§ Mr. Westerne presented a Petition from the freeholders and inhabitant householders of the county of Essex, setting forth,
§ "That the petitioners, impelled by a strong sense of the duty they owe to themselves and to their country, at this eventful and unprecedented conjuncture of public affairs, avail themselves of their right of petitioning the House, in order to lay before them their sentiments on the present very imperfect and inadequate representation of the people in parliament under the existing forms of election; and that the petitioners conceive, that one excellent part of the constitution consists in the representative system, by which the people are allowed a due share in the government; but, after they have seen it distinctly stated, in a Petition presented to the House, on the 6th day of May, in the year 1793, and evidence tendered in proof of the facts, that three hundred and seven of the members, for England and Wales only, are not sent to parliament by the suffrages of the people, that they are, on the contrary, returned by one hundred and fifty-four Peers and Commoners; and when they find that these allegations stand at this day on the Journals of Parliament uncontradicted, they cannot but conclude that the House has lamentably departed from its original and constitutional character, "a full and free representative of the Commons of these realms;" and that to this alarming defect the petitioners ascribe the far greater part of their national calamities, therefore it is they would bring to the recollection of the House the blood that has been wasted in wars, which to say the least, wiser councils might have avoided; therefore they would remind the 1091 House of the vast and fearful magnitude of the public expenditure, and of the accumulated increase of debt and taxation; and that to the same source they ascribe the decisions of the House, on various occasions, in manifest opposition to the declared sense of the country, and to its most essential interests, as well as in direct contradiction to their own recorded opinions; above all, the petitioners attribute to this unhappy cause the unwillingness hitherto shewn in parliament to enquire into and correct the corruptions and abuses which prevail, too notoriously for denial, in the procuring of seats in the House, and which tend, by diminishing its virtue, to destroy the confidence of the people in the Commons' House of Parliament; and that for these, as well as for many other powerful reasons that might be derived from existing circumstances, which the petitioners forbear to mention, lest they should too much mix their present feelings with discussion on the vital principles of the liberties of England, they beseech the House, that the Septennial Act, which, under a plea of public danger, was, in contempt of national right, passed by a House of Commons chosen only for three years, be forthwith repealed; and that, in addition to the land-owners, and in lieu of returns to parliament, in the name of depopulated or close or venal boroughs, the householders of Great Britain and Ireland, directly paying a certain assessment to the state, may, with the exception of the peers of the realm, have a vote in the election of members of the House, and under such regulations of the poll, as would prevent the ruinous expence of contested elections, but too often the result, as they are now conducted, a precaution, they will add, not more necessary towards the independence and integrity of parliament, than it is for the preservation of public morals; and that an efficient and constitutional Reform in the powers of election to the House, they are fully persuaded would afford a safe certain and speedy remedy for the numerous grievances under which the petitioners labour; and they are, moreover, persuaded, that it is the only efficient remedy to be found for them, because it is only by such Reform, and with the term of the representative trust considerably shortened, that the House can restore that identity of interest between the members of the House of Commons and the people at large, without which the petitioners have no rational as- 1092 surance that they shall enjoy the blessings of free and equal government under the safeguard of the English constitution; and that the disastrous times in which we live demand this open avowal of the thoughts and wishes of the petitioners, on a measure again and again brought before the House and in the language in which they have conveyed them, they intreat the House to believe they intend the House no disrespect, though the petitioners frankly con fess they are unacquainted with words too strong to express what they feel on a topic so intimately connected with their dearest rights and most valuable interests; and that in conclusion, they earnestly pray the House to undertake a constitutional Reform before it be too late, according to the provisions they have presumed to point out, or in such other mode, as to their wisdom shall seem more effectual, to the accomplishment of the important object which the petitioners have in view, so shall the affections of the people be conciliated, the House retrieve its due weight and influence on the public mind, the internal peace and independence of the country be secured, stability given to the throne, and our liberties, our best inheritance, be perpetuated."
§ Ordered to lie upon the table.