Part 15

"'Our grievances are the natural effect of rash and ruinous wars, unjustly commenced and pertinaciously persisted in, when no rational object was to be obtained--of immense subsidies to foreign powers to defend their own territories, or to commit aggressions on those of their neighbours--of a delusive paper currency--of an unconstitutional and unprecedented military force in time of peace--of the unexampled and increasing magnitude of the Civil List--of the enormous sums paid for unmerited pensions and sinecures--and of a long course of the most lavish and improvident expenditure of the public money throughout every branch of the Government, all arising from the corrupt and inadequate state of the representation of the people in Parliament, whereby all constitutional controul over the servants of the Crown has been lost, and Parliaments have become subservient to the will of Ministers.

"'We cannot forbear expressing our grief and disappointment, that, notwithstanding your Royal Highness's gracious recommendation of economy at the opening of the last Session of Parliament, your Ministers should have been found opposing every proposition for lessening the national expenditure; and that they should have been able to obtain majorities to support and sanction their conduct, in defiance of your Royal Highness's recommendation and the declared sense of the nation--affording another melancholy proof of the corrupt state of the representation, in addition to those facts so often stated, and offered to be proved at the bar of the House of Commons, in a petition presented in 1793, by the Honourable Charles, now Lord Grey, whereby it appeared that the great body of the people were excluded from all share in the election of Members, and that the majority of the Honourable House were returned by the proprietors of rotten boroughs, the influence of the Treasury, and a few powerful families.

"'We can, Sir, no longer support out of our dilapidated resources, an overwhelming load of taxation; and we humbly submit to your Royal Highness, that nothing but a reformation of these abuses, and restoring to the people their just and constitutional right in the election of Members of Parliament, can afford a security against their recurrence--calm the apprehensions of the people--allay their irritated feelings, and prevent those misfortunes in which the nation must inevitably be involved, by an obstinate and infatuated adherence to the present system of corruption and extravagance.

"'We therefore humbly pray your Royal Highness to assemble Parliament as early as possible; and that you will be graciously pleased to recommend to their immediate consideration these important matters, and the adoption of measures for abolishing all useless places, pensions, and sinecures; for the reduction of our present enormous military establishment; for making every practicable reduction in the Public Expenditure, and restoring to the people their just share and weight in the Legislature.

"'Signed by order of the Court.

"'HENRY WOODTHORPE.'"

* * * * *

"'PRINCE'S ANSWER.

"'It is with strong feelings of surprise and regret, that I receive this Address and Petition of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the City of London, in Common Council assembled.

"'Deeply as I deplore the prevailing distress and difficulties of the country, I derive consolation from the persuasion, that the great body of his Majesty's subjects, notwithstanding the various attempts which have been made to irritate and mislead them, are well convinced, that the severe trials which they sustain with such exemplary patience and fortitude, are chiefly to be attributed to unavoidable causes, and I contemplate with the most cordial satisfaction the efforts of that enlightened benevolence which is so usefully and laudably exerting itself throughout the kingdom.

"'I shall resort with the utmost confidence to the TRIED wisdom of Parliament, at the time, which upon the fullest consideration, I have thought most advisable, under the present circumstances of the country; and I entertain a perfect conviction, that a firm and temperate administration of the Government, assisted and supported by the good sense, public spirit, and loyalty of the nation, will effectually counteract those proceedings, which, from whatever motives they may originate, are calculated to render TEMPORARY difficulties the means of producing PERMANENT and irreparable calamity.'

"The surprise and regret, and the broad hints that came after, have nettled the citizens a little. Whether they will shew any bottom, remains to be seen; but, as to the distress and difficulties being TEMPORARY, and as to their having arisen from UNAVOIDABLE causes, I differ with his Royal Highness, or, rather with his Ministers who advised this answer. The distress has been visibly proceeding in a regular increase of severity for more than two years; it becomes every day greater and greater; it is deep rooted; it is destroying the means of resuscitation; it is ripping up the goose and taking out the golden eggs; in suspending the operations of labour, it is cutting off the possibility of a speedy return of employment. But, what say the Correspondents of the Board of Agriculture? Not one single man of them, except a parson or two, pretends that the distress is of a temporary nature; on the contrary, 205 of them, out of 322, attribute the ruin to the weight of taxes! And, therefore, to make the distress temporary, the weight of taxes must be temporary; and this is one of the main objects of the prayer of the Citizens of London.

"Oh, no! the distress and difficulties have not arisen from unavoidable causes; for the weight of taxes might have been avoided. However, let me ask the Ministers a few questions here. I will not ask them whether it was unavoidable for the Bank to stop payment in cash in 1797; whether it was unavoidable to renew the war in 1813; whether it was unavoidable to persevere in the war with America after the war in England ceased, and, at last, to make peace without attaining any object of war; whether it was unavoidable to renew the war in 1815 for the purpose of compelling the French people to give up Napoleon and submit to the Bourbons; whether it was unavoidable to keep up an army to maintain the Bourbons on the throne of France, at a time when thousands of the Protestants of the country were butchered or burnt by those who called themselves the loyal. I will not put any of these questions to the Ministers; but with the official accounts before me, I will ask them a few questions applicable to the present moment. I ask them, then,

Was it unavoidable to keep up an army at the expense, including the Ordnance, of 26,736,067 pounds?

Was it unavoidable that the expense of the Civil List should, in last year, amount to 1,928,000 pounds?

Was it unavoidable for as to pay in the same year, on account of the deficiencies of the Civil List 584,713 pounds?

Was it unavoidable that the other additional allowances to the Royal Family, in that year, should amount to 366,660 pounds?

Was it unavoidable that the Civil List for Scotland should amount to 126,613 pounds?

Was it unavoidable to give for the relief of suffering French and Dutch Emigrants, in that year, after, the Bourbons and the 'Orange Boven' had been restored, the sum of 79,591 pounds?

Was it unavoidable to expend in that year (including) an arrear of the former year, in SECRET SERVICE Money, the sum of 153,446 pounds?

Was it unavoidable to pay last year, out of the taxes for the relief of the Poor Clergy of the Church of England, the sum of 100,000 pounds?

"I could ask them a great many more questions of a similar nature and tendency; but here are enough for the present; and, if the Citizens of London should happen to be satisfied, that all these expenses were unavoidable, all the taxes, of course, are unavoidable, and then it is clear, that the present distress and difficulty of the country are to be attributed to unavoidable causes. But, if the citizens should think, that a very large part, nine-tenths, for instance, of these expenses might have been avoided, then they will come to the opposite conclusion, and, if they be not beaten at a single blow, they will not fail to communicate that conclusion to his Royal Highness.

"As to the hint about irritating and misleading the people, the charge can apply only to the enemies of Parliamentary Reform; for we deal in soothing language, in the inspiring of hope, and in the promulgation of useful political truth, and, therefore, the charge cannot apply to us. But, when the Prince is advised to talk of the TRIED wisdom of the Parliament, he compels us to fix our eyes on those 'distresses and difficulties,' of which he is graciously pleased to speak at the same time, and which, at any rate, have grown into being under the existence of that 'TRIED wisdom.'

"I have just received from America the most authentic accounts of the happy state of the people there. English goods were selling at auction for a fourth of their prime cost; and the Americans say, that they are, in this way, getting back what they lost by our Orders in Council, under which their ships were seized and condemned. The ruin, in America, is wholly confined to the agents and merchants connected with England. The country at large is in the most flourishing state; no beggars, no paupers, no distress, and their newspapers are filled with true accounts of our distresses. Still, let us cling to the Old Ship, and let us try, in spite of all opposition, to make our own country as happy as America. But, here is another mark of our distresses not being of a temporary nature. The market of America is gone for ever as to most articles of manufacture. I shall, however, treat more fully of this another time.

"I am, with the greatest respect,

"Sir, "Your most obedient and most humble Servant,

"WM. COBBETT."

When the reader has perused this letter, he will be able to form a pretty correct opinion of the state of the public mind in the metropolis upon this occasion; and, as it was written at the time when Mr. Cobbett was divested, of prejudice, it will be read with considerable interest at this period.