midons, and public opinion conducted him to the scaffold; believe me, Sif, however Ministers may urge you on, by pointing your view to the Soldiery, (heaven knows too numerous for a suffering country), reflect a little; think that the standing army of France amounted to no less a number thon 220,000 men, in time of peace, and yet that number were insufficient to protect Louis the Sixteenth from the revolutionary guillotine. The reason is self-evident-soldiers have an interest inseparable from the community of which they form a part; they have fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters, who look to them as protectors of their liberties from INTERNAL TRAITORS as well as from a foreign army and we trust a British soldier never will be found base enough to tarnish the laurels he has wreathed by his valour round the triumphant banners of his country, by treacherously attempting to subvert her liberties at home.

Independent, however, of all other considerations, there is one to which I would draw your Royal Highness's atten'tion, and one to which any individual not totally destitute of humanity or morality, must forcibly reflect upon, ere he sanctions a subversion of the charters upon which are founded the boasted liberties of Englishmen :-that Englishmen. have rights, no person will have the hardihood to deny; and amongst those rights is that of having arms for their personal security and the security of their families and property of this latter right-this acknowledged and imprescriptable right, Lord Castlereagh and his coadjutor Liverpool are attempting to deprive them, contrary to the spirit of the constitution to which they are ever boasting of their love and adherence. The people are not likely tamely to submit to a barefaced usurpation of their privileges; and woe be unto the hapless wretches, who, under covert of the night, attempt to put the Search for Arms Bill" into execution! Inevitable death must be, in numerous instances, the consequence; and whoever may be the slayer, reflect, Sir, if the crime of murder will not rest with those who enacted, and with those who sanctioned, measures calculated to bathe the fields of Albion in the blood of Albion's children. Those measures, Sir, cannot be enforced without your signature. This circumstance would, Sir, to me, be a most weighty consideration, although I do not profess to be a disciple of the superstitious dogmas of the day, which the Society for the Suppression of Vice are at such continual pains and expence to propagate and support. But there is yet another consideration which is worthy of your attention, and of which, doubtless, advantage will be taken by the

people, if you continue hostile to their interests, which it is your imperious duty to protect, even at the hazard of your life. Remember, Sir, that it is giving the people an opportunity of rebelling against your Government, and of taking the redress of their grievances into their own hands, according to the 70th Article of Magua Charta, which runs as follows:

"And whereas, for the honour of God and the amendment of our Kingdom, and for quieting the discord that has arisen between us and our barons, we have granted all the things aforesaid; willing to render them firm and lasting, we do give and grant our subjects the following security;-namely, that the barons may choose five-and-twenty barons of the Kingdom whom they think convenient, who shall take care, with all their might, to hold and observe, and cause to be observed, the peace and liberty we have granted them, and by this our present charter confirmed; so as that if we, our justicairy, our bailiffs, or any of our officers, shall in any case fail in the performance of them, towards any person; or shall break through any of these articles of peace and security, and the offence is notified to four barons, chosen out of the five-and-twenty aforesaid returned: the said four barons shall repair to us, or our justiciary, if we are out of the realm, and laying open the grievance, shall petition to have it redressed without delay; and if it is not redressed by us, or, if we should chance to be out of the realm, if it is not redressed by our justiciary within forty days, reckoning from the time it has been notified to us, or to our justiciary, if we should be out of the realm: the four barons shall lay the cause before the rest of the twenty-five barons, and the said twenty-five barons, together with the community of the whole kingdom, shall distrain and distress us all the rays possible, namely, by seizing our cattles, lands, possessions, and in any other manner they can, till the grievance is redressed according to their pleasure, saving harmless our own person and the persons of our queen and children; and when it is redressed, they shall obey us as before."

9

The 71st Article is clearly conducive of what should, in times like the present, be the duty of a Juryman, should any insulted and injured individual be brought before them, for having resisted illegal and tyrannical Acts of Parliament. It runs, Sir, as follows:

"And any person whatsoever in the kingdom may swear that he will obey the orders of the five-and-twenty baronsaforesaid, in the execution of the premises, and that he will

distress us jointly with them to the utmost of his power; and we give public and free liberty to any one that will swear to them, and never shall hinder any person from taking the

same oath."

The 72d Article makes a general insurrection for the redress of grievances compulsatory on the part of the People; and are you, Sir, prepared to crush that People by the dreadful arguments of the sword and pistol?

"As for all those of our subjeets who will not, of their own accord, swear to join the five-and-twenty Barons in distraining and distressing us, we will issue our order to make them take the same oath as aforesaid."

I would just observe, Sir, that no Parliament whatsoever has any legal authority to infringe upon any principle which is laid down in that charter. No alteration whatsoever should take place, or legally can take place, without taking the sense of every individual in the nation, who felt at all interested in its prosperity, upon the propriety of such intended alteration. A venal House of Commons may pass an Act, and your Royal Highness may sanction it; but if it be in violation of the Constitution, it is a dead letter, a mere Act of Parliament, BUT NO LAW. The People cannot consider it as such, and will obey it no longer than they can help it. If Acts are passed prohibiting Publie Meetings, the immediate consequence will be private conspiracies and combinations to adhere to the constitution, by overturning a system of coercion and oppression, contrary to its express letter and spirit, and redressing themselves by "distressing" you, Sir, in all ways possible, namely, by seizing our castles, lands, possessions, and in any other manner they can," according to the foregoing extract from Magna Charta. If things proceed to such extremities, there is yet another danger which perhaps may have some weight in your decisions respecting the Acts of Parliament at present in agitation. If once the People proceed to do themselves justice, according to the provisions of Magna Charta, in the wild enthusiasm attending the full enjoyment of their liberties, it is but too probable that, giving the reins to their indignation against their villainous oppressors, they may perhaps forget the clause granting protection to your person, and materially injure the revenue of the country, by doing that which I hope, for the sake of the country, you will by your future conduct induce them to refrain from.

I would recommend your Royal Highness carefully to peruse the speech of Lord Grosvenor, in the House of Peers, on Friday the 14th instant. With a sincere desire that

you may profit by the lesson it contains, I most respectfully

subscribe myself,

Sir,

Your Royal Highness's fellow-citizen,
J. GRIFFIN.

THE EFFECTS LIKELY TO ARISE FROM THE
SEARCH FOR ARMS BILL.”

"Now comes the tug of war."

SORRY, extremely sorry, are we to inform our Readers that the Bill authorizing search for arms at midnight, has passed through the House of Commons a third time, and will, consequently, in a short time, become an Act of Parliament, though it never can be law! Every Act of the Legislature which is in direct violation of the Constitution, and in opposition to the sentiments of the People, is illegal, and we are not bound to obey it longer than we can help it. We cannot too often press this truth upon the minds of our readers, some of whom, perhaps, may be too apt to imagine that the Parliament is supreme, and that what it enacts as law must be so considered. The idea is, on the very face of it fallacious and absurd. What! shall the deputed servants of the People usurp the Rights which it was their duty to protect inviolate, and hold in bondage those very People from whom they acknowledge their authority is derived? Shall they turn round and tell us that we deputed them to govern as they think proper, without paying any attention to the desires of those by whom they are elected? It is, alas! too true that they act thus; but it surely does not follow that we are to believe or suffer them with impunity to plunder us of every thing we hold dear. No!--the spirit of our forefathers forbids it, and the hearts of : freemen revolt at the base idea of unconditional submission.

The present Bill is absolutely revolting to humanity, and we have no doubt, but, in many cases, it will be openly and fearlessly resisted. For our own parts, we declare, that we would not, for an instant, hesitate to sh-t the first man that dared, under any pretence, to force an entrance to our houses at the dead and lonely hour of mignight. What Jury of common sense could, in such a case, convict a man of murder? What proof can the invaded Englishman have that his visitors are not robbers well skilled to act the Magistrate, the Constable, and the Watchman? and, that such will take advantage of this infernal Act of Parliament, (we will never call it law) we have not even the shadow of a

*

t

doubt. What security, then, can we have for our lives or properties, unless by firmly resisting their entrance at every hazard? Resistance in this particular, we conceive to be a public duty; and we are confident that Englishmen are too well acquainted with their rights, to suffer them to be trambled on with impunity.

There is yet another circumstance which renders this Act of Parliament still more insultingly atrocious beds are the most likely places to be chosen, above all other places, for the concealment of arms, and, therefore, at any hour of the night, BRITISH FEMALES-ENGLISHWOMEN,-the pride and glory of their country-are to be subjected to the insults of the minions of despotic authority. We can see (in fancy) at this moment, heartfelt indignation vividly flashing from the eye of the father, the brother, or the husband; we can see (in fancy) the uplifted sabre and the presented pistol, and feel but one regret, that they are levelled at the executors rather than at the authors of such. measures. We conceive that those measures are in open violation of the privileges of a British subject, and, consequently, those who are instrumental in passing them, are traitors to the rights which they have previously sworn to protect; and should be, the first opportunity, arraigned before the tribunals of their country, for HIGH TREASON against the sovereign people: we say "the first opportunity," because, every individual gifted with common sagacity, must be aware that such an attempt, however concordant with the sentiments and feelings of the people, would almost instantaneously be quashed by the unjustly acquired, yet preponderating power of the Boroughmongers.

TO THE ELECTORS OF WESTMINSTER, Assembled at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, in the Strand, on Thursday, December 16, 1819.

GENTLEMEN,

Newgate, Dec 17.

THE LETTER addressed to me by the ELECTORS. OF WESTMINSTER, assembled at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, and which Sir Francis Burdett, with the deputation from your meeting, has done me the honour to present to me in. this prison, will more than compensate for any personal inconvenience which I may sustain in consequence of the late vote of the House of Commons. In times like these, every man is called upon fearlessly to do his duty to the public; and if my conduct has met the approbation of so enlightened