APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



361 



House of Commons were as noto- 

 riously rented and bought as the 

 standings for cattle at a fair,' the 

 then honourable House treated 

 the assertion with affected indig- 

 nation, and the ministers threat- 

 ened to punish the petitioner for 

 presenting a ' scandalous and 

 libellous petition.' But we have 

 lived to see a House of Commons 

 avow the traffic, and screen those 

 accused of this breach of law and 

 right, because it has been equally 

 committed by all parties, and was 

 a practice ' as notorious as the sun 

 at noon-day.' At this vote, and 

 at these practices, we feel as ' our 

 ancestors would have felt,' and 

 cannot repress the expression of 

 ' our indignation' and disgust. 



*' Under these circumstances, 

 may we not be permitted to ask, 

 where is your justice, where your 

 dignity ? Mr. John Gale Jones 

 is confined within the walls of 

 Newgate, for an alledged offence 

 against yourselves, which, if com- 

 mitted againstanyothersubjects of 

 the realms, orevenagainsttheking 

 himself, must have been judged by 

 the established rules and laws of 

 the land I Lord Castlereagh con- 

 tinued to be a principal minister 

 of the crown, and is now a free 

 memberofyour honourable House ! 

 Sir Francis Burdett dragged by a 

 military force from the bosom of 

 his family, is committed to the 

 Tower, for exercising the right of 

 constitutional discussion, common, 

 and indeed undeniable, to you, to 

 us, to all. Mr. Spencer Perceval 

 continues a member of your ho- 

 nourable House, taking a lead in 

 your deliberations, the first mi- 

 nister of the crown, and the chief 

 adviser of the royal councils ! 



" Under the agonizing feelings 

 excited hy the late imprisonment 



of our fellow-subjects can it be 

 necessary for us to recapitulate the 

 many instances, as they appear to 

 us, of refusals to institute just and 

 necessary inquiry, to pursue to 

 condign punishment public delin- 

 quents and peculators, to eco- 

 nomize the means and resource* 

 of the state, to administer to the 

 people relief and redress for the 

 various disgraces which the na- 

 tional honour has sustained, for 

 the lavish profusion of British 

 blood and treasure, extravagantly 

 wasted in ill-contrived and fruitless ^ 

 campaigns, and more particularly 

 in the humiliatingand ignominious 

 expedition to thecoastof Holland, 

 in which the greatest armament 

 that ever left our shores was ex- 

 posed to the scorn, contempt, and 

 ridicule of the enemy ; the flower 

 of our youth wastefuUy and wan- 

 tonly left ingloriously to perish in 

 the pestilential marshes of Wal- 

 cheren, without succour, without 

 necessity, without object, with- 

 out hope ? 



" These andsimilarproceedings 

 of your honourable House require 

 no comment ; but we cannot by 

 our silence become accomplices in 

 the ruin of our country, and dare 

 not conceal from you the whole- 

 some though unpleasant truth, 

 that they appear to us to have 

 materially shaken what remained 

 of the confidence of the subjects 

 of these realms in the wisdom of 

 your honourable House. 



<« We therefore humbly, but 

 firmly, entreat you to reconsider 

 your conduct, to retrace your 

 steps, and to expunge from your 

 journals all your orders, declara- 

 tions, and resolutions, respecting 

 Mr. Gale Jones and sir Francis 

 Burdett ; and that as sir Francis 

 Burdett has not been expelled 



