Speeeh," ation of this important "Thus did WILLIAM THE FOURTH again express his anxiety that the subject "What! Other orders of the State!' of parliamentary reform should receive Are Ministers so beaten by the Lords the serious and attentive consideration that they no longer look upon the Peers of both Houses of Parliament. The as forming a portion of the subjects' sense of the people' had been ascer- of the King? But it would be infamous tained. The Reform Bill was intro- to quibble about phrases when the cause duced into the House of Commons, and of freedom stands in such jeopardy; and was carried in that House by a tri- as we would scorn to endeavour to deumphant and overwhelming majority of ceive the public, so should we despise the representatives of the people. It was ourselves for concealing what we believe then taken to the upper' assembly,- to be the truth, which is simply this— to the House of Hereditaries and Bishops, that the bill-THE PEOPLE'S BILL-is where it was rejected, on the second abandoned by the advisers of the crown. reading, by a majority of forty-one. Dis- If a great change had not taken place in satisfied with this result, his MAJESTY their minds upon the subject, why, we has prorogued the Parliament to the 22d ask, should the speech just delivered of November, in order, as Ministers al- contain the fearful phrase-" In combilege, to afford them some relaxation from nation with the OTHER orders of the their arduous duties, and to give them State?' However, our suspicion rests 'time for preparing a new bill equally as not on this isolated fact, strong and efficient as the last.' Now, reformers, indisputable as it is,-for, have we disappointed countrymen, mark you with not Earl GREY's more than unsatisdeep-rooted attention, with solemn de-factory language to the deputies? Have liberation, the terms of the Dissolution-we not a lengthened prorogation? speech in June, as contrasted with the Have we not an acknowledgment that a Prorogation-speech delivered on Thurs-new bill, equally efficient,' is to be in day last. Attend to the language of troduced? Are we not told by Ministers ecution of this simple yet magnificent design. If you cannot repose confidence in your own intentions and exertions, how can you have the folly to place reliance in the avowed intentions of men in office, upon whom a reform in the representative system of the country can confer no advantages? It is you who are to be benefitted-you, the tax-paying MILLIONS, and not the tithe-receiving and tax-devouring locusts." that the hundred and ninety-nine are to *be conciliated? And, worse than all, are not Ministers perfectly silent upon the extent of the alterations which they intend to make in the old bill, as also upon the chief of the provisions which they may intend to introduce into their new bill? If the intended new bill,' be as efficient,' or, in other words, as beneficial for the people as the last, how can it be more acceptable to the Lords?' But it is a mockery of the understand- In every word of this I agree. The ing, and an insult to reason, to argue prorogation is only till the 22nd of Noupon such a grossly absurd proposition.vember; but the Parliament is then What then is to be done? We shall not to meet for business. There is to be address you in the very words which another; and, if the people be lulled, Earl Grey himself addressed to the another and another! All but downHouse of Peers in November last, when right fools see this. I wound up the the Duke of WELLINGTON was Minister. week with the three following letters:→→→ To the Editor of THE BALLOT. SIR,I should have inserted the fol lowing letter in the Register, if it had not reached me too late. Pray put it into The Ballot; for, it is of great importance that the whole of the circumstances connected with this affair should be made public as soon as possible.-Mr. MABERLY told us at Epsom, yesterday, that the prorogation of Parliament and the King's Speech tells pretty plainwould be to the middle of January; You see the danger around you, the storm is yet but in the horizon. Begin, then, at once to strengthen your houses, to secure your windows, and to make fast your doors.' Such was the advice of our present noble Premier, when an other noble Premier declared that the people of England should not have reform -should not freely elect those who were to make laws for them, and to tax them. Seeing how your late petitions have been answered by the Peers, petition that House no more until you are in the full enjoyment of your rights.-Debasely, that we are never again to see poor Schedules A and B!-I am yours, &c., not yourselves by soliciting your rights from men who hold you in the bondage Bolt-court, Oct. 21, 1831. WM. COBBETT. "To MR. COBBETT. "SIR,-You are right; the account of the deputation to Earl Grey, on Wednesday, the 12th, should have been made public the next morning, and had the business been in my hands, it should have been thus made public. of slaves. Assemble, however, deliberate and consult amongst yourselves, and as Parliament is appointed to meet on Tuesday the 22d of November, do you -the people of England-agree to meet on Monday, the 28th of November. Let the whole of the people of England assemble on ONE DAY-on that day and address his Majesty, KING WIL- "The facts are these. Mr. Potter, of LIAM THE FOURTH, for a restoration of Marybonne, was in the Chair at the rights. Consecrate one day to the cause Crown-and-Anchor Tavern, and a friend of national freedom. Nothing can be of his officiated as secretary. The more easy of accomplishment-nothing meeting appointed Mr. Carpue and Mr. more grand in the display-nothing more Potter, to conduct the conference with triumphant in the result. We earnestly Earl Grey, and the draughts of the meentreat the reformers in every part of morial and the resolutions remained in Great Britain and Ireland to take this the hands of Mr. Potter's friend. I measure into their immediate considera- fully expected to see them inserted in tion, and to take such steps in their re- the newspapers next morning, but not spective localities as may lead to the ex-seeing them, I wrote to Mr. Potter for Bolt-court, Oct. 22, 1831. them, telling him I wished to have out, or unless you be quite sure that copies, that I might procure their inser- there is no vanity within.-Yours, &c.,~ tion in the Morning Chronicle. In the WM. COBBETT. evening, several gentlemen who had been on the deputation, met, but as To the Editor of the MORNING Chronicle. neither Mr. Potter nor his friend attendBolt-court, Oct. 21, 1831.ed, one of the deputation went to CrawSIR,-As there are so many persons ford-street, saw Mr. Potter, and re- who in one form or another complain of, quested the papers, but he received for or censure, through your columns, my answer, that Mr. Potter, with two others efforts to convince the people that the of the deputation, intended calling on Ministers will not keep their pledgesme, at my house, at eleven o'clock the with regard to the Reform Bill, and that next morning, the 14th. I therefore the "confidence" placed in them, as to caused the whole of the seventeen to be this matter, is ill-founded, I hope it is summoned for that hour, but neither not too much if I beg room for these Mr. Potter nor any of the persons he very few words more upon the subject. alluded to came. In the afternoon, I We have now done with dispute as to received the memorial and the resolu- the past, and are come to mere matter tions, and as no more time was to be of opinion as to what the Ministers will lost, I gave them to Mr. Black, and now do; and I will not deal in vague read to him my account of the proceed-expressions: I say, that if nothing exings from the draught of a letter I wrote on the 13th, to a gentleman in the North, and this was the ground of his publication; it was necessarily brief, and not so well and correctly worded as it ought to have been.-Your obedient "FRANCIS PLACE. servant, "Charing-cross, Oct. 20, 1831." To MR. WAKLEY. traneous, more than what we now behold, happen, until the new bill be brought in, that bill will not contain schedules A and B. Here is something specific. This is my opinion: you seem to hold an opposite opinion: time will soon decide between us; and, therefore,^ to time let us refer the decision. I am your most obedient Servant, SIR,-Nothing can prevent, finally, As a sort of answer to this last letter, and in a year or so, a "radical reform the editor of the Chronicle, in the same of the Parliament" (Charles Fox's own paper, has these words :- "Of the inappellation) and consequent cheap Go-" tentions of Ministers, we have already vernment; but there will be monstrous said, we entertain no doubt; but we attempts to dupe the people along, and" cannot see our way as to the mode in to keep it from them. My decided" which effect can be given to their inopinion is, that schedules A and B will" tentions. We believe that a bill with be so altered in the new bill, as to leave" Schedules A and B will be PREa nice little sprinkling of boroughmon-"SENTED by Ministers, but beyond gering; and I know that it is intended" this we know nothing." Ah! "it was to take away the ten-pound suffrage in" just here that poor Philomel gave up the great towns. Mind, I say that I" the ghost! Presented! Aye, I'll know that this is intended; and thus bet my life that these schedules will be goes all that made the bill worth any-"presented" by them; and, further,, thing. It will fail; but it is intended. that they will boldly insist, that A and Political Unions are useful, until THE B shall still stand at the head of the THING gets hold of their leaders! Let schedules; but, as to their contents, it the people beware of this danger: it is will be our old baby-story :-A, apple; a very great one. Better not send "de-B bit it, C cut it, D divided it, and puties" to talk with THE THING, E eat it. It will still be " Schedule A,” unless you first prove their hearts to be but that is all that it will have in comcased with something to keep flattery mon with the Schedule A of the bill. Yet, how are these men to stop short! How are they ever again to look the nation, or to look one another, in the face! "I have," says Lady Macbeth; neighbourhood, held at Dee's Royal Hotel,▸ and by adjournment, at Mr. Beardsworth's Repository, on Thursday, the 20th day of October, for the purpose of taking into consideration the propriety of addressing his Majesty "to express their deep regret and bitter disapme:pointment at the rejection of the Reform Bill in the upper House of Parliament," to declare their unabated confidence in his Majesty's enlightened patriotism, and in the zeal, wisdom and firmness of his confidential advisers, and to express their earnest hope that all constitutional measures will be employed for essential to the peace and welfare of the the speedy accomplishment of an object so "I have given suck, and know Poor Lord John will shudder at the Bagshot, Tuesday Morning, Oct. 25, 1831. On my way to Winchester, the Morning Chronicle overtook me here, last night, containing grand news indeed! but rather wanting confirmation. However, I must, before I come to that and to the very close connexion that it appears to have with my own operations of last week, proceed with my history of the Reform Bill, and of the effects which the rejection of it has had upon the nation. Most of the great towns in the North have met and expressed their indignation against the rejecting Peers, and especially against the Bishops, the latter of whom the people have, in several places, burnt in effigy, and the proper persons of some of the former they have roughly handled. At BIRMINGHAM, at which place, and pretty close round it, there are a million of people assembled, and which spot is precisely in the middle of England, as well breadthways as lengthways, there was, on the 20th of October, a meeting of the people, for the purpose of address ing the King on the rejection of the bill, at which meeting the resolutions which I am about to insert were agreed to. RESOLUTIONS. BIRMINGHAM. At a very numerous and highly respectable public meeting of the inhabitant householders of Birmingham and its country. The following resolutions were unanimously adopted: 1. That this meeting views with disappointthe Reform Bill by the Lords Spiritual and ment, indignation, and alarm, the rejection of Temporal, in Parliament assembled, who, in this exercise of legislative functions, held by them in trust for the people, have endangered all the institutions of the State, and the whole fabric of society. 2. That relying upon the public acts, pledges and declaratious of his Majesty's Ministers, this meeting reposes a firm confidence in their integrity, and trusts that they will speedily adopt such measures as may allay the present distracted and anxious state of the public mind, and remove those elements of political, commercial and financial derangement which must otherwise, ere long, prove fatal to the best interests of society. form, in which the great principles of dis3. That no measure of Parliamentary refranchisement, enfranchisement, and right of voting, are confined within more restricted limits than those recognized by the late Reexpectations of the people, or restore the true forn Bills, will satisfy the just claims and principles of the British Constitution. 4. That this meeting, placing entire confidence in the wisdom, patriotism, and firmness the prerogatives with which he is invested by of his Majesty, is satisfied that he will exercise the Constitution, in such manner as sball most effectually promote the success of a measure essential to the peace and happiness of his people. 5. That in the opinion of this meeting the systematic opposition of nearly the whole Corporation of Lords Spiritual to the Constitutional rights of the people-of those who voted against the bill and those who absented themselves-their rooted attachment to corrupt and corrupting institutions, and political disregard of the first principles of that Holy religion of which they claim to be pre-eminently the ministers-have justly deprived them of the national respect and confidence; and will ultimately be the means of depriving them of their legislative functions. An address to the King, consonant with these resolutions, was, of course, |