account of sinecures, places, and pensions-the national income and expenditure-the direct and indirect taxes— and various other matters of a similar nature. But it has been thought better, upon consideration, to confine the work to one class of subjects, rather than to make it of a multifarious character; especially as another work has appeared, while this has been passing through the press, comprising every possible variety of information of the description above referred to-The work referred to is, The Black Book. To the reformers and the anti-reformers, the editor commends the following pages; the former will find much in them to increase their zeal and activity in the glorious struggle in which they are now engaged; and the latter may find more than they could have anticipated, to convince them that the state of the representation is not the most pure and perfect that could be desired. WILLIAM CARPENTER. April 26th, 1831.: TIBBYBA THE RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN. Page. Ixii COMPOSITION OF the house of COMMONS. I. Earl Grey's celebrated. Petition, in 1793 AN ANALYSIS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. Description of the Members and their Constituents INTRODUCTION. HISTORY OF PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. THAT the defective, or more properly speaking, the corrupt state of the representation of the United Kingdom in parliament, is the great source of the unparalleled evils under which the country now groans, and which threaten, if not promptly removed, a violent convulsion of the state, is universally admitted, if we except the few who have usurped the rights of the people, and those who divide with them the emoluments of borough patronage. THE DUKE of NEWCASTLE may whine and cant, when his boroughmongering practices are held up to the indignant-execrations of the people of England; but the only effect his speeches," as he is pleased to call them,' produce out of doors, is to render the system in which he so largely participates, still more odious, by shewing the imbecility as well as the knavery of those who make it a source of emolument. The design of the PEOPLE'S Book being to exhibit some of the consequences resulting to the country from the extinction of the people's voice, in the composition of the lower house of parliament, it will not be improper, but of some advantage, to introduce the details connected with this subject, by a sketch of the parliamentary history of England, for the purpose, not only of exhibiting the real nature of the British constitution, but of tracing, in consecutive order, those encroachments of the No. 1* a aristocracy on the rights and liberties of the people, which have at length paralysed all the energies of the country, and brought it to the verge of a civil war. The government of England is what is properly called "a limited monarchy." It consists of a king, a hereditary house of lords, and a house of commons, or representatives of the people. The king chooses his own ministers, who, with himself, form the executive government; and he has also the appointment to all offices, civil and military. The ministers are responsible for the acts of the government-the person of the king is inviolable. The peers are created by the crown, and, as we have already remarked, their titles are hereditary, or descend by inheritance. They constitute the highest court in the kingdom, as they determine appeals from the other courts. They consist at present of about 350, who sit, by right of birth, in the house of lords. This is not the case, however, with the Scotch and Irish peers. According to the acts of union-for those countries had formerly parliaments of their own-the Scotch and Irish peers are entitled to elect a certain number out of their own body, who sit with the English fords as the representatives of the whole. The Scotch lords send sixteen, who are elected the same as the commons, every new parliament: the Irish elect twenty-four, who sit during their lives. The house of commons, or representative assembly of the people, as it is called; consists of 658 members, 513 of whom are sent from different towns and counties in England and Wales, 100 from Ireland, and 45 from Scotland. The house is now elected for seven years; though the king, if he do not happen to like its members, can at any time dissolve it! This branch of the government has the voting of all public monies, in conformity with an ancient law, which declares that no Englishman can be taxed but by his own consent; that is, personally, or by his representative in parliament. The members of |