Sir Francis Burdenpresented a Petition of the inhabitant householders, electors of the City and liberty of Westminster, assembled in New Palace Yard, the 9th day of February 1810, by the appointment of Arthur Morris, Esq. the high bailiff, in consequence of a requisition for that purpose, signed by several inhabitant householders, was presented to the House, and read; setting forth, "That in a Petition presented to the House, by Charles Grey, esq. (now earl Grey), on Monday the 6th day of May 1793, and which Petition was entered on the Journals of the House, it was averred and offered to be proved, "That the House of Commons did not fully and fairly repre- 364 sent the people of England;" "That the elective franchise was so partially and unequally distributed that a majority of the House was elected by less than a two hundredth part of the male population." "That the right of voting was regulated by no uniform or rational principle." "That Rutland" the smallest, and "Yorkshire" the largest County, "returned the same number of representatives." "That Cornwall," which by the census taken by order of parliament appears to contain a population of 188, 269, "returns as many members to the House as the counties of York, Rutland, and Middlesex," which by the same census, contains 1,693,377." "And that Cornwall and Wiltshire," containing 373,376 persons, "sent more Borough members to parliament than Yorkshire, Lancashire, Warwickshire, Middlesex, Worcestershire, and Somersetshire united" which contain 2,971,025. "That 70 of the members are returned by 35 places where the elections are notoriously mere matters of form." "That in addition to the 70 so chosen, 90 more of the members are elected by 46 places, in none of which the number of electors exceed fifty." "That in addition to the 160 so elected, 37 more of the members are elected by 19 places, in none of which the number of electors exceed 100." "That in addition to the 197 members so elected, 52 more are returned by 26 places, in none of which the number of voters exceed two hundred." "That in addition to the 249 so elected, 20 more are returned for counties in Scotland by less than 100 electors each; and 10 for counties in Scotland by less than 250 each." "That in addition to the 279 so elected, 13 districts of Burghs in Scotland not containing 100 voters each, and 2 districts of Burghs, not containing 125 each, return 15 more of the members." "That in this manner 294 of the members are chosen, which being a decided majority of the entire House of Commons, are entitled to decide all questions in the name of the whole people of Great Britain." "That 84 individuals do, by their own immediate authority, send 157 of the members to parliament." "That in addition to these 157 members, 150 more, making in the whole 307, are returned to the House, not by the collective voice of those whom they appear to represent, but by the recommendation of 70 powerful individuals, added to the 81 before-men- 365 tioned, and making the total number of patrons altogether only 154, who return a decided majority of the House." "That no less than 150 of the honourable members owe their election entirely to the interference of peers; and that 40 peers, in defiance of the resolutions of the House, have possessed themselves of so many burgage tenures, and obtained such an absolute and uncoutrouled command in very many small boroughs in the kingdom, as to be enabled by their own positive authority to return eighty-one of the honourable members." "That seats in the House are sought for at a most extravagant and increasing rate of expence." "That the means taken by the candidates to obtain, and by electors to bestow, the honour of a seat in the House, evidently appear to have been increasing in a progressive degree of fraud and corruption." And the petitioners are of opinion, that if the representation of the people in the House had not been very defective and unequal, they should not now have to complain of the sad effects produced by several unfortunate and destructive wars, or of the immense debt and taxes with which the country is burthened. They lament that the House have not thought fit to take the petition containing the above allegations into their serious consideration; the more so, as since the time it was entered on the Journals of the House the above causes cannot but have increased the number of corrupt persons who barter for seats; and it is with grief we state, that when a direct and distinct charge was made in the House on the 11th day of May last, against lord Castlereagh and Mr. Perceval, members thereof, and who at the same time were two of his Majesty's ministers, of having sold a seat therein, that the House refused to institute any inquiry; the petitioners are therefore compelled to conclude, that the only alternative which is left to the country is a radical Reform in the representation, or a final extinction of its liberties. And that they cannot conceal from the House, their apprehensions that the prayer of this their petition will not be attended to, until it be too late, but the petitioners will in any event have the satisfaction arising from a concientious discharge of the duty they owe their country. And that the petitioners most earnestly request that the House will, at an early day cause inquiry to be made into the present defective state of the representation, and 366 adopt such other means as shall prevent the choice of representatives from being committed to select bodies of men of such limited numbers as render them an easy pray to the artful, or a ready purchase to the wealthy. To shorten the duration of parliaments; and, by removing the causes of that confusion, litigation, and expence with which they are at this day conducted, to render frequent and new elections, what our ancestors at the revolution asserted them to be, the means of a happy union between the king and the people." Ordered to lie upon the table.