§ Mr. T. Duncombesaid, he had to present a petition signed by 16,000 inhabitants of 69 Sheffield, which was agreed to at a public meeting of the inhabitants of that town. The petitioners prayed for six objects, the substance of which he would state to the House. The first was, that the House might address her Majesty, praying that she may be graciously pleased to dismiss her present Ministers, those Ministers being no more worthy of the confidence of the Crown and the people than any Ministry which had held office within the last fifty years. The second prayer was, that her Majesty might call to her councils a Ministry by which the question of universal suffrage might be made a Cabinet measure. Thirdly, that while the people were starving from want of a sufficient supply of wholesome food, hon. Members might not waste the time of the House in long and useless speeches and party questions, but should occupy themselves in endeavouring to lessen the weight of taxation, which was now too heavy to be borne. Fourthly, that all professional lawyers should be excluded from seats in Parliament, as from their professional habits they tended more to mystify than to make clear important subjects of legislation. Fifthly that as there were seventy five volumes of statutes, each volume containing some thousand pages, and as these were more than could be studied in the ordinary term of a man's life, the petitioners prayed, that instead of this immense mass, a compendium of laws should be framed, copies of which should be preserved in every court in the kingdom; so that when a citizen was charged with any offence he might know the law and the punishment attached to its infraction; and sixthly, that all the heirs and descendants of Peers should be excluded from seats in the Commons House of Parliament, as such parties were already fully represented in the House of Peers; that the Commons should be the representatives of the mass of the people who possessed a property of 90,000,000l. a year in their labour, and that they should not be treated as if they were born only to inherit penalties and poor laws.
§ Petition to lie on the Table.