the only check to which it is pof- But the provident wifdom of our ancestors did not leave these sacred privileges to rest on the mere foundation of their own juftice and neceffity. They were folemnly af ferted at the revolution in the instance of petition, where they had been recently violated. The great statesmen and lawyers who framed the Declaration of Rights, when they afferted the right of the people to petition, did, by neceffary implication, alfo allert their right of affembling to confider fuch matters as might legally be the fubject of petition. The affertion of a right comprehends that of the means which are neceffary for its exercise. The restraints of the prefent ftatute, therefore, in our opinion, amount to an abrogation of the most important article in that folemn compact between the British nation and the new race of princes whom it raised to the throne. Though the other ftatute of which we complain be fpeciously intitled "An act for the fafety and prefervation of his majefty's perfon and government," we are confident that by our oppofition to it we fhall not incur the imputation of difloyalty among honourable and reafonable men. We have formed our principles of loyalty upon thofe of a parliament which had recent and ample experience of the effect of fanguinary laws; and we shall deliver the declaration in the memorable language of their record"The ftate of every king, ruler, and governor of every realm, dominion, or commonalty, ftandeth and confifteth more affured by the love and favour of the fubje&s towards their fovereign ruler or governor, than in the dread and fear of laws made with rigorous pains and extreme punishment *" Guided by this principle of our ancestors, which appears to us to be as full of truth and wisdom as of humanity, we cannot view with out alarm an attempt to remove thofe boundaries of treafon which were afcertained and established by the act of king Edward the Third; a law which has been endeared to Englishmen by the experience of four centuries; by a recollection of the peace and happiness which have ever prevailed in thofe fortu, nate periods when it was obferved; by a review of that oppreffion of innocence, and infecurity of go, vernment, which have almoft univerfally accompanied or followed every departure from its strict let ter; and by the zeal and ardour with which fo many fucceffive parliaments, after experience of the mifchiefs of fuch deviations, have recurred, as to a refuge from thefe miferies, to the fimplicity, preci 1 Mar. c. 1, fion, and humane forbearance of that venerable ftatute. Another claufe of the fame act, which authorizes the punishment of tranfportation on the fecond conviction, even for words fpoken, appears to us equally repugnant to the merciful fpirit of the law of England. By applying the punishment of felony to a mifdemeanor frequently of no very aggravated guilt, it converts what was defigned as the chaftifement of profligate and dangerous offenders into an engine by which a minifter may crush his political opponents. The infliction of cruel and unufual punishment is prohibited by the tenth claufe of the Bill of Rights; and although that claufe was undoubtedly pointed at the then recent abufe of judicial difcretion in the cafes of ftate offend. ers, yet it is founded on a prineiple which condemns the legiflátive introduction of a punishment ftill more cruel and unufual than any which is recorded even in the deteftable annals of the star-chamber. It is indeed a punishment which, in the feelings and apprehenfions of those who are likely to be the objects of the vengeance of power, is fcarce inferior to death. Had it in former times been fanctioned by the legiflature, it might have fubjected the moft illuftrious affertors of our liberties, a Locke or a Somers, to the combined miferies of banishment, imprisonment, and flavery, in a barbarous country, with a gang of outcafts and felons. Removed from the view of their fellow fubjects, their fufferings in a remote region are forgotten or unknown, and their fpirit is no longer fupported by that confo lation which they might otherwife have found in general fympathy for 3 an unjuft conviction or a crue I pu*nishment, while distance and oblivion deliver the agents of power from that dread of public obfervation and refentment, which is fo wholesome and neceffary a check on the tyrannical exercife of authority. The fame rigour, which, if practifed at home, would fpread the alarm of tyranny throughout the nation, may be inflicted in a diftant exile without odium or danger. It is the nature of this punifliment to be at once the moft fafe for those who inflict, and the moft cruel to those who fuffer it, to deprive the oppreffed of coníolation, and to deliver the oppreffor from reftraint. The authors of these statutes do, indeed, exprefsly admit that they materially reftrain the liberty of the fubject; but they contend that fuch retraints are neceffary, and that, if neceffary, they are juft. We do not affirm that general principles are never in any degree to give way to the exigency of circumftances. But we affert that the right of difcuffion and remonftrance is fo effential to the conftitution, that it cannot be controuled or restrained without a furrender of the conftitution itself. When pleas of neceffity are urged, let it never be forgotten that pleas of neceffity are the ready inftruments and common juftifications of power without right, and that the means by which nations are enflaved have ever been pretended to be neceflary to their fecurity. We never can admit that the delinquency of individuals ought to work a forfeiture of the liberties of a nation. A neceffity for new reftraints and penalties could only have arifen in the present inftance, from the inadequacy of the law, which we on our part utterly deny, -which which neither has been nor can be proved, and which the preambles of thefe acts themselves do not even Laws fuch as venture to affert. thefe we should have felt it our duty, at all times, moft ftrenuously to have oppofed. But there are many circumftances peculiar to the prefent time, which appear to us greatly to aggravate their malignity and danger. We cannot forget the fyftem of meafures of which they are a part, the difpofition from which they appear to flow, -the reasons by which they are fupported, and the confequences to which they feem intended to lead. - They originate with minifters who are making daily encroachments on the conftitution, who patronize the diffemination of opinions which tend to its fubverfion, and who have never fpared any rigour of political perfecution, to crufh that freedom of difcuffion which endangered their own power. They are attempted to be-juftified on principles fruitful in future encroachments on liberty, and by reafons which, if they were valid, would compel us to conclude that the free constitution of Great Britain is no longer compatible with its quiet, and that our only refuge from anarchy is in the establishment of defpotifm. They are introduced in the midst of a calamitous war, when the folicitude of many good men for liberty has been weakened by an artfully excited dread of confufion, and when the overgrown influence of the crown receives continual acceffions of ftrength from the burthens and diftreffes of the people. They are the measures of men, who, by an unexampled wafte of public money, have acquired unbounded means of corruption. They have been paffed into laws when a standing army, In this awful conjuncture, it appears to us to be the duty of every man who wishes to fee his country neither fubmitted to the yoke of flavery, nor expofed to the dreadful neceffity of appealing to force for the recovery of its liberties, to unite in a refpectful but firm application to the legiflature, for the deftruction of thefe alarming innovations, and the restoration of the ancient free conftitution of Great Britain. We cannot think that fuch an effort will be unfuccefsful. The ufurpations on our rights are yet yet recent and immature. The fpirit of this nation is not, as mi nifters may have too haftily fuppofed, extinct; and prudence itself will not fuffer the legislature to defpife the collective opinion of the people. They will rather, we truft, imitate the conduct of that wife parliament, whofe language we have already quoted, and, like them. declare, that "trufting his majesty's loving fubjects will, for his clemency to them fhewed, love, ferve, and obey him the more heartily and faithfully, than for dread and fear of pains of body, his majefty is contented and pleafed that the feverity of fuch like extreme. dangerous, and painful laws, fhall be abol fhed, annulled, and made fruf trate and void To obtain this happy refult, and to prepare the way for fuch an application to parliament, by petition, as may carry with it the weight and authority of the national opinion, we have invited our fellow fubjects to unite in the employment of every lawful means for procuring a repeal of thefe acts. do folemnly engage and pledge our felvet to each other and to our country, to em ploy every legal and conflitutional ef fort to obtain the epeal of two ftatutes, the one entitled "An Aft for the more effectual preventing feditious Meetings and Aemblies," the other" in A for the Safety and Prefervation of his Majefty's Perfon and Government, against Trafonable and Seditious Practices and Attempts" ftatutes which we hold to be fubverfive of the ancient and undoubted liberties of Englishmen, as claimed, demanded, and infifled upon, at the glorious Revolution in 1688, and finally declared, afferted, and confirmed, by the Bill of Rights Resolved, that the felect commit ee do take fuch steps as they fhall think neceffary to forward the objects of this affociation; and that they do from time to time advertife the fame in the public papers. (Signed) C. J. Fox, Addrefs of the City of London to hir To the King's most excellent Ma. The humble Addrefs of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the City of London, in Common Council assembled. Moft Gracious Sovereign, We your majefty's most dutiful and loyal fubjects, the lord mayor, aldermen, and commons of the city of London, in common council affembled, humbly approach the throne with our fincereft congratu lations on the fafe delivery of her 1 Mar. c. 1. royal royal highnefs the princefs of Wales, and the birth of a princess. Deeply fenfible of the true and fubftantial bleffings which we experience under your majefty's mild and paternal government, as effential to the prefervation of the religion, laws, and liberties of all your majefty's fubjects, Your faithful citizens of London muft feel themselves highly interested in an event which directly tends to fecure to Britain the fucceffion of your illuftrious race on the throne of their ancestors. Impreffed as we are with fuch fentiments of loyalty and attachment to your royal house, it will be equally our duty and delight to promote within our several spheres a grateful veneration for your majefty's facred perfon and government,-a due fubmiffion and refpect for the laws of our country, and a Itedfaft zeal to preferve the tranquillity of the empire, as the fundamental protection of the invaluable privileges we enjoy. His Majefty's Anfwer. I thank you for this dutiful and loyal addrefs, and for your congratulations on the birth of a princefs. The repeated inftances which I have received of your attachment to my perfon, family, and government, are highly fatisfactory to me. Addrefs of the City of London to her Majefty on the fame Occafion. To the Queen's most excellent Majefty. The humble Addrefs of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the City of London, in Common Council affembled. May it pleafe your Majefty, We his majefty's moft dutiful and loyal fubjects, the lord mayor, aidermen, and commons of the city of London, in common council affembled, beg leave to congratulate your majefty upon the fafe delivery of her royal highnefs the princefs of Wales, and the birth of a princefs. The citizens of London feel the moft lively fentiments of joy on every occafion which contributes to your majefty's domeftic felicity; and the facred line of fucceflion to the throne of thefe kingdoms, thus preferved, forms a very material portion of their happinefs-confcious as they are, that no advantage will be wanting to form her infant mind after the virtuous example of the illuftrious females of your majefty's royal house. That your majefty may be long fpared to witnefs the growth of thofe tranfcendant virtues, of which your majefty forms fo eminent a pattern, is the fincere prayer of the loyal citizens of London. Her Majefty's Answer. I return you my fincere thanks for your congratulations on the birth of princefs; and I cannot but be very fenfible of thofe cordial expreffions of attention to me with which they are accompanied. Copy of a Circular Letter from the Duke of Portland to the Lieutenants of Counties on the Sea Coast, dated Whitehall, November 5, 1796. MY LORD, As it would materially add to the difficulties which already oppofe themfelves to any attempts which it is poffible the enemy may be induced to make upon our coaft, if the live and dead flock of individu als |