The Virginia Gazette

LIVERPOOL, October 9, 1769. To the Merchants, Tradesmen, and other Electors of Liverpool. At the desire of a numerous body of the Merchants and Tradesmen of Liverpool, a meeting was required, to consider of a proper petition to his Majesty, upon the violation of the right of election in the county of Middlesex; in consequence whereof such meeting will be held at Mr. Wrigley's great room, on Thursday next, at 12 o'clock at noon, and in the mean time the following considerations are submitted to the publick. Considerations for the Electors of Great Britain. The business for which the Merchants, Tradesmen, and Electors, are now called together, is of the greatest consequence to us all, and the plainness of the matter is equal to its importance. It concerns every one of us, and every one of us has capacity sufficient to understand it. By the constitution of this kingdom every British subject is capable of being elected to serve in Parliament, unless he be disabled by the positive known law of the land. By the constitution of this kingdom every elector has a right of giving his vote in the choice of a member to serve in Parliament, except where he is restrained by the same law of the land. By the constitution of this kingdom neither the King alone, nor the Lords alone, nor the House of Commons alone, have authority to make any law, or to alter, dispense with, suspend, or take away, any law, or any right, which the subject holds under the law. Such is the constitution of this kingdom with regard to its laws and the right of election, which is held under the laws, and under the laws only. It is now the business of the electors to inquire whether the late proceedings of the House of Commons have been agreeable to these principles, and whether in the last session of Parliament a most material alteration has not been attempted with regard to the RIGHT of ELECTION. The law had placed it, with regard to counties, in the freeholders; with regard to this borough, in the freemen thereof. You are to examine whether the House of Commons, by its single vote only, has not thought proper, in effect, to take this right from the electors, and to vest it in THEMSELVES; so that, in future, members of Parliament may be chosen, not by the good liking of the country, and according to the laws of the land, but according to the will and pleasure of that House. You will ask whether they have not assumed a power of disabling any person from being chosen, merely in consequence of acts of their own, although such person should have been under no sort of previous disqualification by the law of the land. And farther, if the electors should, in virtue of their legal right, choose the person so disqualified (merely by the resolution of that House) whether they have not claimed a right of placing in his room another person, although that person should not have the majority of legal votes in his favour, nay although he should not have above two votes in a whole county or borough, and that such person shall be forced upon the county or borough, and held to be its true and proper representative, and as such shall be invested with the disposition of your properties, liberties, and lives?
To above all, it will be proper for you to be informed whether they have not actually carried this their claim into execution, by disqualifying the member lately chosen for the county of Middlesex, by force of their resolution only, by altering the return which had been made, agreeable to the majority of votes, and to the law of elections and returns; and finally, by appointing for the representative of Middlesex another person, not chosen by that county, 318 legal votes having been given in favour of the person whom the House had put under an arbitrary disqualification, and only 296 for the person whom they have thought proper, by their own authority, to elect.

"If the House of Commons shall possess a power of disqualifying any person, though chosen by a majority of legal votes, and of accepting another person upon any small number of votes, without any other rule than their own pleasure, it is evident that the election of members of Parliament must, in effect and substance, be in that House, and not in us, the electors of Great Britain. Words and names will be given to us in the place of solid privileges; we shall lose all share in making our own laws, and thereby be deprived of all our liberties at a single stroke.

"Whenever such an attempt is made, the wisdom of our constitution has not left us without a remedy. The King is by law invested with a power of dissolving as well as of calling Parliaments, and this power is not placed in the Crown in order to gratify private humour or mere inclination, but it is to be used for the benefit of the people, and in a gracious compliance with their just desires, whenever the representatives of the people shall appear to entertain a greater regard for their own power than for the rights of those who have chosen them; it is provided in order that the electors may have an opportunity, by a new election, of committing their affairs into hands more worthy of their trust.

"The right of the people to petition for such a dissolution has always existed, and it is not made, but is only confirmed by an act of Parliament, entitled An act declaring the rights and liberties of the subject, and settling the succession of the Crown. This act is one of the first fruits of the glorious Revolution, and it expressly declares: That it is the right of the subjects to petition the King, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal; and to this right of petitioning the act has put no limitation whatsoever.

"It is not in the power of the House of Commons, even though it should be their inclination, to abridge this right, because it is a right granted not by their resolutions but by law; but that House, far from denying, have expressly admitted and authorized it, by declaring in their own journals, that it is the undoubted right of the people of England to petition or address the King for the calling, sitting, and dissolving of Parliament, and for redressing of grievances."

Such are the rights of British subjects, and this of petition is one of the remedies whenever any right is violated: and it is hoped that we shall never prove so degenerate from, and so ungrateful to, our ancestors, as not to transmit to posterity those privileges which had been handed down to us as perfect and as secure as we received them, and that we will not permit the invasion of those dear bought rights by any power in the world, and least of all by that power which we have expressly appointed for the preservation of our laws and liberties.

Yesterday, in pursuance of the above notice, there was a numerous meeting of the electors and inhabitants of this town, at the time and place appointed, and the business was conducted with the greatest regularity and decorum. After the reasons for calling the meeting had been declared, the members for the town were called upon to give their constituents an account of the proceedings in the House of Commons respecting the Middlesex election. Sir William Meredith then stood up, and delivered his sentiments with great perspicuity, freedom, and exactness, to the entire satisfaction of all who heard him, and concluded with declaring his readiness to comply with the request of his constituents to present the petition. Mr. Pennant spoke after him, much to the same purpose. Then a motion was made for a petition to his Majesty, to which all present assented, by holding up their hands. The copy of a petition was then produced, and read to the meeting, which, upon the question being put, was approved, nem. con. The petition was then engrossed, and signed by great numbers then present, and will be sent to different parts of the town, to be signed by the rest of the electors and inhabitants.