APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



857 



reigns derive an immense revenue, 

 cruelly wrung from the hard hand 

 of honest labour. I do, however, 

 now entertain an ardent hope, 

 that this degraded and degrading 

 system, to which all our difficul- 

 ties, grievances and dangers are 

 owing, will at length give way to 

 the moderate but determined per- 

 severance of a whole united people. 



" Magna Charta and the old 

 law of the land will then resume 

 their empire — freedom wili revive 

 — the caterpillars of the state, coil- 

 ing themselves up in their own na- 

 turally narrow sphere, will fall off, 

 and perish — property and political 

 power, which the law never sepa- 

 rates, will be re-united — the king 

 replaced in the happy and dignified 

 station allotted him by the consti- 

 tution — the people relieved from 

 the bitterestof allcursesjthe curse 

 of Canaan — that of being the ser- 

 vants of servants ; and restored to 

 their just and indisputable rights. 



" To effect these great, impor- 

 tant, and necessary purposes, no 

 exertions of mine shall ever be 

 wanting ; — without their attain- 

 ment no efforts of mine can avail. 

 The people of England must 

 speak out ; they must do more; 

 they must act ; and if, following 

 the example of the electors of 

 Westminster, they do act in a firm 

 and legular manner, upon a con- 

 certed plan, ever keeping the law 

 and constitution in view, they must 

 finally succeed in recovering that 

 to which they are legally entitled 

 —the appointment of their own 

 guardians and trustees for the pro- 

 tection of their own liberty and 

 property. They must either do 

 this, or they must inevitably fall a 

 sacrifice to one or other of the 

 most contemptible factions that 

 ever disgraced this or any other 

 country. 



" The question is now at issue ; 

 it must now be ultimately deter« 

 mined, whether we are henceforth 

 to be slaves or be free. Hold td 

 the laws — this great country may 

 recover — forsake them, and it will 

 certainly perish. 



*' I am, gentlemen, 

 " Your most obedient humble 

 servant, 

 ** Francis Burdett." 

 *' To theElectors of Westminster." 



May 4. Further Proceedings on 

 Sir F. Burden's Affair — Meet- 

 ing of the Livery of' London. — In 

 pursuance of a requisition, signed 

 by a number of liverymen, a com- 

 mon hall was held, on this day, to 

 consider the conduct of the House 

 of Commons in the recent impri- 

 sonment of Mr. Gale Jones and 

 Sir Francis Burdett. When the re- 

 quisition had been read, the lord 

 mayor came forward, and recom- 

 mended an impartial hearing to 

 every person. Mr.Favell then pro- 

 posed the following resolutions : 



I. " Resolved, That the livery 

 of London, impressed with the 

 deepest sentiments of alarm, re- 

 gret, and indignation, at the late 

 extraordinary and unconstitutional 

 proceedingsof the House of Com- 

 mons, which, by the arrest and 

 imprisonment of two of their fel- 

 low-subjects, have, as they con- 

 ceive, superseded the laws of the 

 land, and set up in their stead, 

 under the claim of privilege, an 

 undefined, capricious, and arbi- 

 trary power — feel themselves ir- 

 resistibly called upon to express, 

 at a crisis so new, so arduous, and 

 so fatal to their rights and liber- 

 ties, their unqualified reprobation 

 of measures equally subversive of 

 the first principles of the constitu- 

 tion, derogatory to the real inter- 

 ests and dignity of the House of 



