PETITION FROM CAITHNESS RESPECTING REFORM OF PARLIAMENT. (Hansard, 28 January 1812)

§ Mr. Sinclair

said, that he had been instructed by his constituents to present to the House a Petition, which he now held in his hand, expressive of their sentiments on the subject of Parliamentary Reform. The anxiety of the freeholders of Caithness to take some opportunity in the course of the present session, to recommend this measure to the attention of the House, arose in some degree from the hardship to which they were at present subjected, in choosing a member alternately with the county of Bute (a county with which they were nowise connected, either in point of interests or of local situation) in consequence of which, they would have no representative in the ensuing parliament, to receive their instructions or to attend to their interests. But this was hot the principal, far less the only inducement by which they were actuated in laying this Petition before the Houses They were no less anxious to 377 prove, that at the northern as well as the southern extremity of the empire, in Caithness as well as in Cornwall, the necessity of a temperate and effectual Reform in Parliament was felt and acknowledged. When the state of the representation of Scotland should be brought under the consideration of the House, it would appear that the number both of the freeholders and of their representatives was by no means proportioned to the extent, to the importance, or to the population of that country, of which it was impossible to adduce a stronger instance than the case of that county which he had the honour to represent, a county, which, however inferior to many in wealth and in extent, yielded to none in respectability or independence, but which, under the present system, was excluded, during every alternate parliament, from all participation in the national councils. He should refrain on this occasion from making any observations on the general question of Parliamentary Reform, the propriety of which it was unnecessary at present to discuss. He trusted that the task of pointing out to the House, not only the extent of the evil, but the practicability as well as the expediency of a safe and a sufficient remedy, would devolve upon some gentleman as anxious as he was for the success of the cause, and much more capable to do it justice. He should now content himself with moving for leave to bring up the Petition.—The following Petition was then brought up and read:

"Unto the Honourable the House of Commons, the Petition of the Freeholders of the County of Caithness, assembled at Wick upon the 26th day of August 1811, to elect a representative to the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain.

"Sheweth; That your Petitioners are deeply impressed with a sense of the responsibility which attaches to them, in exercising their constitutional right of deputing a proper person to aid in the national councils, and in the preservation of the liberties of the subject against encroachment; and feel themselves imperiously called upon to stale to your honourable House their conviction, that great and alarming innovations have been made upon this first and vital part of the British constitution.

"It is the firm persuasion of your Petitioners, that the constitution may be 378 restored to its genuine and original purity, by a recurrence to its first principles; which, so far from endangering, will manifestly tend to ensure its stability; and they trust that your honourable House will receive favourably a statement of those grievances which they foment, in common with the great majority of their fellow subjects, and in respectfully representing which to your honourable House, they conceive themselves to be exercising the undoubted right and privilege of the subject.

"Your Petitioners beg leave to state, that, in their humble opinion, the restoration of triennial parliaments would be a powerful check upon corrupt practices, by producing more frequent appeals to the constituent body; and, as the causes which led to their being formerly rendered septennial have now ceased to operate, your Petitioners hope that your honourable House will, in regard to the duration of parliaments, comply with the express wishes of the great bulk of the nation. Your Petitioners are satisfied, that, in the true spirit of the constitution, no pensioner, no placeman, or person in office under the crown, ought to elect, or to be elected, a representative of the Commons in Parliament, with the exception of such members of the House of Commons, as his Majesty may chuse as his confidential servants, or of such as ought to be in the House for the dispatch of public business.

"Your Petitioners are convinced that many abuses have crept into the laws regarding the election of representatives for counties and boroughs in Scotland; that, under the present system, individuals may obtain a place amongst the freeholders, in a manner utterly inconsistent with the real intentions of the legislature; whilst others are excluded from participating in the elective rights, who, from the interest they possess as landed proprietors in the county, ought not to be debarred from assisting in the choice of its representative.

"Your Petitioners are humbly of opinion, that, in many other essential points, a temperate and effectual Reform would be highly expedient. Whilst they deprecate every attempt at undue or unsafe innovation, they are firmly convinced, that, by recurring to the first and genuine principles of the constitution, a House of Commons may be returned in a manner calculated to diffuse universal satisfaction, under the sanction of whose wisdom and virtue such measures may be adopted, as may in- 379 crease the confidence of the nation in their representatives, and, by enabling them to participate more extensively in the blessings of the constitution, will induce them to make every sacrifice for its defence and preservation.

"May it therefore please your honourable House, to take these premises into consideration, and to grant such relief as to your honourable House shall seem fit and proper."