Chapter VIII

More petitions and remonstrances to the king--Petition
of the Livery of London--The king’s advisers denounced
by the citizens--An arraignment of ministerial crimes
and misdemeanours--Undue prerogative and its abuses--The
alienation of our colonies, and the consequent loss of
America--The king’s contemptuous reception of the city
petition--Disrespect shown to the corporation at the Court
of St. James’s--Threatening attitude of the military--An
unscrupulous and tyrannical ministry--A poetical petition--The
king visits the city petition with “severe censure”--A more
stringent remonstrance prepared--The violated “right of
election”--An unrepresentative parliament--“The true spirit
of parliaments”--“The constitution depraved”--The Coronation
Oath violated--The king’s answer, condemning the former
petition, and the city remonstrance--“Nero fiddled while
Rome was burning”--Further popular agitations--Horne Tooke’s
“Address to the Freeholders of the county of Middlesex”--“The
Middlesex Address, Remonstrance and Petition”--“Constitutional
liberties attacked in the most vital part”--“A self-elected
and irresponsible Parliament”--The petitions from Middlesex
and Kent received at St. James’s in silence--The Westminster
remonstrance--Corrupt administration of the House of
Commons--The king prayed to dissolve a parliament no longer
representing the people--The right of petitioning impeached
by the Commons--The king replies that “he will lay the
remonstrance before parliament”--“Making a man judge in his
own trial”--The undignified reception of the Westminster
remonstrance--Parliamentary counter-petitions at the
bidding of corrupt ministers--The city vote of thanks to
Lord Chatham, for his patriotic “zeal for the rights of the
people”--The king’s answer considered at a general assembly
of the citizens--Alderman Wilkes on the violation of the
rights of election and of the constitution--The recorder
characterises the remonstrance as a libel--The conduct of
ministers in the case of Colonel Luttrell’s election--A fuller
remonstrance from the city--The results of the Revolution of
1788 contravened--The king’s answer--Beckford requests leave
to reply--His dignified speech to the king--The king remains
silent--“Nero did _not_ fiddle while Rome was burning”--The
courtiers abashed--The king prorogues parliament with an
address approving of the conduct of both Houses--The citizens
eventually triumph in “the cause of Liberty and of the
Constitution”--Lord Chatham’s eulogium pronounced upon the
“patriotic spirit of the metropolis”--Beckford and Chatham,
the champions of popular rights--The national importance of
their conduct at this crisis of our history--Civic honours
paid to Beckford--His speech to the king inscribed on the
monument erected to his memory in the Guildhall--The corrupt
ministers cowed--An uncontested election for Westminster,
1770--Sir Robert Bernard’s nomination--His election, without
expense or disorder--Speeches of Sir J. Hussey Delaval and
Earl Mountmorres on the late conduct of the Government--The
advantages of leaving the people to the legitimate exercise of
their liberties, uninfluenced by the administrative interest,
corruption, and undue influence, the usual features at an
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