§ Mr. Jamessaid, he had a Petition to present from 3,107 inhabitants of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, comprising many respectable tradesmen, but for this most part the mechanics and artisans, on whom in case of need, the country depended for defence, complaining that they were excluded from the share to which men 1073 were naturally entitled in the representation, and were therefore in a state of slavery. He wished he had seen the hon. member for Bramber (Mr. Wilberforce) in his place, as he would have made him a fair offer. He (Mr. J.) was one of those unfortunate persons who inherited property in the West Indies, and he would willingly bargain to use his utmost endeavours to promote the abolition of the slavery of the blacks, if the hon. member would use the same exertions to abolish the slavery of the whites. What was a slave but he who was obliged to give up his will to the will of others? And, when a thousandth part of the population was at liberty to rob the rest, to shut them up in dungeons if they complained, to cut them down when they assembled to remonstrate, what were the majority but slaves? In this free country, as it was called, the slave was allowed to go out of his own house in the morning, but he was waylaid in the evening, and half his earnings were taken from him. The exciseman arrived with penalties, instead of cart whips, tasted him on the soap with which he washed the sweat from his weary brow, and the salt, with which he savoured his frugal meat. By heaven! if the black slave were to change with the white one, the exchange would not be to his benefit. The petitioners, enumerating the evils they had suffered from the want of equal representation, particularized the suspensions of the Habeas Corpus act, the restraints on the liberty of the press, the funding system, which taxed children yet unborn, the Bank-restriction act, and the confiscation act, commonly called Peel's bill. The petitioners prayed for universal suffrage, annual parliaments, and votes by ballot as the only means of national relief; in all which he (Mr. J.) fully concurred.
§ Sir I. Coffinexpressed his belief that the hon. member and the petitioners, were labouring under mental delusion. He did not know where the distress and misery of which they talked existed. For his own part, he never saw in any other country so many fat, sleek, well-clad, and contented looking people as he saw in England.
§ Mr. Jamesobserved, that the individuals whom the gallant admiral had seen, and whom he represented to be so fat and sleak in condition, must be individuals who lived on the taxes.
§ Ordered to lie on the table.