358 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



Commons, and injurious to the 

 honour, glory, and happiness of 

 the sovereign, and the people of 

 these realms. 



II. " Resolved, That it appears 

 to us, that the Commons House 

 of Parliament, in committing to 

 prison Mr. John Gale Jones, and 

 in breaking open the house of, and 

 also in committing to prison, one 

 of their members, Sir Francis 

 Bm-dett, bart. for alledged libels 

 upon themselves (offences which, 

 if established, were provided 

 againstby the laws of thecountr}') 

 have been at once accusers, legis- 

 lators, judges, jurors, and execu- 

 tioners in their own cause, shel- 

 tering themselves under the pre- 

 tence of privilege, and exercising 

 a partial and summary jurisdic- 

 tion, without redress or appeal. 



III. " Resolved, That the whole 

 system of British jurisprudence has 

 been thus shaken to its foundation, 

 andadiscretionary power assumed 

 over the liberties of the people, as 

 declared and establisiied by the 

 great charter, repeated and con- 

 firmed by the petition of right, and 

 the bill of rights, and recognised, 

 enforced, and illustrated, by a 



jiiultipHcity of statutes. 



IV. " Resolved, that it has been 

 idly and vainly enacted and re-en- 

 acted, ' That no freeman may be 

 taken or imprisoned, or be dis- 

 seised of his freehold or liberties, 

 or be out-lawed, or exiled, or in 

 any manner destroyed, but by the 

 lawful judgment of his peers, or 

 of the law of the land,' if the 

 House of Commons, which is it- 

 self but a single branch of the 

 legislature, do, to use the lan- 

 guage of the bill of rights against 

 the detestable tyranny of James 

 II. • by assuming and exercising 

 a power of dispensing with and 

 suspending of laws, and the exe-. 



cuting of laws without the con- 

 sent of parliament,' set itself 

 above parliament, making itself 

 greater than the whole, of which 

 it is but a part, dispensing with 

 the laws which give to all a re- 

 medy against commitments by 

 the icing himself, and thus erect- 

 ing itself into a new and mon- 

 strous executive, the more dan- 

 gerous to the lives, liberties and 

 fortunes of the subject, inas- 

 much as it claims for its rule of 

 action its own discretion, will, or 

 caprice. 



V. " Resolved, That the true 

 privilege of parliament, meaning 

 nothing more than a protective 

 right, was really designed as an 

 immunity and safeguard, to be 

 wielded as a safeguard against the 

 encroachments, usurpations, and 

 tyranny of the crown ; not to be 

 converted into an active power of 

 violating the rights of others — 

 into an instrument of arrogance, 

 and a sword of destruction against 

 the people. 



VI. " Resolved, That the cor- 

 dial thanks of this meeting be 

 given to that illustrious patriot sir 

 Francis Burdett, for liis upright 

 and independent conduct in par- 

 liament; for his truly constitu- 

 tional and irresistible argument, 

 disproving the power of the House 

 of Commons to imprison the peo- 

 ple of England ; and for his legal 

 and manlj'^ resistance to the Speak- 

 er's warrant, whereby he has 

 given a practical illustration of 

 its inefficiency, and demonstrated 

 that, as there is no legal power 

 without the legal means of execu- 

 tion, it could not be carried into 

 eftect without the aid of a stand-, 

 ing army, a violation of the an- 

 cient laws and rights of English- 

 men, and which in this instance was 

 so lamentably exemplified in the 



