1822.] 
that long continued war, can scarcely be pa- 
ralleled in the history of the world, and have 
no parallel] in modern annals. 
3. That the loss of lives in that war, the 
waste of the public resources, and the pro- 
fligacy with which it was conducted, can 
as littie be paralleled in the history of this 
country. 
4. That he monstrous debt incurred is op- 
pressive and destructive, palsying exertion, 
beggaring the people, and increasing the in- 
fluence of the crown to an enormous and most 
dangerous extent. 
5. That the unparalleled amount of taxes, 
caused by the boundless extravagance with 
which the war was conducted, the undue in- 
fluence necessary to the support of Ministers, 
exceeds the sum of one million of pounds ster- 
ling for every six working days in the year, or 
one hundred and eighty thousand pounds for 
every-such day in the year. 
6. That the intolerable burden of taxation, 
and the consequent misgovernment to which 
these realms have been subjected have greatly 
abridged the people’s liberties,—loaded the 
country with a standing army in time of 
peace—driven many of our fellow-subjects in 
Treland into a state of desperation—nearly 
ruined commerce—caused a rapid decay of 
trade— injured manufactures —depressed agri- 
culture—increased the poors’ rates to an 
amount nearly equal to that of the whole 
public revenue fifty years ago—reduced the 
circumstances of all the useful part of the 
community—made nearly one in seven of the 
whole population a pauper—and brought the 
greater part of the most intelligent, most in- 
dustrious, and most virtuous people in exist- 
ence to a state bordering ondespair. 
Your Petitioners are fully satisfied that 
these enormous and still-increasing evils 
would none of them have existed had the 
people been fully represented in the House of 
Commons. 
Your Petitioners alleze— 
1. That the Habeas Corpus Act, the safe- 
guard of our liberties, has been several times 
suspended for considerable periods of time. 
2. That attempts have been made against 
the lives of our fellow-subjects by constructive 
ireasons. 
3. That by recent Acts of Parliament the 
long practised and highly useful right of the 
people to meet to Petition the King, or either 
House of Parliament, has been in all cases 
greatly re.tricted, and in many totally pre- 
vented, 
4. That by the same Acts the Liberty of 
the Press has been greatly infringed upon, and 
new and unheard of punishments, even to the 
extent of banishment, have been denounced. 
5. That by the same Acts the power of 
holding to bail, and of inflicting very severe 
panishments, hasbeen given to justices of the 
peace, for what they may in their opinion, 
deem libels ; and that heavy punishments 
have been inflicted in cases in which the par- 
ties so punished bave, by a jury of their own 
country, been acquitted of all crime. 
Political Affairs in March. 
269 
Your Petitioriers believe that none of the 
causes of complaint would have existed had 
the members of the House of Commons 
been elected by the great body af the people. 
Your Petitioners allege— 
1. That the peaceable citizens have been 
attacked by soldiers 5 that numbers have been 
slain ; and that upwards of four hundred men, 
women, and children have been at one time 
wounded, or otherwise injured by such an 
attack. 
2. That notwithstanding the notoriety of 
this atrocious outrage, no public enquiry has 
been made, but that the perpetrators of the 
atrocity have been thanked by ininisters and 
otherwise rewarded. 
3. That still more recently two of our fel- 
low-subjects have been shot in the public 
streets; thatan inquest has on oath declared 
one of those shootings to be a manslaughter, 
and the other a Wilful Murder, by Life Guards- 
men, but no effort has been made by those in 
authority to bring either of the persons so ac- 
cused to Justice. 
Your Petitioners are satisfied that none of 
those atrocities would have been committed 
had the House of Commons been composed 
of members elected by the grent body of the 
people. 
Your Petitioners have no hope of relief 
from whatis called economical retrenchment ; 
they are satisfied that retrenchment to an ex- 
tent calculated to relieve the people is utterly 
incompatible with the system pursued by 
Ministers; and which must continue to be 
pursued by whomsoever the Government may 
be administered, until a thorough reform may 
be made in your Honourable House. 
Your Petitioners are well aware of the 
evils caused by a fluctuating value in the 
currency. They know it was impossible for 
Ministers to have kept their places had the 
currency been suffered to continue in a state 
of depreciation in time of peace ; and to this 
circumstance it is that your Petitioners attri- 
bate the measures taken to restore the paper 
currency to an equal value with gold. 
Your Petitioners are fully persuaded that so 
long as your Honourable House shall continue 
to be composed of members not chosen by a 
majority of the freemen of these realms, so 
long will the country be liable to all the evils 
which must ever attend a currency fluctuating 
in value; for experience forbids them even 
to hope that a House of Commons not elected 
by a majority of the people of these realms 
will ever refuse to the Minister for the time 
being the power to debase the currency 
Your Petitioners have felt and deplored the 
sufferings of all classes, caused by the mis- 
conduct they have pointed out; they deplore 
the sufferings just now more particularly in- 
flicted on those employed in raising produce 
from the earth; but they are satisfied that a 
general deterioration of the circumstances of 
every description of persons will yet further 
take place, if the system of governing hitherto 
pursued be persisted in; and they do most 
respectfully declare their conviction that the 
System 
