few barrels of powder in his face, "fir, why do you meddle with us? have you any thing to do here! get back again into your own kingdom; you are no legiflator in ours. Show your defpotifm at home, and leave us to enjoy our liberties." But the Poles are weak, and Catherine has strong reasons to produce on her fide; witness the bishop of Cracow, who was confined at Schluffelbourg in the fame apartment, as the czar Peter III. finished his carreer in. VOLTAIRE. Inftructions to Representatives to ferve in Parliament, elected in the Year 1768. Ad Pænam pulchra pro Libertate vocabit- VIRG E, a confiderable part of your electors, as yet your W free and independent electors, do moft earnestly recommend to you, our reprefentatives in parliament, to enquire, and we do alfo defire and expect that you will. I. Enquire by whofe advice it was, that a feparate peace was concluded with France and Spain in 1762, by which a flagrant breach of national faith was committed, being in direct oppofition to all treaties fubfifting between our gallant ally the king of Pruffia, and his late majefty of glorious memory, renewed and confirmed by his prefent majefly, after his acceffion, in a treaty bearing date December 12, 1760, of the fourth article; of which the following is a tranflation. "The high contracting powers moreover engage, viz. on the one fide his Britannic majefty, as well king as elector, and on the other part his Prujian majesty, not to conclude any treaty of peace, truce, or neutrality, or other convention or agreement whatever with the powers who have taken part in the prefent war, but in concert and by mutual agreement and by comprehending each other by name." A treaty of peace, was notwithstanding, entered into and concluded at Paris, between England, France and Spain, without the confent and mutual agreement of the king of Pruffia, and without comprehending him by name in de fiance * "The French knew the negociation of the peace was in the hands of lord B ***, and that fo far from fupporting our fiance of the above article of a moft folemn treaty and engagement between his present majefty and the king of Pruffia, and within less than two years from the date thereof; by which the honor and public faith of the nation became a facrifice to evil counsellors and corrupt minifters and we do, therefore, request of you, our reprefentatives, and do, hereby, call upon you to use your utmost endeavours to trace out, detect, and bring to condign punishment all fuch evil counsellors, and corrupt minifters, by whofe advice the national faith has been thus ignominiously proftituted, and traiterously broke and forfeited. II. We defire and expect that you will enquire by whofe advice it was, that after a glorious war, and a series of amazing conquests, carried on with uninterrupted fuccefs in every part of the globe, and beyond the example of former ages, the most valuable of thofe conquefts, particularly, the rich and important city and dependencies of the Havanna, and the fertile iflands of Guadelupe and Martinico were ceded to the enemy; and this at a time when our ambaffador, it is faid, was in actual treaty for one of them, and the ceffion but little litigated on the part of the minifters of France, when he received pofitive orders to fign the preliminary articles of the peace; and we alfo recommend and expect you will enquire by whofe advice it was, that the Manilla ranfom money ftill detained and witheld, in open breach of public honor, and public faith on the part of the crown of Spain, and in defiance of the facred articles of capitulation, was not infifted on; but that just and national claim tamely and fubmiffively given up, to the great difcredit of this kingdom. III. We defire and expect that you will enquire, by what authority it was, that a reprefentative of the people in parliament was feized in his own houfe, dragged out of his own house, and in defiance of the habeas corpus act, and magna charta, imprisoned in the tower of London; and although for a bailable offence, no perfon fuffered to come near him for three days in order to bail him: all his papers, the most fecret of them, rifled and carried away, under an avowed defign of collecting evidence against him for a fuppofed libel; thereby obliging a freeborn Englishman to turn his own accufer, our great proteftant ally, his lordship was determined to abandon him. The king of Pruffia complained, that he was actually betrayed by the Scottish minifter, and he spoke publickly of the offers made by his lordship to the late czar, for difmembering his dominions. "I heard lord B * * * declare in a great affembly, that the dominions of the king of Pruffia ucre to be fcrambled for; the most indecent, vulgar, and infamous expreffion for an ally of the crown of England, which any minifter ever uttered." accufer, contrary to the known laws of the land. We alfo defire, and expect, that you will use your utmost endeavours to find out by whom it was that a writ of habeas corpus, granted by a chief justice, was eluded, and its authority dif obeyed, in time of public peace and tranquility; and the act of habeas corpus, that greatest and strongest bulwark of English liberty, broke down and trampled under foot; the powers of which were never known to be even fufpended, but in times of public danger, of suspected confpiracies, open rebellion, or when a foreign enemy was in arms in the kingdom; the fufpenfion of the habeas corpus act, though by authority of parliament, is ever understood to be a fufpenfion of the liberty of the fubject. And we, therefore, defire and expect that you will enquire by whofe advice it was, that private perfons in office, armed with that iron engine of oppreffion, and bearing that ignominious badge of flavery a general warrant, were employed or fet on and encouraged to dare to do that by themselves, which king, lords, and commons, the three eftates of the realm, can only do together. IV. We defire and recommend to you moft earnestly, to ufe your utmost endeavours to promote a remedial bill in parliament for quieting the poffeffion of the fubject, and to prevent ministers under the crown from harraffing the private fubject with antiquated claims, vexatious fuits, and threats of confifcation, giving thereby a fhock to the whole landed property throughout the kingdom, and other deteftable proceedings inconfiftent with the freedom of the British conftitution, and the rights and privileges of the people and that you will do your utmoft to refcue private property from the violence, arbitrary encroachments, breach of faith, injuftice, and tyranny of profligate and corrupt ministers. V. We requeft alfo, and recommend you to enquire, how it comes to pass that the eldest fons of peers of Scotland, who are declared incapable to represent any borough or fhire in that kingdom, fhould be permitted to represent any borough or thire in England: and why, when all the commons of Scotland are, according to the act of union, represented by forty-five members in the British parliament, Scots commoners are permitted to represent * Article 22 of the act of union. "A writ fhall be im. mediately iffued, &c. For the fummoning the fixteen peers, and for electing forty five members, by whom Scotland is to be reprefented in the parliament of Great-Britain." Englifn English boroughs, and to have additional voices in par liament and whether the permitting Scots commoners and eldest fons of peers of Scotland to fit in parliament for English boroughs, be not inconfiftent with, and contradictory to, the true fpirit of the act of union: and whether a fingle inftance can be produced fince that act took place, where any one English commoner was ever returned to parliament to reprefent a fhire or borough in Scotland: we recommend to you in your enquiries to confider the true fpirit of the act of union the lord's houfe took care to prevent any northern irruptions upon the English nobility; the dukes of Hamilton and Queensberry are not at this time allowed to fit in their house, though actually created English dukes by the titles of Brandon and Dover. The wifdom of the lords gave this conftruction to the act of union: they restrained and confined the NorthBritish representatives in their house to the number fixed by the act of union, the number fixteen. Is it not then extraordinary that the house of commons fhould open a door which the other has fhut? or can it be fuppofed, with any degree of reafon or propriety, that the framers of the act of union could ever mean to bar access to natives of Scotland from becoming members of one part of the legislature beyond their limited number, and give them free admittance into the other? It never was, it never could be their intent; and if Scots commoners have not hitherto been exprefsly restrained from intruding upon the legislature of South-Britain beyond their ftipulated number by the act of union, it is time they fhould be fo, or, in the procefs of a few years, a fwarm may be brought in upon us that may be too ftrong for English reprefentatives to turn out. Remember the speech of one of your predeceffors, and imprint it in your hearts: "Mr. Speaker, I hear a lion roaring in the lobby; fhall we fhut the door, fir, against him, or fhall we let him in, to fee if we are able to turn him out again?" If the prefent Scotch commoners, already elected, are permitted to enjoy their feats in the enfuing parliament, the number will increase upon you in another; and in time, all the subjects of England will be taxed by a majority of Scotch members flagrant abfurdity! intolerable yoke! In this cafe, which is far from being impoffible, and which event perhaps is nearer taking place than the generality of people may imagine, it is not a portion of members of the Scotch parliament fent by deputation to the British houfe of commons, who fit there, but it is the Scotch parliament adjourned to England. For which important reafons, we most earnestly recommend to you to propose an enquiry into the true fpirit of the act of union; and as far as in you lies, by all con ftitutional ftitutional endeavours, to exclude Scotch commoners already elected, exceeding the number of forty-five, and not reprefenting fhires or boroughs in Scotland, from a feat or voice in the British parliament; and to promote a resolution of the houfe of commons, whereby they may be declared incapable to fit in that houfe; and that the speaker may be ordered to iffue out his warrants to the clerk of the crown to make out new writs for the electing representatives in their room, according to former precedents+. VI. We defire and expect, that you will use your utmost endeavours, by all conftitutional measures in your power, that a law may pass for reftoring triennial parliaments: triennial parliaments were established foon after the glorious revolution took place, which faved this kingdom from impending, from inevitable deftruction: they were established as the beft fecurity for the conftitution against the arbitrary attempts of all wicked and defigning minifters in futuro; frequent elections deprive them of that enormous influence and power they now have to corrupt the representatives of the people, and to fecure a venal majority of members in the house of commons, which might prevent, or put a stop to all enquiries into their public conduct. These constitutional triennial parliaments were firft unconftitutionally laid afide in the year 1716, on a ftate neceffity, and when the public was thought to be in immediate danger; a Scotch rebellion barely quafhed, and in the infancy of a new fucceffion to the throne unconftitutionally laid aside, because the people had no choice of their representatives; and furely nothing could be more extravagantly abfurd, than that the reprefentatives of the people fhould choose themselves, vote themselves into their own feats, and fit like peers in their ownright, at the fame time deriving their authority from the people: a manifeft contradiction in terms!Noman conftitutionallycancontinue himselfin deputation for a longer terms of years than he is deputed for: and the house of peers and the house of commons which continued that +" December 6, 1708. The commons ordered their fpeaker to iffue out his warrants to the clerk of the crown to make out new writs for the electing commiffioners for the shire of Aberdeen, in the room of William lord Haddo; and for the fhire of Linlithgow, in the room of James lord Johnftown, who being eldest fons of peers of Scotland, were declared to be incapable to fit in that houfe. How much greater the impropriety for fuch commoners, or any Scotscommoner whatever, to fit in the house for English fhires or boroughs! December 22, 1694. |