Upon the 22d of January, this year, Sir John Cust refigned his office of Speaker of the Houfe of Commons, on account of his bad ftate of health, and was fucceeded by Sir Fletcher Norton. Sir Fletcher was propofed by the minister, and the opposition set up another against him; this brought the ftrength of the parties to a trial, when the ministry carried their point in a divifion of near two to one. The influence of the court began to be now fo ftrong, that it carried every measure wherein it was engaged. This was truly alarming to the nation, because fome points of the most unpopular, as well as of the moft unreafonable nature, had been carried by that influence. The affair of the Middlefex election, and the dif qualifying of Mr Wilkes, were carried on and supported by the influence of the minister; these proceedings were confidered by the greatest part of the nation, as exertions of power, intended to crush the fpirits of the people, and to fhew them that their voice was of no confideration in the esteem of government, and that matters would be carried on without their confent. Thofe proceedings alarmed all true friends. to liberty, who confidered the blow given to the people of Middlefex, a ftroke aimed at the freedom of the whole nation. The citizens of London made fome fpirited, noble, and bold efforts to ftem the tide of minifterial infatuation, and to stop the torrent of defpotifm, that appeared now to carry all before it. They concluded, as was natural to fuppofe, that his Majelty, if rightly informed of the flate of the nation, and the fentiments of his people, would difmifs such fervants as, by their mifmanagement, had irritated the minds of his faithful fubjects, and were likely, by proceeding in the fame courfe to alienate their hearts from their just and and lawful fovereign. They therefore, on the 24th of June, the preceding year, prefented a petition to his Majefty, fetting forth the many heavy grievances which the nation laboured under, through the obftinate mifmanagement of the officers of the crown; which grievances are fpecially pointed out in the petition itfeif in fundry articles. Their petition, as well as that of the county of Middlefex, and many others received no anfwer. Upon the 14th of March, this year, they prefented an addrefs, remonftrance, and petition to his Majefty, fetting forth all the former grievances in their firft petition, with other new articles, and craved that his Majesty would diffolve the parliament, as now become no longer a reprefentation of the people, nor could be, in the fenfe of the conftitution, confidered as a legal parliament. To this addrefs and remonstrance they received a fevere anfwer. 1 his did not hinder the intrepid citizens of London to prefent another addrefs of remonstrance and petition to the King upon the 23d of May, wherein they affert their right of petitioning, and exprefs their aftonishment at the awful cenfure paffed upon them in his Majefty's late anfwer from the throne. To this remonftrance they received much the fame anfwer as before; fhorter indeed in its fize, but equal ly fevere in its contents. It was on this occafion that Mr Alderman Beckford, a perfon intrepid and zealous for the cause of liberty, and that of the citizens of London, delivered a fpeech to his Majefty, which ftands recorded in the journals of the court of common council, as a perpetual memorial of his greatnefs of mind, integrity, and refolution. The auftere beams of ma-. jefty could not damp his fpirits, nor the fplendor of royalty in frowns, intimidate him, when the freedom and liberty of England and London feemed to be in danger. His fpeech was worthy of a great citi. zen to deliver, and worthy of the greatest monarch to hear. It feems to have been dictated by wifdom, and delivered with true zeal; the contents are important, the ftile elegant and manly; and the whole is a master-piece in its kind. The petition and remonftrances the reader will fee in the notes, with the royal reply, and this fpeech of Mr Beckford fubjoined. There was another addrefs and remontrance prefented upon the the 21ft of November, this jefty The humble Petition of the Livery of the City of London, in Common Hall affembled. Moft gracious Sovereign, We, your Majefty's dutiful and loyal fubjects, the Livery of the City of London, with all the humility which is due from free fubjects to their lawful Sovereign, but with all the anxiety which the sense of the present oppreffions, and the just dread of future mifchiefs produce in our minds, beg leave to lay before your Majefty fome of those intolerable grievances, which your people have fuffered from the evil conduct of those who have been entrufed with the administration of your Majefty's government, and from the fecret unremitting influence of the worst of counsellors. We should be wanting in our duty to your Majefty, as well as to ourselves and our pofterity fhould we forbear to reprefent to the throne the defperate attempts which have been, and are too fuc cefsfully made, to destroy the contitution, to the spirit of which we Qwe the relation which fubfifts between your Majefty and the fubje&ts of thefe realmis, and to fubvert thofe facred laws which our ancet tors have fealed with their blood. year, principles, and in violation of every duty, have, by various enumerated means, invaded our invaluable and unalienable right of trial by jury. They have, with impunity, ifsued general warrants, and violently feized perfons and private papers. They have rendered the laws non effective to our fecurity, by evading the Habens Corpus. They have caufed punishments, and even perpetual imprisonment to be inflicted without trial, conviction, or fentence. They have brought into difrepute the civil magiftracy, by the appointment of perfous who are, in many refpects, unqualified for that important truft, and have thereby purposely furnished a pretence for calling in the aid of a military power. They avow and endeavour to eftablish a maxim, abfolutely inconfiftent with our conftitution; "that an occafion for effectually employing a military force, always prefents itself, when the civil power is trifled with or infulted." And by a fatal and falfe application of this maxim, they have wantonly and wickedly facrificed the lives of many of your Majefty's innocent fubjects, and have prostituted your Majefty's facred name and authority, to juftify, applaud, and recommend year, which fet forth much the fame grievances, and prayed for the fame redrefs; but as they contain very little new, I have paffed them over. About fix days after the refignations which have been mentioned above, the Duke of Grafton refigned his place and office of firft Lord of the Treafury, and was fucceeded by Lord North, who was already Chancellor of the Exchequer. Various reafons were affigned for his Grace's refignation, though perhaps none of them the true ones: Some imputed his con commend their own illegal and bloody actions. They have fcreened more than one murderer from punishment, and in its place have unnaturally fabftituted reward. They have established numberlefs unconftitutional regulations and taxations in our colonies; they have caufed a revenue to be raised in fome of them by prerogative; they have appointed civil law judges to try revenue caufes, and to be paid from out of the condemnation money. After having infulted and defeated the law on different occafions, and by different contrivances, both at home and abroad, they have at length completed their defign, by violently wrefting from the people the laft facred right we had left, the right of election, by the unprecedented feating of a candidate, notoriously set up and chofen only by themselves; they have thereby taken from your fubjects all hopes of parliamentary redrefs, and have left us no refource, under GOD, but in your Majefty. All this they have been alle to effect by corruption; by a fcandalous mifapplication and embezzlement of the public treasure, and a thameful proftitution of public honours and employments; procuving deficiencies of the civil lift to duct be made good without examination, and inftead of punishing, conferring honours on a pay-mafter, the public defaulter of unaccounted millions. From an unfeigned fenfe of the duty we owe to your Majefty, and to our country, we have ventured thus humbly to lay before the throne thefe great and important truths, which it has been the bufinefs of your minifters to conceal. We moft earnestly befeech your Majefty to grant us redrefs: It is for the purpose of redress alone, and for fuch occafions as the prefent, that thofe great and extensive powers are entrusted to the Crown, by the wisdom of that conftitution, which your Majefty's illuftrious family was chofen to defend, and which, we truft in GOD, it will for ever continue to fupport. To the King's most Excellent Ma jefty. The humble Addrefs, Remonfrance, and Petition, of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Livery of the City of London, in Common Hall affembled. May it pleafe your Majesty, We have already in our petition dutifully reprefented to your Majefty, the chief injuries we have fuftained. We are unwilling to be duct, to fear of being refponfible for measures which he was not allowed to conduct according to his own judgment, and others to fome certain disgust which they could not account for. Whatever was the cause, both parties reproached him, and the friends of the court, though he still supported their measures, complained of him for deferting them. Lord North now catched hold of the helm, where we will find him steering the vessel of state through the greatest part of this history; with what fuccefs, the period of his political lieve that We, therefore, venture once more to addrefs ourselves to your Majefty, as to the father of your people; as to him who must be both able and willing to redrels our grievances; and we repeat our application with the greater propriety, because we fee the inftruments of our wrongs, who have carried into execution the meafures of which we complain, more particularly diftinguished by your Majesty's royal bounty and fa vour. Under the fame fecret and malign influence, which through each fucceffive adminiftration has defeated every good, and fuggefted every bad intention, the majority of the House of Commons have deprived your people of their dearest tights. They have done a deed more ruinous in its confequences than the levying of fhip money by career, Charles the first ; or the dispensing power affumed by James the fecond. A deed, which must vitiate all the future proceedings of this parliament, for the acts of the legiflature itself can no more be valid without a legal Houfe of Commons, than without a legal prince upon the throne. Reprefentatives of the people are effential to the making of laws, and there is a time when it is morally demonftrable, that men cease to be reprefentatives; that time is now arrived: The prefent Houfe of Commons do not represent the people. We owe to your Majefty, an obedience under the restrictions of the laws for the calling and duration of parliaments; and your Majefty owes to us, that our representation, free from the force of arms or corruption, thould be preferved to us in parliament. It was for this we fuccefsfully ftruggled under James the second; for this we feated, and have faithfully fupported your Majefty's family on the throne; The people have been invariably uniform in their object, though the different mode of attack has called for a different defence. Under James the fecond, they complained that the fitting of parliament was interrupted, because |
