County Address Print E-mail
Whitehaven Gazette - Oct. 18, 1819

COUNTY ADDRESS.

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       **The County address to the Prince Regent, which will be transmitted
in a few days, is left at our Office for signature, and also at the following
places:

Mr. ROOKE's Bookseller, Wigton

The Sun Inn, Cockermouth

Mr. John JOTTIE's, stationer, Carlisle

The George Inn, Penrith**

       The Cumberland Paquet, with its usual regard to candour and
impartiality, in speaking of the County Meeting, observes, " The Requisition has 136
names subscribed to it; of which number there are only 29. At Carlisle, only 22,
at Whitehaven, only 8, at Wigton, only 7, in the large district of Holm
Cultram, only 2, at Workington and only one at Penrith." It might have been added -
and there is only one High Sheriff!

       From this truly elegant sentence, we presume the editor wishes it to
be understood that the number of signatures was too few,  and that more could
not be obtained. But this sly attempt to cast an odium upon the Meeting only
displays the ignorance and vexation of the writer.

       It is unnecessary and unusual to collect many names on such an
occasion, and indeed to the proportion of the population of Cumberland, few County
Requisitions contain so many, and none more respectable signatures. For
instance, the Requisition to High Sheriff of the County of York - the largest county
in England - only contains 109 names, being 25 less in number (and much fewer
in proportion) than those attached to the Cumberland Requisition. Had it been
thought an object of  importance to have procured more signatures, ten times
the number might have easily been obtained, even in Whitehaven; and we are
authorised to say, that many of the most respectable gentlemen of this town would
have been proud to sign the Requisition, but they had no opportunity, as it
only arrived here on Saturday afternoon and was returned on Monday.

       In this awful crisis of our country's welfare, every loyal subject
that wishes to preserve inviolate the blessings of the British Constitution, must
deeply regret that party spirit could so blind men to their true interests,
as to sneer at those who, in exercising the inestimable privilege of meeting to
petition for solemn, and strict inquiry into the late melancholy and
questionable proceedings at Manchester,  are desirous of rendering to their Country
that service of which she appears to them to stand in need.

       The late Mr. WINDHAM contended that it was necessary for the House of
Commons  occasionally to exclude strangers from the Gallery, lest they might
in time lose the privilege of debating with closed doors, in like manner as a
gentleman now and then orders his park gate to be locked, to prevent the public
from claiming a right of passage through his grounds. Now, upon the same
principle, we contend, it was most necessary for the County of Cumberland to meet,
and the more honourable as she has hitherto been passive on political
subjects.

       There could not possibly have been a fitter opportunity, because the
object of the meeting was totally unconnected with party matter; nay, so
perfectly unobjectionable was the tenor of the requisition, that even the Earl of
Lonsdale only scrupled on the misconception that it was the intention of the
Meeting to coalesce with the Radicals - a measure as equally improbable as to
anticipate a coalition between his Lordship and the Radicals.

       If other counties, cities and boroughs had been, and should continue
to be, as silent on all great public questions as Cumberland has been for above
half a century, we fear the right petition might be questioned in after ages
by overbearing and tyrannical Ministers; we hope, therefore, that County
Meetings may occasionally be convened in the future, and it would afford us much
satisfaction to announce, at no distant period, the determination of the leading
gentlemen in Cumberland to present a Requisition to the Sheriff, to call a
Meeting of the county to take into consideration the question of Parliamentary
Reform. For there is scarcely an individual who does not acknowledge, that the
temporary and feeble efforts, which are made in different districts, to
provide food  or employment for the population, must inevitably terminate in
failure, and who does not assent to the necessity of devising some means of permanent
relief.

       Nay, there are but a very few, even of the High Tory Party, and those
only in the receipt of the public money, who do not feel disposed to confess
that  the only relief that can be given to the distresses of the times - and
only lasting remedy which can be applied to the disorders of the state, must,
come from RETRENCHMENT, ECONOMY, and REFORM.

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