The National Register. — London, England, 1814-03-06 00:00:00

. i.- .11"• . :,. THE NATIONAL REGISTER. eurltint, Constitution, atro tabus. PUBLISHED AT NO. 11, NE% CASTLE-STREET, STRAND. PRICK Od. N 0 . 32 1 . SUNDAY, MARCH 6. 1814 , . SUPPRESSION OF SUNDAY NEWSPAPERS. TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD VISCOUNT SIDMOUTH, MIS MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR Till - MORE DEPARTMENT. MY LORD, Your attention is respectfully solicited, to a subject of no common import ; but which equally affects the interest of his Majesty's Government, and the satisfaction of a large portion of the people of this realm. Hostilities appear to have once more broken out, as your Lordship must know, against those publications which are called Sunday _Newspapers. They are attempted to be counteracted, and threatened to be interdicted; though they materially contribute to the revenue . of the State, at the same time that they arc found to. be conducive to the sum of general information, and Public' improvement. Will your Lordship consider these points 1 Sunday papers, it will not be denied, have materially contributed to the revenue of the State; yet as it may not be quite so apparent, in the next place, that they do conduce to general informa tion, and public improvement, I•shall briefly elucidate the latter fact. Reading has an obvious tendency both to improve the mind and meliorate the temper. Now, the mass of people have little leisure for reasPas, so as to digest what they read, except on that precise day which allows them a sort of breathing-time from the laboursnf life. Yet read they will Sunday is the day, therefore, on which, in some way, the majority of the population of this country, more especially in metropolitan towns, seek to obtain some knowledge of passing events; and if they are now debarred from receiving this species of gratification at home, they will not fail to ac quire it elsewhere. if -the newspapers are once prohibited from being served to them, on Sundays, at their own dwel lings, the people will then resort to the ale-houses for- the purpose of inspecting the news. Drunkenness will, of course, supersede investigation ; and this tree of knowledge will be producave of nothing but infatuation and misery. It cahuot be the contemplation of your Lordship, even for a moment, to further the wishes of persons (since such there are ! ) who would make us, if it were possible, ii nation of hypochondriacs and hypocrites ;—sanctimonious - without sanctitude, and aweful, without awe.' What shall we gain by this ;hinge ? Surely we shall not be happier; and, if not hap pier, as surely not better. Sunday newspapers are, indeed, beeomeindipensible to a large, very large, portion of man- The Suppression-of-Vice Society has taken the lead in endea vouring to effect the Suppression of Sunday Newspapers; while it is intimated that Government are about to secoi‘d the efforts of this enterprising corps. 1 will not, my Lord, hastily believe the tale. Knowing the discrimination and liberality (I your Lordship's mind, and your generous antipathy of , ectaris in in any form,l will not, for one, believe that your Lordship can con tinue to afford the least countenance to measures so lb:torrtmts from your individual feelings, and so foreign to the genius of that venerable Establishment for which you.have nlanifece , l such regard. You will certainly set your face against oar religious reformists, and deliver us from their haeful schemes Warburton once remarked, there was this epidemic mad ness among us ;—that one day we were frozen in atheism, and the next day raving with the fever of superstitiiin. This is as true of us still. Atheisni, avowed atheism, has seen its day ; and now we are degenerating into mere super stition. The times have a tendency to lead men this way, who too easily fall in with the temper of their times. Already are our national feelings much too gloomy. They are enervating; they are irrational. To your Lordship, then, in this anxious hour, men more enlightened would turn. Your character has great weight, and your station empowers you to give consequence to the representations contained in this Address to you. Withhold, my Lord, your countenance from the religious reformists of these times, under every guise ; but above all when they express an extreme concern for the honour of our religion When they affect to compliment your goodness, it is with intent to surprize your vigilance, and betray your heart. They would entrap you, and such noble persons as you, into their measures, and then exult at the want of suspicion on your parts. Sunday Newspapers cannot be abolished without more im portant results. The abrogation of these vehicles (if intelli gence is only part of a plan, soon to be seen, for deter lora ting the lower classes of our species, rendering them dissa tisfied, and reducing them to mental vassalage. Nothing and is yet great, nothing honourable, nothing nob'e, no thing proud, in human nature, is now to be spaced, Chris tian conscription is to become the order of the day ; and the mass of men are every where to forego the rank of indepen dent intelligences. Such are part of those pious burdens, my Lord, rest as• sured, which the scribes and pharisees of this generation wean to impose upon us. Permit me, then, again to call upon your Lordship, and the rest of his Majesty's Minieers— uccome unalperasiere to a large, VCril JAI sc. pui ‘itall MI imam- upon your Lordship, and the rest of his Majesty's Ministers — kind ; and, unless barbarism be the desired end . ; Flnpreanqpt i contemplating yOu as Members of our excellent E,tablish- with prudence be either directly or indirectly p"Tobipaied. While they subserve one essential object of. gallon:omit') - ment, and Guardians of our inestimable . Constitutionit lvdieefr% i me even thus conjure you, humble as my pen may apprtr, moreover, they g i v e, w h a t i s a l so o f infinite political.* : 1 . . reflect on the crisis to which we are come, the precipice , : an hour's importance to the poor Valet heart I' j . . 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