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The Life of William Roscoe
Chapter IX. 1806-1807
William Roscoe, Address to the Independent Freemen of Liverpool, [May 1807]
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
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Preface
Vol I. Contents
Chapter I. 1753-1781
Chapter II. 1781-1787
Chapter III. 1787-1792
Chapter IV. 1788-1796
Chapter V. 1795
Chapter VI. 1796-1799
Chapter VII. 1799-1805
Chapter IX. 1806-1807
Chapter X. 1808
Chapter XI. 1809-1810
Vol II. Contents
Chapter XII. 1811-1812
Chapter XIII. 1812-1815
Chapter XIV. 1816
Chapter XV. 1817-1818
Chapter XVI. 1819
Chapter XVII. 1820-1823
Chapter XVIII. 1824
Chapter XIX. 1825-1827
Chapter XX. 1827-1831
Chapter XXI.
Appendix
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“Gentlemen,

“After the many proofs of attachment and confidence with which you have honoured me,
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and which will ever be remembered by me with the warmest gratitude, it is with sincere regret that I announce to you my determination to withdraw myself as a candidate at the approaching election.

“Called upon as I was by you on a former occasion, I laid aside all considerations of private interest and personal convenience, and cheerfully obeyed your summons. From that time I have devoted myself to your service by a diligent performance of my duty in Parliament, and have uniformly maintained those principles and opinions which first recommended me to your choice. To the best of my power I have asserted the cause of justice, of humanity, of toleration, and of true constitutional British freedom; and amidst the changes which I have witnessed around me, I have certainly remained and now return unchanged.

“Short as the duration of that parliament has been, its proceedings will always be recorded, in the annals of this country, with peculiar honour. During that period, I have had the satisfaction of giving my humble but disinterested support to men who, from their rank, their property, and their independence, could have no object in view but to promote the permanent interests and prosperity of the country; and of adding my public sanction to measures of the greatest national benefit and importance. Of these measures,
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some were carried into complete effect, and others were only frustrated by the premature dissolution of parliament, which his Majesty’s ministers thought it expedient to advise. A system of finance was proposed and matured, which surprised and gratified the country, by demonstrating, that no new taxes were necessary, and which regulated the public revenue and expenditure for a long series of years. The great principles of justice and humanity were asserted by the abolition of the African slave trade. A committee was appointed to examine into the abuses of excessive salaries and peculations in office, which had discovered frauds in public functionaries to a considerable amount A bill was introduced, which was intended to add to our national security at this dangerous crisis, by uniting his Majesty’s subjects of all religious persuasions in the common defence of the country. To these great measures of public benefit I must be allowed to add the bills introduced by an enlightened member of the House of Commons, for improving the condition, raising the character, and providing for the education of those lower classes of the community, on which the strength and prosperity of a nation so essentially depend, and which, carried into effect, would ere long have alleviated those enormous parish rates which have of late increased with such alarming rapidity. To have had a share in
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these deliberations will ever be remembered by me as the chief pride of my life.

“No sooner was the dissolution of this parliament known than I announced to you my intention of offering myself again to your choice. But on my arrival in Liverpool I found that the same arts of ministerial misrepresentation, which had been so industriously employed in other places to mislead the public mind, and had induced so many persons of independent character to relinquish their pretensions to a seat in parliament, had not been without their effect there also. To this more general prejudice was added a particular disapprobation, in some few individuals, of the part I had taken on the abolition of the slave trade. On these and other points it was my most earnest desire to have addressed myself to you. After having been met on my approach, and accompanied into the town by such a concourse of the most respectable inhabitants as was perhaps never before witnessed, except on the memorable occasion in November last, I made several attempts to obtain a hearing, and to perform what I consider a sacred and indispensable duty, by rendering an account of my conduct to my constituents. But, to the disgrace of themselves and their employers, persons evidently stationed for the purpose prevented me, by their clamours, from all possibility of addressing my friends. Prepared for outrage,
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they suddenly attacked the large and respectable body of freemen by whom I was surrounded. Without the least restraint from the police of the town, many of my friends were grossly insulted, and some of them much wounded. Persons, whose peculiar province it was to have repressed such outrages, were observed actively employed in promoting them. An officer of the highest reputation and independence of character, to whom the town of Liverpool is under particular obligations, and who had honoured me by his presence, was insolently attacked, and his horse stabbed with a knife. Happily for the peace and character of the town the feelings of resentment, thus wantonly and arrogantly excited, were suppressed by the consideration of the dreadful consequences which must have ensued, had my friends indulged themselves in that retaliation which was decidedly in their power. The example of firmness and moderation which they at this moment evinced confers on them the highest honour.

“Under these circumstances, and wholly hopeless, in the present situation of public affairs, of rendering those services to my constituents or to my country, which could alone justify me in entering upon a contest, I have finally resolved not to afford, by my further perseverance, a pretext for those excesses, which, from what has already occurred, there is but too much reason
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to apprehend would be experienced in the course of the election. What will be the character of a parliament chosen under such auspices I shall not pretend to determine; but if the representation of Liverpool can only be obtained by violence and bloodshed, I leave the honour of it to those who choose to contend for it, nor will I accept even that distinction, accompanied by reflections which must embitter every future moment of my life.

“I have the honour to be,
“With the greatest gratitude and respect,
“Gentlemen,
“Your most obliged and most faithful Servant,
(Signed) “William Roscoe.
“Allerton Hall, May 5. 1807.”