petition those grievances which he desires to be redressed, and the cause of them, was the same thing as to deny him the right of petitioning; and that such denial would infer oppression and the most abject slavery; for, when subjects are misused and grieved, and are denied the liberty to complain and pray the king to redress those grievances, or shall be punished for petitioning against them, they must necessarily be abject slaves."

9. Resolved, That the arguments having been over-ruled by venal judges, judgement was obtained against the city; the abhorrers for a time triumphed; the liberties of the people, with the right of petitioning, were subverted; and the succeeding monarch, in consequence thereof, driven from his throne and dominions.

At the revolution of 1688, in the bill of rights, "the undoubted right of the subject to petition" was, among other things, "claimed, demanded, and insisted upon."

This right has been of late in vaded; the people, oppressed with unprecedented grievances and calamities, have been denied access to the sovereign, their petitions have been rejected by the house of commons, and their grievances remain unheard and unredressed.

The exploded doctrine of passive obedience has been revived in all its extravagance, a new race of abhorrers have sprung up, who, like the abhorrers in the days of Charles the Second, by the foulest calumnies, by vilifying and traducing the petitions of the people, are (in the emphatic language of the then house of comnions) "betraying the liberties of the subject, and contributing to the design of subverting the ancient legal constitution of the kingdom." That as the corrupt

participators in public abuse under the misk of loyalty subverted the liberties of the kingdom, and involved James the Second in ruin, so the corrupt and unprincipled of the present day, under the same legal pretence, would involve the country and sovereign in similar difficulties, if suffered to persist. It therefore becomes the imperious duty of every real friend to the country to resist their mischievous designs, by recurring to the genuine principles of the constitution, and by using every legal means for obtaining a full, fair, and free representation of the people in parlia ment.

10. Resolved, That inseparably attached to our glorious constitu tion, we admire, venerate, and will support and defend our king, our lords, and our commons, in their respective and collective capacities, with all their just prerogatives, rights, and privileges; but we can never consent to grant separately to king, lords, or commons, a power contrary to and above the laws of the land, which are and must continue to be the results of their collective wisdom and authority.

11. Resolved, That notwithstanding the rejection of our late petition, we still feel it our duty to give to the house of commons every opportunity of hearing and redressing the grievances of the people, and that an humble address, petition, and remonstrance, be presented to that honourable house.

12. Resolved, That the said petition be fairly transcribed, and signed

by the lord mayor, the alder men, and ten liverymen, and presented to the house of commons by H. C. Combe, esq. one of their representatives.

13. Resolved, That the thanks of this common hall be given to the

right hon. lord Erskine, sir Samuel Romilly, knt. M. P. and Samuel Whitbread, esq. M. P. for their able, constitutional, and independent conduct on all occasions, particularly for the stand they have lately made in favour of the dominion of the law against arbitrary discretion and undefined privilege.

14. Resolved, That the thanks of this hall be given to Harvey Christian Combe, esq. alderman, and one of the representatives of this city in parliament, for his support in the house of commons of the right of the livery to petition the house, and for his general conduct in the house.

15. Resolved, That the thanks of this hall be given to the right honourable the lord mayor, for his readiness in calling this hall, and for his independent and honourable conduct in discharging the duties of his office.

16. Resolved, That the thanks of this hall be given to Matthew Wood, esq. one of the sheriffs of this city, for the independent maner in which he has always discharged the duties of his office.

WOODTHORPE,

A common council, holden in the chamber of the Guildhall of the city of London, on Wednesday, the 6th day of June, 1810.

Resolved, That an humble petition be presented from the court to the honourable the house of commons, representing, that, in approaching that honcurable house to lay before them the numerous grievances under which we labour, we acknowledge their undoubted right to exercise all fair, just, and constitutional privileges originally intended, and wisely continued, for

maintaining the dignity, independence, and security, of their deliberations and proceedings.

That while we feel it our duty to support and uphold that honourable house, at all times an I under all circumstances, in the possession of these privileges, we cannot but lament, that the late exercise of their power, in the arrest and imprisonment of two of our fellowsubjects, should have produced consequences most afflicting and deplorable in their nature.

That without entering into the merits of a question which is shortly to undergo legal decision, we cannot forbear expressing our concern and sorrow, that at a time when the whole nation was anxiously looking to an inquiry of the most important kind, the people should have been debarred from the said inquiry by the enforcement of one of their standing orders; a measure calculated to distract the public attention from the gross misconduct of his majesty's ministers, and tending to screen from condign punishment the criminal authors of unex ampled disgraces and calamities.

That we have seen with astonishment and indignation, the person who enforced the standing order rewarded with a lucrative sinecure, and notwithstanding the decided and degrading rejection of the tender made by him, once more to represent his constituents in parliament, afterwards raised to one of the highest offices under the

ment, the silence and seeming indifference, both of the hereditary counsellors of the crown, and of the representatives of the people.

That we earnestly entreat the attention of that honourable house to the great and imminent dangers in which we conceive the country is involved, to the manifold injuries and abuses we consider it to be sustaining from those who preside over its councils, and to the means we humbly presume to think are best adapted to produce a better and happier state of things.

That during a warfare of unparalleled misery, expenditure, and destruction, we have submitted to unprecedented burthens and priva

tions.

That these burthens have been greatly aggravated by unequal taxation, capricious assessments, vexatious surcharges, and arbitrary inquisitions into our private con

cerns.

That during the severe pressure of an enormously increased and increasing weight of taxation, abuses, frauds, corruptions, and peculations, no less enormous, have been found to exist.

That these burthens have been further increased by a profusion of useless places and pensions.

That by such shameful frauds, waste, and profligacy, our burthens have been augmented, our sufferings aggravated, and our feelings outraged.

That, although there has appeared no deficiency of means to levy and enforce the payment of taxes, we have to complain that no adequate means have yet been devised to prevent the misapplication of them, nor any law nor tribunal found sufficient to correct abuse, or bring great public delinquents to justice.

That these enormous abuses are not only felt as intolerable grievances, materially impairing the property of the people, but by means of the most monstrous and pernicious influence they create, are subversive of the vital principles of the constitution.

That their natural operation is to render the legislature subservient to the executive power, a juncture in which it has been predicted by the ablest politicians that the constitution would inevitably perish.

That duly impressed with the magnitude of our external dangers, we are nevertheless of opinion that these internal abuses, corruptions, and violations of law, as they are the more insidious, are also the more fearful and alarming.

That we concur in a declaration recorded upon the journals of the house of lords, in a protest signed by the late duke of Portland and thirty-one more peers, "that from the history of this, as well as other countries, times of necessity have always been times of reform."

That we cannot but express our concurrence with another part of the said protest" because, however the waste of public money, and the profusion of useless salaries, may have been hitherto overlooked in days of wealth and prosperity, the necessities of the present times can no longer endure the same system of corruption and prodigality.

That without recurring to those facts and circumstances, universally known and admitted, by which it appears that a majority of members are returned through the influence of government, of peers, and other individuals speculating in the rights and liberties of their fellow-subjects, the evils already stated afford suf

cient evidence of the pernicious inAuence existing, and the want of a real and efficient representation.

That it is equally notorious, that a very considerable number of the members of that honourable house hold lucrative places, appointments, and sinecures under the crown; almost invariably supporting the existing administration, or evading inquiry for the correction and reform of abuses.

That the influence which such appointments must create, is not confined to those who possess, but extends to others desirous of obtaining them, and who, we are well assured, seek seats in that honourable house, at considerable expense, for that purpose only.

That, however notorious these facts have been, never before has corruption, in the return of members, and the sale of seats, been publicly avowed in that honourable house by members of the government and others.

That it has appeared that lord Castlereagh, a member of the house of commons, and a minister of the crown, was guilty of a high breach of the constitution, by trafficking for a seat in parliament in exchange for a writership; and that, although he himself admitted the fact, no punishment, nor even censure, was inflicted upon him, but that on the contrary he was, in defiance of all decency, and in contempt of public opinion, suffered to retain his official situation.

That while the said lord Castlereagh, and the right hon. Spencer Perceval, another member of that honourable house, and also a minister of the crown, were charged with another high breach of the constitution-the first in the disposal of a seat, and the second in con

niving thereat-a motion for inquiry into the same was rejected, upon the declared ground of the frequency of such practices.

That contrary to every principle of justice, the very ground of aggravation was thereby made an exculpation of the crime. That it is our decided conviction that nothing short of a reform in the representation of the people in parliament can correct these inveterate abuses, and repair the breaches in the constitu tion.

That had the people been fairly represented, there would have been no ruinous wars for the preservation of a German electorate-no subsidies levied upon the labour and industry of the nation, to be squan, dered in fruitless continental attachments-no army of foreign merce naries in the very heart of the landno wretchedly contrived campaigns for the relief and emancipation of the great and gallant people of Spain, rendered still more painful by the extraordinary valour of Bri tish soldiers, and the miserable po licy of British statesmen-no prodigal waste of blood and treasure in the preposterous and ill-fated expedition to Walcheren and the Scheldt-no escape of public peculators and robbers from merited punishment-no men advanced to high places of honour and emolument who had been deemed unworthy of the confidence of their constituents-no tax upon income, in which the means of acquiring the nature and variation of property are levelled, confounded, and swallowed up.

We therefore pray that honourable house to take all these matters into their serious consideration, and to devise such means as by the destruction of corrupt, depopulated, (L 3)

and

An act concerning the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France and their dependencies, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America, in congress assembled, That from and after the passing of this act, no British or French armed vessel shall be permitted to enter the harbours or wa ters under the jurisdiction of the United States; but every British and French armed vessel is hereby interdicted, except when they shall be forced in by distress, by the dan gers of the sea, or when charged with dispatches, or business from their government, or coming as a public packet for the conveyance of letters; in which cases, as well as in all others when they shall be permitted to enter, the commanding officer shall immediately report his vessel to the collector of the district, stating the object or causes of his entering the harbours or waters of the United States, and shall take such position therein as shall be as signed him by such collector, and shall conform himself, his vessel and crew, to such regulations respecting health, repairs, supplies, stay, intercourse, and departure, as shali be

signified to him by the said collec tor, under the authority and direc tion of the president of the United States, and not conforming thereto shall be required to depart from the United States.

Sect. 2.And be it further enacted, that all pacific intercourse with any interdicted foreign armed vessels,the officers or crew thereof, is hereby forbidden; and if any person shall afford any aid to sucharmed vessel, either in repairingher or in furnishing her,her officers or crew,with supplies of any kind or in any manner whatsoever, or if any pilot shall assist in navigating the said armed vessel contrary to this prohibition, unless for the purpose of carrying her be yond the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, the person or persons so offending shall be liable to be bound to their good behaviour, and shall moreover forfeit and pay the sum of two thousand dollars, to be recovered upon indictment or information in any court of compe tent jurisdiction; one moiety thereof to the treasury of the United States, and the other moiety to the person who shall give information and prosecute the same to effect: provided that, if the prosecution shall be by a public officer, the whole forfeiture shall accrue to the treasury of the United States.

Sect. 3. And be it further enacted, that all the penalties and forfeitures which may have been incurred under the act entitled "An act to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France and their dependencies, and for other purposes," last mentioned, and also all the penalties and forfeitures which may have been incurred under the act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbours of

the