standing army, by endeavouring to vest in the crown an unlimited power over the militia, which, should they succeed, must, sooner or later, subvert the constitution, by augmenting the power of administration in proportion to their delinquency.
Repeated endeavours to diminish the importance of members of parliament individually, in order to render them more dependent on administration collectively. Even threats having been employed by ministers to suppress the freedom of debate; and the wrath of parliament denounced against measures authorized by the law of the land.
Resolutions of one branch of the legislature set up as the law of the land, being a direct usurpation of the rights of the two other branches, and therefore a manifest infringement of the constitution.
Public money shamefully squandered and unaccounted for, and all inquiry into the cause of arrears in the civil list prevented by the ministry.
Inquiry into a paymaster’s public accounts stopped in the exchequer, though the sums accounted for by that paymaster amount to above forty millions sterling.
Public loans perverted to private ministerial purposes.
Prostitution of public honours and rewards to men who can neither plead public virtue nor services.
Irreligion and immorality, so eminently discountenanced by your Majesty’s royal example, encouraged by administration, both by example and precept.
The same discretion has been extended by the same evil counsellors to your Majesty’s dominions in America, and has produced to our suffering fellow-subjects in that part of the world grievances and apprehensions similar to those which we complain of at home.
Most Gracious Sovereign,
Such are the grievances and apprehensions which have long discontented and disturbed the greatest and best part of your Majesty’s loyal subjects. Unwilling, however, to interrupt your royal repose, though ready to lay down our lives and fortunes for your Majesty’s service, and for the constitution as by law established, we have waited patiently, expecting a constitutional remedy by the means of our own representatives, but our legal and free choice having been repeatedly rejected, and the right of election now finally taken from us by the unprecedented seating of a candidate who was never chosen by the county, and who, even to become a candidate, was obliged fraudulently to vacate his seat in parliament, under the pretence of an insignificant place, invited thereto by the prior declaration of a minister, that whoever opposed our choice, though but with four votes, should be declared member for the county. We see ourselves, by this last act, deprived even of the franchises of Englishmen, reduced to the most abject state of slavery, and left without hopes or means of redress but from your Majesty or God.
Deign then, most gracious Sovereign, to listen to the prayer of the most faithful of your Majesty’s subjects; and to banish from your royal favour, trust, and confidence, for ever, those evil and pernicious counsellors who have endeavoured to alienate the affection of your Majesty’s most sincere and dutiful subjects, and whose suggestions tend to deprive your people of their dearest and most essential rights, and who have traitorously dared to depart from the spirit and letter of those laws which have secured the crown of these realms to the House of Brunswick, in which we make our most earnest prayers to God that it may continue untarnished to the latest posterity.
Signed by 1565 Freeholders.
THE CITY OF LONDON AND THE EARL OF CHATHAM ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM (1770).
Source.—Letters of Junius. London: G. Bell and Sons. 1910. Vol. i.
At a Common Council holden on the 14th of May, 1770, it was resolved: “That the grateful thanks of this court be presented to the Right Hon. William Earl of Chatham, for the zeal he has shown in support of those most valuable and sacred privileges, the right of election, and the right of petition; and for his wishes and declaration, that his endeavours shall hereafter be used that parliaments may be restored to their original purity, by shortening their duration, and introducing a more full and equal representation, an act which will render his name more honoured by posterity than the memorable successes of the glorious war he conducted.”
To this vote of thanks the Earl of Chatham made the following reply to the committee deputed to present it to his Lordship:
Gentlemen,
It is not easy for me to give expression to all I feel on the extraordinary honour done to my public conduct by the city of London; a body so highly respectable on every account, but above all, for their constant assertion of the birthrights of Englishmen in every great crisis of the constitution.
In our present unhappy situation my duty shall be, on all proper occasions, to add the zealous endeavours of an individual to those legal exertions of constitutional rights, which, to their everlasting honour, the city of London has made in defence of freedom of election and freedom of petition, and for obtaining effectual reparation to the electors of Great Britain.
As to the point among the declarations which I am understood to have made, of my wishes for the public, permit me to say there has been some misapprehension, for with all my deference to the sentiments of the city, I am bound to declare, that I cannot recommend triennial parliaments4 as a remedy against that canker of the constitution, venality in elections; but I am ready to submit my opinion to better judgment if the wish for that measure shall become prevalent in the kingdom. Purity of parliament is the corner-stone in the commonwealth; and as one obvious means towards this necessary end is to strengthen and extend the natural relation between the constituents and the elected, I have, in this view, publicly expressed my earnest wishes for a more full and equal representation by the addition of one knight of the shire in a county, as a further balance to the mercenary boroughs.
I have thrown out this idea with the just diffidence of a private man when he presumes to suggest anything new on a high matter. Animated by your approbation, I shall with better hope continue humbly to submit it to the public wisdom, as an object most deliberately to be weighed, accurately examined, and maturely digested.
Having many times, when in the service of the crown, and when retired from it, experienced, with gratitude, the favour of my fellow-citizens, I am now particularly fortunate, that, with their good liking, I can offer anything towards upholding this wisely-combined frame of mixed government against the decays of time, and the deviations incident to all human institutions; and I shall esteem my life honoured indeed, if the city of London can vouchsafe to think that my endeavours have not been wanting to maintain the national honour, to defend the colonies, and extend the commercial greatness of my country, as well as to preserve from violation the law of the land, and the essential rights of the constitution.
COMMENTS ON PARLIAMENTARY HAPPENINGS (DECEMBER, 1770).
Source.—Letters of Junius (Letter LXXXI.). London: G. Bell and Sons. 1911. Vol. ii.
For the “Public Advertiser,” December 14, 1770.
SECOND CHAPTER OF FACTS, OR MATERIALS
