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PROSPECTUS OF THE METROPOLITAN…

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PROSPECTUS OF THE METROPOLITAN PARLIAMENTARY RE- FORM ASSOCIATION. THIS Assodation proposes nothing new, nor any JL thing which has not leceived the sanction of, and been supported by, many of the best and wisest men of the last century. This Address is made to the men of the present day, in the hope that the plan of Reform proposed by the Association, will be adopted and car- ried on steadily, until, in due time, its objects shall be peaceably, but fully accomplished. The first attempt, free from all party bias, to induce the people to concur in efforts to obtain a radical reform of the Commons House of Parliament, was made by the late Major John Cartwright in the year 1776, in a pamphlet en- titled "Take your Choice," which he greatly enlarged and re-published in 1777, heading the title page-" Le- gislative Rights." Speaking of the composition of the then House of Commons, the Major says:—"Whether, indeed, the House of Commons be in a great measure filled with idle scliool-boys, insignificant coxcombs, led-captains, and toad-eaters, profligates, gamblers, bankrupts, beggars, contractors, commissaries, public plunderers, ministerial dependents, hirelings, and wretches that would sell their country, or deny their liod for a guinea, let every one judge for himself. And whether the kind of business very often brought before the House, and the usual manner of conducting it, do not bespeak this to be the case ? I likewise leave every man to form his own opinion." Speaking of the Election of Members, he says All men will "Rnt that the lower House of Parliament is elected ?,, ?' a handful of the commons instead 0/ ?e whole, and th:, ?hieBy by means of bribery and undue in- nuence,. ? ,?n who will employ such means are vil- iiuence. i* f h men is founded on iniquity; lains; anasse. fountain of legislation is amd, censeq?. ? the corrupt proceedings of the I tng r0ilis ,?s been, more or less, the diou,%e, lie qays, "?cat ever since we have had condition of rou ever Since We have !Iad iiou? "???.. AVe ? ?? :sme corrupt, or sm- tong Parhaments. • 11, 4, administration politic proceedings gOlOg on In ?"% ?.?mi"n'?i?trAt?ion of a Harley, a Walpole, a I'??.a?te  and a North; and we see every P?"-I?"'??S?e m1115ters we ooeying tne oraers 01 ministers. oonit. see more, some less, criminal; some parliaments. some less, slavish; but we see all ministers, and all parliaments, guilty; inexcusably guilty, in sunereing the continual and increasing prevalency of corruption from ministry to ministry." Whether or not the words of the honest patriot be applicable to the House -of Commons in 1842, we also leave every man to form 'his own opinion. The efforts made by the Major at that time were not lost; his opinions were adopted and acted upon several noblemen, and many gentle- men, headed by the Reverend Christopher VVyvill, held meetings in various English counties, and ap- pointed delegates, who met in convention, from time to time, at the Thatched House Tavern, and at the St. Alban's Coffee House, in St. James's. At the com- mencement of the year 1780, just sixty-two years ago, a great public Meeting of the Inhabitants of the City and Liberty of Westminster was held, for the purpose of promoting a Reform in the House of Commons, and at this meeting a general committee, consisting of a large number of persons, was elected; this committee met, and appointed a sub-committee, which, in the month of April, made a report to the general com- mittee, in which they recominended:- 1. Annual Par- liaments; 2. Universal Suffrage; 3. Voting by Bal- lot 4. Equal Polling Districts 5. No Money Quali- fication of Members; 6. Payment of Members for their Attendance. For each of these six propositions the committee gave satisfactory reasons. The report was adopted, was printed in very large numbers, and co- pies sent to every political body in the kingdom, and to very many private individuals. In the same month, the" SOCIETY FOR CONSTITUTIONAL INFORMATION" was established in London; and at the head of this society was the Duke of Richmond, President; sup- ported by the Earl of Derby, the Earl ofeffingbam, the Earl of Surrey, the Earl of Selkirk, Viscount Mount- morres, and Lord Kinnaird; by eleven members of the House of Commons, all of whom were well known and popular; by a considerable number of gentlemen, many of whom were eminent in various professions; and by many who afterwards became conspicuous for their great talents and eminent services. The num- ber of members was 166. This society adopted the "report of the sub-committee of Westminster," re- printed it in great numbers, and distributed it to the utmost extent in their power. The report, in some cases, with an extension of the duration of Parliaments, was also adopted by several associated bodies of Ile- formers, and by them distributed. At this time there was no political public, and the active friends of Par- liamentary Reform consisted of noblemen, gentlemen, and a few tradesmen. Neither these societies nor the other political bodies at: that period had any continuous existence; they met occasionally, talked over the con- cerns of the moment, ordered a tract to be printed or an advertisement to be inserted in the newspapers. Their proceedings were neither adapted for, nor were they addressed to, the working people, who, at that time, would not have attended to them. Efforts to procure a reform in the House of Commons were made in many places. The number of public meetings and of petitions to the House of Commons increased con- tinually, when the coalition of l.ord North and Charles James Fox, in the spring of 1783, caused an opinion to be generally entertained that no faith could he reposed in public men, and suspended all active proceedings in favour of parliamentary Reform; which lingered on, and were, at length, nearly extinguished. In this state of things, in November, 1792, the London Corres- ponding Society was founded. This was the first attempt ever made to induce the working people to interfere in political matters, which, it had ever been contended, they were incompetent to understand. Hitherto, they had never interfered in any political concern, but as supporters of some party or person; and then only as mobs, or as tools, when they were ill- used, or sacrificed to party interest. The London Cor- responding Society was established on a plan for doing business: it soon extended, and was formed into small portions, called divisions every division met once a week at a time certain, and as much oftener as it pleased. Each division had a secretary, and other officers, to form a general committee, which met once a week. This committee was the legislative body. The divisions also elected five members, who formed the executive committee, which made a weekly report of its proceedings to the general committee. Each division elected a secretary, an assistant secretary, and a treasurer. The secretaries and treasurer were bound to attend the general committee. In its arrange- ments for business and in some other particulars, the society differed from all others which preceded it, as it did from all which succeeded it, excepting some few of the political unions during the time the Reform Bills were before Parliament in 1831-2. The men who originated and those who conducted the london Cor- responding Society, did not expect to carry any reform for a number of years; their first business was to form a political public of the middling and smaller trades- men, and others whose circumstances were similar, and of the working people. This could only be done by giving them such political information as should induce them to detach themselves from the control of political adventurers, and enable them to see their own welfare and the prosperity of their country in a House of Commons, as independent of the aristocracy as it could be made. They, therefore, con- fined their agitation to the two points only, which, under their circumstances, were the most easily un- derstood, and the most likely to be adopted, namely: 1. Universal Suffrage; and, 2. Annual Parliaments. In 1793, the Society sent two of its members as dele- gates to a convention held at Edinburgh, where one had previously met; several of the delegates, including the two from the Society, were seized, tried on charges of sedition, and transported for fourteen years. That atrocious stretch of power terminating so favourably to the government, induced them to expect that Lon- don juries would follow the example set by the Scotch courts; and, making too sure of their victims, they. on the 12th May, 1794, seized eleven men, nearly all of whom were members of the London Corresponding Society, and caused these men, of unexceptionable conduct in life, to be indicted for high treason. Three of them were tried at the Old Bailey, and acquitted; and the remainder were discharged from the close confinement to which they had been subjected during seven months. This was a ureat mortification to ministers, and compelled them to abandon their list of proscriptions, of the existence of which no doubt has been entertained, and, with it, their project for fur- ther abridging the freedom of the people. Disap- pointed and vexed beyond endurance, the bad 00- vernnient, at the head of which were Pitt, Grenville, and Dundas, commenced the session in the autumn of 1795 by the introduction of two bills, one in the Lords by Lord Grenville, enacting new-fangled treasons" —the other in the Commons, by Mr. Pitt, enacting new seditions, and both for the purpose of coercing the people to the greatest possible extent. Pitt's Bill limited the number of persons who should be permit- ted to meet for any political purpose to fifty, and thus to extinguish the London Corresponding Society; but ministers were again to be disappointed the Society altered its arrangements, and conformed to the law rapidly increased its numbers and its importance, and was gradually forming a political public. This could not be borne, and, therefore, in 1798, ministers again exerted a vigour beyond the law they caused a very large number of persons to be seized, and con- fined them in various prisons; they suspended the Ifafoas Corpus act, and these persons, against mliom no offence could be alleged, were detained in prison nearly three years they were then discharged, with- out trial or public inquiry. A bill was laid before Par- liament, to put down political societies, and, with the same indecent haste with which the bill to suspend the Habeas Corpus act had been passed, the two Houses of Parliament passed this bill, naming the London Corresponding Society as the society to be especially extinguished. All the stringent enactments of that bad law were re-enacted, and others still more stringent added, by Lord Castlereagh's Act of 1817. These acts do not, however, forbid the existence of associations The matter has been stated at some length, as it was against this organization that the Acts of I/Jo, l/l'rf, and 1M17, were especially directed. for procuring a reform of the House of Commons and this Society will conform to the Pitt and c.;astlereagh laws, bad as they are, and disgraceful to the nation as is their continuance in the Statute Book. From the commencement of the London Corresponding Society to the present time, there has been a steady increase of political knowledge among all ranks of people. The lessons so carefully and wisely taught by the London Corresponding Society, have been well learned by vast numbers of people; and, notwithstanding the Lite irregularities of bodies of men whose information is still imperfect, the strong conviction that the future prosperity of the people must depend upon their having a House of Commons, fairly elected by the whole body of the people, has continually increased, and is increasing. It was expected that the Reform Bill, brought into Parliament in 1831, would put an end to the corruptions of the House ot Commons but in the progress of the bill through the House, clauses were inserted in it, which, together with the small number of electors in very many of the boroughs, made the elections of members mere matters of in- fluenec and money; and the House of Commons is now as corrupt as when it was in the power of the borough- mongers before the Reform Bill was passed in 1832. The unjust laws which the corrupt House of Com mons have suffered to remain, have prevented the im- provement of agriculture, limited trade, commerce, and manufactures, and, consequently, reduced the employment of the people and the real amount of their wages; they have destroyed the small comforts of millions, deprived hundreds of thousands of a portion of their food, the forerunner of disease and death, and compelled them to believe that no remedy for any of these evils can be found but in a House of Commons elected by the whole people. The extent of informa- tion amongst the people appears to warrant the con- clusion that the time has come when Associations, to procure a thorough Reform of the House of Commo is, may be formed, without reference to classes or parties, and free from any particular denomination, excepting that of Parliamentary Reformers. That such asso- ciations may be expected to be very numerous, and be composed of every rational man, who wishes for good government, to promote and sustain the well-being of the people. A plan, which, while it can give no offence to any person who really believes that a House of Commons truly representing the people is necessary to their welfare, has been adopted by several public men, and others an Association has been commenced, the b°°d work will be carefully, honestly, and vigorously parried oil. Ibe Plan of the Society is as follows:— METROPOLITAN PARLTAmC>tTARY REFOltti ASSOCIATION. Objects :-1. To obtain for each man of twenty-onis i years of age the right of voting for a representative to serve in the Commons House of Parliament. To se- cure to each man this important right, it is necessary —That every man, whether he be the occupier of a whole house, or a lodger in some part of a house, who has been rated to any parliamentary, county, munici- pal, or parish rate for six months, shall be rated to an election rate, and be put upon the voting register, for the polling district :n which he resides: and every such person, so qualified, shall receive his voting card, en- titling him to vote at all elections within that district. That every man, whether he be the occupier of a whole house, or a lodger in some part of a house, or a servant or inmate, not being rated as above directed, shall have the right to cause himself to be rated to the election rate; and when he has been rated for six months, lie shall be put upon the voting register for the polling district in which he resides, and every such person so qualified, shall receive his voting card, entitling him to vote at all elections within that dis- triet-t 2. That the country be divided into as many polling districts, as there may he representatives in the House of Commons. 3. That the duration of Par- liaments may be shorter, but shall be not longer than three years. 4. That every Elector shall be eligible to be elected. 5. That the Right of voting for a repre- sentative shall be exercised secretly by ballot. 6. That each representative of the people shall he paid for his services. For the purpose of carrying this plan into effect generally, it is necessary that a sufficient amount of money be raised, to enable the Association to take rooms in an eligible situation for offices. To employ a well-qualified man to act as Secretary. To employ as many assistants as may be necessary to carry on the business with precision, punctuality, and energy. To correspond with as many individuals in every part of the country for the purposes of the society, and for the promotion of other similar societies in as many places as possible. To devise and carry into effect a plan, by which a weekly account of tbe proceedings of every such society may be published, and thus to make the proceedings of all known to all, without in any way breaking the obnoxious laws which limit the inter- course of reformers in different parts of the country. It is believed that the time has arrived when this comprehensive plan of Parliamentary Reform will be acceptable to very large numbers of persons in every part of the country, and that it will be eminently suc- cessful. One great advantage of the plan, is its easy adaptation to every man's means, inasmuch as the rate of subscription of each particular society, to support its necessary expenses, may be made to conform to the particular circumstances of the Members and of the locality. No expense can be incurred in any society, unless it originates within the particular Association, and at the will of the Members thereof. By Order of the Committee, P. A. TAYLOR. Chairman, J. ROBERTS BLACK, Secretary. Office, 9, John-street, Adelphi, 1842. t No more money to be raised by the election rate than may be found necessary to defray the legal charges of returning a repre- sentative to parliament for the particular election district.

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