THE CLAIMS OF THE PEOPLE OF
ENGLAND.
N. B.
Those Persons, who have not Leisure (in the present awful and important Crisis of public Affairs) to peruse this little Tract, may view the
Substance
of it, in an ABSTRACT, at the End of the Book.
"The Work of
RIGHTEOUSNESS" (which necessarily includes the duty of restoring to all men their RIGHTS and just Claims) "
shall be
PEACE;
and, the Effect of
RIGHTEOUSNESS,
Quietness and Assurance
for ever."
—Isaiah xxxii. 17.
—
For the Throne is established by
RIGHTEOUSNESS.
(Prov. xvi. 12.)
But —
"there is no
PEACE,
saith my God, to the
WICKED."
—Isaiah lvii. 21.
LONDON▪ PRINTED IN THE YEAR M.DCC.LXXXII.
The CLAIMS of the People of ENGLAND.
IN the beginning of the present century, (anno 1701, 12 W. III.) a sensible and loyal Writer drew up a small Tract of political information, which he intitled —
THE CLAIMS OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND
essayed in a Letter from the Country.
But, before the Tract was printed, the Author had the satisfaction to hear, that the
Claims,
he had asserted, were in many respects established by a new Act of the Parliament then sitting; which seasonable attention to the People's
Rights
he most gratefully acknowledged in a Postscript to his Letter.
The
Act of Settlement,
by virtue of which the present Royal Family succeeded to the Crown of these Realms, was the Statute, which then so happily (in the opinion of that Writer)
secured THE CLAIMS OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.
It is intitled,
An Act for the farther Limitation of the Crown, and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject;
— and accordingly contains eight very excellent Articles of
Limitation,
agreeable to
the Claims of the People of England;
which, it seems, were enacted,
with the unanimous Concurrence of both Houses of Parliament,
for the express purpose of
securing our Religion, Laws, and Liberties.
One of these Articles ordained—"That"
—
all matters and things relating to the well governing of this
Kingdom,
which are properly cognizable in the Privy Council by the Laws and Customs of this Realm, shall be transacted there, and all Resolutions taken thereupon shall be signed by such of the Privy Council as shall advise and consent to the same.
This excellent provision would effectually prevent any
secret Council,
or Faction, from becoming
efficient without Responsibility.
And by another of these Articles it was ordained —
That no person, who has an Office, or Place of profit, under the King, or receives a Pension from the Crown, shall be capable of serving as a Member of the House of Commons.
It might perhaps have been objected at that time, as well as at present, that such a
total exclusion of Placemen
would withdraw from Parliament the Council and Assistance of many worthy Men
in Office,
(or that ought to be
in Office,
) whose parliamentary Abilities are the most distinguished and eminent in the Kingdom. Yet there is and obvious answer to this objection, viz. That it is very easy for a free Parliament (if in their wisdom they shall think it proper) to permit the
great Officers of State,
or even
their Secretaries or first Clerks
to have seats in Parliament, and, as Members, not only to declare their opinions, but also, for the better information of the House, even to
debate
and
reply
upon all questions relating to public affairs; which might be allowed without any dangerous effect, provided they are duly restrained from the single privilege of VOTING. The Nation by this means may have ample benefit in the exercise of their great and shining abilities, without risque of
undue influence,
which cannot justly be attributed to mere
argument,
as that has no other weight or effect than what is fairly due to its merit; and any unreasonable
length of speech,
whenever it is used with an apparent intention to procrastinate and obstruct the intention of the Majority, may be duly restrained at the pleasure of the House. But otherwise, (i. e. without some due restriction, and, more especially,
without an absolute exclusion from the power of voting,
) a TREASURY BENCH, or any other BENCH OF PLACEMEN, in the House of Commons, is a
manifest
ABOMINATION, utterly repugnant to all just Ideas of a
free uninfluenced Parliament,
and consequently is highly derogatory to the honour of that House!
But, as the Parliament was at that time invested with the dangerous unconstitutional power of a
triennial
duration without
Reelection,
it was impossible that the
Elected
(who thereby acquired a temporary independency of the
Electors,
and, of course, too many of them, a
separate interest
of their own) could long continue
real
Representatives of the
People's Claims;
and, consequently, these two most excellent provisions against
undue influence
were unhappily repealed, a very few years afterwards, in the 4th year of Queen Anne (c. 8.) Which amply proves, that the most salutary provisions for
the Claims of the people
cannot be securely established under
triennial
or
septennial
Parliaments; and, of course, that the antient usage of
sessional
ELECTIONS is a
Claim,
of all others the most essentially necessary for our welfare.
Since the fatal repeal above mentioned, the prevalence of
undue influence
hath so rapidly and enormously increased, that the ever-loyal Citizens of London thought it their duty, in the year 1770, to bear testimony against it; and accordingly they asserted, in a public declaration to the King himself, that
"the"
(then)
House of Commons did
NOT
represent the people.
Representatives of the People are essential to the making of Laws, and there is a Time when it is morally demonstrable that Men cease to be Representatives. That Time is now arrived. THE PRESENT HOUSE OF COMMONS DO NOT REPRESENT THE PEOPLE.
—Address of the Mayor, Aldermen, &c. of the City of London, 1770.
Subsequent Facts have demonstrated the absolute necessity we are now under to
claim
and promote an
unequivocal
abolition of all
undue Influence
in Parliament.
Measures, the most
unrighteous,
as well as the most
ruinous
that could have been devised, have been adopted and carried on under a pretended sanction of
parliamentary Authority,
This must of course be understood to refer (if you please) only to
former
Parliaments that began the Mischief, whose
pretended Sanction
had more of the
Name
than the
Reality
of
parliamentary Authority,
if a
real Representation of the Commons
be at all essential to constitute a true
legal Parliament.
The Representatives are chosen by a
very small Proportion
of the People, and even that
small Proportion
of People is so monstrously
unequal
in their
power of delegation,
that the small Number of 5723 Borough Voters elect 254 Representatives, which is very near
half
the Number of Representatives that are due to six Millions of People, and
more than half,
or a
Majority,
of the Numbers that are ever known to attend at any one Time. The INJUSTICE of such an
enormous Disproportion
in the Representation of the whole People cannot be parallelled by any other gross Absurdity, except THE INIQUITY of rendering that
disproportionate Representation
still more contemptible and nugatory by SEPTENNIAL or (what were nearly as pernicious) TRIENNIAL, instead of the ancient constitutional Usage of SESSIONAL, ELECTIONS.
which have involved both King and People (whose true interests are inseparable) in the most alarming difficulties: and the ostensible Agents in the mischief have obstinately persevered to the utmost extension of
ability,
until public Disasters, and a happy preventive incapacity of their own, (their Heads and Funds being equally exhausted of council and resource,) have compelled them to make a temporary retreat; though the numerous Corps of Placemen, Pensioners, Contractors, &c. occasionally procured them a shameful Majority almost to the last!
Hence it is evident that the
Corruption of Parliament
is the real source of all our national calamities and grievances, which cannot therefore be relieved by a
mere change of Ministry.
The
Minority
in Parliament hath once before, in the memory of most men, become the
Majority;
and the worthy Opposers of bad measures were indulged with a temporary administration of public Affairs, until the secret
efficient Cabinet
could recover from the surprise and dismay of their former defeat in Parliament, and, by a renewed exertion of their
undue influence,
were able to shackle the new Administration with the rueful alternative, either to abandon their newly-acquired dignities, or else to adopt such measures as must effectually deprive them of the people's confidence; after which they were contemptuously compelled (one by one, or as it might best suit the purposes of the reigning system of
undue influence
) to yield up their places for the emolument of the more pliant creatures of the secret faction.
It would be madness for
Englishmen,
after such galling experience, to neglect their just and indispensible
Claim
to some immediate and effectual precaution against similar
delusions.
To trust another new Administration, without insisting at the same time on a constitutional
limitation of power,
by a
free uninfluenced Representation of the Commons,
may be dangerous to our very existence as an independent Kingdom!
The reduced circumstances of the Nation cannot admit the risque of another such credulous experiment!
It is therefore become absolutely necessary, for the security both of King and People, (which includes the
true interest
of all parties,) that the just
"Claims of the People"
be satisfied in an immediate Restoration of the antient
legal
and
responsible
Government, by a
Revival
of the two repealed Articles of the Act of Settlement, above recited, and by a
Revival
also of that most excellent Statute for SESSIONAL PARLIAMENTS, passed in the 4th of K. Ed. III. c. 14. declaring,
"that a Parliament"
(meaning a
newly-elected
Parliament, as the writs of those times incontestably demonstrate)
shall be holden every year once, and more often if need be.
But this indispensible
Right
and
Claim
of the People (for the Act itself is no more than an authentic
Declaration,
or
Acknowledgement,
of an antient
Right
) cannot have complete
effect
without totally repealing an
Act
of the 8th year of K. Hen. VI. (cap. vii.) which, on
false pretences,
(whereby it is rendered unworthy the title and dignity of a
Statute,
) disfranchised at once by far the greatest part of the English Nation, by robbing them of their BIRTHRIGHT,
In the Act of Settlement, by virtue of which the present King sits on the Throne, it is declared, that
the Laws of England are the Birthright of the people thereof:
and, according to an antient Maxim of the Common Law, this our
Birthright in the Laws
is to be esteemed our
most valuable inheritance,
superior to every other Denomination of PROPERTY.
Major Haereditas unicuique venit a jure et legibus quam a parentibus.
Lord Coke says it
— is
the best Birthright the subject hath; for thereby his Goods, Lands, Wife, Children, his Body, Life, Honour and Estimation, are protected from injury and wrong:
and then he cites the maxim— "
Major Haereditas, &c.
2 Inst. p. 56. An Act of Parliament, therefore, which sets up an
inferior
and mere
pecuniary property
as the object of
representation,
not only in
preference,
but to the total
exclusion
of that
superior property,
or personal Right, which ought to be esteemed the
most valuable inheritance,
or
BEST BIRTHRIGHT
the subject hath,
&c. is such a
malum in so,
such an iniquitous contempt and infringement of
Common Right,
against
Reason and Justice,
and against the express declaration of a
fundamental principle of the English Constitution,
cannot fail to render the Act
null and void in itself,
if the People will but unite in maintaining this just and legal plea against it; for which they have ample authority. See Doctor and Student, c. 10. wherein it is declared, that
Statutes cannot exist against
REASON
or the
LAW DIVINE,
—
nec contra
RATIONEM,
nec contra
LEGEM
divinam existant:
for the execrable
iniquity
abovementioned is surely
against both;
and therefore as
these two Laws
(the Law of
Reason
and the
Law of God
)
cannot abate or turn aside,
—
Hae duae Leges declinari non possunt,
(ib. c. 17.) it is manifest that the unjust Act is utterly unworthy to be named a
Statute,
and must needs be
void,
Plowden has reported a variety of cases, wherein Acts of Parliament were esteemed
void in Law
through the want of
truth
in the
recitals.
See pages 398 to 400.
(Sharp's Declaration, p. 237.) Which legal
disqualification
is obvious in the preamble to the Act in question.
as it cannot otherwise be esteemed than a mere
corruption,
(or
corruptela,
) according to the express direction of the same approved Author in his 2d ch. — viz. —
Against this Law,
(i. e. the
Law of Reason,
)
prescription,
STATUTE,
nor custom, may not prevail; and, if any be brought in against it, they be not prescriptions,
STATUTES,
nor Customs, but
CORRUPTIONS, (CORRUPTELAE,)
things
VOID
and against Justice.
— Doct. et Stud. Eng. ed. 1668, p. 5.
the inestimable
Right
of voting for Representatives in Parliament, without which they cannot properly be esteemed
Freemen,
because the
Laws,
their BIRTHRIGHT and
most valuable Property,
may be
changed, suspended,
or
entirely withdrawn from them,
without their consent; whereas, in antient times, they enjoyed not only the privilege of voting, in
plen Countie, (i. e.
the full County-court or Parliament of each County,) for the Knights of the Shire, but frequently also for the Citizens and Burgesses, elected in their respective Counties; whereby the
Equality
of
Representation
was then preserved; and may again be happily restored by some such equitable mode of transferring the representation of
depopulated
or notoriously venal Boroughs to the Decision of their respective
County courts.
Which method of
equalising Representation
deserves preference to all others, because it is not liable to the odious charge of
innovation,
but, on the contrary, is authenticated by
long-continued usage and legal Precedents of ancient times:
and the same may be said of all the other changes already recommended in this Address.
By these approved and tried means, the just
claims of the people
may be
amply,
as well as
easily,
established; and the happy effects of such a perfect Reformation would be
security
and
support
to any
virtuous
Administration: for it would prevent their just measures from being
impeded
and
clogged
by the secret machinations of any private
Cabal,
or Cabinet
Faction,
that might otherwise be
efficient
without
Responsibility;
and it would also exclude the interested opposition of needy unprincipled persons, who at present can
introduce themselves
into P—l—m—t (if they can but find credit for the purchase-money) merely for the purposes of
private interest!
a
Trade
as
dishonourable
to themselves as it is
baneful
to the Nation; for the
Representation
of many Boroughs is now commonly esteemed a mere pecuniary property, and, as such, has in many instances been either notoriously
bought and sold;
or else is holden at the absolute disposal of
single Individuals,
(Peers and other overgrown Landholders,) for the dangerous purpose of enhancing their
own personal consequence!
An
"undue Influence"
this (in whatsoever hands it is lodged) that is most detestably
disgraceful to the Nation
as well as fundamentally
derogatory to the validity of every legislative Resolution!
and, what is still more alarming, will completely
ruin
the Kingdom, if the constitutional Remedies here proposed are not speedily adopted.
London,
March
23, 1782.
A LOYAL ENGLISHMAN.
An ABSTRACT of the
Claims, &c.
and of the constitutional Means of redressing public Grievances, without
Innovation.
P. 12.
CLAIM I. THAT neither the
Privy Council,
nor any
secret Cabinet
for State Affairs, ought to be
efficient without responsibility.
P. 4. n. and p. 12.
REMEDY. Revive a repealed clause of the Act of Settlement,
"That all matters cognizable in the
PRIVY COUNCIL
shall be transacted there, &c.
P. 4 & 9.
CLAIM II. That
all undue influence of the Crown
ought to be totally excluded from Parliament, p. 6. and that a
"Treasury-bench,"
or any other
Bench of Placemen,
in the House of Commons, (unless duly restrained from the privilege of
voting,
) is an ABOMINATION! utterly repugnant to all just ideas of a
free uninfluenced
Parliament! P. 5. n.
REMEDY. Revive a repealed Clause of the Act of Settlement:
That no person, who has an office or place of profit under the King, &c. shall be capable of serving as Members of the House of Commons.
P. 4.
N.B.
The ordinary objection to this clause may be obviated, by permitting the
great Officers of State, their Secretaries, &c.
to sit, debate, and inform the House, but without privilege of
voting.
P. 4 & 5. n.
CLAIM III. That
the Laws of England
are
the
BIRTHRIGHT
of the People thereof
(p. 10, n.); yet the greater part of the People are robbed of the
Birthright
by an unconstitutional exclusion from any share in the Legislature; so that
the Laws (the most valuable Property to
EVERY MAN — "UNICUIQUE VENIT,"
&c.
p. 10.) may be changed,
suspended,
or repealed, without their assent. P. 11.
REMEDY. Repeal the Act of 8 Hen. VI. c. 7. whereby the People in general were robbed of that BIRTHRIGHT. P. 10.
CLAIM IV. That the
Representation of the People
ought to be rendered
more equal.
REMEDY. Refer the enormous disproportion of
delegating
power, now enjoyed by
venal
Boroughs, (p. 7. n.) to the decision of the
County-Courts,
according to antient Precedents. (P. 12.)
CLAIM V. Experience has demonitrate
, that neither
the most salutary provisions for our just Claims
can long subsist, (p. 6.) nor any
Changes of Ministry,
(p. 8.) be effectual to restore them, under
triennial
and
septennial
Parliaments, p. 5. so that the antient usage of renewing the Representation BY A GENERAL ELECTION EVERY SESSION is the most essential
Claim
of all others for the welfare of the Kingdom. P. 6.
REMEDY. Revive the Statute for SESSIONAL PARLIAMENTS, 4. Ed. III. c. 14. (See p. 9.)
The certain Effect of these
constitutional Remedies
will be
Security
and
Support
to a
virtuous
Administration. P. 12.
THE END.