CHRONICLE. 



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the kingdom ; and they appointed 

 a committee " to inquire after all 

 those «ho have offended against 

 tiioee rights, and accordingly ex- 

 pelled several of its members, 

 nnd petitioned his majesty to re- 

 move others from places of trust." 

 That on the29th of October, 1680, 

 the Commons voted, «' that sir F. 

 Withers, by promoting and pre- 

 senting to his majesty an address, 

 expressing an abhorrence to pe- 

 tition his majesty for the calling 

 and sitting of parliament, hath be- 

 trayed the undoubted rights of the 

 subjects of England ; and that the 

 said sir F. Withers be expelled 

 the House for this high crime." 

 That, for the exercise of the un- 

 doubted right of petitioning, the 

 city charters were seized by a quo 

 vmrrnnto ; and it was argued for 

 the city by sir George Freby, then 

 recorder, " That the constitution 

 and the law of the land had given 

 to the subject the right of peti- 

 tioning, and access to tke supreme 

 governor, to represent to him their 

 grievances, and to pray a redress of 

 them ; and that the same law gave 

 them also a right to state in their 

 petitions those facts and reasons 

 which caused iheirgrievances, pro- 

 vided those facts were true." And 

 further, " That as there was one 

 part of the constitution which gave 

 the king power to prorogue, so there 

 was another part of the constitution 

 that gave the subject an original 

 right to petition for redress of griev- 

 ances; and thaltherefore topur.ish 

 a man for shewing in his petition 

 those grievances which he desires 

 to be redressed, and the causes of 

 them, was the same thing as to de- 

 ny him the right of petitioning ; 

 •nd that such denial would infer 

 sppression r.nd the most abject 

 tJavcry ; for, wlien subjects ure 



misused and grieved, and are de- 

 nied the liberty to complain, and 

 pray the king to redress those 

 grievances, or shall be punished 

 for petitioning against them, they 

 must necessarily be abject Blaves. 

 IX. Resolved, That these argu- 

 ments having been overruled by 

 venal judges, judgment was ob- 

 tained against the city ; (he abhor- 

 rors for a time triumphed; the 

 liberties of the people, with the 

 right of petitioning, was subvert- 

 ed ; and the succeeding monarch, 

 in consequence tiiereof, driven 

 from his throne and dominions. 

 At the revolution of 1688, in the 

 bill of rights, " the undoubted 

 right of the subject to petition" 

 was, among other things, claimed, 

 demanded, and insisted upon. This 

 right has of late been again invad- 

 ed ; the people oppressed with un- 

 precedented Kfievances and cala- 

 mities, have been denied access to 

 the sovereign, their petitions have 

 been rejected by the House of 

 Commons, and their grievances 

 remain unheard and unredressed. 

 The exploded doctrine of passive 

 obedience has been revived in all 

 its extravagance; and a new race 

 of abhorrors have sprung up, who, 

 like the abhorrors m the days of 

 Charles the Second, by the foul- 

 est calumnies, by villifying and 

 traducing the petitions of the peo- 

 ple, are ( in the emphatic language 

 of the then House of Commons) 

 "betraying the liberties of thesub- 

 ject, and contributing to the de- 

 sign of subverting the ancient le- 

 gal constitution of the king." That 

 asthe corrupt participatorsin pub- 

 lic abuse, under the mask of loyal- 

 ty, subverted the liberties of tlie 

 kingdom, and involved James the 

 Second in ruin, so the corrupt and 

 unprincipled of the present day. 



