Upon the 22d of January, this year, Sir John Cust refigned his office of speaker of the Houfe of Commons on account of his bad ftate fucceeded by Sir Fletcher Norton. proposed by the minifter, and the health, and was Sir Fletcher was oppofition fet up another against him; this brought the ftrength of the parties to a trial, when the miniftry carried their point in a division of near two to one. The influence of the court began now to be fo itrong, that it carried every measure wherein it was engaged. This was truly alarming to the nation, because fome points of the most unpopular, as well as of the most unreafonable nature, had been carried by that influence. The affair of the Middlefex election, and the difqualifying of Mr Wilkes, were carried on and fupported by the influence of the minifter; thefe proceedings were confidered by the greateft part of the nation, as exertions of power, intended to crufh the fpirits of the people, and to fhew them that their voice was of no confideration in the esteem of of government, and that matters would be carried on without their confent. Thofe proceedings alarmed all the friends to liberty, who confidered the blow given to the people of Middlefex, a ftroke aimed at the freedom of the whole nation. The citizens of London made fome fpirited, noble, and bold efforts to ftem the tide of minifterial infatu ation, and to stop the torrent of defpotifm, that appeared now to carry all before it. They concluded, as was natural to fuppofe, that his Majefty, if rightly informed of the ftate of the nation, and the fentiments of his people, would difmifs fuch fervants as, by their mifmanagement, had irritated the minds of his faithful fubjects, and were likely, by proceeding in the fame courfe to alienate their hearts from their just ang and lawful fovereiga, They therefore, on the 24th of June, the preceding year, prefented a petition to his Majesty, fetting forth the many heavy grievances which the nation laboured under, through the obstinate minanagement of the officers of the crown, which grievances are fpecially pointed out in the petition itself in fundry articles. Their petition, as well as that of the county of Middlefex, and many others received no answer. Upon the 14th of March, this year, they prefented an addrefs, remonftrance, and petition to his Majefty, fetting forth all the former grievances in their firft petition, with other new ar. ticles, and craved his Majefty would diffolve the parliament, as now become no longer a representation of the people, nor could be, in the fenfe of the conftitution, confidered as a legal parliament. To this addrefs and remonstrance they received a fevere anfwer. This did not hinder the intrepid citizens of London to prefent another addrefs of remonftrance and petition to the King upon the 23d of May, wherein they affert their right of petitioning, and exprefs their aftonishment at the awful cenfure paffed upon them in his Majefty's late anfwer from the throne, To this remonftrance they received much the fame anfwer as before; fhorter indeed in its fize, but equal. ly fevere in its contents. It was on this occafion that Mr Alderman Beckford, a perfon intrepid and zeal. ous for the cause of liberty, and that of the citizens of London, delivered a speech to his Majefly, which stands recorded in the journals of the court of common-council, as a perpetual memorial of his greatness of mind, integrity, and refolution. The auftere beams of majefty could not damp his fpirits, nor the fplendor of royalty in frowns, intimidate him, when the freedom and liberty of England and London feemed to be in danger. His fpeech was worthy of a great citizen to deliver, and worthy of the greatest monarch to hear. It feems to have been dictated by wifdom, and delivered with true zeal; the contents are important, the stile elegant and manly; and the whole is a master-piece in its kind. The petition and remonftrances the reader will fee in the notes, with the royal reply, and this fpeech of Mr Beckford fubjoined *. There was another addrefs and remonftrance prefented upon the 21ft of November, this To the King's most Excellent Ma jelly. The bumble Petition of the Livery of the City of London, in Common-Hall affembled. Moft gracious Sovereign, We, your Majefty's dutiful and loyal fubjects, the Livery of the City of London, with all the humility which is due from free fubjects to their lawful Sovereign, but with all the anxiety which the fenfe of the prefent oppreffions, and the juft dread of future mifchiefs produce in our minds, beg leave to lay before your Majefty fome of thofe intolerable grievances, which your people have fuffered from the evil conduct of thofe who have been entruffed with the administration of your Majefty's government, and from the fecret unremitting influence of the worft of counfellors. We should be wanting in our duty to your Majefty, as well as to ourfelves and our pofterity, fhould we forbear to represent to the throne the defperate attempts which have been, and are too fuccefsfully made, to deftroy the conftitution, to the fpirit of which we owe the relation which fubfifts be tween your Majefty and the fubjects of thefe realms, and to fubvert thofe facred laws which our anceftors have fealed with their blood. Your minifters, from corrupt year, principles, and in violation of every duty, have, by various enumerated means, invaded our invaluable and unalienable right of trial by jury. They have, with impunity, iffued general warrants, and violently seized perfons and private papers. They have rendered the laws noneffective to our fecurity, by evad ing the Habeas Corpus. They have caufed punishments, and even perpetual imprisonment to be inflicted without trial, conviction, or fentence. They have brought into difrepute the civil magiftracy, by the appointment of perfons who are, in many refpects, unqualified for that important truft, and have thereby purposely furnished a pretence for calling in the aid of a military power. They avow and endeavour to eftablish a maxim, abfolutely inconfiftent with our conftitution; "that an occafion for effectually employing a millitary force, always prefents itself, when the civil power is trifled with or infulted." And by a fatal and falfe application of this maxim, they have wantonly and wickedly facrificed the lives of many of your Majefty's innocent fubject's and have prostituted your Majefty's facred name and authority, to juftify, applaud, and re commend year, which fet forth much the fame grievances, and prayed for the fame redress; but as they contain very little new, I have paffed them over. About fix days after the refignations which have been mentioned above, the Duke of Grafton refigned his place and office of firft Lord of the Treasury, and was fucceeded by Lord North, who was already Chancellor of the Exchequer. Various reafons were affigned for his grace's refignation, though perhaps none of them the true ones: Some imputed his con sommend their own illegal and bloody actions. They have fcreened more than one murderer from punishment, and in its place have unnaturally fubftituted reward. They have eftablished numberlefs unconftitutional regulations and taxations in our colonies; they have caufed a revenue to be raised in fome of them by prerogative; they have appointed civil law jud. ges to try revenue caufes, and to Be paid from out of the condemnation money. After having infulted and defeated the law on different occafions, and by different contrivances, both at home and abroad, they have at length completed their defign, by violently wrefting from the people the laft facred right we had left, the right of election, by the unprecedented feating of a candidate, notoriously fet up and chofen only by themselves; they have thereby taken from your fubjects all hopes of parliamentary redrefs, and have Jeft us no refource, under GOD, but in your Majefty. All this they have been able to effect by corruption; by a fcandalous mifapplication and embezzlement of the public treasure, and a fhameful proftitution of public honours and employments; procuring deficiencies of the civil lift to du&t be made good without examination, and instead of punishing, confer ring honours on a pay-mafter, the public defaulter of unaccounted millions. From an unfeigned fenfe of the duty we owe to your Majefty, and to our country, we have ventured thus humbly to lay before the throne thefe great and important truths, which it has been the bufnefs of your minifters to conceal. We moft earnestly befeech your Majefty to grant us redress: it is for the purpofe of redress alone, and for fuch occafions as the prefent, that thofe great and extenfive powers are entrusted to the Crown, by the wisdom of that conftitution, which your Majefty's illuftrious family was chofen to defend, and which, we truft in GO1), it will for ever continue to fupport. To the King's molt Excellent Majesty. The humble Addrefs, Remonfrance, and Petition, of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Livery of the City of London, in CommonHall affembled. May it pleafe your Majesty, We have already in our petition dutifully reprefented to your Ma jefty, the chief injuries we have fuftained. We are unwilling to be duct, to fear of being refponsible for measures which he was not allowed to conduct according to his own judgement, and others to fome certain dif guft which they could not account for. Whatever was the caufe, both parties reproached him, and the friends of the court, though he ftill fupported their measures, complained of him for deferting them. Lord North now catched hold of the helm, where, we will find him steering the veffel of state through the greatest part of this history; with what fuccefs, the period of his political lieve that your Majefty can flight the defires of your people, or be regardless of their affliction, and deaf to their complaints. Yet their complaints remain unanfwered; their injuries are confirmed; and the only judge removeable at the pleasure of the crown, has been difmiffed from his high office, for defending in parliament, the law and the conftitution. We, therefore, venture once more to address ourfelves to your Majefty, as to the father of your people; as to him who must be both able and willing to redrefs our grievances; and we repeat our application with the greater propriety, because we fee the inftruments of our wrongs, who have carried into execution the meafures of which we complain, more particularly diftinguished by your Majefty's royal bounty and fa vour. Under the fame fecret and, malign influence, which through each fucceffive administration has defeated every good, and fuggefted every bad intention, the majority of the House of Commons have de prived your people of their deareft rights. They have done a deed more ruinous in its confequences than the levying of ship money by career Charles the firft;, or the difpenfing power affumed by James the fecond. A deed, which muft vitiate all the future proceedings of this parliament; for the acts of the legiflature itself can no more be valid without a legal House of Commons, than without a legal prince upon the throne. Reprefentatives of the people are effential to the making of laws, and there is a time when it is morally. demonftrable, that men cease to: be reprefentatives; that time is now arrived: The prefent House of Commons do not represent the people. We owe to your Majefty, an o bedience under the reftrictions of the laws for the calling and duration of parliaments; and your Majefty owes to us, that our reprefentation, free from the force of arms or corruption, fhould be preferved to us in parliament. It was for this we fuccefsfully ftruggled under James the fecond; for this we feated, and have faithfully fupported your Majesty's family on the throne; The people have been invariably uniform in their object, though the different mode of attack has called for a different defence. Under James the fecond, they complained that the fitting of par-! liament was interrupted, because it |