Mr. Abererombysaid, that he had a petition to present from the Guildry of Edinburgh, which prayed for a reform in the present constitution of the Scotch burghs. He should not have said any thing on that question at present had it not been for the numerous signatures which were attached to the petition which he had to present, for the perspicuous statement which the petitioners made in it of the evils under which they laboured, and for the firm and constitutional manner in which they expressed their hopes of obtaining redress from the justice of parliament. They complained of the self-election of the members of the different corporations, which was an evil that the House ought immediately to remedy; inasmuch as, by the law of Scotland, all the burgesses were responsible for the debts contracted by a magistracy, of which they did not elect a single a member. This was a serious hardship, because many boroughs had funds, which were only just equal to their expenditure, and others had an expenditure greater than their funds. The petitioners bad been accused of favouring wild and visionary schemes of reform; they stated that this accusation was false, and that it was known to be so by those who urged it. They also added, that if they had been the disloyal subjects which they had been asserted to be, they could not have wished for any thing better than the continuance of the system which prevailed. The government never had an easier opportunity of conciliating a large number of its subjects by the mere exercise of common sense and common justice, than it had on the present occasion. All the petitioners asked for was, a relief from their present grievances: they were, however, of opinion, that the bill which the lord advocate had intro- 986 duced on the subject, was more calculated to aggravate than to relieve their injuries. He should have thought that the knowledge of all these grounds of complaint would have made the government bring forward a well digested plan to remove them. They had not done so; and by-failing to do so, had been deficient in duty to the country. He supposed that the executive would in this case attempt, as it had done in many others, to throw all the responsibility on the legislature.
§ The petition was ordered to lie on the table and to be printed; as were also petitions presented by lord A. Hamilton from the Incorporation of Goldsmiths of Edinburgh, and the burgesses of Lauder.