I do not feel that I have any need to apologize for the extreme reluctance I had to saying, on the 11th of July, to my fellow-citizens, all I then thought of the conduct of Sir Francis Burdett; but enough, I think, was said, to show that there was necessarily an end to any confidential intercourse between us.

his titles of the post of parliamentary a BILL for constitutional reform, infileader in the business of radical reform. nitely more important than aught in If the mystery I have noticed did in contest between the ins and the outs! reality proceed from a hope of making complete proselytes of the political pharisees of our country, how little soever we may acknowledge the wisdom of it, or how little soever we may in any view of it be able to approve of it as far as possible and as long as possible, it may be allowable in the liberal-minded to put on it the most charitable construc- The 12th of the questions which tion. Time, which has cleared up greater make part of my address, is as follows: mysteries, will clear up this. "In proposing to the electors of Before proceeding, however, with" Westminster a new man, altogether comments on others, it is proper, accord-" unknown in the field of reform, as the ing to what I have premised, to notice" personal friend of Sir Francis Burdett, what is objected to myself. Mr. Cobbett "what was the inference likely to be is extremely liberal of praise, for the" drawn? What the effect actually services which, in his opinion, I have" produced?"

No human being could be supposed so dull as not to see, in this passage, my conviction that the description of the new man, so given by the committee, was, in fact, the baronet's own descrip

rendered the public, and the disregard I To which question this is the answer : have therein shown to my own fair am- "It seemed to warrant an inference, bition; which disregard, he thinks, I "that in respect of the leader and have, however, carried to a blameable" lieutenant ABOVE-MENTIONED, between extreme; that, in short, respecting the" whom there had been so much coline where sacrifices of this kind ought operation, there had been no friendto end, I had "overstepped the mark," ship." long and long ago." Here I might farther quote and argue to some extent in my own justification; but that I shall rather leave to my actions. Mr. Cobbett imputes to me that I still call Sir Francis Burdett " our leader;" whence he infers | tion, as a distinction, between that new that I "cling" to the baronet somewhat improperly. It is true, that in addressing certain friends of reform, assembled on the 18th of August last, I certainly did so call the baronet, because he had taken a leading step in Parliament, towards the introduction of a BILL for a radical reform; and sincerely do I wish he may not compel me to cease calling him "our leader."

man and his old reforming associate.

On a private account, I have no pretence for taking exception to that distinction; of free and familiar as our political intercourse had for some years been, I never felt that I had the personal friendship of Sir Francis. Ours had not been a private friendship, but a political connexion; and on political grounds it had, as I thought, entitled Should leaders err, they ought to re- me to a very different treatment than, at ceive counsel from such as are able to his hands, on that public occasion-an give it. The moving of propositions, occasion so very important to the cause which constitute the intended preamble of reform, and consequently of freedom of a BILL, entitles us to expect the BILL-I experienced.

itself.

A new Parliament has been a That the baronet's "personal friend" fortnight assembled. Ministers have was likewise a fox-hunting companion, I made their motions. Opposition have made theirs. But the anxious friends of England's freedom h ve not yet observed that their LEADER has given any notice of a motion for leave to bring in 66

well knew. But still I persuaded myself that the baronet's patriotism had been of the same kind as his, who, on a similar occasion, had said, "I have no fox-hunting vote to bestow on any

66

one; neither have I a vote for party, not walk the streets without having nor for connexion: No; nor even for evidence of it. I remember, in par"sacred friendship. To my friend Iticular, the salutations, at different times, "will give my purse, my hand, my to that effect of Sir John Throckmorton "heart; but I will not give him that and Mr. Richard Sharpe; the latter, at "which is not mine. My vote I hold that time, and I believe now again, in "in trust; my vote belongs to my Parliament; and both, as I understood, country; and my country alone shall members with Sir Francis, of Brookes's "have it." club, in St. James's Street.

ing the city?" when the answer he received from Mr. Henry Brooks was this:"Oh, Sir, no one is thought of but the old Major."

For awhile previous to the election, I understood it to be a prevailing sentiment, that he who more than forty years ago had successfully vindicated the leConsidering the hold which " the old gislative rights of the commonally,†-he Major" then had on the affections and who had been mainly instrumental in the confidence of the truly enlightened the enlightening of those whose petitions and sincere friends of constitutional refor parliamentary reform had not been form, such news, if news it were, was of scantily laid on the table, but had co-a nature, it might have been thought, vered the very floor of the House of to have gladdened the coldest heart in Commons; and he who, in all ways, the coldest bosom of any one belonging had been indefatigable in the cause, and to that class in the community :-But it had, in particular, for several years, been gladdened not the heart of Sir Francis in close connexion and co-operation with Burdett! Sir Francis Burdett; was considered as having claims on his fellow-citizens, the electors of Westminster, so far outweighing any that would be opposed to them, that the baronet's name and his, as no-question should have been seized on with minees for the representation of the city, -names so long united in the public service, ought by no means to have been put asunder.

It was thought that the union of those names was so natural, so congenial with public feeling and public expectation, that it would call forth a support so unanimous and so ardent, as to cause an undisputed return; and to this day nothing has occurred to invalidate that opinion.

Considering the obvious interest of that reform, and the plain-speaking dic tate of honest policy, that the happily favouring circumstances for that great

avidity, and promoted with ardour, while Westminster, true to her reputation, ought to have surpassed her sister cities of the metropolis in kindling up in the cause a patriot fire, whose rays should have diffused life and hope to the remotest borders of the land; was it to have been expected that any man calling himself a constitutional reformer, could have been found, who was capable, of not merely throwing cold water on the kindling fire, but even of throwing During the period alluded to, I could down an apple of DISCORD, for defeat*From an election speech at Lincolu, ining the proposed joint nomination ?— 1796, published in "The Constitutional De-But such a man was found in Sir Francis fence of England, Internal and External," Burdett!-In Sir Francis Burdett, who, a second time within five months, joined in a concerted plan of operations for defeating the hopes of his quondam asso

P. 13.

+ The work was entitled, The Legislative Right of the Commonalty Vindicated. It was published in 1776.

ciate in the cause of reform, and who, between one who " thought" and acted on the 17th of November, harangued, as the baronet had done, and one who with such art and emphasis on the value thought and acted as I thought and of UNANIMITY!

acted.

I therefore immediately wrote and dispatched my servant with a note, expressing my feelings as follows:

On receiving the information of Mr. Henry Brooks, the baronet perceived the hour for activity was arrived. It quickly produced a letter to the father, Mr. "To Sir Francis Burdett." Samuel Brooks, naming three gentlemen, "I find that, after sacrifices to public any one of whom might be considered liberty which have not, in this age, as acceptable to the baronet, and worthy" been made by many; after a fidelity of being put in nomination with himself;" to the state, which had been surpassed in which letter, "the old Major" was by none, and after vital services to neither named nor noticed. "the cause of parliamentary reform, The three so recommended, were Mr." which have been exceeded by few,Fawkes (whose determination, by the" there are persons among whom I have way, against going into Parliament, " acted, who oppose the confiding to me during the continuance of the present" a trust, in the execution of which, system, had been repeatedly declared), Mr. Kinnaird, and Mr. Hobhouse.

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"there are those-and not a small number, who are persuaded, cirThe baronet's fiat thus issued, all was "cumstanced as I have long been, and instant alertness for Mr. Kinnaird, as "continue to be, I might be enabled the 66 personal friend" of Sir Francis" to advance the cause in which I have Burdett. We know the rest. We know" long laboured, and with some credit, that on that occasion Westminster did more than perhaps any other indinot add to the phalanx of radical reform. "vidual. We know that even the baronet was but "I also learn that, for the trust in second on the poll. And now we also" question, a preference by the opposing know, that although in June it was, but" persons is now given to gentlemen, most incomprehensibly assigned as the" who, for years past, and years which baronet's reason for not naming as Mr." our cause made years of trial-years Henry Brooks had done to him, "the" in which the opposed person has done old Major," in his recommendatory" so much, these preferred gentlemen, epistle, that he "THOUGHT the" whatever may be their patriotism, Major did not wish for a seat in Par" their talents, and their virtues, have "ment;" he (the baronet) in November," done nothing.

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as a new reason for the exclusion was "Seeing these things, I have nothing, unfortunately become necessary, had" thank God! to lament for myself, but accordingly discovered a new one-but" much as I conjecture, shall I have to not a whit less incomprehensible than" lament for my country, in which such the former one-namely, that although" things are possible. there appeared no bar whatever to the introduction of another "personal friend," another reformer of new-born pretensions," it was impossible that the Major should be elected!"

But I must return to the recommendatory letter of the baronet to Mr. Samuel Brooks. On its contents being communicated to me by the committeemen, who had seen it, I felt that I had been very ill dealt with, and that it was, indeed, "impossible" that a political connexion in the sacred cause of constitutional reform could any longer subsist

"June 2, 1818."

"JOHN CARTWright.

Considering the auspicious crisis to which the cause of constitutional reform was brought,-considering that to bring it to that crisis, had cost a two-andforty-years' controversy, and that in that controversy, from first to last, mine had not been the least prominent part,considering the nature, the object, and the intimacy of the political intercourse between the baronet and myself,—and considering the honour which is ever supposed to govern men co-operating in

both, I observe, that having long dealt

so sacred a public cause,-considering, I say, all these, could less on the occasion in strict demonstrations as standards of under consideration, have been expected right and wrong in political principle, I from Sir Francis Burdett to me-and, am not easily prejudiced either against may I not add, to our country, for which an enemy, or for a friend. I thought we were jointly labouring. than a manly frankness and an open dignified conduct?

After what I have already noticed respecting Sir Francis Burdett, and the doubts which his conduct has excited in the minds of myself and many others, it will be right that I should so far account for those doubts, as to show that I am not writing from spleen, but from a desire, on the one hand, to guard the public from a misplaced reliance on serious and unremitting exertions in the cause of reform, which may not take place, and, on the other hand, to furnish the baronet himself with a salutary warning of what may happen to his reputation, if he do not take care to prevent it.

And considering, moreover, that for the eight years during which I had been a citizen of Westminster, I had been second to no man in sustaining and elevating her reputation for services to reform and public freedom, I would ask why, if all the baronet had in view were fair and honourable, I was to be exclusively kept in the dark, until the plot for excluding me were fully ripened, and the name of one of the gentlemen he recommended was placarded for nomination and support in conjunction with Notwithstanding the declarations his own, and as his " persmal friend," which have been made, respecting annual -a gentleman who, although likewise a Parliaments, universal freedom, and the citizen of Westminster, had never once ballot,-objects which are unquestionappeared when she had so distinguished ably necessary to be obtained for esherself as aforesaid by her services to tablishing our freedom-it is but too reform and public freedom? apparent, that it will be difficult to If a true interpretation of the former reconcile the late conduct of the baronet conduct, when the baronet "THOUGHT with any very rooted attachment to "the Major did not wish for a seat in those objects: especially when the "Parliament," were wanting, it is now tenor of his public speeches shall be duly supplied. We see the old reformer attended to. again pushed aside, to make way for that other gentleman of new-born pretensions, whose name stood last in the aforesaid letter of the baronet to Mr. Samuel Brooks.

In the apprehensions to be entertained from such facts, and from the mysterious conduct of the baronet for two years past, or more, as well as from his public speeches since the election, I may possibly be wrong; and no man more ardently than myself wishes I may prove

The baronet's predilection for annual Parliaments is not, as we know, many years old; and moreover that it rests, not on the true sound foundation of inherent demonstrated right, which is indefeasable and immutable; but-on the unsound basis of history, of ancient statutes and the practice of our ancestors, all which are property changeable, as our expedience may require. And it is not a little remarkable, as I shall presently show, that for the change which did take place, by departing from annual ParliaShould there be any ready to suspect ments and for continuing in that deparme of a deficiency in charity, let this ture, the baronet, in his last public sentiment be put in the scale against speech, furnished the adversaries of our that notion of others, who misinterpret-freedom with an argument which, faling patience and forbearance, impute to lacious as it is, they will quote as of great me a facility of being too easily duped force; and which their own ingenuity by professions. To the former class of never before hit upon. persons, I say, in the words of the old Lord Chatham, "In an aged bosom confidence is a plant of slow growth," To

SO.

Then, we are further to consider, that the baronet's belief in the doctrines of universal freedom and the ballot, had not

But

a many months' possession of his mind It is not, however, to be supposed, but prior to the general election. If, in the that while that powerful writer, as well simplicity of my nature, I had indeed, as Lord Cochrane and myself, had fres given him credit; for a fruit-bearing communication with the baronet, his sincerity, of attachment to the doctrines Lordship, and myself, and perhaps of our political salvation, and should in others, heard from the complainant frethe end prove deceived, although it may quent observations to that effect. show that I had not sufficiently profited in whatever degree I felt the force of his by that scripture, in which it is written, observations, I also felt a desire to be that seed sown on stony ground, for instrumental, if possible, towards the want of root soon withers away; yet if baronet's acting as the enlightened and I be not wholly incorrigible in error, and virtuous expected from him, in the great if experience have not been quite thrown cause of parliamentary reform. away upon me; now, that I am brought, I therefore continued a perfectly by what has recently passed, to my re-friendly political intercourse with the collection, and called on to put other baronet, until a sense of what was due good confiding Christians on their guard, to personal honour compelled me, as I may possibly be of some use. hath been explained, to free him from a political connexion he seemed desirous of dissolving.

Allow me then to state, that in essentials towards reform, the late Duke of Richmond went considerably further It will be recollected what extreme than Sir Francis Burdett has yet gone. anxiety was felt by the radical reformers That very able and very energetic noble- on the approach of the parliamentary man, who was a complete working man session of 1817, when deputies from an of business, not only tendered in Parlia-immense number of petitioning comment an actual BILL for universal munities assembled in London, in the freedom and annual elections, but he ardent hope of a grand effort being made likewise published that BILL to the in Parliament, by means of a bill, which world, as well as his famous letter to it is understood was to be brought in by Colonel Sharman; unanswerably proving | Sir Francis Burdett. by close logical argument and demonstration, the truth of the principles on which that BILL was founded ;-a mode of proceeding and of pledging the party, not hitherto adopted by the baronet.

The unparalleled distress of the nation, which distress was by that time universally seen to be a direct consequence of the House of Commons not representing the people, but having been metamorWith the facts before our eyes, of phosed into an engine of their oppresthese proceedings of the Duke of Rich-sion; had given rise to numerous petimond, who, however, afterwards sat in tions, in which it appeared that the the same cabinet with that political effective power of the House of Comtiger, Mr. Pitt; would not experience be useless, might I not, without uncharitable imputations, be permitted to warn the nation. against believing the impossibility of the baronet himself becoming a changeling?

mons was considered as concentrated in an oligarchy, whose barefaced usurpation and insufferable tyranny were upheld by a corruption as notorious as it was infamous.

The suffering people, agonizing under Here, if circumstances have taught their miseries, looked, as they had a me, that it is my duty to speak, I must right to look, for such a bill, and their nevertheless claim to stand in that re-eyes, as well as the eyes of all sincere spect perfectly apart from a powerful reformers, were universally turned on writer who has dealt largely in accusa-Sir Francis Burdett. This was, of tion of the baronet, for his want of sin-course, the case of Mr. Cobbett, who, in cerity as a constitutional reformer. The the meeting of deputies, had moved a accusation of that writer must stand or resolution of high compliments and enfall, as supported, or contradicted, by tire confidence in Sir Francis Burdett, facts and evidence. although at that time the baronet did