92 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



motion, which was not by any 

 means to rescind the order to 

 which it referred, but to have it 

 ascertained by a comnjittee of 

 privileges, whether any, or what 

 modification of it was necessary. 



The Chancellor of the Exche- 

 quer entirely concurred in most of 

 what had fallen from Mr. Wind- 

 ham, though he was not prepared 

 to carry his concurrence to the full 

 extent of that right honourable 

 gentleman's opinion. But he 

 thought it necessary, for the dig- 

 nity of the House, to maintain 

 the privilege that any member has 

 to call for the clearing of the 

 gallery without argument. 



On a division of the House 

 there appeared 



For Mr. Sheridan's motion 80. 

 Against it 166. 



There is in human nature a very 

 strong and active principle of imi- 

 tation. It appears in earliest child- 

 hood, and has the happy effect of 

 exciting and strengthening the 

 powers of both body and mind. 

 In sea-port towns children amuse 

 themselves with the construction 

 of ships with paper or pasteboard : 

 in military stations with drums and 

 wooden arms, and wheeling like 

 soldiers. At every period of life 

 mankind have a strong propensity 

 to imitate their superiors. In the 

 metropolis, the seat of the govern- 

 ment, the middling and lower 

 classes ape the proceedings and 

 debates in parliament, from much 

 the same principle that the boys 

 play the parts of soldiers and sail- 

 ors. In every ale-house club, they 



dispute on all political, and some- 

 times other subjects, and are en- 

 gaged in forming resolutions, mak- 

 ing motions, seconding motions, 

 and supporting or opposing mo- 

 tions. Debating societies are in- 

 stituted, meeting twice a week, 

 where any one, of either sex, is ad- 

 mitted, and may have an opportu- 

 nity of displaying his oratorical 

 powers, oradmiringthose of others, 

 at the small expenseof oneshilling. 

 This became a kind of trade or bu- 

 siness. The president, or manager, 

 paid for the room andcandles; what 

 remained of the admission money, 

 after defraying this expense, went 

 into his own pocket. Among these 

 heteroclitical assemblies, was one 

 which assumed the pompous title 

 of the British Forum. The presi- 

 dent was called John Gale Jones.* 

 The vote for enforcing the stand- 

 ing order for the exclusion of stran- 

 gers, and what passed on that oc- 

 casion in the House of Commons, 

 was made the subject of discussion 

 in the British Forum. The fol- 

 lowing placard was every where 

 stuck upon the walls of the metro- 

 polis, " Windham and Yorke, 

 British Forum, 33 Bedford-street, 

 Covent Garden. Mondaj', Febru- 

 ary 19, 1810. Question. 'Which 

 was a greater outrage on the pub- 

 lic feeling, Mr. Yorke's enforce- 

 ment of the standing order to ex- 

 clude strangers from the House of 

 Commons, or Mr. Windham's re- 

 cent attack on the liberty of the 

 press V Last Monday, after an 

 interesting discussion, it was una- 

 nimously decided, tliat the en- 



* This, wc understand, is the same Jones, the apothecary, that was wont, it may 

 be recollected, to ma^ie a great figure among the field demagogues, and the mem- 

 bers of the Corresponding Societies, from 1791 to 1794 : for an account of which see 

 Vol. XXXVI. of this Work (1794), p. 266. 



