HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



107 



•tr Francis Burdetthad written to 

 the Speaker was a high aggrava- 

 tion of his ofFence : but it appear- 

 ing, from the report of the Ser- 

 jeant, that the warrants for his 

 commitment to the Tower had 

 been executed, this House did not 

 think it necessary to proceed any 

 farther on the said letter." 



A long conversation ensued, in 

 the course of which, the gross im- 

 propriety of sir Francis Burdett's 

 letter to the Speaker was admitted 

 by all, though the whole of his 

 conduct, in provoking a contest 

 with the House, was animadverted 

 on with much less severity by 

 6ome of the speakers than by 

 others; and, by sir Samuel Ro- 

 milly, even defended. Sir Samuel 

 ■contended that, according to his 

 Eentiments, there was no original 

 ofFence. The letter to the Speaker 

 could not, properly speaking, be 

 called an aggravation. 



Captain Parker, in a tone of 

 great indignation, said, that the 

 learned gentleman endeavoured to 

 aid, by his counsels, the efforts of 

 the honourable baronet, to exalt in 

 the country a standard of seditious 

 tumult. But being called to order, 

 by Mr. Ponsonby, he readily ac- 

 knowledged the impropriety into 

 which he had been hurried, and 

 made an apology, both to sir Sa- 

 muel Komilly, and to the House. 

 He could not, however, help ex- 

 pressing his wish that the House 

 would adopt the proper course at 

 once, and expel sir Francis Bur- 

 dett. Theobjectionto that seemed 

 ■ to be, that sir Francis would be 

 returned again. But he was satis- 

 fied, that when once the electors 

 of Westminster knew all the par- 

 ticulars of his late conduct, they 

 would never return him to repre- 



sent them again in that House. 

 Neither was Mr. Beresford afraiid 

 that the electors of Westminster 

 would re-elect that sanguinary 

 man. He would use no other 

 terra, because, if he was not 

 sanguinary, he might have main- 

 tained his principles, without ha- 

 zarding the effusion of blood. — 

 Amongst the various grounds of 

 complaint which Mr. Lyttleton 

 had against the honourable baro- 

 net, he could not pass over his 

 implied promise to the Serjeant 

 at Arms to accompany him to the 

 Tower. He had lived on terms of 

 friendship with that honourable 

 baronet. But this was an act so 

 wholly unworthy of him, that h6 

 must for ever abjure him, either 

 as a private or a political friend. 

 Another ground of complaint, on 

 his part, against sir Francis, was, 

 that from the first to the last mo- 

 ment of his obstinate and uncon- 

 stitutional resistance, he had been 

 attended in his house by the bro- 

 ther of a notorious and avowed 

 traitor. He did not mean, by any 

 means to say, that Mr. Roger 

 O'Connor was a traitor. But if, 

 what was impossible, he had been 

 in the situation of sir Francis Bur- 

 dett, heshould not have associated 

 with any man liable to even a sha- 

 dow of suspicion. He should not 

 have been attended by ihe brother 

 of Arthur O'Connor, that vile 

 traitor, who employed himself in 

 writing in a paper, published in 

 the English language, at Paris, the 

 most foul, false, and scandalous 

 libels upon the English govern- 

 ment and nation : a paper printed 

 in the English language, no doubt 

 with a view to be circulated for 

 the dissemination of his sedition 

 and treasons in these realms. Was 



