The electors of the city of Westminster also drew up a similar “Address, Remonstrance, and Petition”—
“their former application to the throne having been ineffectual, and new and exorbitant grievances being beyond patient endurance. By the same secret and unhappy influence to which all our grievances have been originally owing, the redress of those grievances has been now prevented; and the grievances themselves have been repeatedly confirmed; with this additional circumstance of aggravation, that while the invaders of our rights remain the directors of your Majesty’s councils, the defenders of those rights have been dismissed from your Majesty’s service—your Majesty having been advised by your ministers to remove from his employment, for his vote in Parliament, the highest officer of the Law (Lord Camden), because his principles suited ill with theirs, and his pure distribution of justice with their corrupt administration of the House of Commons.
“We beg leave, therefore, again to represent to your Majesty that the House of Commons have struck at the most valuable liberties and franchises of all the electors of Great Britain; and by assuming to themselves a right of choosing, instead of receiving a member when chosen, and by transferring to the representative what belonged to the constituent, they have taken off from the dignity, and, we fear, impaired the authority of Parliament itself.
“We presume again, therefore, humbly to implore from your Majesty the only remedies which are in any way proportioned to the nature of the evil; that you would be graciously pleased to dismiss for ever from your councils those ministers who are ill-suited by their dispositions to preserve the principles of a free, or by their capacities to direct the councils of a great and mighty kingdom; And that by speedily dissolving the present Parliament, your Majesty will show by your own example, and by their dissolution, the rights of your people are to be inviolable, and that you will never necessitate so many injured, and, by such treatment, exasperated subjects, to continue the care of their interests to those from whom they must withdraw their confidence; to repose their invaluable privileges in the hand of those who have sacrificed them; and their trust in those who have betrayed it.
“We find ourselves compelled to urge, with the greatest importunity, this our humble but earnest application, as every day seems to produce the confirmation of some old, or to threaten the introduction of some new injury. We have the strongest reason to apprehend that the usurpation begun by the House of Commons upon the right of electing, may be extended to the right of petitioning, and that under the pretence of restraining the abuse of this right, it is meant to bring into disrepute, and to intimidate us from the exercise of the right itself.”
The representatives elected by the people had done their utmost, as respected the venal majority, to betray their trust and those who had sent them to the Commons. Resistance was countenanced, and, by counter-addresses to the throne, the king was prejudiced against listening to the wishes of the people. This remonstrance elicited his Majesty’s reply “that he would lay it before his Parliament;” a curious conclusion, inasmuch as his afflicted subjects specially prayed therein that the king would be their safeguard against the majority in that body, who had betrayed the nation, and to the deliberation of that corrupted assembly the complaint—which affected the duration of the House—was to be submitted for redress! The remonstrance, which resembled an impeachment of the administration, was, in fact, handed to the ministers under accusation, to be by them resisted, prosecuted, or rendered ineffective at their discretion. The indignant judgments enunciated by “Junius” against these unprincipled politicians, foes to the kingdom, have been abundantly confirmed by the verdict of posterity.
The reception otherwise accorded to the Westminster remonstrance was altogether undignified. When the deputation, headed by Sir Robert Bernard, who had been returned member for that city by the unanimous suffrage of the constituency, arrived at the palace gate, an extra guard of soldiers was immediately turned out, not, however, as a compliment, for—
“although there was not the least appearance of anything disorderly, yet the soldiers behaved in a most insolent manner, and struck many persons with their bayonets, and that without provocation. The Gentlemen having alighted from their carriages, amidst the acclamations of the people, walked through the lane of soldiers, and went upstairs to the Levee Room door, where they were met by one of the Grooms of the Bedchamber, who asked Sir Robert Bernard if he had anything to present to his Majesty? To which Sir Robert replied, ‘Yes, the Address, Remonstrance, and Petition of the City of Westminster.’ Upon which the Groom of the Bedchamber said, ‘He would go and acquaint the Lord-in-Waiting.’ He went immediately, but not returning soon, Sir Robert Bernard proposed to go into the Levee Room, which he did. On opening the door, the same Groom of the Bedchamber said he could not find the Lord-in-Waiting; but should soon. However, the Gentlemen went on, and after some time the Lord-in-Waiting came to them, and said, if they had anything to deliver to his Majesty, he would receive it in the next room, whither they accordingly went; and after some time, his Majesty coming into the room, Sir Robert presented the Remonstrance open. His Majesty delivered it to the Lord-in-Waiting, who delivered it to another, who handed it to the Groom of the Bedchamber, and he carried it off.”
The recreant majority of the Commons, still at the bidding of degraded ministers, continued to address the king with counter-petitions intended to bring into disrepute the remonstrances of the people—those very constituents who had chosen them as the defenders of their liberties.
Finally, another effort was made by the city, and a general assembly was held for that purpose, when the chief magistrate, the Court of Aldermen, and Common Council resolved to renew their petition, and further to consider the king’s “answer.”
“A motion was then made, that the thanks of this Court be given to Lord Chatham for his late conduct in Parliament, and for his zeal shown for the most sacred Rights of Election and of petitioning, and for the promise of his endeavours to support an independent and more equal representation.”