"antient, and indubitable rights of the people of this kingdom." Lastly, these liberties were again asserted at the commencement of the present century, in the Act of Settlement, whereby the Crown was limited to his present Majesty's illustrious House; and some new provisions added, at the same fortunate æra, for better securing our religion, laws, and liberties; which the statute declares to be" the birthright of the people of England," according to the antient doctrine of the common law." Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. i. p. 127, 15th edit. In the Bill of Rights which passed in 1689, among other important articles, it is asserted as follows: "1. That the pretended power of suspending laws, or execution of laws, by regal authority, without consent of Parliament, is illegal. 2. That the pretended power of dispensing with laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority, as it hath been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal. 3. That the Commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, and all other Commissions and Courts of the like nature, are illegal and pernicious. 4. That levying of Money for or to the use of the Crown, by pretence of prerogative, without grant of Parliament, for longer time, or in any other manner, than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal. 5. That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King, and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal. 6. That the raising or keeping a Standing Army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law. 7. That the Subjects which are Protestants, may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their condition, and as allowed by law. 8. That Elections of Members of Parliament ought to be free. 9. That the freedom of Speech, and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament, ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parliament. 10. That excessive Bail ought not to be required, nor excessive Fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual Punishments inflicted. 11. That Jurors ought to be duly impannelled and returned, and Jurors which pass upon men in trials of High-treason, ought to be Freeholders. 12. That all grants and promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular Persons, before conviction, are illegal and void. 13. And that for redress of all Grievances, and for the amending, strengthening, and preserving of the Laws, Parliaments ought to be held frequently. "And they do claim, demand, and insist upon all and singular the premises, as their undoubted Rights and Liberties: and no declarations, judgments, doings, or proceedings, to the prejudice of the People in any of the said premises, ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into consequence or example. To which demand of their rights they are particularly encouraged by the Declaration of his Highness the Prince of Orange, as being the only means for obtaining a full redress and remedy therein." Great, however, as the blessings of liberty are, nothing is more evident than that they may be abused. It may not therefore be improper on the present occasion to add to the authority of Blackstone, and that of the extract given from the Bill of Rights, the first sentence that occurs in Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity. "He that goeth about to persuade a multitude, that they are not so well governed as they ought to be, shall never want attentive and favourable hearers. Sanctioned, it was presumed, by the Bill of Rights, and the various other authorities to which Blackstone has referred, some friends to the system of Reform, announced their intention to call a public meeting for purposes which are expressed in the following Advertisement, which appeared in the Manchester Observer for July 31st, 1819. "MANCHESTER PUBLIC MEETING. “The Public are respectfully informed, that a MEETING will be held here on MONDAY the 9th of AUGUST, 1819, on the Area near ST. PETER'S CHURCH, to take into consideration, the most speedy and effectual mode of obtaining Radical Reform in the Commons' House of Parliament; being fully convinced, that nothing less can remove the intolerable evils under which the People of this Country have so long groaned, and do still groan :-and also to consider the propriety of the "Unrepresented Inhabitants of Manchester" electing a Person to represent them in Parliament; and the adopting Major Cartwright's Bill. "H. HUNT, Esq. in the Chair. "Major Cartwright, Sir Charles Wolseley, Mr. Charles Pearson, Mr. Wooler, and Godfrey Higgins, Esq. have been solicited, and are expected to attend. " WILLIAM OGDEN, 26, Wood-street. JAMES BROADSHAW, 32, Newton-street. JAMES LANG, Spinning-street. JAMES RHODES, 46, Henry-street. EDWARD ROBERTS, 2, Ancot's-street. TIMOTHY BOOTH, 1, Little Pitt-street. THOMAS PLANT, 18, Oak-street. JAMES WEIR, 11, Gun-street. NATH. MASSEY, 2, School-street. "CHAIR to be taken at 12 o'clock, "Manchester, July 23, 1819. "** The Boroughreeve, Magistrates, and Constables, are requested to attend. "On the same day, after the Meeting, there will be a PUBLIC DINNER, at the Union School Rooms, George Leigh-street.— Dinner on the Table at 5 o'clock. "Tickets, 10s. 6d. each, including all expences, may be had at Mr. WROE'S, Bookseller, Market-street." Prior to the publication of the preceding advertisement, the peculiar deadness of trade, which had for some time prevailed in the manufacturing districts, particularly in Manchester and its vicinity, had involved numerous families in the deepest distress. The pressure of these severities was felt with the most acute sensibility; and as all can feel, though few only are capable of tracing existing evils to their legitimate source, the opinion became general, that nearly the whole might be ascribed to the defective representation of the country; and consequently, that if a radical reform in this branch of the legislature could be effected, the suffering people would find, in the accomplishment of this object, a mitigation of their woes, if not a complete redress of all their grievances. Actuated by this principle, and animated with these hopes, numerous women of Manchester formed themselves into a society of FEMALE REFORMERS, to aid the common cause in which the men were engaged. Pleased with the prospects of success which awaited their united endeavours, they appointed a committee to transact their business; and as their complicated sufferings were calculated to make a forcible appeal to the feelings of humanity, and to awaken a powerful sympathy in the bosoms of others, on July the 20th, 1819, they wrote the following address, which was also published in the MANCHESTER OBSERVER for July 31st, 1819. THE MANCHESTER FEMALE REFORMERS' ADDRESS TO THE Wives, Mothers, Sisters, and Daughters of the higher and middling Classes of Society. to us. "DEAR SISTERS OF THE EARTH, "IT is with a spirit of peaceful consideration and due respect that we are induced to address you, upon the causes that have compelled us to associate together in aid of our suffering children, our dying parents, and the miserable partners of our woes. Bereft, not only of that support, the calls of nature require for existence; but the balm of sweet repose hath long been a stranger Our minds are filled with horror and despair, fearful, on each returning morn, the light of heaven should present to us the corpse of some of our famished offspring, or nearest kindred, which the more kind hand of death had released from the grasp of the oppressor. The Sabbath, which is set apart by the all-wise Creator for a day of rest, we are compelled to employ in repairing the tattered garments, to cover the nakedness of our forlorn and destitute families. Every succeeding night brings with it new terrors, so that we are sick of life, and weary of a world, where poverty, wretchedness, tyranny, and injustice, have so long been permitted to reign amongst men. 66 "Dear Sisters,-We feel justified in stating, that under the oppressive system of Government that we now live, the same fate that hath overtaken us, must speedily be the lot of many of you; for it is said in the word of God, Where the carcase is, there will the eagles be also ;" and this we have proved to demonstration, that the lazy Boroughmongering Eagles of destruction have nearly picked bare the bones of those who labour.-You may then fairly anticipate, that when we are mixed with the silent dust, you will become the next victims of the voracious Borough Tyrants, who will chase you, in your turn, to misery and death, till at length, the middle and useful class of society, is swept, by their relentless hands, from the face of the creation. "From very mature and deliberate consideration, we are thoroughly convinced, that under the present system, the day is near at hand, when nothing will be found in our unhappy country but luxury, idleness, dissipation, and tyranny, on the one hand; and abject poverty, slavery, wretchedness, misery, and death, on the other. To avert these dreaded evils, it is your duty therefore to unite with us as speedily as possible; and to exert your influence with your fathers, your husbands, your sons, your relatives, and your friends, to join the Male Union for constitutionally demanding a Reform in their own House, viz. The Commons' House of Parliament; for we are now thoroughly convinced, that for want of such timely Reform, the useful class of society has been reduced to its present degraded state-and that with such a reform, the English nation would not have been stamped with the indelible disgrace, of having been engaged in the late unjust, unnecessary, and destructive war, against the liberties of France, that closed its dreadful career on the crimson plains of Waterloo; where the blood of our fellow-creatures flowed in such mighty profusion, that the fertile earth seemed to blush at the outrage offered to the choicest works of heaven; and for a space of time was glutted with the polluted draught, till the Almighty, with a frown upon the aggressors, drew a veil over the dismal scene!!! "Let us now ask the cause of this dreadful carnage? Was it to gain immortal happiness for all mankind? or, if possible," was it for a nobler purpose?" Alas, no! the simple story is this, that all this dreadful slaughter was, in cool blood, committed for the purpose of placing upon the Throne of France, contrary to the people's interest and inclination, the present contemptible Louis, a man who had been living for years in this country in idleness, and wandering from one corner of the island to the other in cowardly and vagabond slothfulness and contempt.-Let it be remembered at the same time, that this war, to reinstate this man, has tended to raise landed property threefold above its value, and to load our beloved country with such an insurmountable burden of Taxation, that is too intolerable to endure longer; it has nearly annihilated our once flourishing trade and commerce, and is now driving our merchants and manufacturers to poverty and degradation. "We call upon you therefore to join us with heart and hand, to exterminate tyranny and foul oppression from the face of our native country. It affords us pleasure to inform you, that numbers of your ranks have voluntarily mixed with us, who are fully determined, in defiance of the threats of the Boroughmongers, to aid us in our just and constitutional career. Our enemies are resolved upon destroying the last vestige of the natural Rights of Man, and we are determined to establish it; for as well might they attempt to arrest the sun in the region of space, or stop the diurnal motion of the earth, as to impede the rapid progress of the enlightened friends to Liberty and Truth. The beam of angelic light that hath gone forth through the globe hath at length reached unto Man, and we are proud to say that the Female Reformers of Manchester have also caught its benign and heavenly influence; it is not possible therefore for us to submit to bear the ponderous weight of our chains any longer, but to use our endeavour to tear them asunder, and dash them in the face of our remorseless oppressors. you "We can no longer bear to see numbers of our parents immured in workhouses-our fathers separated from our mothers, in direct contradiction to the laws of God and the laws of man; our sons degraded below human nature, our husbands and little ones clothed in rags, and pining on the face of the earth!-Dear Sisters, how could bear to see the infant at the breast, drawing from you the remnant of your last blood, instead of the nourishment which 'nature requires; the only subsistence for yourselves being a draught of cold water? It would be criminal in us to disguise any longer the dreadful truth; for, in the midst of all these privations, if we were to hold our peace, the very trees of the forest, and stones of the valley, would justly cry out!!! "These are a few of the consequences resulting from the mad career of the Boroughmongers' war, to say nothing of the thousands and tens of thousands that have been slain !-the widows and orphans that have been left destitute and unprotected. The hyprocrital hireling will blasphemeously tell you that these things are of divine ordinance; but in vain does he publish this to reason and common sense-the great Author of nature makes no distinction of persons-the rich and the poor are all alike to him; and surely the forked lightning, the awful thunder, the terrible earthquakes, and the howling and flaming volcanoes, are sufficient to chastise the most obdurate, without man becoming the oppressor of man. We close the disgusting scene; for language would infinitely fall short in painting the portrait of our woes in all their horrible deformities. In conclusion, we earnestly entreat you to come forward-posterity will bless the names they see enrolled under the banners of 6 |