ress:--"That this house feels itself called upon,
in the awful and alarming state of universal distress into which the
landed, commercial, and all the great productive interests of the
country are at this moment plunged, to take care that your majesty shall
not be the only person in your dominions ignorant of such an astounding
fact, as well as of the consequent impending danger to the throne and
other great national institutions, established by the wisdom of our
ancestors for the protection and benefit of the people over whom your
majesty has been called to preside,"--"That this house is at no loss to
indicate the real cause of this most unnatural state of things; and, in
justice to your majesty and the whole nation, it can no longer hesitate
to proclaim that cause to the world.

"It is a fact, already too notorious, that this house, which was
intended by our ancient and admirable constitution to be the guardian
of the nation's purse, has, from causes now unnecessary to be detailed,
been nominated for the greater part by a few proprietors of close and
decayed boroughs, and by a few other individuals who, by the mere power
of money employed in means absolutely and positively forbidden by the
laws, have obtained a 'domination,' also expressly forbidden by act
of parliament, over certain other cities and boroughs in the United
Kingdom.

"That, in consequence of this departure from the wisdom of our
ancestors, the nation has been deprived of its natural guardian, and has
in consequence become so burdened in the expensive establishments of
all kinds, that, in a period much shorter than the life of man, the
taxation, has risen from L9,000,000 to nearly L60,000,000 a year, and
the poor-rates, or parochial assessments, during the same period, have
augmented from L1,500,000 to L8,000,000 annually.

"That to render such a mass of taxation, so disproportionate to the
whole wealth of the kingdom, in any degree supportable, recourse has
been had, either from ignorance or design, to the most monstrous schemes
in tampering with the currency, or circulating money of the country, at
one time by greatly diminishing the value of the same, and at another
time by greatly augmenting such value; and at each and every of such
changes, which have been but too often repeated, one class of the
community after another has been plunged into poverty, misery, and ruin;
while the sufferers, without any fault or folly of their own, have been
hardly