The National Register. — London, England, 1808-05-01 00:00:00

MAY 1. • That no reform of a general nature is mado in,out cle rical state, we certainly regret : but the present Bill;•wbieb ' is intended only for the relief' of that path or tfiiineigy who arc performing the duties of others, is certainly„de.. serving of approbation as far as it goes : and we shall be moit happy if we find that the only defect which now ap- , pears upon it, shall be removed in the course of. its pro gross through Parliament, by the relief of all those persons who come within its principle, Whether temporary Ciliates, permanent Curates, or Vicars who ate virtually Curates. . REVIEW OF POLITICAL DECLAIMERS. - No. XVIII. THE INDEPENDENT WIIIG. A. fortnight ago we erposed to our Readers the general vulga rity and fully displayed hy•the Conductors of the Sunday News riper called The Independent Whig, in their accounts of foreign alLiirs, and its comtuents and reasoning about them. Nolv, we shall say something of the merit they have shown in their treat ment of domestic concerns : and from a enmparison of their fo teii-rn and domestic:it - tides, our Readers will see, that whatever ;.•oad qualities this Paper may want, it certainly has the merit of consistency. Nothing, indeed, but its di-sertations on public proceedings at home, could any where be found, to snatch its dis sertations on public proceedings abroad. We need not look over. the tiles, in order to find matter for the exposure of this pretending print —nor, indeed, would it be easy toad any file of it : for unless the pro nrietol•F themselves take the trouble of trea mring its N umber,, « ho certainly would not ,ittler us to search its sheets for such a purpose, we should probably be unable to discover any body that would preserve sir n retched a publication. As it contioues to appear, it of course has readers: but if we may judge by the principles it propagates, and the language in which those principles are pro pagated, they must 1w readers who take it only to laugh at it sail burp it, or readers circumstauccd too narrowly to have more than joint-stock -hares in a matter of nine-pence, who of course divide each Number after having read it, and put their separate shares in their pockets for the ordinary uses of waste paper. The two last .Nunabers will serve us with plenty of We will begin with a letter published in the last Number hut one, by Crito. This Crito assumes the air of Junius, and as junius signed his letters sometimes Junius, and soinetitnes Philo- Jnnius, so in The Independent Whig we see a signature some times of Cribs, anti sometimes of Philo-Crito. The press now groans with theke soi-disons Junii : writers, who without gene ral principles of constitutio n al learning, without knowledge even of their individual themes, without clearness of head, without force of imagination, without plain without common grammar, expect to be hailed as epistolary wits, and hope by the immortality of their names to gather, as with a curt of magic, the volatile leaves of the Newspaper. into the permanent shape of library volumes. This literary alchemy, this vain expectation; of giving to base Metals the currency or gold, is indeed a deplo rable infatuation ! We remember how many a patron has been deceived into ruin by golden bubble-blowers, arid we are sorry• to see that auy of oar countrymen are misled into a faith of so , ridiculous a kind. In a letter to Lord Ellenhorough, this Crito Lays: " Every creature and plant assimilates" ( according to the rules of grammar he would hare said assimilate) " the food or aeurishineur (is not the word food rather unnecessary, when the word naurishneenl in its general sense is used )" which they " receive into their own substauce." To assimilate is tim liken : now no animal likens its . fond into ..s own substance. • Perhaps the writer means incorpor-tr, instead of assimilate: or perhaps he would say, a,similate their food to the natures of their own tiamts, not to the frainec or substances themselvm The natu r e the toad i, poisonous : and if sbe toad make his food poison, aki may perhaps he ,aid to assimilate it to his own nature. We %L•e his own lilleitralioN, for he thus proceeds: " The toad converts into poi:on the same juices of which the " her makes honey : the same breath blown into ditierent in " strameuts makes good or: harsh music t it is no wonder there " fore, if that which is an corruption it , elf, should spoil and corrupt every thing el, , ' which cotne4 into contact with it." Were eves such hassles t La *lent seem to dais as eaclu'i ve ~~ mac" , "` "'~~-+~i~== ~'= 275 'ME NATIONAL REGISTER. " privilege to pervert the signification of words, and the nature " of tbiags" (the infinitiva, to peeved, elegantly used instead of the . 41ettad s of pirtierting), "Just as it suits the arbitrary and wick !d-visors nitilunpir oulbe-eisplay them, until their scandalous ." quibbles and intrigues have rendered language useless, or ra " Cher only a snare to mankind." By the last words in which Ate,whole business of ruin to language is said to he already com pleted, it becomes evident, that in the earlier part of the sea . tence Grits. should have said, " Lawyers seemed to have claim " ed :" but Crito does not much tilibd so trivial an error as the employment of a present tense for a perfect action, a part of which action in the same sentence is declared in the perfect. -111 s gentlemanly nod moderate phraseology, however, indepen dently of its grammar, is sure to be approved by the gentle pen of the Bar : for he says : " A becoming seal for the Tiber " ties of the public, and a reverence for truth, are pronounced by these mercenary depredators, to be a violation of the laws, " and a scaodaloui attack upon the solemnity of justice. We " are called upon to renounce the best lessons we have imbibed " in our infancy, to confound truth and falsehood, virtue and " vice. and to witness, aids indifference, the worst crimes which " can disgrace man and appal humanity ;" (elegant climax !) " or if we presume to commisserate the murdered, and express " our horror at the escape of the murderer, we are denominated " libellers, and immediately subject ourselves to pains, penal " ties, and imprisonments, for the exercise of our humanity Is— " we are called upon to surrender our senses to a jargon called " law, by time-serving pleaders : to believe every thing in exact " proportion as we cannot understand it, or as it appears pre " posterous and absurd : and allow that ulone to be law, which " contradicts the first principles of truth and virtue !" Yet not twenty lines further, this writer says : " By a liber ty of the press, my Lord, l would not infer a licentious free " dims to revile"--(of reviling)--" our lawful Governors and " Magistrates, to traduce,"—( of traducing)--" the established " laws and religion of our country, or any attempts to weaken " and subvert, by opprobrious writings, that sacred respect and " veneratior."—( What is the difference to tween respect and 11 C.• n- ratio n )—" which ought ale ays to be maintained for persons " inauthority." Thus, then, we find a man professing a veneration for the este laws of his country, and for the persons in authority, at -the same time that three4ourths of his letter are a string of in 'vective against the great officers ofjustice, and an impeachment of the laws for their contradiction of the first principles of truth Ind virtue. Can any reasonable person regret that the Con sluctors of this Paper are about to be prosecuted fur their libel lous and almost unit ersally pernicious doctrines ? This approaching prosecution fins, for a lung time past, occu pied tt very conspicuous place in the contains of The Indepen dent Whi . r. The Editors talk of it, as if any body cared about it except themselves. They ;Aare Letters every week to Sir Vicars. Gibbs, the Attorney General, who is ill brine forward the matter; to Lord Ellenbaroessh, the Chief Justice, who is to try the cause; to the Sheriffs, who are to impannel the Jury ; and to the Public, who are requested to support the Paper with money. "The expellees of law," they sae, " ate enormous, " allallo private pitrse can brild out under them." Is not this a malicious slander upon our laws ? It must he confessed that the expellees of legal proceedings are !wavier than the friends of their country %visit to see them : but it is shaniefol to propagate among a set of uninformed persons, whose ears are alwa‘s open to any thing that may discredit establishMent, an opinion that the legal expences attending a petty prosecution arc matters too heavy for private finances to sustain. This may have the effect of procuring subscriptions for the Proprietors and Publisher, which obtaining of subscriptions, under false pretenees, does not appear to he very justifiable: but it certainly has the effect of dissatifying the people, and making them believe, contrary to all truth, that the expences of such a law-suit are to be a matter like the costs of Lord Melville's impeachment. There is something not a little entertaining in those parts of each dis sertation en the impending trial, which describe the enmity sup posed to be entertained by the Attorney General, and by two 4,11 the Judges (which Judges they indecorously and unconstitution ally call their assailants) towards the Conductors of The .frute. pendant if hug; nor could we help laughing when we found these Conductors observing, that while the public mind was agitated by the present prosecutions. Sir Vicary Gibbs would have done better in introducing no indictment bill, and that he was really grown indiscreet and presumptuous. So little is the public tttirid agitated, that we will venture to say, there are not nifty creatures. except the people concerned iu the prosecutions, aria the :eiders of The independent Whig, who ever heard that any • . t • , • 4 1 • 1. • . • • k.,1:1 •;; :• li al- he