Oinairoars OF ram CITY ON TICE REFORDI Brar..—We mentioned last
Week a requisition for a Common Council with a view, under the pre- tence of petitioning. Parliament to preserve entire the rights of- the Li.' Very of Landon, to offer an indirect opposition to the Refoina Bill, -and • to bring hate doubt the-sincerity, Or at least the permanence Of the opi- aaiona in favour of it, which the Common Council had at one tipae -ptessed. A counter requisition was immediately prepared .When the Oti- poaition requisition was made known; and though last in date, being first presented to the -Lord Mayor -it was declared by his Lordship en- titled to be first discussed. On *ednesday, the meeting took piece; 'when Mr. Charles Pearson addressed the Court at considerable length on the necessity Of adhering strictly and zealously to the principle§ to which 'they had already given their unanimous approval. After presenting a rapid review of the progress of Reform during the last few years, Mi. Pearson went on to advert to the resolutions Of the 4th • and 7th March, and to argue, that by such resolutions the People entered into a solemn compact with their patriot King, that if he supported his Ministers in their great measure of Reform, the People would uphold the stability of the Throne and the integrity of reformed institutions, against the cor- rupt efforts of a Boroughmongering faction. Mr. Pearson adverted hu- niorously to the attempts made by Reformers as well as Anti-Reformers to delay the Bill. "Night after night had the Ministers to encounter the opposition of pretended friends as well as of avowed enemies. Whigs and Tories, Reformers and Boroughmongers, joined in these midnight orgies ; While Sir Charles Wetherell, like one of the Weird Sisters in Macbeth,. waved his wand over the heterogeneous mass, Singing- ' Black spirits and white, red spirits and grey, Mingle, mingle, mingle, ye that mingle May.' If he had the graphic pencil-of George Crnikshank, he would sketch the band of Reformers and Anti-Reformers dancing rotind the blazing fag- got of the bubbling pot, while each was ready to throw- in a little mo- tion or an amendment of his own, as if to make the charm grow mad- der;' and Sir Charles, the Hecate of the caldron, pronounce the myste- rious, incantation—
Armin d, around, around, about, 'about, 'about, All ill come running in, all good keep out.'
He did not intend to charge every man who had • opposed some of the details of the Bill, with breach of pledge: he supposed he must acquit the three honourable Aldermen.of all evil intentions in the course they had taken; but he confessed that, after their pledges, he was surprised to find Alderman Venables, in the masquerade- of a. country gentleman, gallopading with the Marquis of Chandos ; Alderman Thompson, in a new-suit of motley, "inadvertently "dancing an Appleby reel with the Lovvihers and the Lonsdales ; and that tertium cued, Alderman Wood, gracefully, footing it in a scot and lot pas de deuv with the-honourable
member for Preston." , . ,
He went on to comment on the doctrine of Mr. -Sadler respecting po- pular representation. "Supposing,'- that gentleman had aaid, he were required to state how he intended to vote on the Rcform would it not be much better to-bow. down his conscience before a high- Minded and single-hearted individual than before 10,000 tradesnaen and artificers ?" "AO who,pray," added Mr. Pearson, "was Mr. Sadler him- self! Why an honest, industriquaapainataking, .pence-saving; trades- man Of Leeds, satisfied to stand by his order, and contented with his station, till in an evil hour he bowed down his conscience before that high-minded,: single-hearted man,' the Duke of Newcastle. By the Duke's magic touch, like:a scene in the _Arabian _Nights; Mustapha, the cobler, has been transformed into the Caliph of 'Bagdad. This said Mr. Sadler, who Tea one of the oracles of Boroughmongering, having, by bowing down his coeseience,' got into Parliament rather late in life, like a December husband with a May-day wife, grew doming on her charms. He declared in the House, that but for rotten boroughs the reigning family would .never have ascended the British throne. He
produced a list of the members of the House at the Revolution, to show that the people were against the change, 'and that the representatives of the rotten-boroughs had saved the state,--•-a poor apology, even if true, for the countless offencea ofwhich they had been since guilty. Let Mr. Sadler write the- epitaph of the system ; it will be that it left
4.A Roroughinongering name to other times
. Linked with one virtue and a-thousand crimes.'"
Mr. Pearson-would not, however, give the rotten boroughs this solitary praise ; arid he quoted Hume. to show, that had it not been for the Cot/a- nion Council of London, the expulsion of James the 'Second would not - have been effected. Mr. Pearson observed of Mr. Sadler, that he was an example Of the inherent defects of the horongh system, which cramped his few energies, and rendered endeavours powerless, which, had he sat as a genuine representative of the people, would have been, met with at- tention and acceptance. The case of Sir Charles Wetherell, the other half of the Siamese Twins of the Boroughmongers,Mr.Pearson observed, was equally instructive. " Had he been a legitimate representative of the people—a member for a district comprising a constituency-of wealth, talent, and numbers, he, doubtless might have attained to 'the highest
dignity of a senator, instead of. assuming to please. his patron by the fri- volity of a jester and the antics of a buffoon. By the affection which
Sir Charles nightly professed for the citizens, Mr. Pearson-had no doubt but that he meditated to offer himself as a candidate for City honours, and that whenthe rotten boroughs of St. Stephen's should be destroyed, that worthy,knight would endeavour to take refuge in the rotten boa roughs of the municipal representation. He should bail his presence in that Court with much satisfaction. Ever since the secession of that good-humoured baronet, Sir Claudius Hunter, the place of prinao buffo had been vacant. To fill this post, Sir Charles waspreeminently quali- fied ; and when the rotten borough of Boroughbridge should ba by this Bill . destroyed, Mr. ,Pearson should recommend him. to -offer himself for the representation of the city rotten borough—the ward of Old Lou- don Bridge Without—the very beau ideal Of Boroughmongering excel- lence-a-a Ward, withmit inhabitants—an Alderman without_ constituents —the representatives of arches and piers, which had nothing but sense- .ess antiquity to recommend them," Mr. Pearson concluded by movirrg . .
a series of resolutions, declaring the unabated attachment of the Com- -mon Council towards the Bill, and ,also.that a petition to the Lords to accelerate its,paasing should be forthwith presented. The motion. was seconded by Mr. Slade, Alderman Wood denied that he was in any one particular an enemy of the Bill ; he thought that there were many persons paying scot and-lot in the City, to whom the franchise might :be beneficially extended ; and he could not see that voting for such an extension, he had voted agaiuSt the Bill. Alderman Venables said he intended to support the resolu- tions; att the same time, he must defend his, vote on the Marquis of Chandos's motion, which he contended would be found to be a beneficial one for the country. Alderman Waithman warmly supported the rem. lutions.
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Mr. Richardson, one of the requisitionists first alluded to in- the report of the meeting, brought forward his resolutions, by way of amendment to those of Mr. Pearson.. Mr. Richardson's resolution was, that the Court should petition Parliament to insert in the Reform Bill a clause giving to the Livery a right of voting in perpetuityfor members of Parliament. He said he meant no opposition -to the Bill, but merely a verbal amend- ment in it. Mr. Deputy Brooke seconded the resolution;, and declared that the City Companies were disgusted with the Bill. He offered ne proof Of this, though dared to produce it. After some conversation, the Council divided; when there appeared-e for the amendment 5, against it 118. The original resolutions were then put and carried by 117 to 1. The names of the five whp voted for the amendment are Richardson (Cripplegate), Howell, Francis, Saunders, and NathaMel Clarke.
Citarualia 'Citoss Hoserrara—The foundation-stone of this edifice isle be laid on the 15th., by, the Duke of Susses.
MARYLEDONE SELECT VESTRY.—Some time ago, in consequence of the general dissatisfaction of the parishioners with the constitution Of their Vestry, -a bill to amend it was introduced, which the Vestry agreed not to oppose. Notwithstandina. this pledge, a petition was presented the ether night to the House of Commons from the Vestry against the bit A meeting was held on Tuesday on the subject.—Mr. Hume in the chair; when it was resolved, that each district in the parish should elect six 'persons to form a committee to support the bill against this opposi- tion—a . resolution, pledging the parishioners to oppose, by every leg4 means' the payment of rates, was also proposed, and unanimously agreed to.