in writing the following strictures, been at a loss to account for the views which have actuated your Lordship, in supporting measures, which to myself and many others, have appeared totally irreconcilable with the only rule of conduct a corporate officer has to pursue the charter of incorporation.

Your Lordship must also excuse me, if I notice one circumstance in particular, which seems at variance, in the opinion of some, with that line of conduct your Lordship has adopted elsewhere. For instance, we find your Lordship, as a senator, employed in the furtherance of measures to ensure the residence of the clergy. At Tiverton, however, I am told, your Lordship's sanction and support are given to clergymen, and those who are candidates for holy orders, in order to their becoming common council-men of a borough, many miles distant from their spiritual charges; the duty of which office, and which they publicly swear they will faithfully perform, is to be ever assisting and aiding to the mayor in all things appertaining to the good government thereof. Your Lordship's brother, also, who is called

*The right honorable Richard Ryder, being one of the members for the town of Tiverton, is ineligible to serve the office of mayor; the mayor being the returning officer. He therefore respectfully declines the honor of being elected a capital burgess. It is much at variance with the humility, which adorns the several members of this highly respectable

an assistant of Tiverton, and is a member of parliament for the borough, whose wages the inhabitant householders of Tiverton would be compelled to pay, if called upon, sees, he says, no reason why a corporate officer now residing in South America (who indeed has ceased to be an inhabitant of Tiverton very many years,) should be removed from his office of capital burgess of our town. I shall content myself with a single reference to our charter, which must at once be sufficient to prove the fallacy of such an assertion. The clause I shall refer to, is that which directs "that no stranger, or foreigner, shall sell goods in Tiverton, either in shop or otherwise, or use any mystery, occupation, or manual art before the consent of the mayor, and major part of the chief burgesses be first had and obtained." And I have sufficient reason, my Lord, to believe your Lordship's feelings are in unison with those of your Lordship's learned brother. These and many such irregularites, (such as the election of youths to be corporate officers, just turned one and twenty without any habitation within the town and parish, except such as their parent's roof affords them) appear, I say, to be approved by your Lordship, and

family, to hear this worthy gentleman, with suitable gravity, tendering his vote for the right honorable Richard Ryder, as "a discreet and sufficient man" to represent our borough in parliament.

have been to many, subjects of much painful reflection; and which, I must boldly tell your Lordship, with any other than one of your Lordship's deservedly esteemed character for religious and conscientious feeling, it has been said, would be attributed, without hesitation, to motives which are the result of self interest alone.

But this with

your Lordship, it is almost absurd to suppose. What then is the conclusion I must draw? Why this, that it must be I who am in error. And I must suppose this, because the Earl of Harrowby and the right honorable Richard Ryder, (late a Welch judge) are not to be classed among those, who are ignorant of the constitution of our town and parish Their long connexion with Tiverton, and that of their father, and grandfather before them, their education, &c. must have made them acquainted with those rights and privileges, it was intended the inhabitants should enjoy and possess. Well then, again 1 betake myself to the charter. Still my mind is impressed that these rights and privileges, such as they are, are strangely perverted, and, if I am not very much mistaken, are converted, in many instances, to the purposes of private influence or individual advantage of persons, some of whom reside at a distance, and who are without the smallest connexion with the local interests of the borough.

Should these things, my Lord, be so? Should

the best interests of the inhabitants of Tiverton, be in the hands, and at the disposal of persons, as corporate officers, who are scarcely ever to be seen within the town and parish ?-of persons who contribute not a penny towards the expences of the borough?-of persons residing in America, Middlesex, Staffordshire, Berkshire, and distant parts of Devonshire ?-of clergymen, whose spiritual avocations or duties call them to Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, and parishes many miles away from the place, for which they, with their colleagues, are to appoint, constitute, and make reasonable ordinances and statutes, for the good rule and welfare of the inhabitants thereof ?-Is it fair? is it just, my Lord, that among the select few, who claim the exclusive privilege to elect our two members to parliament, should be found "the Lord President of his Majesty's council, and the Receiver General of the taxes in Exeter and Devon," persons precluded from the exercise of the elective franchise? It would be little short of an insult even to doubt what must be your Lordship's reply to these questions. I therefore beseech your Lordship, who is so deservedly esteemed by the inhabitants of Tiverton, and whose characteristic excellence is distinguished as the friend of justice, liberal feeling, and peace, to afford us the weight of your Lordship's influence, in order to put a stop to the inconsistent and unwarrantable proceedings which have

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of late been persisted in, and to give us, or rather restore to us, at any rate, those rights and privileges which our charters so clearly, so unequivocally, direct and enjoin; and to obtain which is the sole object I have in view, in presenting myself before your Lordship, and the public, on the present occasion.

This then being the result of an anxious investigation, what remained for me to do? I determined to place my views before two learned professional gentlemen, persons of acknowledged talents and abilities. These confirm my views! What could I do more than privately to submit those views and opinions to your Lordship, and your fellow corporate officers? How have they been received?-by "a mysterious silence," which, far from a discouragement, serves to strengthen me as to the soundness of my positions. Your Lordship politely acknowledging the mere receipt of my communications, avails yourself of that security from interference which a nonresidence affords. So does your Lordship's learned brother. The mayor acknowledges the receipt of my letter by a verbal communication in the public street, observing, he wished not to hold any correspondence relative to the affairs of the corporation; and which, indeed, I most readily believe. The town-clerk, who acts also as a capital burgess, expresses a wish that my communications to the mayor should not be made