The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 1 [of 2]Shelley, Percy Bysshe
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The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 1 [of 2]
Shelley, Percy Bysshe
English prose literature
1. That those who think that it is the duty of the People of this
nation to exact such a Reform in the Commons House of Parliament, as
should make that House a complete representation of their will, and
that the People have a right to perform this duty, assemble here for
the purpose of collecting evidence as to how far it is the will of
the majority of the People to acquit themselves of this duty, and to
exercise this right.
2. That the population of Great Britain and Ireland be divided into
three hundred distinct portions, each to contain an equal number of
inhabitants, and three hundred persons be commissioned, each personally
to visit every individual within the district named in his commission,
and to inquire whether or no that individual is willing to sign the
declaration contained in the third Resolution, requesting him to annex
to his signature any explanation or exposure of his sentiments which
he might choose to place on record. That the following Declaration be
proposed for signature:--
3. That the House of Commons does not represent the will of the People
of the British Nation; we the undersigned therefore declare, and
publish, and our signatures annexed shall be evidence of our firm and
solemn conviction that the liberty, the happiness, and the majesty of
the great nation to which it is our boast to belong, have been brought
into danger and suffered to decay through the corrupt and inadequate
manner in which Members are chosen to sit in the Commons House of
Parliament; we hereby express, before God and our country, a deliberate
and unbiassed persuasion, that it is our duty, if we shall be found in
the minority in this great question, incessantly to petition; if among
the majority, to require and exact that that House should originate
such measures of Reform as would render its Members the actual
Representatives of the Nation.
4. That this Meeting shall be held day after day, until it determines
on the whole detail of the plan for collecting evidence as to the will
of the nation on the subject of a Reform in Parliament.
5. That this Meeting disclaims any design, however remote, of lending
their sanction to the revolutionary and disorganizing schemes which
have been most falsely imputed to the Friends of Reform, and declares
that its object is purely constitutional.
6. That a subscription be set on foot to defray the expenses of this
Plan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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