PREFACE. 



Though there was nothing of extraordinary interest 

 or importance among the subjects brought under the 

 consideration of the British Parhament this year, our 

 accounts of its proceedings have run to an unusual, and, 

 we fear it may be justly thought, an excessive length. 

 The expedition to Walcheren was a dull and irksome 

 topic ; and the result of the tedious inquiries and dis- 

 cussions to which this gave birth, unsatisfactory and 

 vexatious. But, in the course of proceedings on this 

 subject, a question arose relative to the privileges of the 

 House of Commons, and the liberty of the press, parti- 

 cularly that of reporting parliamentary debates : and this 

 again to a train of incidents, which it seemed natural to 

 notice in connection with the cause from whence they 

 sprung : and that question, with the consequent commo- 

 tions, in the cities of London and Westminster, and the 

 vicinity, excited by Sir Francis Burdett, forms the most 

 distinguishing feature in the parliamentary history of 

 1810. 



It may also be necessary to offer an apology for the 

 order observed in our narrative of all these occurrences, 

 not interrupted by many intervening subjects of atten- 

 tion and discussion in Parliament, from first to last : 

 from the first of February, when the hon. Mr. Yorke 

 gave notice of his motion for enforcing the standing order 



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