APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



347 



as an outrage upon public feeling, 

 what security have we, unless this 

 power of imprisonment be given 

 up, that we shall not see other 

 men sent to jail for stating their 

 opinion respecting rotten bo- 

 roughs, respecting placemen and 

 pensioners sitting in the House; 

 or, in short for making any decla- 

 ration, giving any opinion, stating 

 any fact, betraying any feeling, 

 whether by writing by word of 

 mouth, or by gesture, which may 

 displease any of the gentlemen 

 assembled in St. Stephen's Cha- 

 pel ? 



" Then, again, as to the kind 

 of punishment ; why should they 

 stop at sending persons to jail ? 

 If they can send whom they please 

 to jail ; if they can keep the per- 

 son so sent, in jail as long as they 

 please ; if theycan set their prison- 

 ers free at the end of the first 

 hour, or keep them confined for 

 seven years; if, in short, their ab- 

 solute will is to have the force of 

 law, what security can you have 

 that they will stop at imprison- 

 ment ? If they have the absolute 

 power of imprisoning and releas- 

 ing, why may they not send their 

 prisoners to York jail, as well as 

 to a jaol in London ? Why not 

 confinemen in solitarycells,or load 

 them with chains and bolts ? They 

 have not gone these lengths yet ; 

 but what is there to restrain them, 

 if they are to be the sole judges of 

 the extent of their own powers, 

 and if they are to exercise those 

 powers without any control, and 

 without leaving the parties whom 

 they chose to punish, any mode of 

 appeal, any means of redress ? 



" That a power such as this 

 should exist in any country it is 

 lamentable to be obliged to be- 

 lieve;but that it should be suffered 

 to exist, aud that its existence 



should be openly and even boast- 

 fully avowed in a country whose 

 chief glory has been its free con- 

 stitution of government, is some- 

 thing too monstroustobebelieved, 

 if the proof were not before our 

 eyes. Had the least doubt hung 

 upon my mind of the illegality of 

 the proceedings in the present 

 casCjit would have been altogether 

 removed by the answers given to 

 the references made by me to the 

 great luminaries of our law, and 

 to the laws themselves. The argu- 

 ments, by which I endeavoured to 

 convince the gentlemen of the 

 House of Commons that their 

 acts, in the case of Mr. Jones, 

 were illegal, I shall now lay before 

 you, in a more full and connected 

 way than it could possibly be done 

 by the parliamentary reporters ; 

 and in doing this, I shall do all 

 that now remains in my power 

 towards the correction of this, as 

 I deem it, most enormous abuse 

 of power, and most dangerous of 

 all encroachments upon the rights 

 and liberties of Englishmen — I 

 remain, gentlemen, your most 

 obedient, humble servant, 



" Francis Buhdett." 

 " Piccadilly, March 23, 1810." 



April 6. Narrative of sir V. 

 Burdett' s co7nmitment to the Tower. 

 — At half past seven o'clock in 

 the morning, as soon as the divi- 

 sion in the House of Commons 

 was known, Mr. Jones Burdett, 

 accompanied by Mr. O'Connor, 

 who had remained all night at the 

 House of Commons, set off in a 

 post-chaise to Wimbledon, and 

 informed sir Francis Burdett oi 

 the result. Sir Francis immedi- 

 ately mounted his horse, and rode 

 to town ; the other two returned 

 in the chaise. Sir Francis found 

 a letter on his table from Mr. 

 Colman, the serjeant-at-arms, ac« 



