The National Register. — London, England, 1817-02-17 00:00:00

FEBRUARY 17. new Keeper of the Seals, respecting whom so many fears were entertained, undertake the refutatisn of M. La Fitte's speech against the dotstion of tour millions to the clergy. M. La Fitte had wished the whole of the national woods to be given as security fur the loan to be raised by Government : he is one of those who advance the loan. To this the Keeper of the Seals re plies, that the public debt is too coasiderable to make the deduction of the four millions from the security an object, and therefore supports the aotuticm to the clergy. What follows from M. Pasquier is too important to be passed over:—" The preservation of the fbur millions to the clergy is a salutary transastion between the past and the present. Whatevet may be the wanderings of conscience in its scruples, they are always to be respected If there be a party in F.ance who think their eon sciences calmed by this salutary collusion, which of us would not give it his assent ? C. , nscience is one of the grand foundations of public credit." In the midst of the discussions a message from the King announced the consent of the Allied Powers to the deducdon of dO,OOO troops from the army of occupation. This agreeable intelligence was greeted with warm ap plause. The Madrid Gazelle of the 28th January states, that on the 21st the King visited, bleak " the prison of the Court. His Majesty inspected every thing with the greatest attention, even to the obscurest dungeons. At length, in the place destined for those cruel execu tions, the instruments of torture struck the eyes of the Monarch. He immediately ordered them to be thrown into the lire, in order that no trace of the infernal ma chine might remain. He ordered also that the instru ments of torture should be no longer seen in :any pri son." We wish his Majesty had done the thing more effectually, by ordering that the diabolical practice of torture should be for ever abolished in his dounnions. Montreal papers to the .sth ult. state the arrest of Lord Selkirk and the chief persons in his employ. But we must puss on from statements relative to Foreign Affi►irs to a review of Domestic Occurrences. Since the publication of our Journal on Sunday last, various highly important events have taken place. The Third Spa Fields Meeting, on Monday, merits atten tion, if not the first in point of importance at least it does so in the order of time. In another part of our paper the reader will find a sufficiently ample detail of the proceedings of that day. It has been some what humourously, remarked, that the meeting " went off quietly." We attended in the same room with the principal performers the whole of the day, and wit nessed all their proceedings ; and, to be sure, they were fienny enough. Bating somewhat of Mr. Hunt's vul garity, somewhat more of his rude personalities, and still more of one or two of his " nasty ideas," which Swift says are common to " nice people," matters went on pleasantly. That any real good should result from such meetings and such speeches is morally im possible. Somewhat in connection with the meeting in Spa- Fields, we may next notice that in Palace Yard on Thursday. Those Proceedings also are given in another part of this paper. The Times newspaper, that terrible bugbear to these new-fietgled Reformers, contains the following observations un this meeting, and the address voted at it : " The character of this meeting previously known, its understood composition, and the political sentiments of the speakers, would lead the public to expect some thing extraordinary on such un occasion as what may be termed a loyal address. That expectation will not be disappeintcd. The Address, which is the result of the meeting, or was prepared for it, is, in all its parts, a very singular composition ; it resembles nothing that is usual at such times ; and whether those who read it ap prove or disapprove its sentiments, they will at least weigh them with attention. That great lu - ninary in politics Mr. Hunt informed his hearers saute time ago, that he could not speak Latin or Algebra ; and ve can tell him, that neither he nor his master (Cubbett) could write such an Address; of which, nevertheless, he boldly undertook to decide en the merits, and declared it to be "distinguished by manly dignity." Heis a bright critic! Our readers may recollect Burke's celebrated Description of a Cabinet, so fantastically "dovetailed" together, and the members of which hardly knew each other—(we have nut the passage at hand). We have been told, that Sir Francis Burdett gave his ignoble coadjutor, llunt, that same kind of stare as it' he had never seen him before ; calling him, indeed, by his name, but affecting to know little or nothing more of him." But if the Address itself is n ritten with dexterity, the speeches by which it was accompanied were remark able for their violence. Passion and fury make lbw con verts: if they excite to outrage, they must be repressed by three, Why was not Cobt,ett, the hither present ? We saspect he is in no sweet savour with Sir Francis Burdett ; and it was certainly a tiunous piece of cunning in Hunt, to thank him only fur the utility of his writ ings during the last three months, when a great part of the min's life has been spent in writing. The rest of his works, we suppose, according to the present system of his politics, mot have done hum: but still Hunt THE NATIONAL REGISTER. hat no I .usiness to taunt him with this: Cobbett had not yet begot to rake into Hunt's past life and actions; but he will sum: These gentlemen statesmen never agree long. We have no room for farther observations relative to the Palace-vartl Meeting, which appears to have been assembled for almost any other purpose than that of congratulations to his Royal Highness the Prince Re gent. On the character of the Parliamentary proceedings of the last week week we scarcely need dilute They are of great importance, and we have given as ample and correct a view of them as our limits would permit. The noble sacrifice made by the Marquis of Camden, stimulated thereunto, in addition to his own sponta neous ti!elings, by the example of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and not, as has been invidiously assert ed, by the bullying threats of such men as Cobbett and Hunt, has furnished a pleasing and grateful topic of applause in both Houses, and, indeed throughout the country. The equally generous and patriotic sacrifice of Mr. Ponsonby's pension, whi.th was given to him as a compensation for the loss which he sustained in giv ing up a lucrative profession when he accepted the Chancellorship of Ireland, has also been hailed with signal marks of approbation. Other sacrifices.are whispered about ; and probably in our next week's Register we shall have to record fresh indications of sympathy for the public distresses and embarrassments. These are the Reforms which are mostly wanted ; would to God the suffrage-men may not retard their pro;.,rre.ss by their threatning, taunting, and bullying speeches! Men do not choose to be dra gooned into acts of generosity, no nor into those of justice neither. MR. HUNT. TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATIONAL REGISTER. Sin—The following letters were picked up on Mon day evening last, near Hyae Park Corner, soon after Mr. Hunt was seen to pass through the turnpike. There can be little doubt of their having dropped from his pocket. I am, Sir, your'F, &c. G. S. TO P. HUNT, ESQ. THROGMORTON STREET. Saturday, Feb. 8, 1817 . - - - DEAR Sta—l shall use the privilege of a long and intimate acquaintance, in happier times, to reason with you a little on the conic you are pursuing, and to lay before you, in plain language, the consequences which must infidlibly result from it. You cannot be insensible to the general ferment which your conduct has excited amongst all ranks of people, in almost all parts of this great metropolis. You arc become the leader of the lower orders, and must now be answerable for the impulse you commu nicate to them. Your real intentions can only be known to yourself; but you certainly have been the cause of unspeakable mischief. You have roused a sleeping lion, and that lion has gone about seeking whom it might devour. Without tracing the imme diate connexion between the first meeting in Spa-fields, and the excesses afterwards committed on the same day, there can be no doubt in any rational mind, that it' you had not seduced from their useful and ordinary occupa tions that great mass of the people, who, from their education and habits, are least fitted to discuss political grievances, or to deliberate on any politic-al change, those criminal acts would never have been committed, • which disgraced the metropolis, which have administer- . ed a deadly poison to the public mind, and have since ramified into acts of the basest outrage and insult to the Sovereign authority. The evils you have thus engendered, me incalculable ; von have unhinged pub lic opinion, and set afloat visionary notions of altera tion and reform, which can never be realized. You have stirred up and deceived the people, by infusing the mad and senseless notions of Universal Suffrage, and Annual Parliaments, schemes of change so fraught with mischief, that the wisest and best of men shrink with abhorrence from the contemplation of them, knowing that they arc only other terms fin anarchy and mis-rule. Now, Sir, if von reflect at all, think on the awful responsibility you arc incurring. You have adjourned your next meeting to Monday, the 10th ; on that day the population of London is again to be brought from their useful and necessary occupations, that is to say, the industry of the working part of the community is to stand still a whole day, the people arc to listen to the vapid orations of any political mountebank, they are to inhale the poison of discontent, and to return to their homes at night poorer in spirit and in purse ; or, in another alternative, inflamed with liquor, and goaded to desperation, they arc to resume the riotous enormities n•lai"•h took place on the first day of the Spalields meeting. Can the higher orders in the state s e these scenes passing; without evincing a well grounded apprehen sion ? Can the Government of the country look on with apathy, and not take nicasitn:s to pr2vent a second edition of rapine and tumult ? and is it not their impe rative duty, by every prudent measure of preparation and precaution, to guard against the recurrence of mis chief, naturally to be apprehendal from such associu tions ? How long then, Sir, is it your intention to keep up this delirium of your owa creatiou ? how long will you awaken the fears, disappoint the hopes, and mislead the min& of the people? Let me conjure you not to be so enamoured of a " little brief authority," as to misuse it to the destruction of all social order, but, to leave to the wisdom of the Legislature, those re forms which individual demegogues never can, and never ought, to be able to carry by an appeal to the blind passions of the multitude. You will derive more satisfaction in your reflecting moments by so doing, and by extinguishing the flame you have imprudently rais ed, than by fanning it till it breaks out at large, and consumes in one indiscriminate - ruin, the sacred edifice. of social order anti public happiness. I am, Dear Sir, Yours, I &c. JOHN MEANWELL. DEAR SIR—I have given my undivided attention to the lecture you hays been pleased to send me, and I ant ready to admit there is some truth in the severe stric tures you make on my conduct. Perhaps if I was to lay open my whole heart to you, I should confess that I ant sorry I ever embarked in the cause in which I am now engaged. I own I look forward with dismay to its possible consequences ; but— " I sm, in blood " Stept in so far, that, should I wade no more, 0 Returning were as tedious as to go o'er." In short, power is so sweet a possession, that I cannot relinquish it. I govern the will and affections of more • than a hundred thousand men :—this fills to the lot of few individuals, however high in rank and sta tion. I cannot descend from this enviable pinnacle of power, to return to rural amusements, and the tedium of private life. I must therefore make common cause with the people, and sink or swim as their interests preponderate. This is a confession I would make to few ; but, in so doing, I unburthen myself of a weight which heavily oppresses me: I have faint hopes of ultimate success, for I perceive how difficult it is to guide the many headed monster. I am, my old friend, Your's truly, P. HUNT. What can be !aid after this to Mr. Orator Hunt ? He sins doubly, for he sins against conviction and his better judgment. May his offences be visited solely on his own head, and not on that of a misguided, ignorant, and deluded people ! THE DRAMA. DRURIAANE. After the Tragedy of Oroonoko, which was received on Wednesday night, by a crowded house, with increased applause, the Comic-Opera of The Follies of a Day was performed thr the first time at this Theatre, the part of Susan, by Mrs. Alsop. We have given to this Lady, in the characters of Lady Bell and l'iolante, the praise we t hough ther so highly deserving of; but her perfi win ance on Wednesday proved that her Arte andgreatest excellence would be found in her enactment of another line of characters. Her performance of Susan exhibited talents of a very superior order, and peculiarly fitted to the personification of the pert intriguing chamber-maid.— She was greeted throughout the piece with the loudest approbation. Mr. Rae's Count Almaviva was excellent. Harley showed himseif quite at home in Figaro ; and Miss Kelly supported the character of the Page with ber usual talent. The piece teas extremely well received, and so strongly cast, will, we doubt not, prove an at tractive favourite with the public. COVENT G %RIDES. The play of Rlthard the Third was got up rir the sake of introducing a Mr. Booth to the audience, a gentleman who, as we are informed, has performed on the Brighton and Worthing stage, and has never hitherto appeared in the metropolis. Mr. Booth is a vigourous and spirited actor ; and, viewed through the inevitaVe gloom Of a first appearance, may be pronounced an ac quisition to the theatre of very considerable promise.— His figure is more diminutive than that of Mr. Kean ; his voice, in some of its more moderate tones, sweet and touching ; yet, with thew qualities, reminding us very frequently of the tragedian of Drury-lane. When strained beyond a certain pitch, his voice seems to be afflicted with the singular disease of falling into a deeper bass, instead of rising like that of other speakers, until it brakes into a hoarse and scarcely audible .murmur. His countenance is nauily and expressive. His action is often natural and pwerful, and ivould be more so if it were more teineprate ; He stamps too frequently, a fault which he will learn to subdue by practice : he fights in a very bad taste : he also fiegets, on snraa occasions, that, although d is a fierce alai sinewy ruffian, he is a prince in what relates to warners, and thereihre, that the same swaggering vulgarity by which a low-lived villain might accompany his threats, or announce the execution of them, would not become a person of the highest rank, and certainly, as the great dramatist his painted him, a man by no means void o' dignity in his general de:nem - lour. Mr. Booth Was very unhandsomely treated by a few hulividuals in did' r ent parts of'his perfiamance ; but the public did him ;us tice, by the cordiality of their appluoses ; and when the curtain fill, and Mr. Abbott had announced an tie:: pl.•ay ii r 'Ch - . rsday evening, the pit almost unanim cried tat fn a repetition of King Richard.