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should think proper to vacate his feat in parliament by accepting the ftewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds, and Mr. Wilkes, now that his outlawry has been reversed, and his confequent Incapacity to fit in Parliament has been removed, thould again ftand for the county of Middlesex, and again be chosen their representative by a great majority, (as I truft and hope he would ;) and should be permitted to take his feat in the Houfe in confequence of fuch new election, I conceive that the whole tranfaction would do his Majesty's minifters great honour, give general fatisfaction to the people, and, in fhort, prove a happy means of reconciling men's minds to government, and of winding-up this unlucky business that has kept the whole nation in a ferment, and foured our old English good-humour for more than two years past.

I am, Sir,

Your humble Servant,

IRENICUS.

Draft of an Act of Parliament to difable Outlaws and Perfons legally confined in Prifon from being chofen Members of the Commons House of Parliament; and to fecure to the Freeholders and other Electors of Great Britain their Right of free Election, notwithslanding any antecedent Expulfion of the Perfons they shall elect for their Members.

WHEREAS certain doubts have arifen, and may arife, concerning perfons confined in prifon in execution of the judgements of a court of law, or for other juft and lawful causes, and likewise concerning perfons outlawed, whether

they

they are capable of being elected to fit and vote in parliament as members of the Commons House of parliament: and whereas it would be highly inconvenient and prejudicial to the publick business transacted in the faid Houfe of parliament that fuch perfons fhould be chofen members of it, because they would not be able to attend their duty in the fame; and the counties, cities, and boroughs, for which they should be chofen, would thereby be unreprefented in parliament during the continuance of fuch impediment to their attendance; it is therefore declared and enacted by the King's most excellent Majefty, by and with the advice and confent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons in this prefent parliament affembled, that no perfon outlawed in due courfe of law, either upon a criminal or a civil prosecution, nor any perfon legally confined in prison in execution of any judgement of a court of juftice, ought at any time heretofore to have been deemed, or fhall at any time hereafter be deemed, to be capable of being elected to ferve in the British House of Commons, as a member thereof, for any county, city, or borough, in either England, Wales, or Scotland, during the continuance of fuch outlawry or legal confinement. Any cuftom, refolution of the House of Commons, precedent, or opinion, or other thing, to the contrary hereof in any wife notwithstanding.

And whereas great difcontents have arifen in the minds. of many of his Majefty's faithful fubjects on account of a refolution of the Commons Houfe of parliament paffed on the 17th day of February, in the year of our Lord 1769, declaring John Wilkes, Efq. who had, on the 28th day of March, in the year 1768, been duly chofen and returned a knight of the shire to serve in this prefent parliament for the county of Middlefex, and afterwards on the 3d day of February, in the year 1769, had been expelled from the faid Commons Houfe of parliament by a majority of the members

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members thereof, and then on the 16th day of the fame month of February, had been again duly elected and returned a knight of the fhire to serve in this prefent parliament for the faid county; to have been at the time of the re-election, and to be ftill at the time of paffing the faid refolution, incapable of being elected a member to ferve in the faid parliament; from which refolution many perfons have concluded that the faid Commons House of parliament meant to declare that his faid incapacity of being chosen a member of the faid Houfe of parliament arose merely from his faid expulfion from the fame, and not from the circumftance of his being at that time legally confined in prifon in execution of a judgement of the court of King's Bench for having published two criminal writings, and his confequent inability to attend his duty, and ferve his conftituents in parliament, though this had been mentioned as a principal ground for his expulfion :-and whereas it would be an unnecessary restraint upon the exercife of the right of election in the freeholders and other electors of Great Britain, and would greatly diminish the value of that important franchise, if they were to be precluded from freely choofing for their representatives in parliament any perfons that they shall think worthy of fo high a truft, and esteem beft qualified to ferve them, who are not rendered incapable thereof by fome known and general law, or fome pofitive act of parliament in that behalf made and provided: IT IS therefore enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and confent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons in this prefent parliament affembled, that no expulfion of any member of the Commons House of parliament by the faid House, whether already paffed, or hereafter to be made or done, fhall be conftrued, or taken to have created, or to create, any inca

pacity

pacity in the perfon fo expelled to be again chofen into the faid Commons Houfe of parliament, either for the same place for which he had been chofen before, or for any other but the perfon fo expelled fhall remain capable of being re-elected to fit in the fame parliament; and, if he fhall be fo re-elected either for the fame or any other place, and he be otherwife duly qualified to be chosen according to the known laws of the land, he fhall fit and vote in the faid Commons House of parliament in the fame manner as if fuch expulfion had never happened, or he had then been chofen a member thereof for the first time.*

* Though no Act of Parliament of the kind here recommended has ever been passed, yet the Resolution of the House of Commons, formed on the 17th of February, 1769, for excluding Mr. Wilkes from his seat in the House after his expulsion from it, on the preceeding 3d day of February, and his Re-election on the 16th by the freeholders of the county of Middlesex, to wit, "That John "Wilkes, Esquire, having been, in this session of Parliament, ex"pelled this House, was and is incapable of being elected a member "to serve in this present Parliament," was afterwards rescinded by a subsequent House of Commons, in the spring of the year 1782, when Lord North retired from his offices of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was succeeded in the former of those offices by the Marquis of Rockingham, and the Earl of Shelburne was made Secretary of State. It seems reasonable, therefore, to conclude, "That, as the law now stands, an expulsion of a "Member of the House of Commons by the House, does not render "the person expelled incapable of being elected again to serve in the "same parliament."

F. M.

A PRO

A PROPOSAL FOR A RECONCILIATION WITH THE REVOLTED PROVINCES OF NORTH AMERICA, WITHOUT EXEMPTING THEM FROM THE AUTHORITY OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT.

IN THE YEAR 1775.

IN the first place, to repeal the Quebeck-Act, and thereby re-establish the King's proclamation of October, 1763, with refpect to the province of Quebeck, and reduce the extent of the faid province to what it was before the late Quebeck-A&t; or, perhaps, (if it fhall be thought neceffary, upon a full inquiry into the matter by the teftimony of Sea-officers acquainted with Newfoundland, and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and the fisheries carried-on in those parts, and by the teftimony of merchants acquainted with the fame fubjects,) to enlarge the former extent of the province of Quebeck, as fettled by the proclamation of October, 1763, by the addition of the coast of Labrador, which, by the faid proclamation, was made part of the government of Newfoundland; but, by no means, to put all the interiour part of North-America into the province of Quebeck.

SECONDLY.-After thus repealing the Quebeck- A&t, and reviving the King's proclamation of October, 1763, and reducing the province of Quebeck to a reasonable and moderate extent, capable of being governed by an Affembly, in pursuance of the promife in the faid Royal proclamation, To afcertain the laws of the province. This fhould be done by expressly mentioning and confirming the Petition of Right, the Habeas Corpus Act, the Bill, or Declaration

of

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