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appears, that there actually are, in the House of Commons, 78 members, who are placemen or pensioners; that they enjoy amongst them 112 places and pensions; that these places and pensions amount to £178,994 a year, which sum, if it were equally divided, would give to each member of the whole House, £272 a year; and, I am convinced, that, if all the emoluments had been annexed, and all the names brought into view, the sum would have been double what it now appears. What, then, would you say, if you, could behold the long list of places and pensions enjoyed by the relations of the different members?Suffer me now to state some particulars from this list; because they very nearly concern ourselves. First, Gentlemen of Romsey, there is your noble neighbour, my Lord Palmerston, who receives £1,000 a year. Secondly, Gentlemen of Bishop's Waltham, there is your neighbour, Mr. Sturges Bourne (who was standing amongst some tall men in the crowd, at the time) receives £1,500 a year. Thirdly, Gentlemen of the Isle of Wight, there is your Governor, my Lord Fitzharris, who, as governor of the Island, receives £1,379, and, observe, he has taken care to have a grant of this place for his life, sick or well; though, I must say, that in all probability, he is as able to command a military force, being bed-ridden, as if he were actually on the back of his charger. This lord has, besides, secured a further grant of the public money to the amount of £1,200 a year for life, to commence after his father's, Lord Malmsbury's, death, and Lord Malmsbury has received for fifteen years past, and isto receive for his life, a pension of £2,300 a year. This, Gentlemen, is the new Lord Lieutenant of our county. A pensioner, paid out of the fruit of our labour, industry, ingenuity, and œconomy. Fourthly; and now I must beseech you to enlarge your minds in a degree proportioned to the increas ing magnitude of my subject: He that has ears to hear, let him hear; for I am about to speak of the sums enormous, which Mr. George Rose and his sons have received and do receive and are to receive out of the pockets of this' taxed nation. First, as Treasurer of the Navy, he receives, £4,324 a year; next, as Clerk of the Parliaments, which place he has for life, and in which he has never performed an hour's duty, he receives, and has received ever since the year 1783, the sum of £3,278 a year; next, this place is granted to his son, Mr. George Henry Rose for life, who is also a member of parliament; next, Mr. G. Rose has another sinecure place, as

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Keeper of the Records in the Exchequer, for which he receives £400 a year; and next, his younger son, Mr. William Steart Rose, has a sinecure place in the Exchequer, for which he receives 2.137 a year. Which sums put together, make £10,139 a year, which Mr. Rose, and his sons receive out of the taxes annually raised upon us; and, he having, upon an average, received about five thousand a year for office salary, besides sinecures, since the year 1783, I am far within the compass when I assert, that he and his sons alone have received out of the taxes of this back-broken country THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS STERLING.-Such, Gentiemen, is, in part at least, the company, into which we are going to send either Mr. Herbert or Mr. Heathcote. Does it not, then, behove us well to consider, what sort of man that is, whom we thus send? We are about to send, according to the language of the constitution, a person to be the guardian of our money, a check upon the minister in all things, but more especially to be a check upon his conduct as an expender of our money; does it, not, therefore, become us to be as sure as we possibly, in such a case, can be, that this guardian whom we choose, will not himself receive any of this money from the minister; and is it not to be guilty of the grussest self-abuse to pretend to believe that he will be a check upon the minister, if he himself be permitted to receive a share of what the minister may choose to expend or give away? But, Gentlemen, there would be, in such conduct, on our part, something a great deal worse than folly. There would be in it the basest treachery towards the rest of our countrymen; for, you are to remem ber, that there is not one man in five hun dred who can, as things now stand, vote for members of parliament. With the interests of persons, of this description, in this county, we are charged, as well as with our ow and, therefore, if, in choosing a mencet, we consider only our individual interest, we are guilty of dishonesty; and, if we, from negligence, choose an improper person, we are guilty of a flagrant and shameful want of duty towards our neighbour. The way, Gentlemen, in which I think I shall best discharge my duty, is, to tender to the candidates the pledge, of which I have already spoken, for the requiring of which I have, with your great patience and indulgence, given my reasons, and the words of which, with the confidcut hope, that they will meet with the approbation of every truly honest and independent man who hears me, I will now conclude with reading: "That

"he will never, either directly or indirect"ly, either by himself or by any person "related to him or dependent upon him, "receive a single shiling of the public

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money, in any shape whatever, so long as he shall live; and that he will use the " utmost of his endeavours to obtain for "this burthened people a redress of all "their manifold grievances, and especially "of that most crying grievance of having "their money voted away by those,

amongst whom there are many who re"ceive part of that money."

After this, a person, whose name was said to be BROWN; who was stated to have been a purser, or something of that sort, under LORD KEITH; and who now lives, it was said, at Purbrook-Heath, having begun to speak below, was called up to the window, were, having read from the report of the Debates in the short parliament, a passage wherein Mr. Herbert was represented as having proposed the disfranchisement of the borough of Lancaster, on account of their conduct relating to their member, COLONEL CAWTHORNE, he, Mr. Brown, inferred that Mr. Herbert had proposed to disfranchise the said borough, merely because the the voters had presented a petition disagree

able to the House.

MR. HERBERT then came forward, and began by defending himself against the charge preferred by Mr. Brown; but, owing to the inarticulate sound of his voice it was impossible to catch more than a very small part of what he said. He defended the conduct of himself and his friends; stated that he had never, in any single instance, shown himself dependent upon the ministry, and challenged any one to prove the contrary. He condemned the conduct of the present ministry, with regard to the Inquiry now going on, and complimented the country upon the spirit it had shown, in seconding the laud. able and constitutional efforts of the City of London.

With respect to the proposed piedge, he said, he would promise, in the most distinct terms, that he never would, as ing as he lived, accept of sinecure or pension, and that he would reject, with scorn, the ofer of either; but, that he would give no piedge, that, if the king should, at any ime, think his services useful to the country, he would not accept of a proper compensation for such services; and this, he trusted, would be satisfactory. Upon perceiving, that Mr. Cobbett signified his dissent from this proposition, Mr. Herbert asked, what objection he had to it? to which Mr. Cobbett answered, "Those services I have no "objection to, nor to their being well paid

"for; but I know of no services which can "be performed by a member of parliament, "which ought to be paid for."

MR. HEATHCOTE said nothing that could be heard, except as to the proposed pledge, which he refused to give, though he said, that " if he knew his own mind, he never "should receive a farthing of the public

money as long as he lived'

MR. BARHAM. perceiving that Mr. Herbert's explanation as to his conduct, in respect to the petition from Lancaster, had not been clearly understood, came to the window, and, in a very clear and satisfactory manner, showed, that Mr. Herbert's conduct, upon the occasion referred to, was not only blameless but deserving of the highest praise. Having completely removed the impression produced by the erroneous construction of Mr. Brown, Mr. Barham said, that he had a test, whereby to try the candidates, to whom he put this question : "Will you, if the Inquiry, now going on,

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respecting, the Convention of Cintra, "should end in a blank report of merely "all's well, bring forward, or support, in "parliament, a motion for another and

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more satisfactory mode of Inquiry?". Mr. Herbert answered distinctly in the affirmative; Mr. Heathcote gave no answer at all.

The Sheriff now put the question to the Freeholders, which of the two candidates they chce to put in nomination; and the majority appeared in favour of Mr. Heath

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unerring experience. That he may be "able to judge of what is, as well as of "what ought to be, shew him, in detail, "all the political causes and effects, to be "found in our history; make him see

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them into a separate Work, to be published during the same time, and in the same manner, as to paper and print, with the Parlia mentary History.

Besides the consideration of uniformity, there were others which had great weight in this determination. The State Trials are now to be found only in an edition of Eleven Volumes in folio, a form so unwieldy that it is impossible they should ever be much read, to say nothing of their incomplete state, or of the expense; which latter alone, owing to the scarceness of even this imperfect edition, must be a serious obstacle to general circulation. So that this Work, though absolutely necessary to the lawyer and the professed politician, very curious, interesting, and instructive, in itself, and, in a high degree, illustrative of the legal, political, and constitutional history of the country, to be met with in but very few private libraries, those of counsellors and solicitors not excepted. The mere reduction of size, from the unmanageable folio of former edtions to that of the royal octavo, double page, which unites economy with comenience, will, in itself, be no inconsiderable improvement.

But, the proposed editon

will possess the following additional adva tages: 1. The series will commence more than two hundred years before the time of the earliest transaction noticed in the former editions. Many very important Trials and curious matters, omitted in the former edi. tions, though occurring within the period which those editions embrace, will be supplied; and the series will be continued down to the present time: 2. Many useless repetitions, ceremonials, &c. will be omt ted, but every Trial will be scrupulously preserved: 3. Many unmeaning and unin structive pleadings will be omitted; yet all those, which are either curious in themselves, or upon which any question arose, will be carefully retained: 4. The different articles, relative to each case, will be placed together, so that the trouble of frequent references backwards and forwards, attending a perusal of the former editions, will be avoided; and, whete references from one part of the Work to another necessarily occur, the paging of the present Work wili alore be

clearly how this nation has come up, and how the government has grown together." From these or such like reflections, sprang that arduous undertaking, the Parliamentary History of England; and, from the sa ne source arises the work, which I now submit to the judgment of the public. As I proceeded with the History, I found, that to read discussions, relating to Trinis for high Treason and for other high Crimes and Misdemeanors, and not to be able to refer immediately to those Trials, they being so intimately connected with the history of the parl-regarded; so that the confusion arising from ament, and being a detailed relation of some of the most important and most interesting events to be recorded, could not fail to be greatly disadvantageous to the student : yet, to bring into the History such a mass of legal proceedings, which admitted of little abridg-nological succession, unless where a different

meut, was, for several reasons, not to be hought of. I, therefore, resolved to form

the various pagings of the former editions will, in no case, arise to teaze and retard the reader: 5. The Trials, instead of being placed in the vexatious disorder of the for mer editions, will stand in one regular chro

arrangement shall be dictated by some spe cial reason; as, for instance, where more

Trials than one concern the same party, or the same transaction; for, in such cases, it may sometimes be thought adviseable to break through the order of time, for the sake of exhibiting together all the particulars relating the same matter or the same person: 3. Brief historical notices of the conspicuous persons mentioned in the Work, or references to published accounts of them, will be occasionally inserted: 7. Where points of law arise, references will be made to hose parts of the Law Digests, or Treatises on Criminal Law, in which the principles and cases, relating to such points, are laid down, or collected : 8. In like manner, references will be made to my Parliamentary History for any Parliamentary Proceedings connected with any Trial, and to any other work calculated to elucidate any part of this Collection of Trials: 9 Some Trials before Courts Martial, but those only of the greatest importance and most general interest, and illustrative of the history of the imes, will be preserved in this work: 10. To each volume there will be prefixed a full and clear Table of Contents; and in the last Volume there will be a General Index to the whole Work, so complete that I hope it will be found to leave nothing of any importance difficult to be referred to.

It is computed, that the Eleven Volumes of the last edition of the State Trials will be comprized in Nine Volumes of the New Edition, and that the Additional Matter to bring the Work down to the present time, will make three Volumes more. The whole Work, therefore, will consist of Twelve very large Volumes. The paper and print will be, in every respect, similar to those of the Parliamentary History. In the mode of publication only there will be this difference; that, while the History is published in Volumes, the Trials will be published in Purts, one Part coming out on the first day of every month, in the same manner as the Magazines and other monthly publications; and will, like those publications, be sold by all the Booksellers, Law-Stationers, and Newsmen in the kingdom. Three Parts will make a volume, and it will be optional with the Subscribers, to take the Parts separately, or quarterly to take the Volumes bound in boards, in a way exactly similar to that of the History.

For me to pretend to undertake, unassisted, a Work of this sort, which, to execute well, requires the pen of a person not only possessed of great legal knowledge, but also well versed in the history of the law, would be great presumption. Without such assistance the Work was not to be thought of

for a moment; and, I am convinced, that the very first Part will satisfy the reader, that it has not been undertaken without means of every kind sufficient to carry it on to a conclusion, in a manner worthy of matter so generally interesting and highly important. In the publication of the History, I relied upon the sound sense of the public, rather than upon the prevailing literary taste of the times; and from the success of that work, I am convinced that success will attend this also. I am convinced, that there are readers, and readers enough, who wish to know, from authentic sources, what the facts of our history are; how our government really was administered hereto fore; what sort of men our forefathers really were, and how they really acted; and who will not be satisfied with the vague notions which alone can be collected from historical magic lanthorns, like that of Hame for instance, in which no one single object is plainly or distinctly presented to us, but where a multitude of images are made rapidly and confusedly to pass before our eyes, distorted and discoloured according to the taste of the showman

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COURTS OF INQUIRY.

SIR,-The observations of Major Cartwright at the Middlesex county meeting, as given in the Times of yesterday, to shew that courts of inquiry are not only illegal, but political weapons which are dangerous to the constitution, having thrown new light on the conduct of ministers relative to the transactions in Portugal, it is now to be hoped the intended course of proceeding will be changed to that which is alone consistent with the administration of justice. The case is one that admits of no possible doubt; the law is plain; the path to be walked in perfectly straight. There can be no deviation without criminal design. Au act so

atrocious as to have shocked the whole nation, and given cause of deep dissatisfaction to our allies, has been perpetrated in open day, in the presence of two armies, in the face of Europe. The nation demands a trial, and justice. You are premature,' says the minister, you prejudge the parties concerned, but you shall have "due inquiry." "Due inquiry," Sir, is legal inquiry; and, by the converse of the propo sition, that which is not legal inquiry, is NOT "due inquiry." It is in the mouth of every despicable quibbler, that calling the Armistice and Convention a crime, is to prejudge. If to accuse, be to prejudge, and on that account is not to be listened to, how is any criminal to be brought to justice? According to this doctrine, I may see one man kill another, and apparently without authority, without accomplices, without provoca tion, but I am not to accuse him of murder, because that is prejudging. He may have been doing his duty, or acting under a legal authority, or on self-defence. Is such reasoning to prevail, and the trial of crimes to be stayed, until guilt is first proved? or what else is the meaning of this quibbling?

That I might not, Sir, be misled by the assertions of the Major, I have consulted the authorities he quoted, namely, Blackstone and the Mutiny Act, and find him perfectly correct. Blackstone, b. 3, c. 3, says, "the "LAW hath appointed a prodigious varie.. ty of courts," -"alt these in their turns "will be taken notice of in their proper "places," which he accordingly performs. The Mutiny Act now in existence, herein copying, as I believe, the very words of every preceding mutiny act, §. 31, says,"for bringing offenders against such articles "of war to justice, it shall be lawful for "his Majesty to erect and constitute courts "martial, with power to try, hear, and de"termine, any crimes or offences by sch "articles of war, and to inflict, &c." the act no where says" it shall be lawful "for his Majesty to erect and constitute" courts of inquiry, in which neither members nor witnesses are to be upon oath, in which a witness may or may not answer a question, at his pleasure, and before which no person can be brought as a witness, unless he think fit to attend, and the sunmons to which even the accused may treat with contempt. The law, Sir, has not done say thing so absurd and monstrous as oil this. And shall, then, any minister be permitted to do so absurd and monstrous a thing without low ? —Now, Sir, let us see who are the prejudgers. Au innocent officer is accused of a very serious crime, which, being at

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tended with some nice and difficult circum stances, nothing short of the powers of aregular court, with full authority for compelling attendance, and all the powers of aw over witnesses, can extract the truth, and give the party his acquittal. If such a panty is to be called before such a mock tribuna! as I have described, and there, for the want of due means of legal investigation, is judged a proper subject for trial before a court martial, will this circumstance have no effect to his prejudice? Is not this a cruel prejudging of his case?--How, again, may it be in the case of a guilty person? May not niceties and difficulties in the case so embarrass the members of a "court of inquiry," conscious of the extreme defects of their appointment in all its parts. and not bound by the sanction of an oath to administer justice, when attended with severity, that they may not venture to say the accused person ought to be put upon his trial? And would not this bea prejudging favourable to guilt? To prejudge, is to pronounce upon any act, as to its being criminal or not criminal, before it has been decided on by the proper court et law. To accuse, and to pronounce upo3, are very distinct things. But ministers sharply rebuke those who only accuse, and call it prejudging; while they themselve first assume the arbitrary power of inte posing, between accusation and trial, an absurd and monstrous species of tribul which it is NOT "lawful for his Majesty

ercct and constitate," and a tribuna which cannot possibly do otherwise than prejudge the case at issue. Is this, Sir, të be endured? If the nation can tamely su itself to be thus insulted, I will not say f is prepared for slavery, but it is already er slaved, for none but slaves could si enty subant to such indignity.To make a shew of impartiality, and to ward off from: themselves the suspicion of packing a cost for skreening their colleagues, ministers are said to have put upon their court of inqui a certain noble lord, and to have orderd that the court shall be an open court. Bat, Sir, when a court is not only illegal, but et the ministers' sole appointment, I am at a bss to know how it can be otherwise lescribed, thin as a packed court; and is not a picked court as odious and revolting as a packed jury, to the feelings of Englishmen

-Now, Sir, those who would liken 3 court of inquiry to a grand jury, and pretend to recommend it on that account, ought to recollect that a grand jury is NOT an open court; and that it can examine no witnesses but on the side of the prosecution. Here,

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