house to it's acceptance, was the following: "from various causes, the constitution of "these kingdoms has passed into the grossest "abuses, so as to insult the common sense "of the nation with a name, when the "reality is gone." How the insertion of this clause could justify the rejection it is difficult to discover; no disrespect to the house or insinuation against it's authority was intended to be conveyed, but certainly no respect was ever meant to the very abuse which the petition deprecated. The presenting of the petition was postponed at Mr. Pitt's special request, which was made in order that he might be present to press the rejection of it.

A prevalence of the same evil counsels, which had refused the just claims of the dissenters, and which had rejected every application for the correction of those abuses in the constitution, that were productive of such injurious consequences, was now about to precipitate the nation, contrary to every principle of justice and political expediency, N 3

into

into a war without one definite object in view, but originating solely in that invariable hostility, which it had displayed to whatever tended to enlarge the principles of civil liberty. To prepare the public mind for the adoption of this measure, every effort was made use of, by insinuations of disloyalty and revolutionary principles, to direct the passions of the multitude against all who possessed sufficient courage and wisdom to oppose themselves to the mad projects of the minister. To the animosities thus wickedly excited may be attributed the popular excesses at Birmingham. In the town also in which Mr. Walker resided it had engendered such a rancorous spirit of party, that it came to be in a considerable degree unsafe, to express a difference of opinion from those, who were attached to the measures of ministers. No apprehensions of this kind however could deter him from exerting his individual efforts, to arrest if possible the progress of those fatal measures, which were pregnant with so much ruin to

the

the country. While the war was yet only impending, but after the hostile disposition of government had been sufficiently evinced, he endeavoured in a popular address to his fellow-townsmen, signed by twenty-six of it's principal inhabitants, to convince them of the injurious consequences, that it must inevitably occasion to the interests of their manufacturing district, as well as to the general prosperity of the country. The application was not in vain. A petition for peace, composed by Mr. Walker and signed by about 3000 names, was presented to parliament in aid of Mr. Grey's motion, in 1793, a measure which also was adopted at his special request.

The energies France had displayed in defence of her independence, and the unexampled success, which had attended the progress of her arms, had annihilated every expectation of success founded on the supposed imbecility of her disorganized government ; yet the blood and treasure of the nation continued to flow with a prodigality unexampled in former wars, and for the prosen 4

cution

cution of objects adapted at the mere caprice of the minister to the existing circumstances of the times, and artfully varied for the purpose of protracting the national delusion. The same cause, therefore, that had originally excited the patriotic efforts of Nottingham, continuing to exist, similar petitions were subsequently presented. But the efforts of Mr. Walker were not limited to this object, other important topics continued occasionally to exercise his pen. The great cause of parliamentary reform was not abandoned.-The abolition of the slavetrade, during the time in which it was advocated, occupied a considerable portion of his attention. The attempt of ministers in 1795, to establish a new and undefined law of treason, under the pretence of better sècuring his majesty's person and government, and for more effectually preventing seditious meetings and assemblies; an attempt which excited the first appearance of national opposition to their hitherto triumphant course; was regarded by him as a measure that

aimed at one rude blow utterly to subvert all the rights of Englishmen, and introduce a military despotism. On this occasion petitions were sent from the corporation to the different branches of the legislature; but he has so admirably described the nature and tendency of these bills in the following letter to a member of parliament, that no apology can be necessary for it's introduction

here.

"Dear sir,

"I most sincerely thank you for your let"ter, I shall for ever thank you for every "thing that assures me of your continued "friendship and esteem. The gratifications "of friendship and esteem are all the treasure "I possess, and all that I ever hope to possess, "beyond the means of a decent maintenance. "Nor do I repine at this; they are the richest "and the pleasantest food of the mind, while "wealth in a very small degree ministers to "this generous purpose. I have much la"mented that we should become totally sepa"rated in political sentiment, for idem velle,

" et